64 - Potteries and Churnet Valley : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Sheep and cattle rearing
• Dairying Cereals
• Water availability

State – The majority of the NCA has poor- quality soil in terms of productivity. More than half of the NCA has Agricultural Land Classification Grade 4 and over one-quarter is Grade 3 and this is reflected in the land use.

Restored former industrial and extractive sites are generally poorly drained and support rough grazing.

Predominantly lowland mixed livestock and dairy farming, including beef and sheep production ranging from small- scale to larger holdings.

Small areas of cereal farming at lower elevations on the southern fringe of the NCA.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Over three-quarters of the NCA is permanent pasture. Brown earth and podzol soils dominate the central area. To the north, towards Biddulph Moor and Mow Cop, outcrops of grit stone produce free-draining mineral soils with areas of poorly drained and seasonally waterlogged soils and peat soils which support rough grazing.

Mixed livestock production is the dominant agricultural system in the NCA. Over-stocking and incidences of cattle directly accessing watercourses and woodland can be an issue in some moorland areas.
Farm economics and the demand for land for development, recreational and equestrian use on the urban fringe, have led to a decline in the number of dairy farms.

Opportunities – Safeguard food provision and promote sustainable land management techniques in moorland and arable areas that will protect the water and soil resources of the NCA.

Encouraging sustainable farming practices and promoting suitable management of arable land in the south of the NCA, to deliver habitat for farmland birds.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Food provision
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Water availability
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Conifer plantations
• Native woodlands

State – Some timber production from commercial conifer plantations, particularly in the southern Churnet Valley.

Native woodland is a significant feature of the NCA, representing seven per cent of the total area. Of this area, approximately 2 per cent is ancient semi-natural woodland. Significant areas of woodland include the Churnet Valley and Coombes Valley Nature Reserve.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The greatest concentration of woodland is in the Churnet Valley where there are large Forest Enterprise leaseholds and other coniferous woodlands, mostly comprising Corsican pine. The majority of commercial timber is processed outside the NCA for chip and wood pulp. Conifer plantations effectively increase fragmentation of semi- natural woodland. Many characteristic species of native woodland are unable to move through coniferous woodland, therefore the location of new conifer plantations needs to take this into account.

The management of native woodland throughout the NCA is variable. However, landscape partnerships, non-government organisations and voluntary sector organisations are bringing more hectares of woodland into positive management, resulting in more timber available for forest products.

The impetus towards restoring native species on plantation on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) currently populated by commercial softwood plantations will have a detrimental effect on the wood chip and pulp supply.

Opportunities – Opportunities to stimulate wood products and the wood fuel market in urban areas in order to sustain the management of native woodlands.

Managing more woodland for timber will benefit other services.

Ensure that new conifer plantations do not fragment areas of semi-natural woodland.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Climate regulation
• Water availability
• Regulating water quality
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• River Trent
• River Churnet
• River Dove
• Minor aquifers
• Rudyard Reservoir and canals
• Mining subsidence pools and small ponds

State – The catchment supports limited abstraction for public water supply, spray irrigation and industrial purposes. The status of the rivers Churnet and Dove is ‘over abstracted’ (Dove Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2006) while the River Trent which, rises on Biddulph Moor has ‘no water available.’ (Staffordshire Trent Valley Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007)

Minor sandstone aquifers occur around Leek and Alton although abstraction licences ‘will not be granted’ (Dove Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2006). The minor Foresbrook sandstone aquifer in Stoke is ‘over abstracted’ (Staffordshire Trent Valley Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007).

Rudyard Reservoir was constructed as a feeder reservoir for the Caldon Canal. The Trent and Mersey Canal also passes through the NCA.

In the Churnet Valley, there are ponds associated with the many issues, field drains and ex-quarrying, as well as historic fish ponds.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – During the summer months the volume of water in the River Churnet is insufficient to meet abstraction demands and the need to protect the river ecosystems and experiential qualities of the NCA. Therefore additional water is supplied from Tittesworth reservoir, located outside the NCA, to maintain flow levels in the Churnet.

Limited abstraction for public water supply takes place from the minor sandstone aquifers within the NCA and Tittesworth and Blithfield reservoirs in the neighbouring NCA.

Rudyard Reservoir is fed by a system of sluices and channels from the River Dane outside the NCA. Supplying canals with water and surface water transfers increases the demand for abstraction.

The Caldon Canal and the River Churnet share the same channel along a section of the valley and separate with a series of weirs at Consall Forge.

Mining subsidence ultimately resulted in forming what is now known as Westport Lake; the largest waterbody in the city of Stoke and a Local Nature Reserve managed by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.

Opportunities – Promote the sustainable use of water in domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors to reduce demand.

Where appropriate, encourage rainwater harvesting and the construction of winter water storage reservoirs in agricultural areas.

