CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES

LANDSCAPE

ASSESSMENTAPPENDICES

CURRENT

CHARACTER

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES �

CONTENTS

APPENDIX 1

Data Sets Used in the Northamptonshire Current Landscape Character Assessment 03

APPENDIX �

Example of Digital Field Survey Forms 05

1. Housekeeping 06

�. Physical Influences 07

3. Human Influences 08

4. Aesthetic and Perceptual Qualities 09

5. Local Distinctiveness, Landscape Condition and Landscape Change 10

APPENDIX 3

Field Work Prompts Sheets and Mapping Prompts Sheet 11

�. Physical Influences 1�

3. Human Influences 14

4. Aesthetic and Perceptual Qualities 16

5. Local Distinctiveness, Landscape Condition and Landscape Change 17

Mapping Prompts 18

APPENDIX 4

Northamptonshire Current Landscape Character Assessment - Project Flow Diagram 19

APPENDIX 5

Desk Based Refinement of National Typology Flow Diagram �1

APPENDIX 6

Countryside Character Areas and National Landscape Type Descriptions �3

National Landscape Character Type (Lct) Codes And Descriptions 54

APPENDIX 7

Natural Areas Descriptions 6�

APPENDICES

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES 3

APPENDIX 1

Data Sets Used in the Northamptonshire Current Landscape Character Assessment

APPENDICES


DAtA SEtS USED IN thE NorthAmPtoNShIrE CUrrENt LANDSCAPE ChArACtEr ASSESSmENt

Map/ Topic Data Set(s)

�50 k mapping Ordnance Survey 1:�50,000 digital mapping (raster data)

50 k mapping Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 digital mapping (raster data)

�5 k mapping Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 digital mapping (raster data)

Aerial Photographs Northamptonshire Aerial Photos 1999-�000

Geology 1:10,000 Solid and Drift

Soils Midlands and Western England 1:�50,000 map of soils

Landform Contours – 10 m spacing (closed polygons)

Physiography Physiographic Model

Land cover/ habitats Field (Habitat Data)

Agricultural Land Classification Field (ALC Data)

Field Sizes Field (Size data)

Field Shapes Field (Shape data)

Heritage Common Land Conservation Areas Registered Parks and Gardens Battlefields Ridge and Furrow Survival/ Medieval Open Field Areas Scheduled Ancient Monuments

Woodlands National Woodland Inventory Ancient Woodland

Nature Conservation Designations and Hydrological Features

County Wildlife Sites National Nature Reserves Natural Areas Wildflower Verge Reserves SSSI Local Nature ReservesRiver Nene River ChannelsFloodplain

Landscape Character (National) and Designations

Countryside Character Areas National Landscape Typology

Political Boundaries County Boundary Local Plan - Corby Borough Local Plan - Daventry District Local Plan - East Northamptonshire Local Plan - Kettering Borough Local Plan - Northampton Borough Local Plan - South Northamptonshire Local Plan - Wellingborough

APPENDICES


APPENDIX 2

Example of Digital Field Survey Forms

APPENDICES


1. hoUSEkEEPINg

1a. Surveyor Name 1b. Date

1c. If ‘Other’ Please type your name

1d. Location

1e. GPS Grid Reference 1f. Map Survey Point (SP) Number

1g. Digital Photograph Numbers

1h. Landscape Character Type (LCT) 1i. Landscape Character Area (LCA)

1l. If ‘Other’ Please type LCT Name 1m. If ‘Other’ Please type LCA Name

1l. Influence on neighbouring Landscape Character Type (LCT) 1m. Influence from neighbouring Landscape Character Type (LCT)

Note:

When completing the following questions use the prompting sheet provided.

APPENDICES


2. PhySICAL INfLUENCES

2a. Geology and Soils – Describe drift and solid geological features and soil type.

2b. Landform – Describe landform and topographic features and assess the contribution they make to landscape character. Mark principal features on the map.

2c. Hydrology – Describe the main hydrological features evident in the landscape and drainage patterns.

2d. Land Use and Land Cover- Describe land use and land cover and the patterns they create in the landscape.

2e. Woodland and Trees- Describe woodland and tree cover elements and features and the patterns they create in the landscape.

APPENDICES


3. hUmAN INfLUENCES

3a. Buildings and Settlement – Describe the primary and secondary settlement types, their location in the landscape and the patterns they create. Also record building styles, materials and architectural detailing.

3b. Heritage Features – Record and name where possible principal heritage features in the landscape and describe the contribution they make to landscape character.

3c. Boundaries – Record the main boundary features present, their state of repair/ condition and the patterns they create in the landscape.

3d. Communications and Infrastructure – Record the dominant communication and infrastructure features and describe any obvious patterns and the contribution they make to landscape character.

3e. Recreation – Describe any significant recreational features and elements in the landscape.

APPENDICES


4. AESthEtIC AND PErCEPtUAL QUALItIES

4a. Aesthetic Qualities – Record the aesthetic qualities of the landscape.

4b. Perceptual Qualities – Record perceptual qualities of the landscape.

4c. Landmarks – Photograph, record and name key landmark features and assess the contribution (positive, neutral or negative) they make to landscape character. Mark principal landmarks on the map.

APPENDICES


5. LoCAL DIStINCtIvENESS, LANDSCAPE CoNDItIoN AND LANDSCAPE ChANgE

5a. Local Distinctiveness - Identify the degree of local distinctiveness of the landscape

5b. Landscape Condition – Assess the condition of the landscape in general and the main (named) features within it. (Use the tick boxes below)

Landscape Feature 1

Excellent Good Declining Poor Derelict

Landscape Feature 2


Landscape Feature 3


Landscape


5c. Landscape Change – Record evidence of landscape change and the impact of recent land use and development trends on the landscape

Submit

APPENDICES


APPENDIX 3

Field Work Prompts Sheets and Mapping Prompts Sheet

APPENDICES

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES 1�

2. PhySICAL INfLUENCES

2a. Geology and Soils

Solid Drift Soils Surface Expression

Limestone Alluvium Sandy Quarry/ delve

Ironstone Clay Clay Diagnostic feature

Lias Group Gravel Loam Exposure

Deep Habitat/ land cover

Thin

Stony

Colour

2b. Landform

Flat Plain Hills High

Gently undulating Plateau Ridge Intermediate

Undulating Scarp Deep gorge Low

Rolling Lowland Broad valley

Sloping Upland Narrow valley

Steep Basin Hillock

Vertical Terrace

Combe

Dry valley

2c. Hydrology

Main river Reservoir Canal - active

Main tributary Lake - natural Canal - disused

Stream Lake – artificial/purpose Mill leat

Dry valley Lake – naturalised

Floodplain Pond - natural

Spring Pond - artificial/purpose

Spring line

Drainage ditch

Watershed

2d. Land Use and Land Cover

Arable (cereals) Permanent pasture Cows Scrub Quarry - active

Arable (vegetables) Improved pasture Sheep Marsh Quarry - disused

Arable (other) Unimproved pasture Pigs Heath Sand and gravel

Orchard Meadow Oilseed/ linseed Recreation Restored workings

Horticulture Rough grazing Energy crops Horsiculture

Glasshouses Grazing marsh Silage bales Designed parkland

Setaside Flowers/ bulbs Amenity grassland

Poached pasture

APPENDICES


2e. Woodland and Trees

Forest Deciduous Small Field trees Poplar

Extensive woodland Coniferous Medium Parkland trees Alder

Shelterbelt Mixed Large Clumps Willow

Linear woodland Plantation Regular Hedgerow trees Oak

Wet woodland Semi natural Irregular Avenue Ash

Game covert Ancient Geometric Riverside trees Birch

Arboretum Coppice Organic Self sown Pine

Parkland Pollards Exotics

Sycamore

APPENDICES


3. hUmAN INfLUENCES

3a. Buildings and Settlement

Urban Farming – old barn Linear Brick (colour) Quoins

Sub urban Farming – agri shed Radial Tile Roof pitch

(Market) town Industry -heavy Nucleated Thatch Wall copings

Village Industry - light Dispersed Timber frame Render

Estate village Mining Organic Timber boards Ashlar

Hamlet Military Planned Limestone (colour) Rubble

Farmstead Airfield - active Village Green Ironstone

Isolated house Airfield - disused Hill/ ridge top Slates

Valley floor Stone slates

Valley side Combination

Springline

3b. Heritage Features

Prehistoric defensive Industrial heritage Cathedral Assarts

Prehistoric ritual Transport heritage Monastry Ridge and furrow

Medieval fort/ castle Mining heritage Church Parliamentary fields

Medieval domestic Agricultural heritage Chapel Estate landscapes

Medieval manorial Vernacular building Parkland

Medieval ecclesiastic Country house Water meadow system

�0th Century military Windmill Common land

Bridge Lynchets

Folly Formal Ponds

3c. Boundaries

Stone wall Hedge - hawthorn Tall (>�m) Fields – regular Ditches - regular

Copings Hedge - species rich Medium (1.5m-�m) Fields – irregular Ditches - irregular

Brick wall Hedge - gappy Low (<1.5m) Fields – enclosure

Fences Overgrown Fields - open

Post and wire Hedge tree - species

Post and rail Stagheaded oak

Field gate Hedge bankMetal parkland fencing

APPENDICES


3d. Communications and Infrastructure

Motorway Railway - active Footpath High Voltage Pylons

Principal road (A) Railway - disused Bridleway Transmission lines

Secondary road (B) Tramway Byway Wind turbine

Country lane Airport Wide verges Telecom mast >30m

Track Canal Road signage Telecom mast <30m

Green lane Bridge Lighting (road)

Enclosure road Lighting (feature)

Winding lane

3e. Recreation

National Trail Country park Prehistoric monument Sports (formal)

Long Distance Footpath Park Historic house Sports (informal)

Forest trail Picnic site Historic garden Water recreation - river

Viewpoint Industrial heritage Water recreation - lake

Car park Motor racing

APPENDICES


4. AESthEtIC AND PErCEPtUAL QUALItIES

4a. Aesthetic Qualities

Pattern Scale Texture Colour Variety

Dominant Intimate Smooth Monochrome Uniform

Strong Small Textured Muted Simple

Broken Large Rough Colourful Diverse

Weak Vast Very rough Garish Complex

Unity Form Enclosure Visual Dynamic

Unified Straight Expansive Panoramic

Interrupted Angular Open Framed

Fragmented Curved Enclosed Intermittent

Chaotic Sinuous Confined Channelled

4b. Perceptual Qualities

Security Stimulus Tranquillity Naturalness Noise

Intimate Monotonous Inaccessible Natural Loud

Safe Interesting Remote Tamed Intermittent

Unsettling Challenging Vacant Managed Distant

Threatening Inspiring Busy Man-made Quiet

4c. Landmarks

Church spire Hill Woodland Positive

Church tower Ridge Tree Neutral

Church spite & tower Cliff Copse Negative

Prominent building(s) Valley

Telecoms mast Escarpment

Pylons

Bridge

Country house

Other building

Water tower

Settlement

Windmill

Wind turbine

Chimney

Silo

Agricultural building

Folly

APPENDICES


5. LoCAL DIStINCtIvENESS, LANDSCAPE CoNDItIoN AND LANDSCAPE ChANgE

5a. Local Distinctiveness

Scenic Quality Rarity Visibility Sensitivity to change/ capacity Associations

Outstanding Single example Open No capacity Writers

High Rare Overlooked Some capacity Artists

Moderate Frequent Sheltered Capacity Musicians

Low Common Screened Historic figures

5b. Landscape Condition

Farmland Stone walls Heritage features

Villages Brick walls

Buildings Fences

Woodland Hedges

Watercourses Post and wire

Water bodies Post and rail

Transport routes

5c. Landscape Change

Farming Industry/ mining Infrastructure Settlement Tourism and Recreation

Field amalgamation Light industry Road improvements

Infill Honey pot

Large agri sheds Heavy industry Rural traffic Expansion Car parking

Farm amalgamation Quarrying Pylons Ribbon development Erosion

Reversion to arable Waste management (landfill)

Telecoms masts Suburbanisation Littering

Diversification Waste management (fly tipping)

Turbines Barn conversions Golf Courses

Specialisation Out of town development

Caravan Parks

Intensive management

Under management

Grant schemes

Renewable (bio-fuel) initiatives

Soil erosion

Setaside

APPENDICES


mAPPINg PromPtS

1a. Housekeeping

Survey point: Minimum of three per landscape character area. Digital survey record sheet completed, survey point and view direction marked up on the base map and photographs taken at each survey point. Landmarks, and main landform features recorded along with any boundary changes.

sp01Photo viewpoint: Incidental. Photographs will be taken to record specific landscape features, elements or landmarks. If required boundary changes will be marked on the base map. Hand written notes taken to record only basic information.

Proposed change to boundary line

2b. Landform

Ridge line

Valley bottom

Isolated Hill

4c. Landmarks

Prominent local landmark (positive)

Prominent local landmark (neutral)

Prominent local landmark (negative)

APPENDICES


APPENDIX 4

(Project Flow Diagram)

APPENDICES

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES �0

NorthAmPtoNShIrE CUrrENt LANDSCAPE ChArACtEr ASSESSmENt - ProjECt fLow DIAgrAm

1. DEFINE SCOPE

Purpose and aim Scale and level of detail People and resources

2. DESK STUDY(1: 50,000 Scale)

Refine Countryside Character Areas and National Landscape

Typology

Research Local Assessments

Northamptonshire Physiographic

Model

Research Physical Influences Research Human Influences

Geology and Soils Landform Hydrology Buildings and

SettlementHeritage Features

Boundaries

Land Use and Land Cover Woodland and Trees Communications and

Infrastructure Recreation

Draft map of landscape character types and areas

Draft landscape character type descriptions

3. FIELD SURVEY (1:�5,000 Scale)

Describe Physical Influences

Describe Human Influences

Describe Aesthetic and Perceptual Qualities

Describe Local Distinctiveness, Landscape Condition and Landscape

Change

4. CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION (1:�5,000 Scale)

Map of landscape character types and areas

Draft landscape character type descriptions

Stage Action Output

APPENDICES


APPENDIX 5

Desk Based Refinement of National Typology Flow Diagram

APPENDICES

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES ��

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APPENDICES


APPENDIX 6

Countryside Character Areas and National Landscape Type Descriptions

APPENDICES


NAtIoNAL CoUNtrySIDE ChArACtEr ArEAS AND NAtIoNAL LANDSCAPE tyPE DESCrIPtIoNS for LANDSCAPES wIthIN NorthAmPtoNShIrE

CA88: BEDFORDSHIRE AND CAMBRIDGESHIRE CLAYLANDS

Key Characteristics

• Gently undulating topography and plateau areas, divided by broad shallow valleys.

• Predominantly an open and intensive arable landscape. Fields bounded by either open ditches or sparse closely trimmed hedges both containing variable number and quality of hedgerow trees.

• River corridors of Great Ouse and Ivel compose cohesive sub-areas characterised by flood plain grassland, riverine willows and larger hedges.

• Woodland cover variable. Clusters of ancient deciduous woods on higher plateau area to north-west between Salcey and Grafham Water. Smaller plantations and secondary woodland within river valleys.

• Settlement pattern clusters around major road and rail corridors (A1 and M1) many with raw built edges. Smaller, dispersed settlements elsewhere. Village edge grasslands an important feature.

• Generally a diversity of building materials, including brick, thatch and stone. Limestone villages on the upper Great Ouse.

