Planning, People and Practice, IALE(UK) 2005 11 The meaning of ‘countryside’: what are we trying to sustain? G.J. Fairclough 1 and I.L Sarlöv Herlin 2,3 1 English Heritage, 23 Savile Row, London, W1S 2ET. E-mail: graham.fairclough@english- heritage.org.uk 2 Department of Landscape Planning, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 58, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden. E-mail: ingrid.sarlov-herlin@lpal.slu.se 3 Countryside and Community Research Unit, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, UK. E-mail: isarlovherlin@glos.ac.uk ___________________________________________________________________________ Abstract ‘Countryside’ is one of the most-used words in landscape and environmental management in the UK. Much thought has been given to definitions of landscape, but the word countryside is almost taken for granted. In landscape-related texts and planning documents ‘countryside’ and ‘landscape’ are often treated as synonyms even though they mean very different things. This may not be a big problem within the UK where at least the approximate meaning is understandable, but more awareness of the use of concepts will be necessary as use of the English language for cross border cooperation and international publishing grows within the international community. This paper examines the origins and recent evolution of the term “countryside” in the UK. It argues that countryside it is a distinctively British notion and like the word ‘heritage’, has come to be a loaded term that carries a very particular set of assumptions that often treated as givens. Care needs to be taken when used in the context of other countries, and even in the UK it needs to be used with greater understanding than has sometimes been the case. _____________________________________________________________________ Introduction The concepts ‘countryside’ and ‘landscape’ are not the same, but the terms are often used inter-changeably, or as if they were synonyms. In literature alone, for example, The words ‘landscape’ and ‘countryside’ can often be found used in ways where only a professional in landscape management and planning might recognise from their context that two different things are meant: for example: “Although the English landscape is protected to an extent by a comprehensive planning system, development pressures are increasing with a progressive loss of countryside. There are also calls for a more integrated approach to managing the countryside, which is created at the landscape scale and over long time periods.” (Countryside Agency, 2002) There appears to be limited recognition of this problem, however, and for a word that is heavily loaded with political and emotionalism symbolism, there has been surprisingly little analysis of its current usage. The word ‘landscape’ is problematic enough, but at least the need to reflect on its meaning is widely recognised. A huge amount of effort and words have