Identify and enhance areas for natural water storage, for example lowland wetlands. Slow the flow of surface water for example, by planting reedbeds, expanding flood meadows, creating ponds and scrapes. These measures have multiple benefits.

Maintain and extend riparian woodland along the Churnet Valley to increase interception rates and slow the flow of surface water.

More semi-natural habitats and permanent grassland along the Dove Valley will improve infiltration rates.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Water availability
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Agri-diversity-rare breeds
• Native species of fruit

State – In situ conservation of livestock in farming systems is the main conservation strategy to maintaining numbers of native and rare breeds. There are a small number of rare breed stock rearing farms in the NCA, thus maintaining populations on farms.

There are many hedgerows beside footpaths, old packhorse trails, tramways, canal towpaths and plateways, and old railway lines that criss-cross the NCA.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Stock rearing has a long heritage in the NCA, mainly due to permanent pasture on the poor-quality soil. Breeding of native and rare breed livestock helps conserve the native genetic diversity; breeds include, short-horn and brown Swiss cattle.

Native breeds of livestock can also provide quality, local, niche, food products.

Hedgerows along old trade routes often contain uncultivated and feral species of fruit , for example in the Churnet Valley, apples, pears, damsons, plums, gooseberries and blackcurrants can be found along the many paths and were once harvested.

The genetic diversity that livestock, fruit and crops provide can make an important contribution to food security by retaining genes that are important for future livestock or crop breeding.

Opportunities – Native or rare breed livestock are can be used in a grazing regime associated with traditional land management required to conserve semi-natural habitats.

Protect and manage hedgerows beside the many trails and lanes that criss-cross the NCA to ensure that these provide linear connections for biodiversity and strengthen the sense of place.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Genetic diversity
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Existing woodland
• Energy crops
• Forestry by-product

State – Nearly 10 per cent of the NCA is woodland, providing a resource for biomass in the form of; timber from forestry that is unsuitable for its intended purpose; arisings from arboricultural activities associated with woodland management, for example coppicing and pollarding.

There is a high potential yield for miscanthus and short-rotation- coppice (SRC) in the NCA except for the north west where potential miscanthus yield is medium and low for SRC (Joint Character Areas, Natural England).

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The use of arisings from woodland and arboricultural management not suitable for timber provision could be used for biomass production.

The steep-sided valleys in the upper reaches of the Churnet make it unviable for commercial biomass production however the lower reaches of the Churnet and Dove valley could support SRC and or miscanthus.

Opportunities – Opportunities for landscape scale collection of arisings and timber waste in hubs, for supply to residential wood fuel market close to population centres and supply to biomass boilers in local amenity and civic buildings.

Encourage the installation of small-scale wood-fuel boilers in local buildings.

Opportunities to grow energy crops in the lower reaches of the Churnet and Dove valley where it is not detrimental to habitat or landscape character.

Bring more woodland in to positive management to provide wood fuel.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Biodiversity
• Climate regulation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Woodland Heathland
• Other semi-natural habitats
• Carbon-rich peat soils
• Wetland habitats

State – Woodland is likely to be the most significant contributor to carbon storage and sequestration in this NCA. Nearly 10 per cent of the NCA is covered by woodland. Significant areas include Churnet Valley and Coombes Valley nature reserve.

There is remnant Heathland in the NCA, for example Cheddleton Heath.

Carbon-rich peat soils occur in the uplands and moorlands in the NCA, for example Biddulph Moor.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Good management of existing woodland can ensure their role in sequestering and storing carbon is optimised.

Trees planted in urban areas provide multiple benefits; shade, mitigation of the effects of the urban heat island, increased water infiltration rates and purifying the air.

Heathlands are characterised by a cover of 25 per cent of ericaceous dwarf shrubs. Woody shrub species play an important role in carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems.

Peat soils are important because of their role in storing carbon and other greenhouse gases.

Opportunities – Maintain existing woodland and expand areas of woodland on suitable sites to increase carbon sequestration and storage. For example, encourage existing initiatives in the Churnet Valley and in the Potteries.

Maintain and enhance the existing areas of heath by arresting further losses or degradation; where appropriate, create secondary heathland on post-industrial sites.

On permanent pasture, encourage sustainable grazing regimes with appropriate stocking levels and adopting low input fertiliser systems. Prioritise the restoration of bare, eroded peatland habitats.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Climate regulation
• Biodiversity
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history

No information available.

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Streams and brooks
• Mine waters
• Groundwater Aquifers

State – For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Climate change may result in falling water levels which would have a detrimental effect on water quality; affecting Biological Oxygen Demand; reducing flow rate; increasing the concentration and potency of pollutants and thus placing significant stress on the ecology.

