20 - Morecambe Bay Limestones : Description

Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas

Backed by the limestone geology at the head of Morecambe Bay, the open intertidal flats and salt marshes that fringe the Morecambe Bay Limestones National Character Area (NCA) extend across the adjacent West Cumbria Coastal Plain and Morecambe Coast and Lune Estuary NCAs. This forms a dynamic shared sediment system that supports the bay’s natural resources.

The high woodland cover of the NCA extends into the South Cumbria Low Fells NCA. The woodland is mainly associated with steeper slopes and thinner soils, and there is a historic continuity of woodland management extending across the wider area. The drumlin field occupying the gaps between the limestone hills extends into the adjoining NCAs and under the sediment system of Morecambe Bay itself.

The rivers Kent and Leven flow from the adjacent South Cumbria Low Fells NCA and have catchments that reach far into the mountains of the Cumbria High Fells NCA. They discharge into Morecambe Bay through dynamic estuary systems. The smaller rivers such as the Winster, Bela and Keer, have less extensive catchments but wider areas of associated flood plain, which stretch into the South Cumbria Low Fells NCA. These smaller rivers lie predominantly within the Morecambe Bay Limestones NCA and flow into the channel of the River Kent as they enter the bay.

Views from within the NCA are largely framed by the surrounding upland landscapes, including the Cumbria High Fells, the Howgill Fells, the Yorkshire Dales and the Bowland Fells NCAs. From high points within all these upland NCAs, there are long, open views across the landscape of Morecambe Bay to its mouth in the Irish Sea.

The eastern part of the NCA is crossed by an ancient north-south aligned transport route linking the narrow corridor between Morecambe Bay and the Bowland Fells in the Morecambe Coast and Lune Estuary NCA, and the Lune Valley passage between the Cumbria High Fells and the Howgill Fells. The course of this route is traced today by the motorway and rail networks, and in part by the Lancaster Canal. Routes westwards through the NCA have been less fixed, varying over time with mode of transport but today both rail and trunk roads cross the NCA as the main access route to the town of Barrow-in-Furness and the southern parts of the West Cumbria Coastal Plain NCA.

The Morecambe Bay Limestones today

The character of the Morecambe Bay Limestones NCA is dominated by its limestone geology, evident in a series of limestone blocks which rise, islandlike or as ridges, from a surrounding landscape of low-lying more recent geology. As a whole they form an arc rising steeply from the horizontal estuarine landscape at the head of Morecambe Bay with its extensive intertidal flats and salt marshes. Between these limestone hills, and to the south of Kendal, the landform is that of a drumlin field left by the retreat of glaciers from the last ice age, where smooth rounded hills support wet acid soils. The area includes a number of shallow river valleys including the Crake, the Lyth, Bela and Keer whose rivers join the channels of the main rivers, the Leven and the Kent, as they enter Morecambe Bay.

The different limestone blocks vary in character as determined by their height, topography and aspect. Throughout, they support mosaics of limestone habitats including extensive areas of woodland, pavement, scree and species-rich grassland divided by drystone walls of limestone. On some of the larger blocks such as Whitbarrow and Hutton Roof the different habitats are extensive and dispersed – screes and woodlands on steeper slopes, pavements and grasslands on the summit plateaux – in others they are tightly interwoven as in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) where limestone woodlands, grasslands, pavements and wetlands are found in a tightly knit mosaic and where turning a corner can reveal a different landscape.

The woodlands are varied. In some areas ash dominates as high forest but elsewhere the woodland is more open with areas managed as coppice. Scattered across the woodlands are ancient stands of yew, often growing directly from the surface of the limestone. Elsewhere, where the thin soils of the woodlands grade into the open, there are areas of species-rich grassland, grazed wood pasture and species-rich scrub. Where soils are absent, areas of limestone pavement are exposed, sometimes as outcrops among grasslands but frequently beneath woodland. Although the limestones largely lack open water, rare marl lakes can be found at Hawes Water and Cunswick Tarn. As a whole, these limestones support a number of nationally rare species, many at the northern limits of their range, including suites of woodland butterflies, birds and plants, including the endemic Lancastrian whitebeam.

