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Reading the Landscape with Mary-Ann Ochota: Pegsdon Hills

Clare Balding learns how to identify the curious features in our landscape in the company of anthropologist and author Mary-Ann Ochota.

How many times have you been out for a walk and spotted intriguing shapes in the landscape? Your instinct tells you that these dips, hollows, lumps, bumps and oddly shaped stones aren’t natural features, but what on (and under) the earth are they? Mary-Ann Ochota is an anthropologist who writes about these curious archaeological forms and how to understand them. In her book, Hidden Histories, she shows how anyone can become a landscape detective, and start to read the history of the countryside from the clues around them. On today’s Ramblings she takes Clare Balding for a walk around the Pegsdon Hills on the Hertfordshire-Bedfordshire border, and through 6000 years of British history.

Grid Ref for where we parked: TL133301

Producer: Karen Gregor

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24 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Thu 4 Mar 2021 15:00
  • Sat 6 Mar 2021 06:07

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