Safeguard zones are a joint initiative between the Environment Agency and water companies contributing towards the objectives of the Water Framework Directive, while CSF delivers practical solutions to enable farmers and land managers to reduce diffuse water pollution.

The Lyme Brook is a tributary of the River Trent and has bad water quality and little aquatic life, due mainly to its misuse as a waste disposal route by industry and through domestic plumbing misconnections. Landscape partnerships are beginning to address these issues.

Opportunities – Support partners and communities to identify point-source and diffuse pollution, misconnections and discharges in urban areas, particularly around the Lyme Brook.

In agricultural areas, reduce foul runoff from outdoor feeding areas, silage clamps, yards and cattle tracks; prevent stock from entering streams and poaching stream banks and manage livestock to avoid poaching of fields by cattle movement.

Buffering watercourses from nutrient run-off, improved soil stabilisation and protection.

Ensuring that moorland habitats are well vegetated and under good environmental management to reduce areas of bare earth at risk of erosion leading to sedimentation of watercourses.

Rising mine water will need careful management involving a range of measures that will require an integrated approach from partners to minimise the impact on water quality. In areas of freely draining soils, measures should be taken to minimise fertiliser inputs and the use of pesticides to prevent groundwater pollution.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water quality
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers and watercourses
• Bridges and weirs
• Semi-natural vegetation
• Riparian woodland
• Sustainable urban drainage schemes (SUDS)

State – The Environment Agency’s flood risk map indicates the risk of flooding in the Peaks and Moorlands area is ‘low’ although there are a number of locations where the risk is significant and moderate. These areas are along the Lyme Valley in Newcastle and at various locations in Stoke and throughout the Churnet and Dove Valleys.

Leek and Cheddleton are identified as being at significant risk of flooding.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Narrow valleys mean that settlements tend to be concentrated near rivers. Rapid run-off from the neighbouring Peak District and the Staffordshire Moorlands results in flooding in downstream towns and villages.

Bridges and weirs constrict the flow and tend to make the flooding worse.

Although flooding damages infrastructure, the Churnet Valley SSSI includes wetland habitats; mire, marsh and carr that benefit from flood events.

Riparian woodland is important along the valleys and cloughs of the NCA by providing an effective filter and buffer, helping to trap sediment and slowing the flow of surface water.

In urban areas, intense or prolonged rainfall can overwhelm drainage systems. Open areas with unsealed soil, as part of SUDS, can reduce the magnitude of flood events by allowing rainfall and run-off to infiltrate. The inclusion of greenspace in new developments can help alleviate flood risk.

Opportunities – Identify natural areas for floodwater storage to reduce the reliance on hard engineering solutions; widening where possible and ensuring flood plains are not inappropriately developed, reinstating flood meadows throughout the riparian environs and ensuring dual use of riparian open spaces in urban areas, for example flood-compatible playing fields and parks.

Using water supply reservoirs upstream of the NCA for floodwater storage.

Removing constrictions to flow, such as weirs. This will also benefit migratory fish.

Increase the length of open water corridors through the urban areas by de-culverting rivers and streams and creating riparian habitat, for example reedbeds that can reduce the rate of run-off and filter water.

Ensuring that new developments take into account the principles of SUDS by including green spaces and areas of land with unsealed surfaces.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water flow
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Unimproved pastures and areas of semi-natural vegetation
• Sustainable management of livestock
• Sustainable systems of arable cultivation
• Former industrial and extractives sites

State – The majority of the NCA has poor-quality soil. According to the Agricultural Land Classification system, over half the area of the NCA is Grade 4 and over one-quarter is Grade 3 and this is reflected in the land use; over three-quarters of the area being permanent pasture for grazing and stock rearing with some dairying and a small area of arable cropping in the south of the NCA.

Soils on spoil heaps and on former extractive sites are prone to compaction because of poor structure and drainage.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Soils are a multi-functional resource that provides a range of ecosystem goods and services. The slowly permeable, seasonally wet acid loamy and clayey soils (covering 43 per cent of the NCA) are at risk of diffuse pollution and flooding as a result of poor water infiltration. Soils are easily damaged when wet and therefore it is important to minimise compaction and/or capping risk which will tend to exacerbate run-off problems.

In contrast, the freely draining slightly acid loamy soils (17 per cent) are valuable for aquifer recharge around Leek, requiring the maintenance of good soil structure to aid water infiltration.

Unimproved pastures and areas of semi- natural vegetation help to stabilise the soil and improve infiltration of rainwater.

Well-managed agricultural systems can alleviate the risk of damaging soil structure and can improve soil quality.

Mines and quarries disturb the natural soil profile and local hydrology. On colliery spoil, the loamy and clayey soils are prone to capping and compaction however well designed restoration schemes can avoid these conditions.