• Man-made reservoir at Grafham Water. Restored gravel working lakes adjacent to river Ouse, and water-bodies in Marston Vale resulting from clay extraction.

• Brickfields of Marston Vale and Peterborough form a major industrial landscape. Mixed extraction, dereliction and landfill.

• Medieval earthworks including deserted villages the major feature of visible archaeology.

Landscape Character

These claylands comprise most of central and northern Bedfordshire and western Cambridgeshire. There is a distinct boundary to the east, where they run down to the level fenlands, and to the south where they meet the chalklands which run between Dunstable and Cambridge. To the southwest there is a more gradual transition towards the Upper Thames Clay Vales and Midvale Ridge. To the north lies the Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge, while the valley of the river Nene marks the junction with the adjacent Northamptonshire and Leicestershire Vales. Within, but distinct from, the Claylands character area the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge to the south provides a contrasting narrow island of acidic soils with associated woodland and parkland. The area comprises a broad sweep of lowland plateau, dissected by a number of shallow valleys, including the rivers Great Ouse and Ivel. It is typically an empty gently undulating lowland landscape with expansive views of large-scale arable farmland, contained either by sparse trimmed hedgerows, open ditches or streamside vegetation. Further east, field size typically increases. There are scattered ancient woodlands which tend to be clustered most noticeably in a band to the north of the area; elsewhere the woods are more isolated, yet form important visual and wildlife features. There are a number of distinctive sub-areas of varying scale. Firstly, between Bedford and the M1 is the Marston Vale, a broad valley dominated by the effect of clay extraction and the brick industry. Here, chimney stacks punctuate the skyline and the strong smell of burnt clay frequently permeates the atmosphere. Enormous pits exist throughout the Vale, a few of which are currently being worked. Other pits are either derelict, have been restored to water uses, or are utilized as major landfill sites. The latter create prominent domed landforms in the level Vale. The extent of these industrial areas is often concealed from the public roads but is more visible from the elevated railways and Greensand Ridge. Belts of mature poplars often emphasise the presence of these intrusive features. Secondly, a similar landscape exists south of Peterborough. Thirdly, the valleys of the rivers Great Ouse and Ivel pass through the centre of the plateau lands. West of Bedford the Great Ouse meanders down from Buckinghamshire, firstly around the northern edge of Milton Keynes and then through a picturesque and enclosed landscape of water meadows and attractive limestone villages towards Bedford. North of the confluence with the Ivel at Tempsford, the valley broadens to create long distance views and big skies. Here, the fertile alluvial soil and river gravels combine to create a mosaic of market gardening, mixed with past and present mineral extraction of sand and gravels particularly north of Sandy. River pollards and meadows line the flood plain and river, most notably between St Neots, Huntingdon and St Ives, before meeting the fens at Earith. Grafham Water, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in England, is an important base for water-based recreation and nature conservation. The lake is imposed on the local landscape, dominating the immediate locality but separated from the surrounding arable landscape by gentle hills and woods. A final sub-area is the corridor of the river Tove and Grand Union Canal to the west. Here mills, locks, weirs and riverine pollards create a distinctive environment. The canal then runs southwards

APPENDICES


through Milton Keynes alongside the river Ouzel passing through a series of linear parks and amenity lakes.

Physical Influences

The soils in the area are dominated by a variety of moderately permeable, calcareous, clayey soils. To the north these overlie a chalky boulder clay (glacial till), whereas to the south they overlie Jurassic and Cretaceous clays. The elevated clayland plateau to the west is dissected by the upper reaches of the Great Ouse which have better-drained soils due to the underlying local Jurassic limestone. To the east of Bedford and north of Shefford, the broader river valleys of the river Ivel and its tributaries have well- drained soils over alluvium and river terrace gravels. The special properties for brick making of the Jurassic Oxford Clay have marked it out as a target for extensive extraction in the Peterborough and Marston Vale areas.

Historical and Cultural Influences

The heavy soils of the claylands and dense woodland deterred prehistoric farmers and Roman settlers who first congregated along the lighter soils in the valleys of the rivers Great Ouse and Ivel. Archaeological evidence is abundant in these valleys, including the use by Viking ships of the Great Ouse as far upstream as Willington east of Bedford, where there is evidence of a harbour and docks. The first Roman and medieval settlements were at the river crossings of the Ouse, including Huntingdon and Godmanchester, St Ives and St Neots. With the improved ploughs of the Middle Ages, the population pressure grew on the higher heavier claylands and the pattern of agricultural landscapes developed. Many settlements from this time have subsequently either shrunk or been deserted which has led to a richness of archaeology in a more sparsely populated landscape. Remains include moated sites, deserted villages and ruined or isolated churches, for example Bushmead Priory. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress while imprisoned in Bedford jail. Fictitious locations in the novel drew inspiration from sites known to the itinerant preacher, for example the poorly drained Marston Vale is considered to be the ‘Slough of Despond’. Oliver Cromwell, a contemporary of Bunyan, was born in Huntingdon in 1599. The small market town of Olney now famous for its Shrove Tuesday pancake race has an attractive broad High Street. It was home in the 18th century to the reformed slave trader Rev. John Newton and the poet William Cowper whose association led to the writing of the Olney Hymns. The �0th century has brought a number of changes, noticeably in the brickfields of Peterborough and Marston Vale, which the London Brick Company significantly expanded from the 1930s. During the second world war airfields were built on the level plateau. Many are now derelict but those at Alconbury, Cranfield and Thurleigh survive as important technological and military centres.

Buildings and Settlement

The majority of the arable claylands are uniformly but sparsely populated. Small villages nestle in gentle valleys while isolated hamlets and farmsteads are widely dispersed, particularly north of Bedford. Linear settlements, like Riseley, are common in the area. Notable houses and grounds include Kimbolton Park and Croxton Park. The grandest example however is at Wrest Park, Silsoe, the estate of the de Grey family. The French Baroque/Rococo style house, built c.1835, is unique in England. The formal gardens (English Heritage) comprise canals, pavilions and radiating vistas within woodland. Traditional building materials in the villages comprise a mix of brick, thatch, render and stone but there is no over-riding cohesion to the area; rather more localised pockets of style or materials. Most notable are the warm limestone villages of the upper Great Ouse at Olney, Harrold, Odell, Turvey and Felmersham, many of which contain elegant Northamptonshire-style church spires and distinctive multi-arched stone bridges, for example at Harrold, Turvey and Bromham. The towns along the lower Great Ouse contain a notable range of buildings including the High Street at Godmanchester which has many fine Georgian town houses. Along the river, causeways and medieval bridges - including the rare bridge chapel at St Ives - are distinctive features. Historic coaching towns along the Great North Road, for example at Stilton and Buckden, are now bypassed and provide the atmosphere of a bygone age. Kimbolton with its red tiled town houses is a small yet distinguished model settlement. The associated ‘Castle’ was the final home of Catherine of Aragon. It was later extended by Vanburgh and Adam. The Georgian Swan Hotel, on the Ouse at Bedford, is referred to by Pevsner as the most noble English hotel.

Settlement in the �0th century has continued from its historic pattern along the rivers and A1 corridor. There has been extensive yet undistinguished expansion of existing towns, eg Bedford, St Neots, Biggleswade and Huntingdon. These often present raw industrial and residential built edges to the open countryside, thereby degrading the river valley settings. Power lines and the gas fired power station at Little Barford provide further modern intrusions in this corridor. To the west of the area adjacent to the M1, Milton Keynes has developed since the 1960s. The city, with its grid-iron road pattern, extensive open spaces, tree planting and sleek modern buildings, is both a showcase new town and major regional shopping centre.

APPENDICES


Land Cover

This is a predominantly arable, intensively farmed landscape with large areas of winter cereals and oilseed rape on the higher clay plateau. There is a pattern of large rectilinear fields which are notably larger east of the Ivel/Great Ouse divide. To the east hedgerows are typically mixed but in poor repair and gappy. Further to the west, hedges are predominantly hawthorn but the quality and integrity improves together with a greater, though still limited, number of hedgerow trees, mainly oak and ash. Mature stag-headed trees are characteristic. Streamside willow and stands of poplars emphasize the river and stream corridors. Clustered around many of the urban villages/settlements, are smaller yet significant areas of paddocks and pasture. Here a ‘pony paddock culture’ with mixed fencing, sheds and jumps creates a distinct local character, as evident at Wootton. Tree cover in gardens and village edge field corners is also greater than in the more open farmed landscape and provides a contrasting intimacy, as for example at Great Gransden. Pasture is common in the flood plain meadows along the river valleys. The woodland cover is sparse, yet includes some important ancient woodlands, for example at Great Odell Wood, Marston Thrift, Wootton Wood, Brampton Wood and Monks Wood, which include oak/ash coppice woods, some of national importance. There is a greater concentration of woodlands in an elevated band between Salcey Forest and Grafham Water on the Northamptonshire/Bedfordshire border. Salcey Forest and Yardley Chase are the remnants of ancient deer parks and hunting forests which form distinctive historic landscapes that have remained largely intact compared with the surrounding intensive arable areas. Along the river valleys of the Great Ouse and Ivel, significant areas of present gravel extraction and restored large water bodies are evident. In addition, within the Ivel valley on the flood plain soils, vegetables, horticultural cropping and glasshouses are a distinctive feature. To the north-east of the area, Grafham Water and its associated earth dams create a major man-made water body in the area. The brickfields of the Marston Vale and south Peterborough create marked industrialised landscapes at the local scale. Active and worked clay pits, brickworks, landfill sites and large water-bodies, compose a mosaic of despoiled and restored land among the remaining agricultural uses.

APPENDICES


The Changing Countryside

• Agricultural intensification and farm amalgamation, particularly to create larger arable fields. There are still isolated examples of this taking place today. Harsh management and neglect of hedgerows.

• Changing crop patterns, through subsidies and advances in farming practice, eg fewer spring crops.

• Loss and fragmentation of habitats, including grassland, ponds, ditches, spinneys and hedgerows. Dutch Elm disease in 1970s and 1980s had a major impact on woodland and hedgerow trees.

• Creation of open water-bodies, most notably Grafham Water.

• Extensive mineral extraction and landfill. Sand and gravel removal to river valleys. Clay extraction, brick manufacture and landfill to Marston Vale and south of Peterborough.

• Development along transport and infrastructure corridors, eg M1, A1. Sprawl and coalescence of towns and settlements often in river valleys. Development of Milton Keynes New Town.

• Growth of horticulture and associated glasshouses in Ivel valley. Subsequent decline of smaller holdings.

• Growth of 'pony paddock culture', stables and residual areas to edge of villages and towns, creating a piecemeal appearance.

Shaping the future

• There is scope for the creation of new woodlands: smaller woods to river valleys and larger woods on higher plateau areas, with scope to enhance linkage within traditional woodland areas. The continued management of existing ancient woodlands is important.

• Landscape enhancement of the relatively industrialised Marston Vale and south Peterborough should include the assimilation of the stark landforms arising from landfill by extensive planting and sympathetic earthworks to respect the wider farmed landscape.

• The management of unimproved grasslands on settlement edges should include the retention of remaining ridge and furrow.

• The enhancement of wetland habitats including the corridors of the rivers Ivel, Tove and Great Ouse should include the re-creation and management of riverine grassland meadows and pollarding of willows. Less intensive farming adjacent to the rivers is important.

• Extensive planting schemes should be considered to reduce the impact of settlement edges, infrastructure corridors and isolated agricultural and industrial buildings. The re-establishment of hedgerows, hedgerow trees, species-rich verges and field margins would provide visual and wildlife corridors between woodland and water courses.

• The sensitive after-use of redundant airfield sites would benefit from integrated landscape strategies.

• A strategy should be considered for future mineral and clay extraction and the associated restoration of derelict and worked sites.

APPENDICES


CA 89/94: NorthAmPtoNShIrE vALES/ LEICEStErhIrE vALES

This description is an amalgamation of 89 Northamptonshire Vales and 94 Leicestershire Vales.

Key Characteristics

• Gentle clay ridges and valleys with little woodland and strong patterns of Tudor and parliamentary enclosure.

• Distinctive river valleys of Soar, Welland and Nene with flat floodplains and gravel terraces.

• Large towns of Leicester and Northampton dominate much of the landscape.

• Frequent small towns and large villages, often characterised by red brick buildings.

• Prominent parks and country houses.

• Frequent imposing, spired churches.

• Attractive stone buildings in older village centres and eastern towns and villages.

• Great diversity of landscape and settlement pattern with many sub units, eg Nene Valley and Welland Valley.

Landscape Character

This large, complex and heterogeneous area comprises low-lying clay vales and river valleys extending between wold landscapes and other areas of higher ground, including the area referred to as High Cross Plateau in Warwickshire. In the north, the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield and Charnwood rise quite steeply from the low-lying land west of Leicester. To the north-west there is a more gradual transition to the flat, glacial till dominated, edge of the Mease/Sence Lowlands, while to the south of this there is an equally gradual transition to Dunsmore and Feldon. The Vales narrow south eastwards with the Northamptonshire Clay Uplands to the south and High Leicestershire to the north. The Welland valley extends north eastwards as part of the area while, to the south, the Vales sweep between the Northamptonshire Uplands and Rockingham Forest to the Nene Valley, which is sharply defined on its southern bank by the Cambridge and Bedfordshire Claylands. The gently undulating clay vales and ridges which make up much of the area, have a strong pattern of Tudor and parliamentary enclosure, often with low, but well-maintained, hedges and variable densities of hedgerow trees. Woodlands are small. They are confined mainly to valley sides areas and to copses and spinneys on the ridges. As a result of this open character, the frequent large settlements can dominate the landscape. Leicester and Northampton are large towns with extensive edges of commercial and retail buildings and out of town development and there are several smaller towns like Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Hinckley and Earl Shilton where the high density of 19th and �0th century red brick houses and urban fringe buildings are prominent. There are also many large villages but the frequent small ones show less �0th century influence. This is particularly true in the east, where an older character of mellow brick, and fine stone churches in some of the most celebrated English stones, is present. Even when the landscape is not influenced by prominent built up edges, settlements are never very far away and the church towers and spires are the most characteristic feature of rural areas. The river valleys of the Soar, Welland and Nene are much larger-scale landforms than the clay vales forming the hinterland of this area. They have wide, flat floodplains on which an older landscape of meadows, willow pollards and alders survives. There are frequent settlements, usually on the edges of the valleys just off the gravel terraces. Each valley is very different in character. The Nene has well-defined terraces which are the sites of many ancient settlements and it is fed by numerous tributaries forming side valleys. Much of the floodplain is now dominated by either active gravel working or the lakes formed on former workings and is crossed by willow-lined causeway roads. However, north of Ringstead the landscape is unaffected by the gravel industry and the flood plain has meadows of high nature-conservation interest. Rising out of the floodplain, the land is in both arable and pasture use and there are bluffs on the valley sides which are dominated by the rectilinear pattern of parliamentary enclosure. There are frequent villages, predominantly in local limestone, along the valley and they usually have linear layouts. There is high historic interest at places like Oundle and the often spectacular churches like Fotheringhay. The Welland valley is narrower and more remote, the main industrial influence being the views of Ketton cement works to the north. The scarp at the edge of Rockingham Forest is a dominant feature and the generally open character is punctuated by waterside trees. On the narrow valley bottom, meadows are frequent but there has been much conversion to arable in recent years and the overall character is remote and rural. As in the Nene valley, there are many fine stone buildings with Ketton Stone and ironstone tending to predominate. The Soar valley is dominated by urban development spreading from Leicester. Tree cover is often low and locally negligible and there are large- to medium-size fields. The larger villages, as well as Leicester, dominate this open landscape and features like pylons can be very conspicuous. Further upstream, the hedgerow and hedge cover improves and the urban influence diminishes. In the south, the Ise Valley is in part dominated by the settlements of Wellingborough and Kettering, However, while it is easy to break the area down into its component parts, there are common qualities and features which unify

APPENDICES


it and which stem from its long occupation, strategic location and natural resources. In a fairly uniform and sometimes rather bland sequence of landforms, individual character often comes from views of the surrounding higher ground. The landscape is rich in attractive individual settlements and buildings of historic interest and there are very few parts where a village is not in view. Parks, waterside trees and meadows are common themes and the extensive settlements reflect prosperity from a variety of sources over many centuries.

