Welcome to the Sales Page of Ruth Tittensor, Countryside Management Consultancy, situated in Ayrshire’s historic countryside, close to the boundaries with South Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire.

You can buy direct: please click here for the Purchase Page. Also listed are some other Sales Outlets where you can buy these publications.

Reduced prices for bulk orders on request.

Book

From Peat Bog to Conifer Forest: An Oral History of Whitelee, its Community and Landscape

by Ruth Tittensor.
Packard Publishing 2009. Soft back. 237 pp, 242 illustrations, 6 maps, 8 tables. ISBN 978 185341 142 7     £22.50

Short-listed for the Saltire Society “Scottish History Book of The Year 2009 Award”

“From Peat Bog to Conifer Forest:
An Oral History of Whitelee, its
Community and Landscape”

Social and Ecological History, Farming, Forestry and Countryside Pursuits
in 20th Century Rural Scotland

Based on the memories and knowledge of people who lived and worked
on the Whitelee Plateau, south-west Scotland

Whitelee is a wet, isolated Plateau overlooking the Firth of Clyde, experiencing high rainfall, lashing winds and thick mists, with ninety burns streaming away from it. People who lived and worked there during the 20th century tell how the Plateau and their lives were affected by two government intiatives, first for Afforestation and then Renewable Energy.

Until the middle of the 20th century Families made a living from this quaking peat moorland by farming hardy Blackface sheep, Blue-grey and Galloway cattle. Miles of hand-dug, open drains kept the land from becoming even soggier! Around the perimeter, farmers kept Ayrshire milking cattle and grew crops like oats, turnips and potatoes on slightly better land. Natural resources like blue and brown hares, red and black grouse, fish, wildfowl, birds’ eggs, blaeberries, cowberries and peat were abundant.

However, after two World Wars, Britain was desperately short of timber. Successive governments promoted large-scale tree-planting or afforestation on the open uplands by its statutory Forestry Commission. But by 1960, woodland cover was still only 6% in Scotland, and its politicians pressed for finance to expand afforestation. In the succeeding 40 years, the 6% rose to an enormous 17%, Whitelee Forest contributing 6000 hectares of 10 million trees.
People describe how their lives, the landscape, ecology, natural resources and technology changed during the century. 

At the millennium, governments promoted renewable energy sources. The windy Whitelee Forest was chosen to host Europe’s largest onshore wind farm. Swathes of growing trees were harvested to make room for gigantic wind turbines – changing lives and landscape once more.

For anyone interested in Scottish history, local history, oral history and social history, as well as naturalists and ecologists, foresters, farmers and people with countryside pursuits.

For Reviews click here

Wallcharts

Landscape Evolution In the Lavant Valley, Sussex: Woodland Wallchart Seven beautiful paintings of successive historic landscapes of the Lavant Valley, Sussex based on local research projects. Tittensor, Ruth (2010)  £7.50

Beekeeping Postcards

Set 1

Set 2

Booklets          

Alexander Fleming,
Darvel and Antibiotics

by Ruth Tittensor.
Countryside Management Consultancy 2006.
Soft back 20 pp, lavishly illustrated.     £2.50

Designed to be attention-catching, informative and relating a historic story, this booklet emphasises the importance of Alexander Fleming’s upbringing to his later life and many discoveries.

Fungi and bacteria, the dramatis personae of the story, are described using everyday examples.

The development of penicillin during the 20th century is explained, with a caution on its overuse, but emphasising modern development of penicillin derivatives and other methods of disease control.

For Reviews click here.

The Forgotten Forest

by Ruth Tittensor and Mairi Stewart. Forestry Commission 2010.
Soft back. 40pp. (Available summer 2011)

The Rabbit Warren at West Dean Near Chichester
by Andrew and Ruth Tittensor. Countryside Management Consultancy 1985. Soft back 38pp, 6 maps, 2 tables, line drawings.    £5.00

NEW!!   What's So Special about Peat? Its Importance to Scotland and the World An introductory, illustrated leaflet for people wondering what all the fuss is about!
Tittensor, Ruth (2010)  £1.50

Rabbits A short account of the ecology of rabbits in Britain.
by A.M. Tittensor and H.G. Lloyd. Forestry Commission 1983. Soft back 20pp, B/W and colour photographs. ISBN 0 11 710249 0      £2.50

Red Squirrels An illustrated account of red squirrel ecology, based on close observations in a Scots Pine forest.
by A.M. Tittensor. Forestry Commission 1975. Soft back 36pp, B/W photographs, 1 map, 3 tables, line drawings. £3.50

Sindles farm: a story of a farm and its farmers An English farmer recounts his farm history, from his archive research and peoples’ memories.
by John Veltom. Bygone Westbourne No 12, 2004. Soft back 100pp. B/W photographs, copies of archives and maps, 4 tables. ISBN 0 9536550     £5.00

Hefting in Practice: the ancient craft of grazing the open hills
An acknowledged expert describes the intricacies of hefting sheep in Britain, the effects of foot & mouth disease and government policy, on sheep flocks in Britain. written and published by Edward Hart 2004. Soft back 50pp, B/W photographs, line drawings.    £5.50

Sitka Spruce
The owner of a Sitka spruce forest in the Southern Uplands gives an unusual and interesting take on the commonest tree in Britain. by Elizabeth Roberts. Sage Press 2004 Soft back, 40pp. line drawings.   £2.50