Opportunities – Well-managed livestock systems; appropriate stocking levels and preventing stock from entering wetland areas can alleviate the risk of poaching and compaction of the loamy and clayey soils.

In arable areas, ensure that organic matter is incorporated into cultivated soils to increase soil organic matter and use minimum tillage on areas where loamy soil occurs.

Improving soil structure by introducing recycled organic matter sourced from local recycling centres and installing appropriate drainage during the restoration of mineral extraction sites, can deliver benefits to ecosystem services.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Water availability
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Permanent grassland
• Wetland vegetation
• Field boundary features
• Old spoil heaps and tips

State – Over one-quarter of the NCA has a free-draining light, sandy, soil. Free-draining soils in upland areas or in areas of steeply sloping land where bare earth is exposed are most at risk from wind erosion.

The more fertile soils in the valleys and cloughs are at risk from flood events. Permanent cover of vegetation stabilises exposed upland and steeply sloping areas. Wetland habitats stabilise soils in valleys and cloughs and slow water flow.

Hedgerows are prevalent at lower elevations, giving way to drystone walls at higher elevations and woodland encloses ancient woodland pasture in the Churnet Valley; all of which protect the soil resource from wind erosion.

Soils on spoil heaps and on former extraction sites are prone to capping, compaction, and erosion from rainfall.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Well-managed livestock and arable systems can prevent soil erosion. For example, appropriate stocking levels and the incorporation of organic matter in arable fields.

Permanent pastures and leys predominate and measures that ensure minimal disturbance to the vegetation will reduce the risk of bare earth and thus soil erosion. In the valleys and cloughs, measures to protect the wetland vegetation should be adopted. Stabilisation of soils reduces the rate of siltation of watercourses.

Hedgerows and drystone walls offer resource protection to soils and maintain historic field patterns, but also provide wildlife corridors and strengthen the landscape character.

Fragments of naturally regenerated vegetation have developed around former spoil heaps, tips and industrial sites stabilising the soil and increasing infiltration rates. These areas are seed donor sites for colonising other former industrial areas.

Opportunities – Agri-environment schemes and Catchment Sensitive Farming schemes provide incentives to adopt sustainable farming practises that can prevent soil erosion.

Where appropriate in the landscape encourage the expansion of areas of semi- natural vegetation.

Protect the integrity of traditional field boundaries in preference to stock-proof fencing, to benefit resource protection, biodiversity and sense of place.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulation soil quality
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Species-rich grassland (lowland heath and meadow)
• Registered Parks and Gardens
• Formal public parks, residential gardens and allotments of the urban areas
• Open mosaic habitat on previously developed land
• Flower-rich roadside verges

State – The NCA contains areas of lowland heath, meadow and grassland.

The NCA contains nine Registered Parks and Gardens, covering over 500 ha.

In the urban areas, there are a number of public parks together with residential gardens and allotments.

Open mosaic habitats within Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke- on-Trent conurbation provided niche habitats for a range of vegetation that is important to invertebrates.

Flower-rich roadside verges also support this service and link together habitats both visually and naturally by providing wildlife corridors.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Areas of lowland heath, meadow and grassland habitats provide sources of nectar for pollinating insects. Late flowering nectar sources, such as heather, are important in providing supply of nectar over an extended period of time.

An increase in the populations of pollinators may facilitate an increase in the types of crops that could be grown in the future thus expanding the range of food provision and increasing the resilience to the effects of climate change.

Registered Parks and Gardens often have a diverse range of flowering plants in formal gardens that provide a diverse source of nectar.

Residential gardens, allotment sites and open mosaic habitat on previously developed land provide important sources of nectar in the urban areas and often have more diverse sources of nectar than agricultural monocultures.

Opportunities – Manage areas of heathland and increase the area and connectivity of flower-rich lowland meadow and encourage the use of nectar and forage mixes in arable systems.

In urban areas, raise awareness of the benefits that open mosaic habitat, gardens and allotments can deliver.

Encourage the spread of flower- rich roadside verges. Increasing the areas that support sources of nectar would also result in a significant increase in biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Food provision

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Areas of semi- natural habitat
• Hedgerows
• Headwaters

State – Flower-rich meadows and unimproved pastures.

The network of hedgerows at lower elevations.

The native white clawed crayfish is present in the high quality waters of the springs feeding the River Churnet. There are increased incidences of crayfish plague and invasive non-native species of signal crayfish.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The contribution to pest regulation services is limited.

Semi-natural habitats and hedges proximal to areas of commercial arable agriculture may support species of predators that can regulate populations of pests that adversely affect crop yields, hence food provision.

The headwaters of the River Churnet are of particularly high quality and support metapopulations of native crayfish. It is important to protect the integrity of these headwaters from crayfish plague, a fungal disease, carried by the signal crayfish; itself an invasive species.

