134 - Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase : Analysis: Landscape Attributes & Opportunities

Analysis supporting Statements of Environmental Opportunity

The following analysis section focuses on the landscape attributes and opportunities for this NCA.

Further analysis on ecosytem services for this NCA is contained in the Analysis: Ecosytem Services section.

Landscape attributes

Prominent north and east facing scarp slope.

• It is this feature which provides both impressive long views out of the NCA and the distinctive skyline of adjacent NCAs. It is a defining feature, whether grassland or cloaked in trees, of the landscape through which it occurs.
• Abrupt cliff-like rise of the scarp slope punctuated by combes and promontories marking very clearly the geological boundary and can be used to explain the geomorphological process that have shaped the area.
• As well as visual importance, the scarp slopes provide strongholds for the relict calcareous grasslands, generally protected from improvement by the unworkable nature of the slope.

Plateau and long, gentle dip slope dissected by combes, dry valleys and river valleys.

• Provides the long views out of the NCA to the south and east.
• Provides the context and setting for most of the settlements in the NCA.

Extensive, though highly fragmented, suite of relict semi-natural chalk downland habitats.

• ‘Flagship’ habitat of the chalk and host to an evocative suite of plants and animals. Internationally important recognised by Natura 2000 designatiManage and enhance the recreation and education potential of the NCA. Links should be demonstrated between people, the landscape and the services it provides. People should be empowered to take positive action to enjoy and conserve their surroundings.on (Cerne and Sydling Downs SAC, Fontmell and Melbury Downs SAC, Prescombe Down SAC).
• Within and immediately adjacent to the NCA are some 609 individual chalk grassland sites. These amount to 3,100 ha with a range of between 0.25 and 66 ha and an average size of 5.1 ha1.
• Additional areas of rough grassland, calcareous scrub (an important transitional habitat) and secondary woodland associated with the principal open grassland habitat.
• Important downland texture, associated with the steep slopes and prehistoric heritage assets.
• Direct links between vegetation communities and historic land use.

Large areas of Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland alongside visually important plantations, clumps and windbreaks.

• The woodlands of the Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase are visually, culturally and ecologically important. Many of the Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands probably represent remnants of original prehistoric woodland cover, spared by a fortuitous combination of difficult to work soils, possible cultural/spiritual beliefs and subsequent incorporation into past social and economic land management systems (hunting, followed by coppicing).
• The plantations, clumps and shelterbelts represent both changing land use and a more symbolic expression of wealth and the power and influence over the landscape this gave.
• Significant loses of the woodland resource (both semi-natural and planted) would have a marked effect on the character of the NCA.

Small but significant suite of ‘secondary’ habitats that add to both local landscape character and biodiversity.

• Scattered acid grassland sites, particularly in the west, for example Rampisham Down, notified as SSSI in 2013.
• Alder woodland, again in the west, component sites of the West Dorset Alder Woods SAC.
• Small but significant heathland outlier at Blackdown.

Extensive suite of prehistoric heritage assets, including barrows, hill forts, track ways and earthworks.

• This NCA not only charts, through its archaeological assets, the history of early human occupation in southern England, but also charts the development of the modern, scientific study of our past.
• A rich resource for the study of prehistoric ‘architecture’ both in terms of ritual and defensive structures.
• Cranborne Chase is the area where modern British field archaeology developed, originating with General Pitt Rivers’ pioneering excavations in the 19th century.
• Cranborne Chase and the Dorset Downs (particularly the South Dorset Ridgeway) provide a microcosm of virtually all the major types of field monument found in southern England as a whole.
• Much of the archaeological material has survived, and represents one of the most complete chronologies of any part of the prehistoric British landscape.

Record of settlement into Roman occupation, through the Medieval period.

• Roman roads linking Dorchester with other centres, a suite of villas, once the ‘hubs’ of highly productive farming estates.
• Earthworks recording the advance of Saxon culture against a retreating Romano-British enclave.
• Abandoned villages and field systems marking population shrinkage and dislocation due to disease and socio-economic perturbations.

Winterbournes and chalk rivers, typically shallow, clean and highly biodiverse and often a feature of linear villages within the valleys.

• The several chalk streams/rivers that flow across the Downs and Chase represent important reservoirs of biodiversity, supporting as they do a discreet community of species adapted to the chemistry of this base-rich water.
• Certain species such as brook lamprey, bullhead, water crowfoot and salmonids are of European conservation importance.
  Parklands and estates of landowning families.
• Large estates have played a defining role in the shaping of the NCA, and in many cases remain a strong influence on today’s landscape.
• Parklands associated with the large houses are both historic features and records in themselves and host a suite of species ranging from ancient trees to a rich lichen, fungal and invertebrate flora and fauna.

