Why the best farmland in Britain has become cheap
The most expensive land is bumpy and stony
BY THE MIDDLE of the 19th century East Anglia had become the breadbasket of Britain. Steam-powered water pumps and men with shovels had drained the land, leaving a rich, stoneless soil that was almost black in places. “What were once fens and sandbanks, bear now a luxuriant sea of corn and the highest of rents,” wrote Karl Marx of Lincolnshire. The soil thereabouts is still excellent. But Britain’s priciest farmland is elsewhere.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The bumpier the better”
Britain May 22nd 2021
- Britain’s economy is hot but not overheating
- A coronavirus variant is spreading in Britain—but this time is different
- Two unionist parties are under new management
- London is likely to get a swanky new theatre
- Why the best farmland in Britain has become cheap
- Britain’s civil service remains upper-middle class
- A covid-19 inquiry will scrutinise the British state
- How to do foreign policy in a multi-ethnic society
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