Opportunities – Introducing semi-natural habitats, in arable systems, in the south of the NCA, for example beetle banks, headlands and reinstatement of hedgerows.

This would provide a mosaic of habitats in areas of monoculture, thus providing a more robust ecosystem.

Support measures to halt the spread of the signal crayfish into the headwaters. Encourage increased surveillance and re- introduction projects.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Biodiversity
• Food provision
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Varied topography with woodland, river valleys and wooded cloughs
• Historic buildings and parklands including Registered Parks and Gardens boundary features and squatter enclosures
• Industrial buildings and streamside mills
• Rudyard Reservoir
• Historic transport routes
• Heritage-rich industrial townscapes

State – Contrasting sense of place is evoked by the pastoral, strongly dissected hills, cloughs and small plateaux which flank the Churnet valley and the heritage-rich, urban and industrialised landscape of the Potteries.

The grandeur of the scenery overlooking the Churnet Valley has inspired historians and authors to write about the landscape. The lush, rural landscape of the lower reaches of the Churnet Valley inspired the author George Eliot to christen the area ‘Loamshire’ in her novel Adam Bede. In contrast, the author Arnold Bennett immortalised the area of Stoke with his ‘Five Towns’ novels by describing the heavily industrialised towns. Burslem is ‘Bursley’ in the novels and many of the buildings mentioned are still standing.

The historic centres of the towns of Cheadle and Leek have been heavily influenced by the textile trade.

Historic parklands including Registered Parks and Gardens provide a setting for grand country houses and their designed landscapes with vistas create local distinctiveness, for example Farley Hall, Alton Towers and Biddulph Grange.

Rudyard Reservoir; a feeder reservoir for the local Caldon Canal and Trent and Mersey Canal became a popular local pleasure resort from 1849 onwards. The writer Rudyard Kipling was named after the lake.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Historic parklands provide the settings for grand mansions, for example Biddulph Grange and Alton Towers, that evoke a strong sense of place, with the village of Alton having a distinct Italian style. Often, the surrounding countryside was managed to provide vistas; a characteristic of the Churnet Valley.

In the Churnet Valley, hedgerows with hedgerow trees and hedgerow banks aside sunken lanes evoke a sense of enclosure, epitomised by small- scale squatter enclosures.

The Potteries are characterised by the bottle kilns that were once widespread, for example the Grade II listed bottle kiln at Moorcroft. Canals, wharfages, disused railway lines and derelict land add to the sense of industry that once prevailed.

Along the River Churnet, water mills once powered flint mills for the pottery industry.

Metal ores and minerals were processed at Froghall. The brick chimney of Bolton Copperworks still dominates the landscape.

Opportunities – Protect the historic parklands and country mansions and maintain the designed vistas associated with these estates.

Support the objectives of Conservation Areas. Encourage collaboration between landscape partnerships and English Heritage.

Restore hedgerows with typical species, by gapping up and planting their accompanying hedgerow trees; adopting appropriate cutting regimes and tagging to extend the age range and species diversity. Maintain drystone walls in upland areas in preference to using stock-proof fencing thus optimising their value to resource protection and sense of place and history.

Protect and manage the squatter enclosures, a distinctive indicator of historic land use that are directly associated with industrial expansion of the towns.

Protect and manage the historic buildings of the historic centres, seek alternative sustainable recreational uses for derelict sites.

Protect buried archaeological assets from disturbance.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Recreation
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Industrial heritage
• Historic buildings and parklands including Registered Parks and Gardens
• Churches, industrial buildings and streamside mills
• Historic transport routes
• Boundary features and squatter enclosures
• Pre-industrial landscapes
• Historic heathland habitats with their smallholdings

State – Industry has had a significant impact on the landscape, providing a rich sense of history. During the 18th century, famous potters, for example Wedgwood and Spode, gained international reputation and the towns of Stoke gained the epithet of ‘the potteries’ typified by bottle kilns and terrace houses of the workers. Some of the potteries remain.

Canals, wharfs, disused railway lines and derelict land add to the sense of history of the industry that once prevailed. By the end of the 19th century in Leek, the silk industry became increasingly concentrated in factories in the town.

Along the River Churnet, water mills powered flint mills and foundries. Metal ores and minerals were historically important; at Froghall, Bolton Copperworks dominates the landscape. The most prominent feature is the brick chimney which can be viewed from the surrounding landscape.

Pre-industrial assets still legible in the landscape include areas of remnant ridge and furrow and burial mounds from prehistoric occupation.

Historic heathland habitats with their smallholdings are rare surviving examples of rural-industrial landscapes

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The relatively recent expansion of the six towns ‘ Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton, and Longton’ has obscured the evidence that they were once a series of upland settlements, however, they have retained their own historic centres comprising civic buildings and large Victorian churches which are now prominent features in the landscape and are an important component of the historic character of area.

