I recently attended the European Association of Environmental Historians/ European Society of Environmental Historians in Oxford (cf Judean People's Front/ People's Front of Judea) where Alina Congreve (University of Reading) gave an interesting account of the London Brick Company's Marston Vale Brickworks - really a form of open-cast mining - its untimely end courtesy of Lord Hanson and the reclamation and re-use of the land (the latter being her main interest). Even I can remember the forest of smoking chimneys one used to see from the train. Apparently almost no trace survives outside an inadvertent bonsai forest (planted on land with no topsoil!)
regards
John A W Lock
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