A talk with Corrine Fowler, author of Our Island Story. Country Walks through Colonial Britain November 2nd 3pm in All Saints Church, Kings Heath, £5 inc tea coffee and Cake
Hear about a series of country walks in nearby places like the Cotswolds. In this talk, Prof Corinne Fowler of Leicester University (a Kings Heath resident) shows how our countryside was changed by colonial activity of all kinds. She takes an Indian walk through the Cotswolds, an opium walk through the Lake District, a wool walk through Wales and a copper and steam walk in Cornwall. Focusing on the many connections between imperial wealth and British landscapes, this talk explores how empire affected rural labour and local country life. The profits of overseas colonial activities, and the select few who benefited, heralded change which was not merely expressed in the designed landscapes of country estates but also by enclosure, landownership and dispossession. Generally considered separately, this talk considers how these intertwined histories continue to shape lives across Britain today.