Landed-wealth and industry- generated wealth led to the development of a number of country mansions set in their landscaped parks and gardens, the most notable being Alton Towers. This and other parks and gardens have now become popular tourist destinations, close to population centres and provide recreation as well as employment.

The NCA has a long association with agriculture as evidenced by small areas of ridge and furrow in the south of the NCA.

The influence of the Cistercian monasteries on the medieval landscape is likely to have been significant with a sheep-based economy and later charcoal and iron; squatter enclosures, granted to settlers during the industrial expansion and the abundance of holly in some woods, retained for its value as fodder for cattle. All of which contribute to the sense of history.

Historic assets such as remnant ridge and furrow, and burial mounds need protection from modern land uses.

Opportunities – Protect and manage the heritage assets of the NCA so that the legacy remains legible in the landscape.

Maintain the historic buildings and infrastructure of past industry, trade and semi-natural woodland, once managed for charcoal.

Support the objectives of conservation areas in the built environment and measures to protect areas of ridge and furrow and buried artefacts in the agricultural environment.

Protect heathland habitats with their smallholdings; rare surviving examples of rural-industrial landscapes.

Investigate sustainable transport solutions to alleviate traffic congestion in the villages of Alton and Farley and in the narrow lanes of the NCA. Create new cycle routes and footpaths utilising disused railway lines and trails.

In collaboration with English Heritage, consider the sensitive redevelopment of derelict historic buildings with interpretation and visitor access.

Encourage collaboration between landscape partnerships and English Heritage to reinstate traditional land management of parklands and estate grounds with appropriate visitor access and interpretation.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• River valleys woodland and cloughs
• Parklands and gardens and country parks
• Rudyard Reservoir
• Biddulph and Wetley moors
• Interlocking network of green spaces in the Potteries including public parks and open spaces

State – Referring to the CPRE intrusion map, 2007, tranquillity has declined since the 1960s. Undisturbed areas have decreased by 11 per cent reflecting the urban expansion of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme and the increasing amount of traffic.

Tranquillity can be found in the river valleys of the Dove and wooded areas of the Churnet Valley and the many cloughs, which provide an intimate, enclosed sense of tranquillity.

Open moorlands also evoke a sense of tranquillity and solitude.

Parklands and gardens and local nature reserves offer opportunities for quiet reflection, for example Trentham Gardens, Biddulph Grange and Hem Heath Wood Local Nature Reserve.

Rudyard Reservoir also offers opportunities for quiet reflection.

In contrast to the densely populated areas of the Potteries, there exists a network of green spaces, developed on former industrial and extractive sites that evoke a sense of tranquillity in the heart of the urban area.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Managed woodland should include plans to improve access to tranquil locations while ensuring it does not compromise sensitive habitats and species.

Much of the eastern NCA remains relatively free from urban development and in the Churnet Valley, historic parklands and their settings offer views out across a largely unspoiled landscape.

In the urban area, landscape- scale reclamation of former mines and industrial sites has led to the creation of the Lyme Valley Park, Apedale Country Park, Central Forest Park, Westport Lake, Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park and the garden festival site at Etruria, providing a sense of tranquillity in the heart of the urban area. Public parks, for example Fenton and Hanley, also provide high-quality open spaces in otherwise densely populated areas.

Opportunities – Encourage the provision of improved access to woodland as part of woodland management to increase opportunities to experience tranquillity.

Maintain historic parklands, the landscape and villages that surround them. Resist the introduction of urban features in to the rural/ village landscape, for example unnecessary lighting and signage.

Encourage the connectivity of greenspace in urban areas and improve access.

Support initiatives that raise the quality of urban green spaces and public parks, for example the Green Flag Award.

Support objectives of conservation areas, for example Rudyard Reservoir and Trent and Mersey.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Tranquillity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Alton Towers leisure resort
• Historic Parks and Gardens and Country Parks
• Network of public rights of way and local trails including canals
• Churnet Valley heritage railway
• Open heathlands of the Staffordshire Moorlands

State – The Alton Towers resort attracts approximately 2.5 million visitors per year. During peak times, access can exceed 20,000 visitors per day, placing pressure on infrastructure and the environment.

There are a number of Historic Parks and Gardens, for example Trentham Gardens and Biddulph Grange. Park Hall NNR and Apedale Country Park are all located close to population centres providing recreational facilities.

An extensive network of public rights of way and local trails, many a legacy of past trade and industry. The Greenway Cycleway, Sabrina Way; a National Bridle route and a section of the Staffordshire Way run through the NCA linking the many country parks and nature reserves.

