75 - Kesteven Uplands : Description

Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas

The Kesteven Uplands National Character Area (NCA) is a rolling, mixed farmland landscape dissected by the rivers Witham and East and West Glen.

This NCA overlooks the lower-lying level Fens NCA to the east and borders the Rockingham Forest NCA to the south. The Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Wolds NCA lies adjacent and to the west while north of the area lie the Trent and Belvoir Vales NCA and the Southern Lincolnshire Edge NCA.

The more elevated arable areas, for example around Swinstead, have exposed distant views of the West Glen river valley. This landscape also bears similarities with the Northern Lincolnshire Edge and Coversands NCA to the north.

Within the NCA lies the Lincolnshire Limestone ridge. This ridge sweeps across England, extending from the Cotswolds to the Humber and then gradually west to Yorkshire. The limestone geology forms an important aquifer in this region and extends into a number of NCAs including both the Southern Lincolnshire Edge and Northern Lincolnshire Edge and Coversands NCAs. The Southern Lincolnshire Limestone Aquifer is important as 80 per cent of the abstraction is for public water supply (Baseline Report Series 23: The Lincolnshire Limestone, British Geological Survey and Environment Agency, 2006).

Rivers are an important feature of the NCA. Both the East and West Glen rivers run parallel in a southerly direction, having carved their way through the boulder clay towards Stamford and Market Deeping, and eventually drain into The Wash. The River Witham also rises in the Kesteven Plateau close to South Witham, and flows into the Vale of Belvoir before passing through the Lincoln Gap. The East Glen and the West Glen both have their sources in the north of the NCA near Ropsley, flowing south and joining to form the River Glen near Greatford, which continues east through The Fens NCA. The River Welland flows eastwards into The Fens NCA where both the Welland and Witham eventually drain into the Wash Estuary.

The Witham is linked to the River Trent’s catchment via the Fossdyke. The Fossdyke also provides a waterway link from the Witham to the wider navigable waterway network and the Witham corridor provides a recreational link to the city of Lincoln.

Other recreational links include the Viking Way, a long-distance footpath which starts on the banks of the Humber in the north and winds its way through Lincolnshire to finish on the shores of Rutland Water in the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Wolds NCA.

Main roads such as the A1, which runs from London to York and beyond, link the area to adjacent NCAs both to the north and the south. Other main roads include the A15 and A16. The London-Edinburgh East Coast Main Line also crosses this NCA.

The Kesteven Uplands today

The Kesteven Uplands lie at the junction of the counties of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. The majority of the area lies within the historic Kesteven district of Lincolnshire which extends south to the impressive stone town of Stamford. To the east lie the level Fens from which the Lincolnshire Limestone ridge of the Kesteven Uplands gently rises to reach a height of over 130 m around Colsterworth on the A1 main road. To the south, the area runs towards the River Nene and Rockingham Forest while, to the west, a band of ironstone meets the heavier clay soil of the neighbouring Leicestershire Wolds. The northern extent reaches to the lighter soils of the Lincolnshire Edge.

To the eastern boundary the uplands ease down to the fen edge, the boundary being marked by the Car Dyke. In this transition zone the landscape has fewer woodlands and more subtle topography. In the east the lowest elevation is 3 m above sea level. However, the land gently rises in the west, reaching a maximum of 57 m here. Much of the NCA is agricultural land; arable predominates on this higher ground or plateau where crops such as cereals, vegetables and oilseed are grown in larger fields bounded by clipped and intermittent hedgerows. There is also pasture, particularly where heavier land in the river valleys provides good grazing for cattle and sheep. In the valleys the fields are generally smaller and less regular, enclosed by hedgerows and more locally by stone walls. Species-rich verges and meadows are notable adjacent to these boundaries.

There are significant areas of woodland including semi-natural and ancient woodland. Trees include oak and ash with a variable amount of hazel coppice which, in combination with the topography, frame and contain views. There are many small hills and sheltered valleys, providing an intimate landscape of enclosure and shade. This is enhanced by the extensive woodland found throughout much of the area, arranged in plantations.

The NCA is important for biodiversity such as limestone grassland. The Grimsthorpe Special Area of Conservation has developed on the site of a former small limestone quarry. Cribbs Meadow National Nature Reserve supports key grassland species such as nationally scarce pasque and early gentian, green-winged orchid and farmland bird species including barn owl, skylark and lapwing.

Flood plain grassland is found in the lower elevations, while the upper stretches of the River Witham have freshwater habitats which support important populations of crayfish. Calcareous flushes are present and also include wetland species.

Significant areas of the limestone plateau are overlain with calcareous boulder clay which has resulted in the survival of a high proportion of ancient seminatural woodland. A few, mainly improved, clay grasslands also survive.

Highly calcareous loam soils derived directly from the underlying oolitic limestone are found mainly on the steeper slopes. Some good remnants of biologically rich limestone grassland survive on unploughable areas such as the steepest slopes, roadside verges and quarries. An area along the southern Lincolnshire boundary, centred on Holywell, has a particularly high concentration of biologically rich sites.

The NCA is generally characterised by villages with low densities of dispersed settlement, with a local concentration of settlement along the fen edge in the east. Most villages are distinguished by local limestone houses and farm buildings, with Collyweston slate roofs distinctive to the south and red pantiles more prevalent in the north. Many settlements retain a rich historic character, including the stone town of Stamford and its surrounding villages. The NCA is an archaeologically rich area with ancient trackways, abundant evidence of Roman settlement and deserted medieval villages.

