JOE NEWMAN

High Speed 2 (HS2) is the most ambitious transport project ever attempted in the United Kingdom, as well as, the most contentious, with its construction resulting in the felling of more than 108 ancient woodlands, and the highest level of deforestation since World War One. The officials at HS2 argue it is possible to move these ecosystems and replant them in more convenient locations, whereas the local communities affected by this construction see this as a flawed argument as it ignores their deep-rooted cultural and social links to these natural spaces. Ultimately, we find the landscape becomes a place of deep division, oppression and conflict with power struggles over the natural habitat. This dissertation investigates this conflict of interest and its social consequences through the analysis of three spaces affected by HS2 construction located in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, in particular Jones Hill Wood, an ancient woodland that is said to the setting of Roald Dahl’s book Fantastic Mr. Fox, but also an area currently being felled to make way for the HS2 train line. What we see is a space fought over by two opposing ideologies of neo-liberal globalising politics on the one hand, and English rural localism on the other, a political landscape where power struggles result in oppression, violence and resistance, a space of conflict over how we define the natural world.