Fringing Morecambe Bay, the low limestone cliffs with their grasslands and wind-sculpted trees give way abruptly to extensive areas of salt marsh and intertidal flats. The shifting patterns of light and colour playing across the bay’s surface combine with the ebb and flow of the tide to constantly change the bay’s character. The continual meandering of the tidal channels of the rivers Kent and Leven result in significant changes to the pattern and equilibrium of salt marsh and sands, shifting the boundary between land and sea. The marshes are grazed and the sight of sheep and cattle on intertidal areas has been a characteristic feature of the area for centuries. This creates ideal conditions for breeding waders and wintering waders and wildfowl which provide interest throughout the year.

Between the limestone hills, the low-lying valleys and reclaimed land are separated from the salt marshes of Morecambe Bay by manmade defences. Here the reclaimed landform is flat and derived from estuarine deposits and peat bodies that have developed since the last ice age. These areas are generally only a few meters above sea level with high groundwater tables including both loamy and peaty soils. The reclaimed landscape is virtually treeless with expanses of intensive pastoral agriculture, with large rectangular fields bounded by hedges, often with ditches, of comparatively recent origin. Within this landscape of grazing marsh, particularly around the Kent and Leven estuaries, expanses of lowland raised bog survive. These remnants, with their specialised plant communities, contrast markedly with the surrounding pastures and are of high importance for nature conservation. Occasionally, the raised bogs directly abut limestone, as at Roudsea, giving rise to unique transitions. Formerly, Leighton Moss would have been similar but following its reclamation for agriculture and subsequent abandonment the site has developed to become an extensive reedbed.

Farmsteads, hamlets and small villages are concentrated around the margins of the limestone geology, but are more widely scattered across the drumlin fields. Ulverston, a market town from the 13th century, is the largest settlement within the area with Kendal lying just to the north. The settlements of Grange-over- Sands, Arnside, Silverdale and Milnthorpe are characterised by Victorian and Edwardian buildings and grew as a result of the increase in popularity of the area for recreation and retirement during the late 1800s. The larger settlements are generally associated with the rail network or with the historic trade route linking Lancaster to the pass between the Lake District and Howgill Fells.

The limestone which gives structure to the landscape is also the traditional building material. Until the mid-20th century, buildings throughout the NCA, as well as the market towns on its borders, were almost always built of limestone and roofed with Lake District slate. Quarrying of limestone was a significant local industry, and is still practised at a few sites, with the former quarries remaining a distinctive feature together with associated lime kilns positioned against low limestone cliffs. Rurally, large parts of the NCA were, and remain, owned by estates, with stately homes set in parkland and associated tenant farms.

The long history of human presence is evident in the landscape with Neolithic and bronze-age burial mounds and stone circles, medieval field patterns, Cistercian priories, coppiced woodlands, quarries, transport routes and Second World War airfields.

Recreation remains a major element of the economy. Quiet enjoyment of the features of the landscape, including the diversity of semi-natural habitats and their species and heritage features, is supported by an extensive rights of way network supplemented by areas of dedicated access, and includes the crossbay walks whose origins lie in role of the sands as the safest way of crossing the NCA until the 19th century.

The landscape through time

The distinctive landscape on the margins of Morecambe Bay is largely determined by the pattern of much-faulted outcrops of Lower Carboniferous Limestone. In this area, thick and relatively pure limestone typically forms the upstanding blocks that make the NCA so distinctive. The pale fossil-rich sediments were deposited in the warm sea that covered most of England around 350 million years ago. Today there are excellent exposures of the coral rich limestones which provide a record of these ancient seas. Glacial scouring during the last ice age removed many soils, resulting in bare limestone scars and larger cliffs with considerable accumulations of limestone scree. Postglacial erosion has led to the development of extensive limestone pavements.

Glacial deposits, mainly till, form the floors of most of the valleys which separate the limestone hills. The ice also created depositional landforms such as the drumlin fields to the south of Kendal. During post-glacial times, the area experienced a series of changes in sea level which inundated a number of low-lying areas, submerging large parts of the drumlin field and establishing a margin of freshwater and coastal wetlands.