Physical Influences

The western part of this large and complex area is underlain by the Mercia Mudstones. East of the river Soar, these strata are overlain by Rhaetic mudstones and limestones which do not form a significant scarp. To the east, the Lower Lias mudstones form an extensive area overlain by thick deposits of boulder clay (glacial till) which begin to thin out to the east, exposing the Middle and Upper Lias which emerge beyond Husbands Bosworth. To the east of the Northamptonshire Clay Wolds, the younger, harder rocks of the Inferior Oolite extend south-west to north-west through Northampton and Corby, juxtaposed with outcrops of the Great Oolite and Cornbrash along the Nene Valley. The area is dominated by the major rivers of the Soar, Welland and Nene. Gravel, alluvial and head deposits along these rivers have been one of the major determinants of settlement patterns and later industry. The Soar is fed by the Wreake in the north-west, flowing between the higher ground of the Wolds and High Leicestershire, and by the Sence in the south-east. The slightly higher ground around Market Harborough, effectively a low outlying part of the Wolds landscapes to the north and south, separates the Soar from the Welland catchment. Higher ground on the Northamptonshire Clay Wolds - Rockingham Forest axis divides the Welland from the Nene valley, where the extensive northern catchment is fed by large streams and small rivers, including the Ise.


The river valleys were a focus of settlement from at least Neolithic times and had become extensively settled by the Bronze Age. Air photographs of the gravel terraces of the Soar, Welland and particularly the Nene have shown areas thick with Bronze Age occupation and ritual sites and the valleys have probably been frequently settled ever since. The surrounding land, however, was less densely occupied in prehistory, particularly Leicestershire west of the Soar. By the Iron Age, much of the better land had been cleared and there was a regular system of land division with major settlement sites along all three main valleys. Dense occupation of the valleys continued in the Roman period, with a major Roman centre at Leicester, and pottery manufactured in the Nene valley was widely used throughout southern England. The Roman roads of the Fosse Way, Gartree Road and Watling Street form features which are still prominent in the present day landscape and villas clustered around centres like Towcester. The Anglo Saxons took over a landscape that had been substantially cleared of woodland, except in west Leicestershire and furthest from the river valleys, and their tons and hams/hamms still dominate the placenames of the area. Indeed, the present-day pattern of compact parish boundaries in areas like the Nene valley reflects some of the Saxon estates. Away from the river valleys, however, settlement was less dense, and a scattering of Scandinavian settlements become established in the 9th century, particularly in the thick boulder clay of Leicestershire west of the Soar. As the population expanded, the landscape, particularly of the river valleys, came to be dominated by frequent nucleated villages surrounded by open fields. At strategic sites along the valleys, like Earls Barton, Northampton and Fotheringhay, castles marked the major centres. The prosperity of much of the area in the Middle Ages is most obvious in the large churches and church spires, often within sight of one another, supporting the saying that Northamptonshire is a county of ‘spires and squires’. The present major towns - Leicester and Northampton - were significant Viking settlements, expanding rapidly up to the 14th century, but important minor towns like Oundle, Market Harborough, and Lutterworth also owe their origin to the pre-Conquest period. From the 15th century onwards there was piecemeal enclosure of the open fields but much of the landscape remained unenclosed until the 18th and 19th centuries. Landscape parks with grand houses were developed between the 17th and 19th centuries and at this time many of the area’s fine manor houses were constructed and villages were rebuilt in local stone. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the rapid growth of Leicester and Northampton as red brick-dominated residential and manufacturing centres in which the boot and shoe industry and the iron and steel industry in Northampton and Kettering played a major part. The eastern part of the area, hitherto the least densely populated and most backward, became a centre of brick, hosiery and engineering, and the brick-built large villages or small towns like Blaby and Hinckley rapidly developed. The Grand Union Canal, linking the Nene and the Trent, was a substantial stimulus to growth. In the �0th century the settlements of Northampton and Leicester continued to expand, absorbing the surrounding villages. Wellingborough and Kettering developed as substantial towns and there has been large-scale mineral extraction. Ironstone has been won in the east of the area, particularly around the edges of Rockingham Forest and sand and gravel have been extensively excavated, particularly along the Nene creating a new wetland landscape. Major new roads, notably the M1 and A14 have also had a significant effect.


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In the village and town centres, and to some extent in the small towns in the eastern part of the area, the older buildings are constructed in an attractive range of local stones. Along the Nene valley for instance, Oundle is largely a limestone town, and the unforgettable extravagant Fotheringhay church is also of the creamy grey stone. Radiating out from the quarries at Barnack in the Soke of Peterborough and Collyweston on the edge of the area, Barnack Stone and Collyweston Slates can sometimes be seen while, to the north-east, Ketton Stone which is one of the purest oolitic limestones has been used. Westwards along the Welland, extending down the Nene valley and into Leicestershire, ironstone varying in colour from deep orange to tawny brown can be found. Further west, but also in places like Market Harborough, timber framed buildings still survive. However, in the west generally and in the eastern towns, brick predominates and varies from a light, almost orangey colour, to the deep red of Leicester detested by W G Hoskins and Clifton Taylor. The two principal towns have spread along their respective river valleys. They have substantial edges of out of town retail centres and light industrial units, with an outer ring of enlarged villages. Billing Aquadrome is particularly prominent on the edge of Northampton. Kettering and Wellingborough which dominate the Ise valley and Hinckley on the edge of the Sence Lowlands, are medium-sized modern towns but Lutterworth, Market Harborough and Oundle have retained the older character of market towns. Large villages are frequent and many are still dominated by 19th and early �0th century brick buildings. They are linked by a dense network of minor roads. The area is rich in individual buildings of interest, from the remarkable turriform Anglo-Saxon tower church of Earls Barton to the eclectic Victoriana of Overstone Park. As well as late medieval buildings like Kirby Muxloe Castle there are many fine 17th and 18th century manor houses like Dallington Hall, often set within their own parkland. Groups of estate cottages and estate villages near the big houses are evidence of the power of Northamptonshire squires.

Land Cover

In addition to the areas in urban residential, commercial and industrial use, the warehouses and commercial buildings on the edges of the major towns and trunk roads are a significant land use. Along the river valleys there is extensive surface water resulting from gravel extraction. Woodland cover is generally sparse, except intermittently along the Welland and Nene valleys. There are small valley side ash-maple woodlands and spinneys and copses on the ridges and more undulating land. Parks are quite frequent, often lying at the edge of the area adjacent to more woodland landscapes.

However, despite the urban areas, most of the land is a mixture of arable and pasture use. There is considerable variety in the distribution and extent of hedgerow and tree cover and density of hedgerows. On some of the valley floodplains, like parts of the Welland, there are substantial waterside trees and meadows, but generally the flatter areas are given over to arable where hedgerows can be low, broken or intermittent, for example around Dingley. On the slopes of the many minor valleys, and on more undulating ground generally, pasture in small fields tends to predominate.


• Tree cover in recent years has been substantially affected by Dutch Elm disease and ash die back.

• There has been substantial development of large edge-of-town buildings and new roads which can be intrusive in what is often a very open landscape.

• High density residential development at the edges of villages and towns is often very intrusive and there can be a lack of vegetation to absorb new development.

• The gravel extraction industry has created lakes and gravel wetlands of high wildfowl interest.

• The mitigation measures for gravel extraction sites do not always suit the landscape well - planting of vigorous poplar cultivars in particular is often unsuitable although older plantations of poplar for the match industry are now a feature of the landscape. There is continued pressure for general extraction.

• Continued conversion to arable will increase the openness of the landscape and endanger the remaining areas of ridge and furrow.

• Riverside meadows and riverside trees are under threat from gravel extraction and neglect.

• In some areas hedgerow management has been neglected.

• The loss of floodplains to gravel extraction has major archaeological and historic landscape implications.

APPENDICES


Shaping the future

• The Nene Valley offers scope to address a full range of broad environmental matters, including the conflict between gravel extraction, development, wildlife conservation and recreation.

APPENDICES


CA 91: yArDLEy AND whIttLEwooD rIDgE

Key Characteristics

• Broad plateau with shallow soils elevated above adjacent vales.

• A strong historic landscape character, largely due to the continued presence of extensive areas of ancient woodland.

• Mixed land uses of pasture, arable and woodland.

• Generally medium-sized fields with full hedges and hedgerow trees, mainly oak.

• Low density of settlement and consequently few local roads; cut through by major north-south canal, rail and road routes.

Landscape Character

The Ridge rises steadily up from the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands (which here extend in to north Buckinghamshire) to the south and east. In the north the land drops down to the Nene Valley, the southernmost of the Northamptonshire Vales. Thus, although only reaching elevations of some 150 m in the west and slowly dipping down to 80 m in the east, it is physically distinct from the adjacent low-lying vales and forms a noticeable broad plateau. The area is predominantly agricultural in character, with a mix of arable, mixed and pastoral farming. Pastoral farming is predominant in the west, giving way to a more open, arable landscape as the land dips slightly to the east. However, the thin and variable soils have historically constrained agricultural development so that much of the area is wooded and has been so since at least the 13th century. The landscape elements form simple combinations, of stretches of arable alternating with pasture, with a backdrop of large, dark, woodland blocks. Woods such as Salcey Forest are extensive and have a network of rides and occasional open grasslands contained within the woodland - the ‘lawns’ which provided hay and pasture for commoners cattle. The woodland blocks are largely oak or mixed with other broadleaves and, in some places, oaks planted in the early 19th century still remain. More recent planting of coniferous species has formed dense plantations and these can create particularly dark and impenetrable backdrops to the local farmland landscape. These dark blocks form striking contrasts with the fresh greens of spring foliage and the rich autumn colours of the deciduous woodland. From the gently undulating plateau top, the land can be seen to slope gently away in most directions with long views over the surrounding vales. This gives a feel of being elevated, of openness and expansiveness. Such views, however, are frequently cut off by the large blocks of woodland which are a constant feature of the plateau top. Its elevation above surrounding land has made it suitable for telecommunications masts and airfields - one of the latter is now the Silverstone race track. The associated activities and facilities for occasional large numbers of visitors as well as other recreational facilities such as golf courses and parks, bring a suburban feel into local landscapes. The few minor roads on the Ridge are bounded by hedges but have wide verges which are often herb-rich. Hedges are generally substantial and species rich and are often filled out with elm suckers. There are plenty of hedgerow trees, mostly oak with some ash. Many of these are mature and stag-headed, although some hedges show several young ash saplings growing up to form potential new hedgerow trees. There are a number of parks in the area which, with their mature parkland trees, avenues and woodland rides, add to the historic feel of the landscape. The Grand Union Canal, running through the valley cut by the river Tove, creates a local landscape of waterways with locks, bridges and weirs. The Ridge does have an historic feel to it, in particular in those parts which are contained by the extensive areas of woodland. These contrast with more open plateau areas which can be non-descript - indeed it has been described as a ‘flattish, rather dull landscape’.

Physical Influences

The Ridge forms a low watershed between the catchments of the Nene to the north and the Great Ouse to the south. The Tove drains the vale in the north, turning at Towcester to cut through the Ridge at Grafton Regis and then flows south east and joins the Great Ouse. There is a noticeable absence of other watercourses on the Ridge. Underlying the Ridge are Jurassic Oolitic limestones which run in a south-west to north-east alignment, parallel to the more substantial Middle Lias ironstones of Northamptonshire to the north west. Subsequent glacial activity has smoothed over this outcrop and left irregular drifts of boulder clay over the underlying Cornbrash. Accordingly soils are patchy and varied, ranging from a free-draining chalky till to less permeable clay. In places the underlying limestone comes close to the surface and has been quarried for local building stone.

APPENDICES



There is some evidence of pre-Roman settlement, because the plateau was less boggy than the adjacent clay lowlands. Roman influence was limited to major routes crossing the Ridge which ran through two Roman settlements just to the north. Watling Street (now the A5) ran from London to Towcester and on to the north-west and another route passed through Irchester and on to the north. During Anglo-Saxon times, clearance of woodland and the establishment of settlements continued. However, the main influence on the landscape, which is what largely creates its distinctive character today, was the appropriation of the extensive woodlands along the Ridge as Royal Forests from the 13th century. The woods of Whittlewood and Salcey were passed to the Dukes of Grafton. Whittlewood comprised 6,000 acres, of which 4,500 acres were woodland in 1608, while Salcey Forest (which includes Yardley Chase) covered 1,100 acres, and most of this was coppice. Such Forests provided a source of fuel and building material as well as hunting grounds for the nobility. Appropriated in this way, the area avoided the more intensive clearance of woodland, drainage and settlement that occurred on the adjacent clay lowlands.

This structure, of widespread forest, with ‘lawns’ for pasture, and small Forest villages (nucleated villages with open fields, whose residents had some rights over the Forest lands), continued until the early 17th century. Records show that, for instance around Knotting, clearance of some forest areas started at this time, to extend agricultural land, and continued through to the late 18th century. Clearance of woodland speeded up with the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts in the late 18th century and became more rapid in the early 19th century. Thus there are, until this time, historic references to extensive ancient forests around Melchbourne and to Odell Great Wood and Knotting West Wood where now there are large arable fields and few trees at all. The poet William Cowper lived at Olney in 1767, moving to Weston Underwood in 1786, and spent much of his time walking in the woods.


The Ridge has a low population and the settlements, which are small and relatively few, tend to occur along the edges of the Ridge. Towcester, a busy small town, lies on the north-west edge of the area and Brackley, a rapidly expanding town, lies to the west. Some of the few villages actually on the Ridge were Forest Villages, nucleated villages with open fields, (until the Enclosures) whose residents held rights over the Forest lands. Thus Ashton, Hartwell, Hackleton, Piddington, Quinton and Hanslope were all villages of the Forest of Salcey. During the medieval period, villages contracted as a result of the plague and later as part of the rural depopulation arising from the enclosures. The latter probably had less of an impact on the Ridge than on the surrounding lowlands. Probably the most famous group of buildings and artefacts is to be found at Stowe Park. Now occupied by Stowe School, it was originally built in a formal layout, in the early 18th century, with two striking elm lined avenues running up to it. The remarkable series of buildings in the grounds were laid out between 1713 and 1763. In the 1730s, Kent introduced a more naturalistic style to the layout of the grounds. Further parks and estates were established on the Ridge, as at Biddlesden, Melchbourne and Whittlebury. Formal landscapes, with massive avenues and woodland rides, are found at Castle Ashby and Chase Park. Rural depopulation again, in the early 19th century, left some villages more loosely structured and less compact, for instance Knotting. Adjacent towns such as Northampton and Wellingborough expanded rapidly with industrial activity in the 19th century, but with little apparent impact on the Ridge. Building materials are varied with red brick and the soft local Oolitic limestone, ranging from warm greys to subdued ochres, both frequently used with either grey slate or red pantile roofing. Steep thatched roofs also occur, more frequently towards the east. This mixture of materials can be attractive in itself, as at Yielden, while other villages, like Whittlebury, have a more eclectic mix of building styles, including red brick houses with limestone frontages. But there are also some very attractive compact villages where the local limestone predominates as a building material, such as Shalstone and Ravenstone, and with a high proportion of thatched roofs, as at Alderton.