Stoke is one of 12 Cycling Cities promoting and developing a cycling culture in the city. National Cycle Network routes 5 and 55 pass through the urban area.

The Churnet Valley Railway offers a round trip through the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Tourist destinations, for example Alton Towers and Trentham Gardens, make a significant contribution to the visitor economy of the region and provide employment in the service industries. This is both a benefit and a challenge. The impact of visitors to Alton Towers is heavy traffic flow through the centres of Alton and Farley villages which, is both hazardous and disruptive for the local residents and boundary walls. Traffic impacting on buildings and boundary walls is a serious problem and both pollution and vibration are damaging. Pollution blackens buildings, rock-outcrops, and acidifies soil.

The Caldon Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal were built for the transport of goods and materials. Today, they are used by pleasure craft and the towpaths are heavily used for recreation. Some stretches of the Caldon Canal are suffering from erosion.

Rights of way, canals and railway lines were essential to traders who brought in materials and foodstuffs and exported finished goods and produce. Today these routes provide recreational access to open spaces, country parks and Local Nature Reserves; the heritage features and wildlife of the NCA, providing physical and mental health related benefits for local residents.

The Churnet Valley (heritage) Railway has aspirations to re-open lines and extend the network into Stoke and Leek, connecting the Staffordshire Moorlands with the main line at Stoke. The proposed route will pass through Alton Towers theme park. The proposal also includes options to carry passengers as well as freight.

The proposed extension to the Churnet Valley Railway line could offer a sustainable solution to traffic congestion in the villages and narrow lanes of the Churnet Valley and reduce lorry movements associated with Cauldon Quarry and cement works, in the neighbouring NCA.

Opportunities – Support appropriate measures to improve the principal access routes to Alton Towers. Investigate sustainable transport solutions to alleviate traffic congestion in the villages of Alton and Farley and in the narrow lanes of the NCA.

Encouraging the development of an integrated transport network between visitor attractions that links with public rights of way and cycle routes.

Opportunities exist for farm diversification; short stay and long stay accommodation; sites for camping and tourist caravans, especially along rights of way, for example the Sabrina Way Bridleway and proximal to the Peak National Park.

Encouraging more people to visit the open countryside for quiet enjoyment to meet the needs of diverse audiences, improve health and well being while reducing the number of visitors to traffic-congested sites.

Support and promote community engagement and participation, to provide local people and visitors with the range of benefits offered by contact with the natural environment.

Manage sustainably, the demand for water and energy resources and providing recycling facilities at tourist destinations, to minimise the impact on the environment and to raise awareness.

Encourage the use of Public Rights of Way and The Staffordshire Way, through improved access, circular walks, and appropriate signage and interpretation. Support the objectives of the Staffordshire County Council Rights of Way Improvement Plan.

Consider new technological solutions to interpret habitats, artefacts and historic buildings, describing the role each have had in the heritage and development of the landscape over time.

Restored canals and disused railway lines can offer sustainable transport solutions; offer recreational opportunities; increase access to the industrial heritage of the NCA; inspire volunteer activities; public art and sculpture; education trails and skills development events.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Recreation
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• SSSI
• Ancient semi-natural broadleaf woodland
• Running and still water habitats including riparian habitat
• Grassland, heathland and lowland meadows
• Urban habitats including open mosaic habitat on previously developed land, Country Parks, Local Nature Reserves and Local Sites

State – Twelve SSSI designated for biodiversity within the NCA. Over 3,700 ha, representing 7 per cent of the NCA, host
priority woodland, of which, 3 per cent is ancient woodland.

The Trent, Churnet and Dove rivers and their many headwater streams. Some of the streams of the NCA rise or flow on limestone producing base-rich water, which partially affect the species composition, for example Hudford Brook.

The presence of both lowland heath (116 ha) and upland heath (43 ha) reflects the transition from lowland to upland vegetation.

The largest remnant of lowland heathland and wet heath with mire occurs at Wetley Moor SSSI, to the east of Stoke.

Grasslands comprise; lowland dry acid grassland; lowland calcareous grassland. Purple moor grass is also evident and a small component of upland calcareous grassland.

Landscape-scale reclamation of former mines, spoil heaps, pottery tips and industrial sites has created Apedale Community Country Park, Lyme Valley Park, Central Forest Park, Westport Lake, Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park and the garden festival site at Etruria, providing a sense of tranquillity at the heart of the urban area.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Churnet Valley SSSI and Coombes Valley SSSI are especially rich in invertebrate species; over 30 species of beetle including two nationally rare species which are dependent on the continuous presence of deadwood and over-mature trees. An assemblage of priority woodland bird species, including, tree pipit, redstart, wood warbler and pied flycatcher, with dippers frequently seen along the watercourses. Stream sections also support communities of mosses and liverworts including the nationally scarce species of liverwort Meylan’s/ Nees’ pouchwort.