Neolithic and bronze-age monuments, including burial mounds and stone circles on the higher ground, testify to the development of agriculture and settlement; much of the former woodland cover had been lost by the beginning of the 2nd millennium bc. Many prehistoric settlements and enclosures, such as those on Birkrigg Common, have been conserved through their abandonment and use as unenclosed commons from the 1st millennium ad.

From the mid-12th century, a significant part of High and Low Furness was under the ownership of the Cistercians who founded Furness Abbey. The Cistercians were instrumental in developing productive sheep farms and also exploited the local reserves of iron ore. Both resulted in the gradual loss of tree cover in the uplands as a result of grazing and the denudation of many woodlands in order to provide a source of fuel for ore smelting. Important priories were also established at Cartmel and Conishead which extended the influence of the Church and the way in which the landscape developed in the western part of the NCA.

Pele towers, constructed to provide protection during a period of border raids in the 15th and 16th centuries, are found across the NCA at Hampsfell, Arnside Lime kilns, as here at Jenny Brown’s Point, remain a frequent sight on the limestone hills. and Hazelslack. In more peaceful times, stately homes with gardens developed around towers previously used for defence, including Sizergh Castle, constructed around its original 13th-century pele tower, and Levens Hall, an Elizabethan mansion featuring one of the earliest topiary gardens in the world, established in 1692.

Many of the semi-natural woodlands in the area were managed on a ‘coppicewith- standards’ basis until the early 20th century. This allowed valuable construction timber to be extracted in the long term and allowed species such ash and hazel to be coppiced. The coppice timber provided fuel, in the form of charcoal, for the smelting of iron and copper ores which were mined nearby and, in the late 18th and 19th centuries, provided material for the production of bobbins required by the emerging textile industry in Lancashire and supported the production of gunpowder.

Until recently there were few large settlements in the NCA itself. Kendal on its northern edge was on the main route north from Lancaster to Carlisle, but much of the NCA remained difficult to access until the installation of a turnpike road running westwards from Levens in 1820 and the later arrival of the railway. The westernmost parts of the NCA were best reached either by a long detour via Windermere or across the sands of Morecambe Bay until the 19th century, with Ulverston developing at the Furness peninsula end of the bay crossing. Reaching the area by sea was difficult because of the tides and shifting sands and, as a consequence, the coastal settlements remained small.

Early 19th-century enclosure dramatically altered the landscape, bringing into agricultural production formerly marginal areas of land both on the hill tops and on the coastal fringe. The largest lowland area enclosed was the Lyth Valley, a wetland transformed by an engineered network of drains into cropping land in the space of a few years. The arrival of the railway brought cheaper produce and replaced the market for peat with coal. As a consequence, the valley reverted to being predominantly pastoral and has remained that way since. In contrast, reclaimed land at Heversham has survived as a mixed agricultural system since its enclosure in the 1850s.

On a modest scale, the area became popular with visitors from the 1750s onwards when crossing the sands of Morecambe Bay by coach and horse was considered an exciting prelude to a visit to the Lake District. In the early 1800s, the arrival of both the Lancaster Canal and the railway allowed the development of both trade and tourist links to the industrial heartlands of eastern Lancashire. In the Victorian period, the town of Grange-over-Sands and the villages of Arnside and Silverdale developed rapidly as seaside resorts, aided by the presence of the railway. The Furness Railway stimulated day trips from nearby conurbations in Lancashire and the demand for holiday facilities and retirement homes continued well into the 20th century. Today tourism remains an important part of the local economy, alongside agriculture, with increases in visitor numbers, and associated traffic, to coastal locations, the surrounding countryside and stately homes. Villages are slowly expanding with the demand for housing for the retired, holiday homes and for people commuting to Kendal and Ulverston.

The landscape continued to evolve throughout the 20th century with wartime developments such as the airfield at Cark, the flooding and subsequent development of the wetland of Leighton Moss, the focusing of the quarrying industry into fewer but larger sites and the incremental upgrading of the transport network including the construction of M6 and the upgrading of the A590 trunk road.