Bocage

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For other uses, see Bocage (disambiguation).
Bocage of the Boulonnais, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France

Bocage (

pastoral farming
is the dominant land use.

Chelsea porcelain
candle-holder with bocage background, c. 1765

Bocage may also refer to a small forest, a decorative element of leaves, or a type of

Chelsea porcelain, and later spreading to more downmarket Staffordshire pottery
figures.

In English, bocage refers to a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes

Loire valley
.

Etymology

Bocage country on the Cotentin Peninsula, Lower Normandy
Location of bocage (in the context of Operation Overlord)

Bocage is a Norman word that comes from the Old Norman boscage (Anglo-Norman boscage, Old French boschage), from the Old French root bosc ("wood") > Modern French bois ("wood") cf. Medieval Latin boscus (first mentioned in 704 AD).[2] The Norman place names retain it as Bosc-, -bosc, Bosc-, pronounced traditionally [bɔk] or [bo]. The suffix -age means "a general thing". The boscage form was used in English for "growing trees or shrubs; a thicket, grove; woody undergrowth"[3] and to refer to decorative design imitating branches and foliage or leafy decoration such as is found on eighteenth-century porcelain; since early twentieth century this usually called "bocage".[4] Similar words occur in Scandinavian (cf. Swedish buskage; Danish buskads) and other Germanic languages (cf. Dutch bos, boshaag); the original root is thought to be the Proto-Germanic *bŏsk-. The boscage form seems to have developed its meaning under the influence of eighteenth-century romanticism.

The 1934 Nouveau Petit Larousse defined bocage as "a bosquet, a little wood, an agreeably shady wood" and a bosquet as "a little wood, a clump of trees". By 2006, the Petit Larousse definition had become "(Norman word) Region where the fields and meadows are enclosed by earth banks carrying hedges or rows of trees and where the habitation is generally dispersed in farms and hamlets."

Historic role

England

English bocage (Edale valley, Peak District)

In southeast England, in spite of a

sedimentary soil which would not fit this landscape, a bocage resulted from the movement of the enclosure of the open fields
.

During the 17th century, England developed an ambitious sea policy. One of the effects of this was the importation of Russian wheat, which was cheaper than English wheat at that time. The enclosures common in the bocage countryside favoured sheep husbandry and limited English cereal grain production, and as a consequence of this policy, the

rural exodus was amplified, accelerating the Industrial Revolution
. The surplus of agricultural workers migrated to the cities to work in factories.[citation needed]

Normandy

In Normandy, the bocage acquired a particular significance in the Chouannerie during the French Revolution.[5]

The bocage was also significant during the

Battle of Normandy in World War II, as it made progress against the German defenders difficult.[6] Plots of land were divided by ancient rows of dirt alongside irrigation ditches; thick vegetation on these dirt mounds could create walls up to 16 feet/4.8 metres high. A typical square mile on the battlefield might contain hundreds of irregular hedged enclosures.[7]
In response, "Rhino tanks" fitted with bocage-cutting modifications were developed. American personnel usually referred to bocages as hedgerows. The German army also used sunken lanes to implement strong points and defences to stop the American troops on the Cotentin Peninsula and around the town of Saint-Lô.[8]

Ireland

Almost all of lowland Ireland is characterised by bocage landscape, a consequence of pastoral farming which requires enclosure for the management of herds. Approximately 5% of Ireland's land area is devoted to hedges, field walls and

shelterbelts. In the more fertile areas these usually consist of earthen banks, which are planted with or colonised by trees and shrubs; this vegetation can give the impression of a wooded landscape, even where there is little or no woodland. This pattern of hedgerows was largely established in the late 18th and 19th centuries, a period when Ireland was virtually devoid of natural woodland. Modern intensive agriculture has tended to increase field size by removing hedgerows, a trend which for years was promoted by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union[9]
and recently has been countered by the European Union's agricultural policies favouring the conservation of wildlife habitats.

References

  1. ^ "Bocage | Definition of Bocage by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of Bocage". Lexico Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  2. ^ "BOCAGE : Etymologie de BOCAGE".
  3. ^ "boscage | boskage, n.". OED Online. March 2021. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/21733 (accessed March 02, 2021)
  4. ^ "bocage, n.". OED Online. March 2021. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/20858?redirectedFrom=bocage (accessed March 02, 2021).
  5. ^ Michel Moulin, Mémoires de Michelot Moulin sur la Chouannerie normande, A. Picard, 1893, pp. 88–89
  6. ^ "Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) Digital Library".
  7. ^ Nye, Logan (2020). "Why some of the Allies' toughest fighting in Normandy came after D-Day". Business Insider. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  8. ^ George Bernage, Objectif Saint-Lô : 7 juin-18 juillet 1944, Edition Heimdal, 2012, p.97
  9. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2020-07-25. {{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help
    )

Sources

External links

  • Media related to Boscages at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of bocage at Wiktionary
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bocage&oldid=1220031159"
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article: Bocage. Articles is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.Privacy Policy