Riparian woodland slows flow rates and provides a source of large, woody debris that provides habitat for the rare logjammer hoverfly, caddis and soldier flies. Woody debris also provides habitat for salmonids. Brown trout and the native white-clawed crayfish can all be found in the main watercourses.

There is a transition from lowland to upland moorland characteristics. Some heathland occurs at higher elevations above the Churnet Valley; there are fragments of heath to the north of Stoke and extensive areas of heathland/moorland on the millstone grit outcrops of Mow Cop and Biddulph Moor.

Important concentrations of unimproved grassland and enclosed fields on higher ground including traditional hay meadows; some support breeding curlew and snipe and some are of great botanical diversity, where regionally rare greater butterfly orchids are present, for example Bath Pasture SSSI and Froghall Meadow and Pastures SSSI.

In the Potteries, areas of ‘trapped countryside’ and open mosaic habitat on previously developed land provide ‘stepping stones’ of habitat through the conurbation and together with country parks, Local Nature Reserves and Local Wildlife Sites, provide physical and mental health related benefits for local residents.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to improve the quality, connectivity and diversity of core sites, for example SSSI, Local Sites and Local Nature Reserves and increasing the wildlife value of buildings, gardens, local authority-owned open spaces, canals, railway lines, road verges and managing blocks of woodland.

Encourage connectivity of biodiversity both through and between the urban and rural areas.

Reverse habitat fragmentation by expanding areas of heathland and restoring typical zones of woodland. Buffer core sites by developing transitional scrub communities between woodland and adjoining habitats.

Manage riparian woodland ensuring a supply of deadwood and over-mature trees. Manage wood pasture and parklands in keeping with their design and reinstate native woodland on PAWS.

Halt the loss and degradation of heathland by appropriate management and sustainable stocking levels.

Reinstating grazing regimes on traditional hay meadows and protecting and managing unimproved grassland for breeding waders.

Encourage equestrian landowners to lay mixed species grassland and plant native species hedgerows.

Increase the surveillance of key habitats and species by surveying to monitor the distribution and population sizes of species as an indicator of habitat quality and providing opportunities for volunteering and training.

Protecting the historic heathland habitats for their biodiversity and contribution to sense of history through smallholdings.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Natural rock outcrops
• Road, rail and canal cuttings
• Glacial and present-day geomorphological processes
• Local stone used as a building material
• Minerals and ores
• Mines and quarries Designated sites

State – The NCA is rich in minerals and geodiversity assets.

Natural outcrops occur at Mow Cop, Congleton Edge, Cloud Side, and Wetley Rocks. Man-made cuttings provide important cross- sections through strata, for example Caldon Canal and the many railway cuttings.

Past geomorphological processes cut the Churnet Valley and present day processes occur in the valley streams and dynamic river systems.

Sandstone from the Millstone Grit Group has been used widely in the NCA as a walling material in both farm buildings and drystone walls.

There are a number of operational and non- operational extraction sites in the NCA.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Past and present quarrying, canal and railway cuttings provide a valuable opportunity for understanding the geological history of the area and demonstrating the link between geodiversity and the development of landscape, settlements and industry. For example, Hulme Quarry SSSI and NNR provides excellent exposures of the Triassic river-lain red conglomerates and sandstones.

Glacial meltwater caused the ‘derangement’ of the pre-existing drainage systems, for example three-way valley intersections around Rudyard Lake and Horse Bridge.

Present-day geomorphic activity includes tufa deposits of the valley springs and landslide activity within valley sides, for example at Walton’s Wood. The rivers Trent and Churnet both illustrate fluvial activity in the form of channel migration and flood plain deposition.

There are a number of clay and shale quarries centred on Newcastle-under- Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent for brick and tile manufacture.

On the Millstone Grit, around Leek and Hollington, there are a number of operational sandstone quarries producing building stone.

Opportunities – Raise the profile of geodiversity, through increased education and interpretation to show how geology influences settlement patterns, human activity and innovation, from source rock to product and relate this to the landscape.

Work with highway and local authorities to maintain the integrity of road cuttings while not obscuring geological exposures with hard engineering solutions.

Improve access to and interpretation of present-day geomorphic activity associated with the rivers Trent, Churnet and Dove.

Appropriate, small-scale extraction from quarries could provide building stone to repair historic buildings, thus maintaining the vernacular.

Work in partnership to further the objectives and aspirations of the Local Geodiversity Action Plan and to develop restorative management of Local Geological Sites offering opportunities for volunteering and learning.

Negotiate long-term conservation of exposures with mineral companies and site owners at key geological sites.

Restoration of sand and gravel pits for biodiversity, also providing access and interpretation where possible.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Geodiversity
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity
• Recreation