Land Cover

There is a relatively high woodland cover, of up to 15 per cent in Yardley Chase. These large woodlands, many of them now managed by the Forestry Authority, are of oak, or oak and ash standards, with coppiced oak, and an understorey of birch, hazel, alder and willow. This woodland combines with permanent pasture, leys and winter cereals. Pasture is more dominant on the higher land to the west, giving way to arable cropping on the lower, less undulating land to the east. The recent influence of ‘horsiculture’, with its small paddocks and miscellaneous artefacts has an impact on land adjacent to settlements. The elevated and wide plateau top makes it suitable for airfields, two of which - Silverstone and Santa Pod - are now used for race tracks. Silverstone is a Grand Prix circuit and, as such, attracts huge volumes of visitors on occasions while at Santa Pod

APPENDICES


there are a variety of other small industrial and miscellaneous activities, creating locally a very untidy and cluttered landscape. Routes tend to cut across the Ridge rather than follow it. As already mentioned, two major Roman routes pass through on their way north. The river Tove cuts through the gap at Grafton Regis as does the Grand Union Canal and the main northern railway line from Euston. At Roade, in order to maintain gentle gradients, the railway is in a particularly impressive cutting, one and a half miles long, and 70 feet deep.


• Agricultural intensification, in particular moving from pastoral/mixed to arable, has resulted in a consequent increase in field size, loss of hedgerows, fragmentation or loss of semi-natural habitats and damage to historic features. In the predominantly arable areas, hedges are over-trimmed and mismanaged.

• The replanting of woodlands with conifers, and the introduction of non-native broadleaf species into ancient woodlands, has had an impact both on the landscape and on the nature-conservation interest of the woodlands. The historic character of the landscape is particularly vulnerable to such changes in woodland cover and structure.

• Dutch Elm disease has had a dramatic effect over recent decades, resulting in the widespread loss of hedgerow trees, although oak and ash are more substantial components on these shallow soils than in the clay vales. The continuing occurrence of the disease prevents elm suckers from establishing as hedgerow trees.

• Development pressures on the villages are evident but have been reasonably well contained. Pressures for leisure and recreational facilities, in particular golf courses, are increasing. Developments in the open countryside have had an impact on the simple but strong structure of the landscape and its historic character.

Shaping the future

• The retention of the character and nature-conservation value of the woodlands could be achieved through management, to include replanting oak and replacing introduced species with native species. There is also scope for establishing new and maintaining existing broadleaved woodland on private land.

• The possibility of re-creating some aspects of the historic landscape, for instance by restoring 'lawns' which are now arable back to pasture should be considered. Similarly, opportunities exist for the improved management of hedgerows and protection for naturally regenerating hedgerow trees.

• Pressures for recreational facilities, such as golf courses and holiday villages, and for farm diversification need to be handled carefully and particular care taken to integrate such schemes into the landscape structure.

APPENDICES


CA 92: roCkINghAm forESt

Key Characteristics

• Undulating landform rising to prominent scarp along edge of Welland Valley in Rockingham Forest.

• Large woodlands on higher ground enclose the landscape.

• High historic and nature-conservation interest in woodlands.

• Remnants of unimproved grassland throughout, with limestone heaths and fragments of acid bogs in the Soke of Peterborough.

• Foreground views are occupied by large arable fields with low hedges.

• Large mature landscape parks and country houses.

• Dry stone walls around villages, becoming more common in open countryside in Soke of Peterborough.

• Nucleated villages often in sheltered streamside locations.

• Distinctive buildings constructed in local stone: ironstone in west, limestone in east.

• Undisturbed, deeply rural quality despite nearby towns and adjoining trunk roads.

• Prominent, disused ironstone quarries (gullets) and abandoned second world war airfields.

• A sharp transition between the countryside and the main towns of Kettering, Corby and Peterborough (lying just outside the area) which have developed rapidly in recent years.

Landscape Character

The area is defined in the north-west by a steep scarp which overlooks the Welland valley and decreases to much more gentle landforms around the northern edge of the Soke of Peterborough. To the south-east, it is bordered by the Nene valley and, to the east, by the urban edge of Peterborough. In the south-west it ends against the open clay vales of Northamptonshire and the town of Kettering. It comprises two culturally distinct sub-units, the Rockingham Forest and Soke of Peterborough, which nevertheless share many similar physical characteristics. The Rockingham Forest area takes its title from the royal hunting forest that existed across the area from the 11th to 19th centuries. The Forest’s modern extent is defined by a combination of these former legal boundaries and its physical characteristics. The Soke of Peterborough was also a distinct administrative area for many centuries and this title is conveniently used here to define the physically distinctive countryside to the west of Peterborough.

Separated today by the A1 corridor, the Rockingham Forest and Soke of Peterborough areas are unified by the common west/north and east/south boundaries of the respective Welland and Nene rivers. The areas also share similar geology and architecture and have much more in common with each other than their neighbouring landscapes. Extensive areas of ancient woodland are a particularly strong unifying characteristic. Although the landform of Rockingham Forest is essentially a broad, low, undulating ridge falling away from the northern scarp, the highest points are capped by glacial boulder clay and it is here that the surviving ancient woodlands lie, emphasising the relief. Extensive woodlands like Wakerley, Geddington Chase and Fermyn are prominent features on the skyline. To the north, the land slopes into lower ground where the Jurassic limestones, including the Cornbrash, are exposed and river gravels are present towards Peterborough and the Nene valley. Here there are varied remnants of semi-natural vegetation like the limestone heaths of Castor Hanglands and the species-rich limestone grassland of Barnack Hills and Holes lying over abandoned medieval quarries for the famous Barnack Stone. However, here too, there are frequent ancient woodlands. Many are of high nature-conservation interest and are attractive landscape features in their own right. They were formerly extensively coppiced and small-leaved lime is a particular feature of the eastern woods. Within the forest the woodlands are generally separated by large fields, mainly in arable use, which generally have low hedges and intermittent trees. However, there are also more enclosed areas of pasture with a better hedge structure, particularly in the valleys as well as areas of dry stone walls. The Soke of Peterborough has many low hedges and wide horizons and areas with dry stone walls. Apart from the woodlands, the main tree cover comes from the frequent large historic parks like Rockingham, Deene, Drayton and Boughton with attractively sited mansions of the 17th to 19th centuries. Settlements generally lie off the boulder clay, along the valleys. Here, more easily cultivated land is exposed and typically there is a more intimate character than in the surrounding open countryside. The settlements are surrounded by small pasture fields, more robust hedgerows and occasional stone walls. Older buildings are generally of the creamy-grey limestone in the east and are often roofed with the distinctive Collyweston Slate. In the west, ironstone is common. There is relatively little modern development within and

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around the villages, even in those settlements near the edge of Peterborough. They are served by minor country roads with the typical wide verges of the enclosure period, which often follow circuitous routes so that many areas are very remote and deeply rural. Within the Forest, there is some variation in character. In the south there are enclosed wooded valleys with limestone and ironstone villages. The landform is quite steep and woodlands are of moderate size tending to cling to the valley sides or crown the ridges, with large-scale arable areas forming a backdrop above. In the valley floors, trees line the watercourses and views are contained by vegetation and landform. To the north, the landscape is on a larger scale and is almost exclusively woodland and arable. There are frequent views to the south but few to the north since the crest of the ridge above the Welland valley is almost continuously lined with woodland. There are patches of dry stone walls and isolated farmsteads. A stronger distinction can be made between the Forest and the Soke of Peterborough, where the landform is lower and very gently rolling. The farming pattern is more mixed. There are both hedges and dry stone walls and the rectilinear pattern of parliamentary enclosure is very obvious. The woodlands provide enclosure but also frame long distance views, as they do in the Forest. At the southern edge, the area merges with the gravels of the Nene valley and low-lying grasslands and streamside pollards are present.

Physical Influences

The scarp and ridge which form the Rockingham Forest comprises mainly Jurassic limestones of the Great Oolite, including Blisworth Limestone and Cornbrash. Along the river valleys, the Lincolnshire Limestone and Northampton Sand of the Inferior Oolite are exposed or near the surface. The Northampton Sand contains substantial deposits of ironstone. The higher ground is capped with boulder clay (glacial till) which gives rise to heavy intractable soils unattractive for cultivation. In the north, within the Soke of Peterborough, the land flattens out. Cornbrash and river gravels predominate near the surface, and the western margin of the area is strongly influenced by the alluvial clays and gravels along the Nene valley. The ironstone deposits have been mined for centuries, most recently as strip mines, resulting in deep linear quarries known as ‘gullets’, surrounded by extensive areas of spoil. At the southern edge of the Forest, the Ise valley drains southwards towards the Nene. Harper’s Brook drains south-eastwards across the area. Willow Brook, arising near the steep north-west escarpment, winds across the Forest to the Nene, to which shallow streams also flow within the Soke of Peterborough.


During the Neolithic and Bronze Age the freely draining soils of the valleys were cleared of woodland. There were significant settlement and ritual sites on the edge of the area within the Nene valley and the Soke around Fengate. Settlement and agriculture penetrated into the heart of the Forest along the Willow Brook. The Iron Age and Roman periods saw extensive settlement on the heavier claylands with the development of a major iron industry within the Forest. There was also a substantial Roman settlement at Castor where Ermine Street and King Street, which are still prominent landscape features today, meet. Substantial areas were cleared of woodland and large villas like Weldon and Barnack were established. Woodland spread again after the Romans left and Saxon settlements lay mainly around the edge of the area as royal or former royal manors controlling the central woodlands. Indeed, the pattern of principal settlements lying around the edge of the Forest has persisted to the present day and the centre of the area remains sparsely settled. On the north-eastern edge, Meadhampstead, later to become Peterborough, was the site of one of the major monasteries of early Anglo-Saxon England. In the late Anglo-Saxon period there was again a period of expansion and clearance. Limestone was quarried in the northern part of the area, not least to produce the Saxon churches like Wittering and Barnack. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Barnack stone was transported, by waggons and boats, as far south as Strethall in north-west Essex, Milton Bryant in Bedfordshire and Walton in Hertfordshire. By the early post-Conquest period most of the area had become royal forest and when the bounds were first recorded in the late 13th century they stretched from the gates of Northampton to the gates of Stamford. By this time, following centuries of clearance, much of the land was in agricultural use in open fields surrounding nucleated villages. There were also isolated farmsteads cut out of the woodland and there were extensive areas of waste and common, particularly in the north east.

In the high Middle Ages, ironworking re-emerged as a major activity supported by one of England’s largest charcoal industries. Limestone quarrying at Barnack and elsewhere proceeded apace. Barnack Stone and Weldon Stone became some of the most prized building materials of medieval England. The principal small towns, like Oundle and Kettering, lay in the valleys at the edge but there were lesser towns and market areas like Kings Cliffe and Brigstock nearer the centre. Royal and private deer parks developed. In many cases these formed the basis of the post-medieval landscape parks and country houses like Milton, Boughton and Apethorpe. The latter has been described as ‘the most stately and coherent Jacobean piece in the county’. The landscape of open fields and commons remained across much of the area until the 19th century although there were localised enclosures from the 16th century onwards, as around Milton. The iron industry petered out in the post-medieval period but, by the 1850s, the arrival of the railways led to the excavation of a chain of quarries from Blisworth near Northampton to Stamford and the rapid development of the towns of Corby and Kettering, as well as large villages on the

APPENDICES


edge of the Forest and clearance of some of the remaining woodland. In the present century, the industry has become centred in Corby. Although the steelworks closed in the 1970s, and the ironstone working has ceased, the tubeworks continue to operate. Industrial expansion based on a different range of industries took place at Peterborough, followed by the post-war development of a new town. This period has also seen an increase in arable cultivation, with corresponding removal of hedges and loss of hedgerow trees giving the open agricultural land an abrupt contrast with the woodland. The last change would have intrigued John Clare, the 18th century poet born at Helpston who recorded the loss of the open field landscape in a unique way:

‘Fence meeting fence in owners little bounds Of field and meadow, large as garden-grounds In little parcels little minds to please, With men and flock imprisoned at ease.’


The older vernacular buildings and smaller manor houses are usually built of stone from the immediate locality, with a gradual change from creamy-grey limestone in the east to brown ironstone around Corby. Many of the lesser buildings are of rubble or simple dressed stone construction, in contrast to the smaller manor houses and often imposing churches with their towers and spires. Although most of the more conspicuous elements of the latter date from the 13th to 15th centuries, there are significant earlier buildings in the east. Brick is used on the more recent buildings. Reddish colours are typical of the settlements around the edge of the Forest but, towards Peterborough, yellow Flettons are sometimes a striking contrast. Roofing materials are equally varied, with thatch, Collyweston Slates, red orange and buff clay pantiles and Welsh slate. Characteristically many of the roof pitches are steep to accommodate thatch and the heavy Collyweston Slate. The latter gives rise to some of the most attractive groups of buildings in the locality such as the estate village with distinctive hipped roofs at Deene. The older village centres usually have simple buildings of rectangular plan set parallel to the line of the single main street, giving a pleasant fit to the landscape. Their uniformity of character is often the result of estate ownership. At the edges of the area the village character is more influenced by high density post-war housing. The towns of Corby, Kettering and Peterborough have extensive areas of 19th and early �0th century brick buildings with large modern industrial buildings and out of town shopping development on their outskirts. Peterborough’s edge, however, is well-integrated with the substantial woodlands and extensive new town planting. Although the towns are served by trunk roads, the villages are linked by tortuous minor roads and this contributes to the remote character of much of the Forest. The A14 is the most conspicuous of recent roads and other prominent �0th century features include the extensive areas of the Corby iron and steel works and the second world war airfields. The area contains many outstanding country houses, including Rockingham Castle, Deene Hall, Milton, Drayton, Apethorpe and Boughton, with imposing fabric ranging from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Set within substantial parklands, they tend to have sheltered, rather than dramatic, settings.

Land Cover

Slightly more than 10 per cent of the area is occupied by woodlands and scrub. Many are ancient former coppice woods with a wide range of species. Small leaved lime is a particular feature in the east and the extensive glacial till woodlands are characterised by ash, hazel and field maple. There is some difficulty in separating primary from ancient secondary woodland within the forest, complicated by the rich pattern created by the formerly extensive grazing. Where patches of old grassland survive they are of particular value. In some cases the deciduous woodland has been converted or partially converted to coniferous woodlands and in others wholly new coniferous woodlands have been planted. Much recent planting has been on the reclaimed ironstone workings and the large estates such as Boughton. Other areas of semi-natural vegetation include the important conservation grassland and scrublands at Castor Hanglands and the species-rich limestone grassland at Barnack Hills and Holes. There are patches of unimproved or semi-improved grassland, often marked by ridge and furrow and small areas of wetland on the valley floors. Unrestored ironstone gullets and spoil heaps and limestone quarries are also significant features, for example, north of the A14/A510. However, most of the land is in agricultural use with a predominance of arable. Hedges are often low and hedgerow trees are localised in distribution, with willow pollards along the streamsides and wetter areas. Locally, and particularly in the north, there are areas of dry stone walls.


