Welcome to Richard Clarke's website.
Having been a secondary school history teacher for 36 years and prison tutor for three I now focus on developing my interest in landscape history and on fostering an interest in others as a speaker, tutor, writer, guide and researcher (house and church).
I am available for consultation in areas such as:
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Illustrated talks;
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Presentations;
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Guiding;
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Articles;
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Research.
Recent Posts
8th December, 2018. History of Public Parks, 6 (Royal Parks).
Picture above (taken from internet) shows the ‘Long Walk’ at Windsor Great Park, fallow deer crossing. The Royal Parks, an organisation to oversee the running of them, is now a charity called the Royal... [more]
4th December, 2018. History of Public Parks. 5.
The terms ‘hunting parks’ and ‘deer parks’ are inter-changeable and define the extent of the hunting preserves of the baronial aristocracy and their equivalents in medieval society. These were primarily reserved for the leading... [more]
2nd December, 2018. History of Public Parks, 4.
The study of the history of British ‘parklands’ can seem confusing when different terms are used in different contexts. Examples of these are ‘royal forests’, ‘deer parks’, ‘hunting parks’ and ‘royal parks’. Royal forests... [more]
27th November, 2018. History of Public Parks, 3.
Certainly the ascendancy of the Norman overlords hastened the creation of private hunting parks across great swathes of the English countryside, the king leading the way with the creation of royal hunting parks. Possibly... [more]
24th November, 2018. History of Public Parks, 2.
The picture above shows the front cover of another good read for our current topic. Written by Travis Elborough and published two years ago it is a readable paper back, clearly thoroughly researched and,... [more]
22nd November, 2018. History of public parks.
The picture above is of the front cover of Susan Lasdun’s standard text, published 1991 and reproduces part of a painting by William Hannan, c. 1745, ‘West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire’. The picture, if true... [more]