Large country houses and estates with parklands and large blocks of woodland characterise the Kesteven Uplands and a number of these fine houses draw visitors to the area. Tourist destinations include the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a National Trust property. The long-distance Viking Way route also crosses this NCA.

Leafy country lanes with wide road verges bounded by enclosure hedgerows are typical of the area and give variety and texture to the landscape, contrasting with the more common open roads in the rolling countryside. Individual hedgerow trees provide important character but are becoming less common.

Limestone and ironstone quarries are found throughout the area. Many are now disused, although Ketton Quarry is still active and a visible landmark. A pocket of sand-and gravel-bearing land west of Market Deeping has been extensively worked. Some of these areas have now been restored to benefit biodiversity and for informal recreation, such as Deeping Lakes Wetland Nature Reserve.

Apart from the main roads of the A1 and A15 and the East Coast Main Line there are some 20th century intrusions such as wind turbines, and airfield sites, some now redundant, are present in exposed elevated areas. Recent development is mainly residential around the towns and close to the A1.

The landscape through time

The underlying geology comprises predominantly the Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone, which comprises mudstone and oolitic limestones, deposited in a very shallow sea during estuarine conditions.

The NCA’s shallow, well-drained calcareous loam soils are similar to those of the Southern Lincolnshire Edge NCA. However, in contrast there are also areas of slowly permeable and seasonally waterlogged clayey soils, developed on glacial tills such as to the north of Corby Glen. Smaller areas of Jurassic sand and clay support a deep, stoneless, coarse loam where groundwater is controlled by ditches, as at Ingoldsby and around Bourne. To the west, beds of Jurassic ironstone support some well-drained, loamy, ferruginous soils.

There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the fen edge from the Iron Age onwards. The glacial till which caps the Jurassic beds of clay around Bourne made the land too difficult for the early farmers to cultivate and too wet to be ideal for pasture, so it is probable that more of this area remained as woodland than other limestone plateau landscapes.

The invading Roman army made its way northwards along the route of Ermine Street (now the A1), pausing in Great Casterton to build a camp to protect a strategic bridge over the River Gwash, which became a walled town with a large nearby villa complex including houses, barns, corn driers and a bath house.

The Car Dyke is a Roman feature (sections of which are designated as Scheduled Ancient Monuments) thought to have been created to drain the adjacent fenland and, as such, represents one of the first recognisable attempts in Lincolnshire to Mcontrol the water system for agricultural purposes.

The majority of settlements along the fen edge were in existence, in some form, by the time of the Domesday survey of 1086. The actual shape of the villages as seen today is the result of much later growth. There was a significant monastic influence in the area with, for example, Vaudey Abbey and the Templar Preceptory at South Witham.

Surviving ridge and furrow earthworks suggest that from the medieval period villages were set within a pattern of open arable fields, farmed in strips by the tenants and rotated annually on a three-field system. The arable land was complemented by areas of grazing land at the edge of each parish, used as common land. These earthworks, and the remains of deserted medieval villages, have been conserved by long use as pasture for sheep which developed from the 14th century in the wake of the collapse in land values following the Black Death and subsequent epidemics. The importance of the wool trade encouraged early enclosure of common land and open field in pursuit of this profitable farming type. From around the 16th century the wool trade supported many middle-class yeoman farmers, whose houses and barns survive. Private landowners further prospered after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, their mark being felt in the importance of their houses, set in designed landscapes and the area’s estate villages. Individual landowners such as the Turnors of Stoke Rochford played a prominent role in the enclosure of land and the establishment of planned farmsteads in the decades around 1800.

On the fen edge it is thought that cattle and sheep were grazed on the fens in summer, when the land was drier, and then over-wintered either on the higher heath, or in small closes adjacent to the villages. East-west routes also indicate that these settlements developed to serve this movement of livestock. The wealth of this area grew in medieval times largely as a consequence of the wool trade and several large estates were established with grand houses set in large parklands. Epidemics such as the Black Death led to a reduction in population, leaving a number of villages deserted; these are still evident in the landscape.

Small-scale irregular fieldscapes exist in many areas, around the fringes of the smaller village settlements and within the valleys of the lowland vales and rolling farmland, often with mature and well-wooded hedgerows. The open-field farming system remained in place until the 18th and 19th centuries when many of the open fields surrounding the villages and large areas of open heath were subject to planned enclosure. The other large-scale change was the drainage of the fens by means of new watercourses and channels, many of which still survive, along with the associated isolated farmsteads.

Villages were often altered to accommodate the needs of the estates. Some villages, such as Edenham near Grimsthorpe, were completely remodelled with buildings demolished in favour of new uniform cottages for estate workers, many of which remain today. Thus the influence of the larger estates is felt throughout the NCA, and not merely within the formal parks and gardens.

From the early part of the 20th century there was a reduction in the number of country houses with the conversion of many of their associated parkland landscapes to agricultural use. In some cases, the grassland has been ploughed up for arable cultivation, often leaving veteran parkland trees isolated within fields of crops. The modern field pattern, produced through the consolidation of smaller fields, seems to retain much of the rectilinear character of the underlying planned enclosures, and there is still significant survival of planned enclosure landscapes.

Proximity to the A1 and East Coast Main Line has ensured that Stamford remains the largest settlement. The late arrival of the railway reduced the impact of industrialisation and, despite the construction of several large housing estates on its edges, it has retained its historic core. Towns and villages such as Bourne, Heckington, Colsterworth and Corby Glen which are located close to main roads have experienced considerable expansion. In some places new housing has followed existing main roads, resulting in ribbon development and the loss of the discrete, nucleated character of the fen-edge villages.