• Most of the remaining coppice woodlands are falling into neglect because costs, lack of markets and deer damage prevent positive management.

• Other ancient woodland sites have been converted to mainly conifer high forest in recent years, though they retain some remnant flora and preserved archaeological features.

APPENDICES


• The area's recent woodlands include a high proportion of even-aged, mixed and conifer woodland nearing maturity.

• Many of the area's older grasslands have been lost in recent times through improvement and cultivation and those that remain are consequently of increased importance.

• The historic parklands are designed landscapes from the 16th to 18th centuries and many are in need of appropriate restoration to a consistent design plan.

• Wet meadows, pollards and ponds are locally important riparian features that are becoming increasingly rare within the area's river valleys.

• Hedgerow removal and neglect has changed the field patterns and is having a significant impact on landscape character. This is compounded by the continued loss of hedgerow trees.

• Locally prominent stone walls face dereliction or have been inappropriately restored.

• Other linear features such as green lanes, railway lines and small streams and ditches connect different habitats to provide important visual links across the landscape which benefit wildlife and provide public access opportunities.

• Redundant quarries including unrestored ironstone gullets and spols, limestone quarries and gravel pits provide localised landscape and wildlife opportunities.

• Many of the area's traditional, stone farm buildings are redundant and in need of repair.

• The distinctive character of the area's stone built and nucleated villages is very vulnerable to intrusive new development on their edges.

Shaping the future

• The Rockingham Forest Trust has initiated a range of projects and studies in the area in line with an overall vision of restoring the Forest landscape through the conservation, enhancement and appropriate extension of natural habitats and landscape features. It is important that this work continues as a pre-requisite to promoting general good practice and as part of management planning for specific sites.

• Management considerations can be conveniently divided into three: i) Conservation of Traditional Features and Habitats Developing and promoting mechanisms for cost-effective ancient woodland management and restoration within ancient woodland sites; Preparing and implementing historic parkland restoration plans; Conserving unimproved grasslands, meadows and other habitats through village landscape appraisals and other pro-active management; Identifying and conserving priority stone walls; Controlling development and promoting good building design practice within village environments. ii) Enhancement of Agricultural Landscape Managing recent woodlands for multiple benefits; Planting new woodlands in strategic locations to accentuate wooded appearance of landscape, link existing habitats, screen development and provide community access; Recreating other habitats such as limestone grassland on set-aside land; Conserving and enhancing the best-preserved networks of hedgerows and establishing hedgerow trees in suitable locations; Managing and establishing green corridors, including ditches, headlands and green lanes, as visual and wildlife links across arable areas; Optimising multiple benefits from potential new crops such as short rotation coppice; Restoring and re-using redundant farm buildings. iii) Recreation in Developed Landscapes Maintaining and managing redundant quarries for landscape and nature conservation; Enhancing airfields through woodland planting to heighten status as memorials, improve access and screen development.

APPENDICES


CA 93: hIgh LEICEStErShIrE

Key Characteristics

• Broad rolling ridges and varied, often steep-sided valleys.

• Well-treed character from hedgerows, hedgerow trees, copses, spinneys and small woodlands, the last often sited on ridges.

• Mixed farming, but with arable mainly on the ridge tops and the wide valley bottoms.

• Sparse settlement of small villages with little modern development.

• Ironstone and limestone churches and vernacular buildings but also abundant brick.

• Frequent and very prominent ridge and furrow and many deserted settlements.

• Green lanes, quiet country and a remote, rural, often empty character.

Landscape Character

High Leicestershire rises out of the clay of the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Vales on its western and southern sides. To the north and east, it abuts the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Wolds, rising steeply out of the Wreake Valley, but with a more gradual transition to the Vale of Catmose and Rutland Water. It is a remote, rural landscape of small villages and scattered farms with a well-treed character in many places, at odds with its elevation and in contrast to the Wolds to the north. This has been created by the long tradition of hedgerow management as part of hunting country, by the frequent hedgerow trees and copses and by the spinneys and farm woodlands on the ridges. Where the many winding roads dip down into the sheltered valleys, the wooded character is enhanced by overgrown hedges and small fields, as well as frequent parks and well-sited attractive country houses. The landform is essentially rolling with quite broad ridges where the majority of arable land is sited. The ridges contrast with the varied valleys, which can be small, remote and enclosed, or broad and quite intensively farmed, as around Queniborough Brook. Villages are often sited on the higher ground, frequently because they are on small, exposed hillocks of sand and gravel which were the best places for medieval settlement. The spired churches built of limestone or ironstone with a cluster of red brick or stone buildings near them can be prominent and attractive features. Around these villages there are sometimes smaller, linear fields indicative of ancient plots. Across High Leicestershire as a whole there is a difference between the areas of early enclosure with small sub-rectangular fields and the more strongly rectilinear pattern of later enclosure. The latter is found at the edges and in a band of higher ground towards the centre. There is considerable variety across the High Leicestershire landscape. The highest land is found around Houghton, Billesdon and Whatborough with steep slopes dropping down to Queniborough Brook and with fine views across open countryside. The finest views of all lie further north still and are to be had from the Iron Age hillfort at Burrough Hill. In the east, there are more gentle scarp slopes. Here, significant ancient woodlands survive from the former Leighfield Forest and the area is characterised by the dominance of orange and tawny ironstone in most of the buildings. At the southern edge is a more open landscape, parts of it not enclosed until the 19th century. High Leicestershire has been described as an ‘empty’ landscape and travelling along the remote green lanes and gated roads it is easy to see why. The emptiness is particularly evident in the winter and in summer evenings when low light shows up the abundance of ridge and furrow and the earthworks around shrunken settlements or wholly deserted ones. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the setting of the fine landscape parks, some the successors to medieval deer parks. Here, isolated churches and shrunken villages or the earthworks of deserted settlements, sit within, or close to, parks and not far from the 17th or 18th century mansions.

Physical Influences

The area is underlain by Lias clays of Lower Jurassic age. Much of the land, particularly the eastern part, is covered by thick deposits of boulder clay (glacial till). The land rises to a central area of high ground at Billesdon, with steep scarp slopes on the northern aspect. From here, streams radiate southwards, eastwards and westwards to the Sence and Welland, carving out narrow valleys and leaving broad ridgetops. To the north a wide valley filled with boulder clay separates the elevated ground from further high points at Borough Hill and, in this northern part, the main drainage pattern is towards the river Wreake and Rutland Water. In many places, boulder clay has been eroded down to the more freely-draining and easily cultivated glacial sands and gravels. It is on these outcrops that many of the ancient villages like Kings Norton and Houghton on the Hill lie. Elsewhere, and on the Lias clays, the soils can be heavy and intractable.

APPENDICES



While there is evidence of prehistoric activity in the area from at least the Neolithic period and there was an Iron Age hillfort at Burrough, the extent and pattern of prehistoric settlement is largely unknown and Roman activity in the area appears to have been slight except at the edges along the Soar Valley. Yet it is likely that many parts of the area had been occupied and settled for centuries, if not millennia, before the Anglo-Saxon take-over of the area. This occurred in the period before the conversion to Christianity and resulted in the Saxon cemeteries at sites like Ingarsby and Billesdon Coplow. Even if Anglo-Saxon settlement was quite frequent, as the tons in the southern half of the area give evidence, there was still room for the bys and thorps of the later Scandinavian settlers, particularly in the north. By 1086 the area was quite densely populated, certainly much more so than Leicestershire west of the Soar Valley, and the frequency of settlement was greater than it is today. In the period up to the disasters of the 14th century, there was expansion of population and cultivated land and a prosperity which is reflected in the Early English churches, particularly towards the east of the area where good stone was available. High Leicestershire was substantially cleared of large woodland which survived only in the east in the Leighfield Forest, notably at Launde, Knossington and Cold Overton and this area was retained as forest when the rest of the Leicestershire was exempted in 1�35. The villages were surrounded by open fields, the ridge and furrow of which can still be seen in many areas. From about 1350 a steady decline set in, with abandonment and shrinkage of settlement down to recent times and migration to employment centres in west Leicestershire in the post-medieval period. The villages were deserted for a great variety of reasons and over a long period. Ingarsby for instance was deserted when the monks of Leicester Abbey, the lords of the village, converted the open fields to pasture in 1469. Great Stretton died a much slower death, the village gradually shrinking to two farms by the end of the 18th century. The open fields were enclosed piecemeal in many areas before the parliamentary enclosures of the 18th century. The more recent, with their more strongly rectilinear pattern, are characteristic of the southern and northern parts of the area and a band extending from Stoughton to Skeffington. In the early modern period, the land market allowed the development of substantial estates. These were the basis of the grand country houses of the 17th and 18th centuries, of which Quenby Hall is the finest example. Landscape parks were laid out there, at Lowesby, Launde, Baggrave and elsewhere. Today, the country house in a parkland setting with a deserted settlement within, or close to, the park is a characteristic feature. Apart from agricultural change in the form of field expansion and hedgerow removal, the growth and decline of railways, the construction of prominent post-war farm buildings and the rebuilding of many of the mud and cob village buildings in brick and stone, there has been much less 19th and �0th century change than in most of the midlands.


The characteristic settlement of the area is a small village, usually located on a high point, with buildings clustered around a spired church of grey limestone or, more commonly, ironstone which can vary from deep orange through rust brown to a lighter golden brown. Sometimes limestone and ironstone are found banded in the same building. In the western and central parts of the area, most of the older village buildings are of a subdued red brick with slate or tile roofs but, towards the east, ironstone becomes prominent for all buildings, so that the cores of villages like Uppingham are dominated by its tawny colours. Thatch is also used. Farmsteads, often in red brick, are isolated along minor lanes and trackways. The area is crossed by only a few major roads but there are many minor ones, often with quite wide verges and gated roads connecting the farmsteads, hamlets and shrunken villages. High Leicestershire contains some fine country houses built of limestone, ironstone and brick, including Quenby and Noseley, well set within parkland on sheltered sites.

APPENDICES


Land Cover

The predominant land cover is agricultural land in mixed arable and pasture use but with an abundance of arable on the broader ridge tops and wider valley bottoms. The hedgerow cover is generally good with quite frequent hedgerow trees but the hedgerows are regularly cut low and are less apparent in the arable land. The area appears to be well-wooded but, with the exception of the frequent woodlands to be found in the east in the area of the former Leighfield Forest, this arises from the hedgerows and hedgerow trees, small hilltop copses, spinneys and parks rather than from any great extent of large woodlands. The hedges are almost invariably hawthorn dominated, with oak and ash being the principal hedgerow trees. These species tend to recur in the copses and spinneys as well as associated groups of conifers. The parklands have a range of parkland trees like oak and lime but also conifers like cedars and Wellingtonias. The cluster of woodlands on the undulating ground around the Eye brook and river Chater are generally ancient and survive from Leighfield Forest. They are mainly oak and ash woodlands which were still being coppiced in the early �0th century and are of significant nature-conservation interest in a region without much woodland cover.The Changing Countryside

• The forces for change in the landscape are almost entirely agricultural and are erosive rather than major impacts.

• The traditionally high standards of hedgerow maintenance have diminished in some areas. There has been localised neglect and loss as a result of agricultural intensification.

• Modern farm buildings are sometimes locally intrusive.

• Ploughing out of ridge and furrow and damage to deserted settlements has occurred locally.

Shaping the future

• The continuation of the area's tradition of hedge maintenance is important.

• The conservation of parkland and ridge and furrow should be addressed.

APPENDICES


CA 95: NorthAmPtoNShIrE UPLANDS

Key Characteristics

• Rounded, undulating hills with many long, low ridgelines.

• Abundant and prominent ridge and furrow with frequent deserted and shrunken settlements.

• Sparse settlement of nucleated villages on hilltops or valley heads.

• Mixed farming: open arable contrasts with pasture enclosed by good hedges with frequent hedgerow trees.

• Wide views from the edges and across the ridgetops.

• Straight, wide, enclosure roads, often following ridges.

• Little woodland, but prominent coverts on higher ground.

• Ironstone and limestone older buildings with a transition across the area. Brick buildings in some villages.

• Great variety of landform with distinctive local features like Hemplow Hills. Large and nationally-important historic parks.

Landscape Character

This long range of clay hills extends from the Cotswolds and the Cherwell valley in the south west to the low ground of the Leicestershire Vales around Market Harborough. In the west it abuts the lower ground of the Feldon and to the east subsides towards the Nene Valley within the Northamptonshire Vales. It is part of the Wolds landscapes that include the dip slope of the Cotswolds and extend to High Leicestershire and the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Wolds, but without the strong sense of identity of these areas, not least because it is very varied. In the central section, where it rises to the high points of Arbury Hill, Charwelton Hill and Naseby, it has a rolling, gently hilly landform, with long, level views criss-crossed by a regular pattern of hedgerows with frequent ash trees. These and the small, but very frequent, copses give many areas a well treed character which has been lost on some of the more level and fertile ground. Here arable cultivation has led to the reduction in size and number of hedges and the loss of hedgerow trees. Although there are some settlements prominently sited on hilltops, most lie within the small, sheltered valleys and this, together with the infrequency of the isolated farms, and cottages, gives the area a remote and rather empty quality. To the south of Daventry, the land is much more hilly and the undulations are sharper and more frequent. There is less of the glacial boulder clay which dominates so much of the central area, the fields are generally smaller and settlement is more frequent. Even within this two-fold division there is great variety, with distinctive hills as the land steepens in the north above the Grand Union Canal at Hemplow or around Catesby. Although woodland is generally scarce in the uplands, it is quite frequent in an arc in the south from Badby to Woodend which, with its undulating landform, creates yet another local difference. However, there are undoubted unifying features across the Northamptonshire Uplands. The most obvious, and probably most important of these, are the extensive and well-studied areas of ridge and furrow and deserted settlements. They are most prominent and evocative in the evenings and winter when the low sun casts long shadows from them and they seem to dominate the landscape. The villages which have survived are generally small and nucleated. Ironstone is such a common feature of the older buildings, at least in the southern part, that the area is sometimes known as the ‘Ironstone Wolds’. The valley villages generally have an enclosed, well-treed and sheltered character in contrast to the open and exposed high ground. Perhaps even more characteristic are the few surviving cob buildings. The modest village houses are a strong contrast to the large mansions and manor houses which lie in the valleys on the slightly lower ground. Their surrounding parks are often very extensive and the estate character of the landscape is emphasised by the uniformity of the buildings in their adjacent villages. Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, such as Ashby St Ledger and Sulgrave Manors, are particularly well represented. Although there were enclosures of the open fields which dominated the area from the 15th century onwards, the predominant field pattern and a strong unifying factor is that of parliamentary enclosure imposed on an ‘up and down’ landscape. Here the rectilinear pattern is frequently strongly visible. The straight, wide, enclosure roads which often follow ridges are also part of this planned character. From these ridges the essence of the uplands, described here by W G Hoskins, can be seen: In this hill country, partly isolated summits and partly high table land in places, the wind blows hard and cold ... Up at Naseby next door to Cold Ashby ... their voices are louder than anywhere else, they shout at each other to overcome the winter wind’.