Tranquillity and low levels of light pollution.

• While tranquillity within the NCA has been eroded since the 1960s there are many places throughout where tranquillity can be regularly experienced.
• This is still a strongly rural, agricultural NCA – subject to cycles of activity juxtaposed with the relative calm and tranquillity of the agricultural calendar.
• Parts of this NCA, where settlements are sparse (Eggardon Hill, the downs around the upper river valleys of the Frome, Piddle, Cerne and Sydling), may include locally important areas of ‘dark sky’.

Access and recreation on open land and through a limited network of rights of way, and traditional country pursuits.

• The NCA has, and Cranborne Chase in particular, a very long history of recreational use, which itself reflects the changing use of the land and the transformation of subsistence activities into sport and recreation.
• The hunting of deer, by the royal elite, was the foundation for the evolution of Cranborne Chase. More recent changes saw the deer eclipsed by the fox as the quarry of choice.
• Field sports are still an important element of the economy and culture of the Cranborne Chase, though this is today dominated by game bird shoots and to a lesser extent ‘large’ game shooting (deer and wild boar).
• The field sport inheritance of this NCA has created a strong equestrian sector.
• More recent recreational activities such as walking and cycling are well served by the network of minor roads, green lanes and footpaths. There are 1,897 km of public rights of way, equating to a density of 1.6 km per km2. Some 6,672 ha or 6 per cent of the NCA is classified as publicly accessible.

Farming land use patterns and seasonality in a landscape dominated by agriculture.

• This NCA, without the intervention of large scale industrial or urban development, remains fundamentally shaped by agriculture and agricultural practices.
• Agriculture, over past centuries, has shaped all of the vegetation found in the NCA. It created the vegetation communities that are valued for both their biodiversity and their beneficial influences on the very character of the area.
• Modern systems of production have become ‘de-coupled’ from many previously agricultural landscape features. As their economic importance has waned, such features have been neglected, abandoned or removed. This threatens many key aspects of the NCA’s character.

Landscape opportunities

• Ensure that the essential character of the landforms and processes underpinning the character of this NCA are protected from developments and/ or land use changes that will compromise their contribution to the landscape.
• Manage and, where necessary, restore the existing suite of semi-natural calcareous grasslands and the important associated habitats found within and around them. Increase the resilience of these sites to environmental changes by creating new semi-natural calcareous grasslands (and associated habitats) that extend, buffer and link them.
• Bring all ancient semi-natural woodland into sympathetic management that will lead to a favourable condition, programme the restoration of all ‘planted ancient woodland’ sites returning them to native broadleaved cover, and design and implement a programme of new woodland planting that enhances the conservation status of existing woodlands and reinforces the character of the landscapes into which they are planted. Reintroduce active coppice management where this will enhance woodland wildlife interest and provide useful, saleable produce.
• Bring all Scheduled Ancient Monuments into favourable management regimes, ensuring that those currently found on the Heritage at Risk register are given priority. Ensure that the suite of local heritage assets and features are also managed to the best standard possible.
• Ensure that the NCA’s watercourses are reconnected with the landscapes through which they flow. Re-connecting watercourses and their flood plains is important both for ecosystems and ecosystem services, whilst reconnecting watercourses with the settlements they flow through or close to helps people understand the positive benefits brought by rivers and streams, not just the issues when it floods.
• Secure the cultural, landscape and ecological continuity of the NCA’s suite of historic parklands through planning tree planting, grassland management and the maintenance of specific parkland features for the future.
• Protect the chalk aquifer by promoting good agricultural and land management practices, helping to bring improvements to groundwater recharge and quality. Further, promote sustainable use of water resources, protecting the aquifer from over abstraction and safeguarding the water supply which is derived from the aquifer.
• Work with land managers to better understand and manage the soils of the NCA. Seek to enhance their structure and organic content where this has been damaged or degraded, devise practical solutions to issues such as compaction, erosion and run-off.
• Enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of people through experiential contact with the landscape, biodiversity and cultural artefacts of the Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase NCA. Do this by maintaining and improving the 15 km of the South West Coast Path National Trail (South Dorset Ridgeway) and other main routes, increasing the network of connecting permanent and permissive routes linking national trails with high profile landscape, biodiversity and cultural assets.
• Work with the protected landscapes of the Dorset AONB and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB to help meet the ambitions of their management plans.