89 - Northamptonshire Vales : 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

An open landscape of gentle clay ridges and valleys of gently undulating land with occasional steep scarp slopes.

Justification for selection:

• Underlain by Mercia Mudstones, these rocks gives rise to a moderately undulating landscape characterised by a mixture of pasture and arable agricultural use that has developed on the neutral clay soils.
• The valleys drain radially from the uplands and have a significant influence on the landscape where the streams have eroded convex sloped valleys that are in part responsible for creating the undulating landform.

Many historic features particularly buried archaeological remains, Roman roads, buildings, canals, ridge-and-furrow and other earthworks, and historic parks, gardens and estates.

Justification for selection:

• The history of the landscape is evident in the area’s long history of occupation. Cropmarks, remnant ridge and furrow and other earthworks are found alongside historic sites, for example the complex of medieval structures at Fotheringhay.
• Over time the landscape became dominated by frequent nucleated villages which grew particularly in the Middle Ages. Northampton was a significant Viking settlement and nationally strategic site marked by its castle, growing rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries linked to the leather and shoemaking industry.
• There is remaining evidence of the bronze-age pattern of settlement along the main valleys and a network of Roman roads which still influence the character of the area, such as the route of the A5.
• The landscape contains a considerable variety in field patterns, despite a strong pattern of enclosure; regular geometric patterns with straight hedgerows and roads among which sit farmsteads, there are also sizeable areas of less regular non-Parliamentary enclosures dating from the 16th and 17th centuries such as those along the Brampton Brook and River Ise.
• Fragments of ridge and furrow survive under pasture and, most importantly, the survival of open field patterns at Sutton Bassett and Welham (Welland Valley), Great Oxendon and Clipston (Ise Valley).

Varied field and hedgerow pattern.

Justification for selection:

• In some areas neglect of hedgerows and lack of management or over-management, has led to the decline of the overall structure of the landscape and an increase in the visual dominance of urban influences.
• There is considerable variety in the distribution, condition and extent and density of hedgerow and tree cover. Hedgerows tend to be low and hedgerow trees are often in poor condition. There are substantial waterside trees and meadows, but generally the flatter areas are given over to arable where hedgerows can be particularly low, broken or intermittent, for example at Dingley.

Open landscape with many urban areas and large, visually dominant settlements.

Justification for selection:

• This is a landscape dominated by the urban areas of Northampton and Wellingborough, and their associated urban fringe development. Red brick construction, with limestone and use of render, is typical of the area, both in the older village cores and in the more regimented terraces of the area’s industrial towns and villages.

Distinctive river valleys of the Welland and Nene with flat flood plains and gravel terraces.

Justification for selection:

• Riverside meadows and waterside trees and shrubs are common.
• Gravel extraction is prominent along the Nene Valley, often on land previously used as flood meadow and arable farmland.
• The Welland Valley is narrow and remote, the main industrial influence being the views of Ketton cement works to the north. 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.
• The Nene, a navigable river, has well-defined terraces and it is fed by numerous tributaries forming side valleys. Much of the flood plain is now dominated by either active gravel working or the lakes formed from former workings and crossed by willow-lined causeway roads.

Low percentage of woodland resource.

Justification for selection:

• Only 4 per cent of the NCA is woodland.
• A timbered character is derived only from the presence of spinneys and copses on the ridges and more undulating land and from waterside and hedgerow trees and hedgerows.
• Dutch elm disease has negatively affected tree cover.

Mixed pasture and arable agricultural use that has developed on the neutral clay soils.

Justification for selection:

• Neutral clay soils supporting three quarters of the area are Grade 3 agricultural land.
• An area of mixed farming where on the slopes of the many minor valleys, on more undulating ground generally and close to settlements, pasture in small fields tends to predominate.
• There is a tendency for arable land on the broader flat river terraces.
• Between 2000 and 2009 cereal farming has increased slightly while dairy farming has reduced by one half.

The area is characterised by red brick buildings and attractive stone buildings in older village centres and the eastern towns and villages.

Justification for selection:

• The smaller towns of Rushden, Raunds and Oundle, are characterised by red brick buildings with attractive stone buildings common in older villages and in the buildings of larger country estates with their prominent parklands.
• Collyweston Slate and Barnack Stone are also found on the edge of the area from the quarries at Barnack in the Soke of Peterborough and Collyweston.
• The Lias Limestone at the centre of the area comprises greyish-blue clays with limestone and sandstone beds that come to the surface in the centre of Northamptonshire and around Market Harborough, although exposures are few. Certain beds within the Lias are of commercial importance, notably the marlstone or ‘rock bed’, at the top of the Middle Lias, which is used as a building stone, and parts of the Upper Lias which are excavated for brick-making.
• Northamptonshire Sand outcrops around Northampton and contains the distinctive ironstone with which so many buildings in Northamptonshire are constructed, particularly the villages in the north of
  the county, and surrounding counties.

Landscape opportunities

• Protect the open gently undulating landscape of gentle clay ridges and valleys with occasional steep scarp slopes with its rich and varied geodiversity and heritage features and its fragile but valuable woodland and hedgerow resource.
• Protect this landscape’s mixed farming regime and encourage the retention of pasture. Extend the influence of high quality patches of unimproved grassland by linking and buffering them with lowland pasture, hay meadows and grass margins and manage lowland grassland to prevent fragmentation to improve habitat condition, encourage species diversity and resilience to climate change following appropriate management options under Environmental Stewardship.
• Protect from damage and appropriately manage the areas cultural and historical heritage in particular the areas of ridge and furrow, historic country houses and their parkland setting in a landscape including veteran trees and hedgerows.
• Plan to establish a strong landscape framework as a context to potential modern development expansion from Northampton ensuring that new development does not have a negative impact on landscape character. Consider the visual impact of modern development particularly from urban intrusion and manage road improvements to maintain the existing character of the rural road network.
• Manage arable cropping patterns and arable cultivation to maintain strong visual identity and encourage rare arable plants and the range of farmland birds and mammals, following appropriate management options under Environmental Stewardship.
• Manage and conserve the distinctive field patterns, hedgerow networks and hedgerow trees. Ensure woodland can be managed as a single entity and include measures to reduce their fragmentation and restore structural diversity. Reintroduce active coppice management where this will enhance woodland habitat and wildlife interest and strengthen hedgerow networks, particularly the Midlands style of hedge laying and where hedgerows connect areas of woodland.
• Manage the network of streams and rivers, such as the Nene and the Welland, to maintain them as distinctive features in the landscape and enhance their riverine character and wildlife interest, while restoring, expanding and re-linking wetland habitats, and bringing rivers back into continuity with their flood plains where these will help sustain wetland habitats.
• Plan for the opportunity to enhance the old workings of gravel extraction sites along the river valleys, creating new wetland habitats and providing access and recreational opportunities.
• Plan for the use of traditional building materials for construction, extension and repair work.