APPENDICES


Physical Influences

The area is underlain by the intractable clays of the Lias, capped locally by the ironstone-bearing Marlstone and Northampton Sands, and with a thick mantle of boulder clay (glacial till) in many areas: all of the sharper features have been smoothed away by a long process of denudation. The uplands are ‘the main watershed of Middle England’. At the southern end, the Cherwell arises near Charwelton and flows southwards, the valley narrowing downstream. The Warwickshire Avon rises on the eastern edge near Naseby to flow westwards and south-westwards, while the north-eastwards flowing Welland rises near Sibbertoft, a few miles away. The tributaries of the Tove and Ouse originate in the south-eastern flanks to flow south-eastwards. Much of the eastern side of the area forms the upper catchment of the Nene, with the major tributary of the Ise arising in the far north east. Topographically, the upper Nene divides the Northamptonshire Heights to the north from the Cherwell/Ouse tablelands or ‘Ironstone Wolds’ to the south.


The history of the area is in many ways typical of a wolds landscape. It was originally covered in thick woodland over a soil not very attractive to early cultivation. Prehistoric activity and settlement encroached around the edges of the area within the river valleys and there were Iron Age hillforts, as at Borough Hill near Daventry. The area was an upland grazing and woodland resource for the surrounding settlements and was largely ignored by the Romans. The early Anglo-Saxon settlements were also along the adjacent river valleys but the middle Saxon period saw the farmsteads (tons) spreading up onto higher ground and the outstanding late 7th century church at Brixworth on the edge of the area indicates that these were sites of major significance. The many woodland (leigh) names, however, illustrate that there were also substantial areas of woodland while the many place names ending in by demonstrate that Scandinavian settlement of the area was probably quite extensive. By the 11th century, there was quite frequent settlement although at a lower density than the surrounding more fertile areas. Up to the mid-14th century colonisation proceeded rapidly. Most of the woodland went and nucleated villages, surrounded by open fields in ridge and furrow cultivation, dominated the landscape. The substantial churches reflect this main period of the area’s expansion and colonisation, which went into decline following the disasters of the mid-14th century. Population shrank and settlements were deserted for a variety of complex reasons but all stemming from its limited quality for cereal growth. Ambitious landlords like the Spencers were able to accumulate large areas of land for grazing; in 1577 for instance their flocks at Wormleighton and Althorp numbered 14,000. Today the area is one of the classic sites for deserted settlements and ridge and furrow, overlaid by a mixture of Tudor and parliamentary enclosure hedges, with most of the woodland having long since disappeared. As the population shrank and grazing dominated the landscape, so the great landscape parks and country houses like Althorp, Canons Ashby, Cottesbroke, Harlestone and Holdenby were laid out, some by major designers such as Repton and Brown. The strong landlordship that often went with such parks is reflected in the estate villages. The Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, notably Althorp and Canons Ashby are particularly associated with the court life of that period, the poems of Spencer and the masques of Ben Jonson. In the 18th and 19th centuries the remaining open land was enclosed, while in the �0th century the main changes to a substantially remote and rural area have been the major routeways of the M1 and A14 which cross it, the expansion of arable cultivation and modern farm buildings, and the construction of reservoirs around the edge of the area.


The main settlements of the area are small villages with red brick or ironstone buildings clustered around an ironstone church, allthough creamy-grey limestone is used in the north. There are scattered buildings in cob, which was largely replaced by brick in the 19th century. Pantile and tile roofs predominate throughout the area. Many of the villages are small, some with the earthworks of abandoned dwellings at their edges. Some, like Naseby and the aptly named Cold Ashton, are on prominent hilltop sites but others lie in sheltered situations at the heads of minor valleys. These latter villages are often attractively set within mature tree cover and have a unity resulting from common materials and design. Only around the edges of the area, along the Cherwell valley and to the north between Rugby and Daventry, have the villages become significantly enlarged by �0th century development. The remoteness of the central villages is emphasised by the minor roads that serve them, in contrast to the busy strategic east-west routes of the M1, A14 and A4�5 that cross the area. Some of the country houses are buildings of great character. Cottesbroke, for instance is famed for its gracious proportions; Canons Ashby is built around the remains of the medieval monastery. Althorp House has the grand Georgian elegance of Henry Holland’s design around an ancient core. But there are also fine buildings on a smaller scale, almost always in local stone, such as the manor houses at Ashby St Ledger and Sulgrave. In some cases the estate character of the landscape is emphasised by estate villages and lodges.

APPENDICES


Land Cover

Most of the land is in agricultural use with a mixture of arable and pasture. The arable is quite extensive in the more level ground of the ridgetops. Here hedges can be quite low and hedgerow trees intermittent, while elsewhere the hedge cover is generally good. Within the pasture fields, ridge and furrow and the earthworks of deserted settlements are of particular significance. Woodland is generally sparse but there are some prominent woods in the south. The few blocks of ancient woodland like Badby take on a special value and interest in a locality where there are few areas of semi-natural vegetation and limited wildlife interest. Most of the tree and shrub cover, other than the hedgerows, is given by the spinneys dotted across the landscape, often on the higher ground. Around the edge of the area, reservoirs are a significant element within the land cover but the greatest variety, from the uniform pattern of pasture and arable within Tudor and parliamentary enclosure hedges, is given by the landscape parks.


• Most of the area is remote and rural: change is mainly gradual and erosive.

• Intensification on the land most appropriate for arable has led to removal and reduction of hedges and loss of hedgerow trees.

• There is a general decline in hedgerow trees. Ash, the commonest tree, is particularly at risk from dieback.

• The woodlands are generally suffering from a lack of appropriate management.

• The area is of outstanding interest for its ridge and furrow and deserted settlements and these are vulnerable to ploughing up and unthinking damage.

• Features outside the area, notably the town of Rugby and the prominent radio masts, have an impact on the remote rural character of the landscape.

• There is pressure for sand and gravel extraction in the area of the M1 corridor, where it is allocated. Elsewhere it is restricted.

• Decline in quality of Parkland through management neglect, e.g. at Fawsley or conversion to more intensive agriculture.

Shaping the future

• The conservation of parkland and ridge and furrow should be addressed. A co-ordinated approach between conservation organisations and farming interests to conserve the outstanding ridge and furrow and deserted settlements is important.

• Many villages would benefit from local design initiatives.

• There are opportunities to improve woodland management and to link new and existing woodlands.

APPENDICES


CA 96: DUNSmorE AND fELDoN

This description comprises two sub-character areas: Dunsmore and Feldon.

DUNSMORE

Key Characteristics

• Farmland with large geometric fields divided by straight hedges with many hedgerow trees.

• Generally well-wooded appearance but also extensive open arable farmland.

• Heathland character still evident in woodland clearings and roadsides.

• Plateau landscape of open, flat, rather empty character, with long views.

• Plateau fringes more enclosed, with rolling landform and woodland more dominant.

• Large ancient woodlands of high nature-conservation value in the west.

• Strong urban influence in some areas.

Landscape Character

Dunsmore comprises the wedge-shaped area of low ridges and valleys lying between Leamington Spa, Coventry and Rugby. The core is former heathland associated with the low plateau of glacial deposits running from Cubbington to Hillmorton. To the west lies the city of Coventry and the well-wooded landscape of Arden, with which the adjacent part of Dunsmore has considerable affinity. To the north and north-east lie the open agricultural lands of the Mease/Sence Lowlands and the Leicestershire Vales, with the rather more undulating pastures and low hills of the Northamptonshire Uplands lying due east. To the south, the area lies adjacent to the low, open clay vale of the Feldon. Dunsmore is, to some extent, a transitional area between all of these. Like the Feldon to the south, it is primarily a planned landscape of large fields and small villages but it also has the heathy character and extensive woodlands of Arden. The dissected, rolling landforms are reminiscent of the Mease/Sence Lowlands to the north. The area thus combines a range of characteristics similar to, but distinct from, all of the principal surrounding character areas. It has a range of historical and ecological associations which are strongly influenced by the underlying geology. The widespread occurrence of glacial sands and gravels is reflected in the strong association with former common and heath. Although none of the open heathlands survives today, the late enclosure pattern of large geometric fields and the abundance of ‘heath’ names are readily apparent. The area’s well-wooded character is typified by mature hedgerow oaks, ancient woodlands and parks. Dunsmore is primarily agricultural with extensive arable and improved pasture. Unimproved grasslands are comparatively rare but there are some old flood meadows of nature-conservation importance along the narrow river valleys, as well as some extensive areas of semi-natural ancient woodland south and east of Coventry. The area is relatively small and its character is influenced over large areas by the long and diffuse edges of its main settlements and larger towns, especially Coventry and Rugby. Much of the area has a flat, open landscape (associated with the summits of the low plateaux) characterised by large, geometric, hedged fields of arable on the former heathlands, with sparse settlement. Traces of the heathland character persist in woodland clearings and at roadsides. Woodlands are frequent throughout. These sometimes create an impression of confinement but the predominant sense is one of openness and space. Some long views are possible but tend to be curtailed or filtered by the flat landform, the hedges and the many hedgerow trees. The land around the plateaux fringes is intensively farmed. The landform is more commonly undulating and there is a smaller, more fragmented, field pattern. Arable cultivation is dominant but with many pockets of pasture. The landscape character remains large scale, with open views framed by low hills, but settlements are more frequent and are usually nucleated. A small area with a parkland character occurs in the north. It is an enclosed estate landscape which is very well-wooded, with large and small blocks of woodland, tall hedges and wooded belts, often within and around the edges of the parks. Large country houses and mansions are well represented and settlement is generally scattered. Middle distance views to wooded skylines are possible, enclosed by woodland edges, with wider and longer views northwards towards the rising ground of High Cross. Narrow river valleys cross Dunsmore and there is often arable land right up to the river edge but, in places, remnant flood meadows, bankside pollard trees and reedbeds can be found.

APPENDICES


Physical Influences

The area lies across the junction of the Mercia Mudstones and the Lower Lias clays which characterise the Arden and Feldon respectively. In Dunsmore, these formations are largely masked by glacial gravel deposits except where cut through by the rivers Avon and Leam. The glacial deposits form a series of low plateaux and ridges comprising more recent lacustrine clays capped with porous and infertile gravels. The latter produced the light, sandy soils characteristic of much of the area and the traces of podzolisation are indicative of late reclamation from the heathland which they formerly supported. Tributaries of the Avon and Leam have dissected these deposits, leaving gravel-capped ridges separated by wetter clay-floored valleys. The latter have heavier, neutral clay-loams. The main Dunsmore plateau extends west of Rugby and rises to around 1�0 m AOD. A smaller ridge, rising to about 100 m AOD, continues from Stretton-on-Dunsmore to the Campion Hills, east of Leamington. A similar gravel-capped ridge separates the valleys of the rivers Avon and Sowe between Bretford and Bagington, whilst a third ridge runs south of the River Leam from Eathorpe to Radford Semele. The region is drained by the rivers Avon and Leam flowing in a general south westerly direction. Both are poorly defined by narrow alluvial floodplains with gravel terraces. The Avon, in particular, is confined in places to a narrow and incised valley which opens out only slightly between Bretford and Stareton. The Leam valley is rather wider and has an unusually wide spread of terrace gravels stretching upstream to just beyond the junction of the Itchen. The northern part of the area is drained by the Smite Brook, a tributary of the Sowe. This lies in an area of heavy clay soils within a broad vale which is bounded to the north-east by the rising ground of the High Cross plateau within the Leicestershire Vales.


Much of the region was probably cleared of woodland and settled in prehistory, especially on the lighter and more easily-worked soils of the plateaux summits and along the fertile, main, river valleys. The higher parts of the gravel ridges had already been exhausted and were reverting to rough pasture by Anglo-Saxon times. The extensive Dunsmore Heath appears to have been an area of inter-commoning with parishes forming a radial pattern from the highest point so that each had a share of rough pasture, meadowland and arable land as they extended down towards the more fertile clays of the river valleys. As with the neighbouring Feldon, the productive land was densely settled by later medieval times and farmed in sophisticated two- or three-field systems. Livestock was grazed on the fallow fields and on the infertile heath and waste, with hay provided by the floodplain meadows. Depopulation began early in some areas, probably under the influence of the local 13th century monastic settlements, but accelerated sharply in the 14th and 15th centuries due to a combination of the Black Death, poor summers and dwindling agricultural returns. Land began to fall into large private estates and was steadily amalgamated, enclosed and converted from cultivation to pasture. Depopulation was particularly marked in the northern part of the area, where traces of numerous shrunken and deserted settlements can still be found, as well as in the Leam valley. Enclosure was completed during the 18th and 19th centuries, with characteristic large rectilinear fields marking out the few areas of open field agriculture that persisted beyond the late medieval period. Most of the open heathland was also enclosed at this time and has a similar enclosure pattern of long, straight hedges of hawthorn and blackthorn with frequent hedgerow trees. Coventry was always the dominating settlement of the area. Expansion during the Industrial Revolution and in the �0th century led to steady encroachment and urbanisation of its surrounding land, with many outlying villages being engulfed. Dunchurch was a flourishing market town in the 17th and 18th centuries, benefiting from its position on the main London-Coventry road across Dunsmore Heath. With the coming of the railways it was overtaken by Rugby as a market centre but still remains a large village even today. Busy roads and large industrial buildings have in recent years become intrusive features near the edges of the major settlements.


Settlement of the plateau farmlands is sparse, comprising scattered farmsteads and isolated red brick-built barns, reflecting the late enclosure from heathland and waste. Isolated field barns are a particular feature. Settlement is more nucleated around the plateau fringes, typically comprising loose clusters of dwellings in brick. Many of the villages, such as Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Wolston and Long Lawford, have expanded considerably with the addition of much modern residential development. The parkland landscape in the north of the area has a scattered settlement pattern of farmsteads and groups of estate cottages as well as a number of large country houses and mansions. Rugby with its sprawling suburbs now dominates the eastern part of the area.

Land Cover

The land cover is primarily agricultural with extensive arable and improved pasture in medium to large fields. The fields themselves are mostly regular or geometric, with long, straight hedges of hawthorn with oak standards. This pattern becomes more fragmented around the fringes of the Dunsmore Heath plateau, however, with smaller fields and more frequent pockets of pasture within the arable.

APPENDICES


Woodlands are frequent, mostly acid oak-birch on the sandy soils, becoming more diverse on the more neutral clay soils. Ancient woodlands have survived extensively, especially in the western part, associated with the glacial plateaux. They are dominated by oak and birch, often with an acidic or neutral ground flora, the latter typically dominated by bluebells. Ash, holly, hazel and aspen are locally abundant, as is alder on wetter sites. Small-leaved lime and wild service can also be found. Bracken is abundant on the sandy soils, however, while neutral marshland species such as sedges and rushes occur in clearings on the clays.


• There has been loss and deterioration of hedges, leading to fragmentation of field patterns. There are few young replacements for the ageing hedgerow trees.

• In a fairly open landscape, new development around the larger towns and cities and in the villages can be prominent and there is rarely screening planting and other treatment on an appropriate scale.

• There is pressure for farm diversification to uses such as caravan parks and golf courses, which can be visually intrusive. There has also been conversion of redundant farm buildings to other uses and the results do not always fit the landscape character of the area.

• Many of the smaller woodlands are unmanaged and this may lead to eventual deterioration.

