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Bocage (, ) is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture characteristic of parts of northern France, southern England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal (examples in Baixo Vouga Lagunar, Angeja, Estarreja), northern Spain and northern Germany, in regions where pastoral farming is the dominant land use.
Bocage may also refer to a small forest, a decorative element of leaves, or a type of rubble-work, comparable with the English use of "rustic" in relation to garden ornamentation. In the decorative arts, especially porcelain, it refers to a leafy screen spreading above and behind figures. Though found on continental figures, it is something of an English speciality, beginning in the mid-18th century, especially in 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 sunken lane between narrow low ridges and banks surmounted by tall thick hedgerows that break the wind but also limit visibility. It is the sort of landscape found in many parts of southern England, for example the Devon hedge and Cornish hedge. However the term is more often found in technical than general usage in England. In France the term is in more general use, especially in Normandy, with a similar meaning. Bocage landscape in France is largely confined to Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy and parts of the Loire valley.
(accessed March 02, 2021) 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"."bocage, n."
(accessed March 02, 2021). 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."
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.
The bocage was also significant during the Battle of Normandy in World War II, as it made progress against the German defenders difficult. Plots of land were divided by ancient rows of dirt alongside drainage ditches; thick vegetation on these dirt mounds could create barriers up to high. A typical square mile on the battlefield might contain hundreds of irregular hedged enclosures. In response, "" fitted with bocage-cutting modifications were developed. American personnel usually referred to bocages as hedge. The German army also used to implement strong points and defences to stop the American troops on the Cotentin Peninsula and around the town of Saint-Lô.George Bernage, Objectif Saint-Lô : 7 juin-18 juillet 1944, Edition Heimdal, 2012, p.97
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