Shaping the future

• The Countryside Commission's Design in the Countryside and other similar initiatives are an appropriate basis for establishing good practice in development within the villages and for new development on the village edges.

• Restoration and management of the strong late enclosure pattern and a suitable crop of replacement hedgerow trees can be achieved through a variety of countryside management approaches.

• There are opportunities for bringing woodland into active management and also for the management of small farm woodlands combined with whole farm landscape management strategies.

• New woodland, particularly where it can help absorb the scale of urban edge development, is appropriate in many areas.

• There would be landscape and nature-conservation benefits from the conversion of the poor arable land to heathland and acid grassland.

• Management of the enclosure road verges, which are often quite wide, provides an opportunity to create areas of acid grassland and heathland.

• There are opportunities for the re-introduction of wetland vegetation along river corridors. FELDON

Key Characteristics

• Gently undulating landscape of low hilltops and clay vales.

• Large, open, regular or rectilinear fields with few woodlands.

• Abundant pasture, often with ridge and furrow.

• Strong contrast with the more wooded, complex landscape of neighbouring Arden.

• Small, nucleated villages with buildings in red brick, often with decorative ironstone edging, or in Lias limestone.

• Narrow river valleys.

• Several subdivisions including the smaller-scale, more wooded landscape to the west, with parks and large estates.

APPENDICES


Landscape Character

The Feldon comprises most of the south-eastern part of Warwickshire. It is a rural landscape strongly influenced by the regular pattern of post-medieval enclosures, heavy clay soil and frequent small compact villages. To the north lies the well-wooded farmland and remnant heathlands of Dunsmore, while to the north-east lies the rolling landscape of the Northamptonshire Uplands. To the north-west is the more intricate and wooded landscape of the Arden. To the south and south-east the area is delimited by the steep escarpment of the Cotswolds with Edge Hill being a prominent landmark. To the south-west the area presents its own low escarpment to the agricultural and market garden lands of the Avon Valley. The Feldon is predominantly an open landscape and is sparsely wooded: the hedges are now largely denuded of the large elm trees which once grew in abundance. Its character is strongly influenced by its history, especially in the planned pattern of large, regular fields resulting from post-medieval enclosure, the nucleated settlements linked by relatively few direct roads and the overall impression of emptiness in many areas. The landscape retains many historic features, notably ridge and furrow and deserted settlements. Rolling clay vale farmland lies in a broad band around the northern, eastern and southern edge of the area, with the Vale of the Red Horse being conspicuous. This sparsely populated area has large rectilinear fields in both arable and pasture use, bounded by hawthorn hedges. There are few woodlands. A thin scatter of villages cluster around the main crossroads and the overall character is one of remoteness. The villages are typically dominated by red brick or limestone buildings. Farmsteads lie mainly within the villages. Long views are possible but are often framed by low hills and hedges. This landscape integrates with the undulating landscape of the Ironstone Wolds to the east. A smaller-scale landscape runs through the centre of the area, following the Lias limestone. It has a varied, undulating landform with a clearly defined pattern of smaller, geometric, well-hedged fields, creating a greater sense of enclosure. Woodland is more frequent than in the vales but remains a relatively minor component among the grasslands and arable. Views are often curtailed and longer views are usually framed by low hills and hedges. Limestone quarrying for the cement industry was formerly a feature and disused quarries are conspicuous. Blue and White Lias are used in the older buildings. The western flank of the Feldon comprises a large-scale, well-wooded, rolling estate landscape with occasional steep scarps, characterised by large country houses set within landscaped parks. Woodland is commonest in this area and occurs particularly on rising ground. There are frequent well-formed hedges with mature trees. Pasture predominates, with some arable, but the overall area is characterised by woodland. Views are often foreshortened although some wide views are possible to distant wooded hilltops. Redbrick farmhouses isolated in their own fields contrast with the stone mansions. With the exception of the river Stour, most of the Feldon river valleys have a poorly defined floodplain and there is often intensively managed arable land up to the river’s edge. The rivers are narrow and meandering, often with shallows and riffles, and characterised by pollarded willows, streamside alders, patches of scrub and emergent aquatic vegetation.

Physical Influences

The Feldon is closely associated with a broad belt of Lower Lias clays which form a gently rolling tableland some 100 m to 150 m AOD, draining westwards towards the river Avon through a series of minor tributary rivers such as the Stour, Dene, Itchen and Leam. The tributaries of these minor rivers drain in the opposite direction to the dip slope of the Lias platform, often at right angles to the main streams, producing a trellised drainage pattern. The Lias platform is marked to the west by a prominent escarpment, formed by the White Lias limestone, which runs along the edge of the Avon valley from the river Stour to the river Leam before merging with the low plateau of Dunsmore. Limestones in the Lower Lias form a second, low escarpment to the south-east. A low ridge of boulder clay (glacial till) caps part of the Lias to the east of this, between Harbury and Kineton, before the land falls away to the south and east into the flat clay vale, dissected by the drainage of the rivers Dene and Itchen. The steep Cotswold escarpment of the Jurassic limestone delimits the south and south-eastern boundary, giving way to the escarpment of the Northamptonshire Uplands to the east. The Uplands integrate with the eastern fringe of Feldon, taking the form of a rolling Lower Lias tableland punctuated by projecting hills of the eroded Middle Lias. The Lower Lias clays which underlie the bulk of Feldon produce fertile, alkaline soils but impeded drainage locally leads to gleying. Such soils are well-suited to the pasture grassland management which has long supported the tradition of stock-rearing in the area.

APPENDICES



The fertile farmland of the Feldon was already closely settled by the late Iron Age and it was one of the most densely populated and prosperous parts of the midlands by the 11th century. Open field agriculture was widespread in the Middle Ages. Each small township had its own field system and much of the ridge and furrow of that period can be seen in the present landscape. The growth in population by the 14th century was in danger of outstripping the carrying capacity of the land and even marginal agricultural land was heavily settled. This growth was brought to a halt, however, by the decline following the disasters of the mid-14th century, including the Black Death. Many settlements were deserted, particularly in the 15th century, and landlords were able to buy-up land cheaply for amalgamation into large private estates. Extensive areas of grazing for the wool trade dominated the landscape. Depopulation accelerated in the 15th and 16th centuries, with increasing enclosure and conversion from cultivation to livestock rearing. Enclosure resulted in a regular pattern of large fields divided by hawthorn and blackthorn hedges. With the decline of the wool trade in the mid-16th century, a second stage of enclosure began and many of the largest fields were subdivided for lease as smaller holdings while mills became important along the major watercourses. The few remaining open fields were finally enclosed in the late 18th and 19th centuries, with the rectilinear pattern characteristic of this period. This late period of enclosure also saw rationalisation of the road system to a pattern of relatively few, direct roads radiating out from the settlements. The Industrial Revolution had little impact on Feldon which remained primarily an agricultural area throughout. Limestone quarrying for the cement industry flourished in the central part of the area, however, causing localised impact which is still evident today.


Red brick and limestone are the main building materials of the small nucleated village. The limestone is commoner towards the south, near the Jurassic limestone escarpment of the Cotswolds. In contrast, red brick buildings with blue brick edging and tile roofs are a feature of many villages in the west and centre of Feldon. Buildings in the central part of the area make use of Liassic limestones, often of distinctive bluish-grey hue in contrast to the yellows of the Jurassic stone, with ironstone edging conspicuous in areas such as Shipston. Reddish-brown ironstone itself is the main building material near the western fringe of the Northamptonshire Uplands. From the villages a relatively small number of roads radiate out in straight and regular fashion. The emergence of a wealthy landowning class from the late 15th century onwards led to the establishment of many large mansions and country houses. The region had never contained many deer parks, having always been more valuable as farming land, but in the 17th and 18th centuries numerous landscape and ornamental parks were constructed, including several by Capability Brown. These are particularly evident in the western, more wooded part of the area.

Land Cover

The Feldon is covered primarily by neutral and basic grasslands in pasture use, arable fields and hay meadows. Most fields are of medium- to large-size, regular or rectilinear in shape and divided by straight, narrow hedges of hawthorn and blackthorn. Woodland is virtually absent in many central and eastern areas or is represented only by small secondary plantations and spinneys. A band of ancient woodland is present, however, running along the well-wooded ridge of Lias limestones from Alderminster to Long Itchington. This is mostly dominated by ash with field maple and some oak. Hazel and hawthorn understoreys are diversified by a wide range of calcicole shrubs such as dogwood and wayfaring tree. Many of the remaining limestone exposures and spoil heaps of the quarrying areas in central Feldon have developed limestone grassland communities of high diversity and nature-conservation value.

APPENDICES



• There is pressure for new residential development, particularly around the larger historic villages. Past development has not always been in a style, density or materials appropriate to the historic character of the settlements.

• Ridge and furrow and other historic earthworks have been lost as a result of ploughing and reseeding or conversion to arable.

• There is pressure for farm diversification to uses such as caravan parks and golf courses, which can be visually intrusive. There has also been conversion of redundant farm buildings to residential and holiday use and the results are not always in sympathy with the landscape.

• The construction of the M40 and military establishments has had a significant impact on the landscape.

• Hedges have been lost through removal and neglect, with a resulting disruption and deterioration of the strong field pattern.

• New planting of trees in this very open landscape has not always been appropriate in scale, position and species choice.

• Wetland habitats and river corridor vegetation have been lost, often as a result of the intensification of agriculture.

Shaping the future

• The Countryside Commission's Design in the Countryside and other initiatives are an appropriate basis for establishing good practice in development within the villages and for new development on the village edges.

• Restoration and management of the strong late enclosure pattern and the provision of a suitable crop of replacement hedgerow trees is appropriate for a variety of countryside management approaches.

• New woodlands require careful consideration and the landscape guidelines produced by Warwickshire County Council are a sound basis for action.

• The management of the enclosure road verges, which are often quite wide, is an opportunity to create species-rich grassland.

• Set-aside and other mechanisms are appropriate for the conversion of arable back to pasture and the development of species-rich grassland.

• Incentives and education schemes to conserve deserted medieval villages and intact ridge and furrow should be pursued.

• The management of river corridors is an opportunity to create wetlands and riverside vegetation of visual and wildlife interest.

APPENDICES


CA 107: CotSwoLDS

Key Characteristics

• Defined by its underlying geology: a dramatic scarp rising above adjacent lowlands with steep combes, scarp foot villages and beech woodlands.

• Rolling, open, high wold plateaux moulded by physical and human influences, with arable and large blocks of woodland, divided up by small, narrow valleys.

• Incised landscapes with deep wide valleys.

• Flat, open dip slope landscape with extensive arable farmland.

• Prominent outliers within the lowlands.

• Honey-coloured Cotswold stone in walls, houses and churches.

• Attractive stone villages with a unity of design and materials.

Landscape Character

The Cotswolds form perhaps the best-known of the stone-belt uplands that stretch right across England from Dorset to Lincolnshire. The dominant pattern is of a steep scarp and long, rolling dip slope cut into a series of plateaux by numerous rivers and streams. There is great variety of landform and vegetation and a number of distinct landscapes can be identified. However, in briefly describing these, the fundamental unity must not be underrated. This derives in part from the harmony of the ever-present honey-coloured oolitic limestone in walls, houses, mansions and churches. It dominates the villages which have a distinctive Cotswold-style derived from repeating simple elements. There are many other common elements such as beech woods, outstanding landscape parks, valley bottom meadows and a strong sense of a long period of settlement and human activity. The latter derives from the many outstanding features ranging from prehistoric monuments to the dry stone walls of 18th century enclosure. At the western edge of the Cotswolds, the scarp face, fretted by deep combes, dominates the Severn Valley. Dense beechwoods, tree clumps, scrub, semi-natural grassland and prehistoric earthworks, most notably the Iron Age hillforts, contribute to an attractive and imposing skyline. Although hedged fields divide up much of the scarp’s pastures, there are surviving commons, including Cleeve Common. Settlements on the scarp are confined to a few sheltered sites, but there are frequent villages where springs emerge at its foot. Around Bath, Stroud and Winchcombe, the landform is characterised by deep, wide valleys, often accentuated by densely-wooded ridge crests. Tree-clad streams wind down the steep slopes where fields are often small with overgrown hedges but, on the ridge tops, the landscape is usually open arable divided up by dry stone walls. Beyond the scarp to the north-west, there are outlying hills of which Bredon is the largest and best-known. They have an outward-facing radial form with field boundaries appearing to radiate from a central point. Several are crowned by ridges.

To the east of the scarp and its deeply-incised valleys, the landform becomes gentler and there are the broad rolling plateaux of the high Wolds. The large-scale, generally open landscape, is characterised by blocks of woodland and arable, but there are also lush, narrow, enclosed valleys forming a strong contrast, emphasised by the dry stone walls of the plateaux and the hedges of the valleys. Villages are near the spring lines, sometimes lying around a central common or green. Finally, there is the dip slope which is yet more gentle than the high Wolds. The valleys, like those of the Windrush and Coln, are much broader and sometimes give the impression that they are simply undulations in the plateau. Arable predominates, but marshy valley bottoms with willows, alders and watermeadows still survive.

Physical Influences

The north-west-facing scarp reaches its highest point just north of Cheltenham, becoming less prominent to the north and south. The Jurassic oolitic limestone of the upper scarp forms the freely-draining high land of the northern and western wolds, as well as the ridge tops between the steep valleys to the south and east. Steeply-incised stream and river valleys cut through the scarp, flowing westwards towards the Severn. To the south and east, the oolite dips beneath wetter clays which form broad valleys around the main rivers and streams which flow eastwards. Jurassic rocks predominate, the strata dipping towards and becoming progessively younger to the south and east. Small areas of Oxford Clay and coarse, crumbly Cornbrash occur at the south-eastern extremity. The Great Oolite underlies most of the plateau area but the massive limestone escarpment to the north and west is formed by the underlying Inferior Oolite which, if anything, is even more sought after as a building stone. Lower down the scarp face, and surrounding the northern and western fringes, the Lias shales, sandstones and siltstones of the Lower Jurassic are exposed. These are soft and easily weathered and have slumped or eroded to form the hummocky ground, stream valleys and bays at the escarpment foot.

APPENDICES


Many of the Cotswold soils are derived directly from the parent rock and tend to be alkaline and of low fertility. Thin, well-aerated, brashy soils derived from limestone are common on the steeper slopes, particularly to the west. More fertile, deeper, clayey soils of alluvial origin are present along the valley floors and on lower-lying land to the south and east.


The Cotswolds have some outstanding prehistoric monuments ranging from the Neolithic long barrow of Hetty Pegler’s Tump near Uley to the many impressive Iron age hillforts like Bredon Hill and Meon Hill. They are evidence of substantial human activity which almost certainly saw the clearance of areas with light and easily cultivable soils at an early date and it was probably these that formed the basis of the extensive Roman occupation of the area. Villas and lesser settlements were frequent and the road pattern of the Foss Way, Ermin Street, Akeman Street and Ryknild Street is still very apparent. It is not entirely clear whether the Saxons took over a substantially cleared and settled landscape or whether the clearance of the heavier land took place during the Anglo-Saxon period. However, by the late 11th century, the area was extensively settled and there was little woodland. Common fields were in use soon after, if not before, the preparation of Domesday Book and, at that time and in the ensuing medieval centuries, much of the land was in large estates, both ecclesiastical and lay. There were vast open sheepwalks which formed the basis of medieval prosperity and sheep were moved seasonally from low to high ground. After the disasters of the early and mid-14th century, large estates were consolidated and a prosperous cloth trade expanded from its early medieval beginnings with the many fast-flowing streams being used for fulling. Small market towns like Northleach and Chipping Camden expanded and many fine Perpendicular churches and merchants houses were built. The land market that followed the dissolution of the monasteries enabled the consolidation of the large estates, leading ultimately to the fine country houses and historic parks like Dyrham, Badminton and Compton Wynyates. Many of the villages owe their present uniform character to the strong influence of estates which, in many cases, has persisted down to the present day. Throughout the late medieval and post-medieval period, there was piecemeal enclosure of open fields, commons, waste and sheepwalks but many of the sheepwalks remained unenclosed until the late 18th and 19th centuries and the prominent rectilinear patterns characterise much of the higher ground today. In the early modern period, the cloth industry concentrated in the valleys around Dursley, Stroud, Chalford and Painswick. Although it was originally a cottage industry, by 1800 large mills were built with cottages nearby. However, by the 1830s the industry was in decline and apart from quarrying, agriculture has been the principal industry of the Cotswolds in the present century. There has been large-scale conversion from grassland to arable, removal of hedges and conversion of broadleaf woodland to conifers. The other major change has been the growth of tourism and the expansion of settlement.


Settlements throughout the area are united by the use of the Cotswold stone and a relatively small range of architectural styles. The great wool churches were built in Perpendicular style, mostly in the 15th century. They generally have profusely ornamented square towers although spires are sometimes found. It is, however, the high quality of the domestic architecture that is distinctive, typically comprising a steep roof of graded limestone ‘slates’, parapeted gables with finials, stone mullions, rectangular dripstones, dormer windows in subsidiary gables and four-centred arches over doorways. Ashlar is usually used on the front of buildings at least and the overall impression is one of diversity on a common theme of refinement and simple elegance, blending seamlessly into the surrounding landscape. The principal towns - Bath, Stroud and Cirencester - lie on the very edges of the area and the fine qualities of the oolite-dominated townscape of Bath in particular is too well known to need description. The smaller towns and villages lie at the scarp foot, in the valley bottoms or on the valley sides with the gentlest gradients. Plans vary between compact and linear with some lying around a wide central green or common. Away from these sheltered town and village sites, usually never far from water, there are generally only small hamlets and isolated farmsteads, so that the higher ground often seems very sparsely populated. The settlements are linked by a complex network of roads. The oldest (the Roman roads) and the most recent (the enclosure road) sweep across the landscape in almost straight lines but the typical Cotswold road is a winding lane linking villages along the valleys and rising over the high ground.

Land Cover

Much of the high ground of the plateau is arable, broken by occasional woodland blocks and shelterbelts with dry stone walls but also with hedges. In the valleys, at least on the steeper slopes, pasture predominates and along the valley bottoms there are meadows and tree-lined watercourses. On the scarp slopes, scrub, beech woodland, hedges and tree clumps are present and some areas of species-rich grassland survive.

The beech woodlands are of national importance and have a characteristic, if limited, flora. Other woodlands, typically located on the upper slopes of valleys and on the flat plateaux tops, are more varied and contain a wide range of calcicole shrubs and ground flora. The unimproved grassland, too, contains typical calcicole species. The streams and marshes have varied marginal vegetation and unimproved wet meadows with alder and willow carr.

APPENDICES



• Agricultural improvement and conversion to arable have brought widespread loss of semi-natural habitats and landscape features in the period since the last war. Much of the unimproved, species-rich limestone grassland has been lost, marshes have been drained and hedges and dry stone walls removed. However, these changes have now more or less abated.

• Loss of unimproved grassland has probably been checked but scrub invasion through declining grazing is affecting what remains.

• There is pressure for expansion of villages and for the creation of new rural settlements, particularly those within easy reach of major towns and cities. Much new building has been infilling and unsympathetic in design and materials. Many farm buildings have been converted to residential use.

• Tourism and through-traffic have brought a requirement for upgraded roads, bypasses and through-routes with associated upgrading and an increased number of signs for minor routes.

• There is pressure for facilities at tourist honeypots, with associated congestion, erosion of footpaths, bridleways and viewing points.

• Dry stone walls are in long-term decline: the limestone walls become friable with age and require regular maintenance which is labour-intensive and expensive.

• Some small woodlands have been converted to conifers. Many existing small woodlands are unmanaged.

• There are continuing pressures for landfill, quarrying and extraction of gravel and minerals.

Shaping the future

• Much of the scarp would benefit from an improved management of the limestone grassland and a reduction of scrub.

• There are opportunities for the sound management of hedges, woodlands, copses and - particularly - the distinctive beechwoods.

• The sensitive management of wetland habitats of the valley bottoms including wet grassland, scrub, willows and the streams themselves should be addressed.

• There is much interest in the conservation of dry stone walls and hedge management. Priorities need to be set for the areas that are most important in the landscape.

• The quality of Cotswold villages is often jealously guarded. Local design initiatives offer a basis for turning this into precise guidelines and activity.

APPENDICES


NAtIoNAL LANDSCAPE ChArACtEr tyPE (LCt) CoDES AND DESCrIPtIoNS

LBA

Physiography L Lowlands Low-lying areas, mainly below 300 ft, including descriptive landform classes ‘levels’ and ‘lowland vales & valleys’ (see below) - associated with Mesozoic (Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic & Permian) or Tertiary rocks of sedimentary origin, and glacial or fluvial (marine, riverine, lacrustrine, or wind blown) drift.

Land Cover B Other Light Land Light land associated with free-draining loamy and sandy solid developed on permeable rocks (sandstones, siltstones & mudstones), or sandy drift at elevations below about 300 metres. Within the soft rock zone, where there are few constraints to agricultural production, this ground type is strongly associated with arable cultivation. Mixed farming predominates on the shallower soils found in western hard rock areas.

Cultural Pattern A Wooded- ancient woods Settled agricultural landscapes (dispersed or nucleated settlement) characterised by an assorted pattern of ancient woodlands which pre-date the surrounding enclosure pattern - in places associated with densely scattered hedgerow trees (typically oak).

LBN



Cultural Pattern N Nucleated unwooded Settled agricultural landscapes characterised by discrete settlement nuclei (villages and/or hamlets) associated with a low to moderate scattering of farms and outlying dwellings. Tree cover is usually fairly sparse and restricted to thinly scattered trees and/or small coverts/tree groups.

APPENDICES


LCA


Land Cover C Clayland Heavy, often poorly draining land associated with base-rich, clayey and loamy soils developed on soft (Mesozoic & Tertiary) clay and chalky till. Seasonal waterlogging is the main constraint to agricultural production and, although utilised extensively for cereal growing in Eastern England, this ground type is mainly under permanent grassland in central and western areas, where neutral grassland is the characteristic associated habitat.


LCD



Cultural Pattern D Dispersed unwooded Settled agricultural landscapes characterised by a moderate to high level of dispersal, comprising scattered farmsteads and frequent clusters of wayside dwellings. Although typically unwooded, hedgerow, streamside and other trees are often a prominent feature.

APPENDICES


LCN




RBA

Physiography R Intermediate Rolling/undulating areas, below 1000 ft, including descriptive landform classes ‘low hills - plateau’ and ‘rolling lowland’ (see below) - associated mainly with Mesozoic (Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic & Permian) or Tertiary rocks of sedimentary origin and glacial till.



APPENDICES


RBD




RBN




RCA




APPENDICES


RCD




RCN




APPENDICES


RDA


Land Cover D Health & Moorland Land associated with nutrient-poor mineral and/or peaty soils supporting dwarf shrub heath, acidic grassland and bog habitats, or relic heathy/moorland vegetation (bracken, gorse, etc.). This ground type is normally associated with sandstone, or sandy drift in the lowlands, but it is widespread on mixed sedimentary and igneous rocks in upland/hard rock areas. Often marginal in agricultural terms.


RDW


Land Cover D Health & Moorland Land associated with nutrient-poor mineral and/or peaty soils supporting dwarf shrub heath, acidic grassland and bog habitats, or relic heathy/moorland vegetation (bracken, gorse, etc.). This ground type is normally associated with sandstone, or sandy drift in the lowlands, but it is widespread on mixed sedimentary and igneous rocks in upland/hard rock areas. Often marginal in agricultural terms.

Cultural Pattern W Wetland/Waste unwooded Open, sparsely settled agricultural landscapes characterised by a surveyor enclosed pattern of large rectilinear fields and isolated farmsteads. Tree cover is usually restricted to watercourses, or groups of trees around buildings.

APPENDICES


RLA


Land Cover L Chalk & Limestone Light land associated with shallow, free-draining soils developed directly on chalk; or limestone bedrock - typically distinguished by stoney soils with relic calcareous grassland on steeper slopes in soft rock areas and rock outcrops/limestone pavement with dry species-rich pasture/hay meadow in hard rock areas.


RLE



Cultural Pattern E Wooded- estateland Settled agricultural landscapes characterised by estate plantations, parkland and belts of trees. Settlement is usually restricted to scattered farmsteads and small estate villages.

RLN




APPENDICES


UDA

Physiography U Low hills Upstanding areas, mainly below 1000 ft, including descriptive landform class ‘low hills - sloping’ (see below) - associated with Palaeozoic (Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Ordovician, Silurian & Cambrian) and Mesozoic rocks (mainly sandstones & limestones) of sedimentary origin.

Land Cover D Heath and Moorland Land associated with nutrient-poor mineral and/or peaty soils supporting dwarf shrub heath, acidic grassland and bog habitats, or relic heathy/moorland vegetation (bracken, gorse, etc.). This ground type is normally associated with sandstone, or sandy drift in the lowlands, but it is widespread on mixed sedimentary and igneous rocks in upland/hard rock areas. Often marginal in agricultural terms.

Cultural Pattern A Wooded-ancient woods Settled agricultural landscapes (dispersed or nucleated settlement) characterised by an assorted pattern of ancient woodlands which pre-date the surrounding enclosure pattern - in places associated with densely scattered hedgerow trees (typically oak).

URBAN

Cultural Pattern UR Urban Extensive areas of predominantly built land where the rural settlement pattern has been completely subsumed by urban development (see urban land use).

APPENDICES


APPENDIX 7

Natural Areas Descriptions

APPENDICES


NAtUrAL ArEAS wIthIN NorthAmPtoNShIrE

Rockingham Forest

Rockingham Forest is a well-wooded area of higher ground between the Rivers Welland and Nene in Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough. The underlying geology is mainly limestone of Jurassic age but this is generally covered by glacial till which gives rise to heavy clay soils. The heavy nature of some of the soils is in part responsible for the survival of woodland, which is one of the most important habitats of the Natural Area, but also a product of the areas’ historic status as a royal hunting forest. The land between the wooded areas is mainly arable with fragments of neutral grassland. Quarrying has been a feature of the area for many centuries for the extraction of limestone for building and ironstone for the local iron industry. This has resulted in geological exposures of interest and, in a few cases where the quarries are old, the recolonisation of grassland such as the limestone grassland at Barnack Hills and Holes.

West Anglian Plain

The West Anglian Plain Natural Area comprising flat or gently rolling land with managed hawthorn hedges and occasional ancient woods, separated by extensive tracts of intensively managed arable land. The plain is drained by the large, slow-flowing River Ouse and River Nene (and a small stretch of the River Welland) and a multitude of smaller watercourses including small drains. In many of the valleys of these major watercourses lowland meadows occur on the seasonally flooded (winter and spring) alluvium. The West Anglian Plain also has a extensive series of old flooded gravel pits, clay pits and reservoirs, many of which have swamp vegetation or reedbeds along their margins. The geology of the West Anglian Plain is characterised by Jurassic and more recent Pleistocene deposits and the Earth heritage interest is focused on different exposures, many of which are extremely rich in fossils such as ammonites, sea-urchins, fish, reptiles and rare dinosaurs.

Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge

The Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge occupies the higher ground between the Ouse and Nene rivers. Ancient woodland and parkland give a well wooded appearance to much of the area. The woods are set in a predominantly arable landscape at the eastern end of the ridge but pasture becomes more significant at the western end. Much of the wildlife interest is associated with woodland and parkland habitats but significant areas of species rich-neutral grassland do occur. Wildlife occurs throughout the Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge Natural Area in a wide range of habitats of both rural and urban areas. Farmland is an important habitat and arable land and agriculturally improved pasture comprise a major proportion of the habitats now present within the Natural Area. Such widespread habitats include important features such as ancient semi-natural woodland, hedgerows and mature trees, ponds and small watercourses, and rough grassland alongside tracks and on road verges. These habitats give much of the character to the Natural Area and support a wide range of species, including some that have undergone dramatic recent declines, such as skylark and grey partridge.

Cotswolds

The Cotswolds Natural Area overlies a band of limestone stretching from Somerset to Warwickshire. These Jurassic Limestones are internationally famous, as many are rich in fossils, and the rock stratigraphy is of particular importance. An extensive semi-natural habitat in the Cotswolds is unimproved grassland and the Natural Area supports over 50% of the national resource of limestone grassland characterised by upright brome and tor grass. The limestone grasslands are rich in plants and invertebrates, particularly butterflies, and is the national stronghold for Duke of Burgundy butterfly. The Cotswolds also contain significant areas of ancient woodland. Woodland cover is relatively continuous on the scarp where internationally important stands of beechwood are to be found and in some parts of the plateau where there are woodland estates. In the north and on the eastern dip slope woodland is more isolated.

Midland Clay Pastures

The Midland Clay Pastures is a gently undulating landscape that is underlain by Lias clay over the majority of the area. This clay produces heavy soils suitable for supporting good quality pasture. Woodland is sparsely distributed through the Natural Area but there are local concentrations south of Daventry and south and west of Coventry. Acid grassland and heathland are both of very localised and of limited occurrence on deposits of Northampton sand, and were formerly characteristic of sand and gravel deposits to the east of Coventry. Reservoirs are a feature of the eastern side of the Natural Area and have ornithological interest as well as associated marginal habitats of interest. Flood meadows, characterised by great burnet and meadow foxtail, occur on the regularly flooded alluvial soils within the headwaters of the Avon and Cherwell rivers.

APPENDICES


Trent Valley Rises

Most of the Natural Area comprises a geology that produces a fertile soil ideal for agriculture. Despite a large part of the area being under intensive agriculture there are a number of important habitats remaining. These include neutral grassland, which is the most common type of unimproved grassland, and a number of acidic and calcareous grassland sites associated with local differences of geology. Wet floodplain grasslands along the Soar and Trent rivers support some of the richest wildlife and are important for many breeding birds such as the redshank. The Natural Area is poorly wooded but significant concentrations of important sites are scattered throughout. Important woodlands present include ancient semi-natural stands, wet woodland and parkland. Standing water habitats of particular wildlife interest are restored gravel pits, reservoirs and canals; there are no natural large standing waters. There are numerous gravel pits along the River Trent and its main tributaries of which some have been restored to provide habitat for breeding and wintering birds such as reed warblers. Many of these gravel pits and reservoirs have a diversity of associated habitats such as marsh, swamp and reedbeds. Rivers, streams and their associated habitats are also a significant feature of the Natural Area, and are dominated by the Rivers Trent and Soar.

FIGURES

CURRENT CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES 65

PLEASE REFER TO THE DOCUMENT ‘CLCA - FIGURES 1-7’.

Documents

CURRENT LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT APPENDICES