115 - Thames Valley : Description

Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas

The catchment of the River Thames and its tributaries drain from the surrounding areas and provide strong links with many of the neighbouring NCAs. Rivers feed in from the Chilterns NCA (including the Chilterns chalk aquifer) to the north, the Thames Basin Heaths NCA and Thames Basin Lowlands NCA to the south, and the Northern Thames Basin NCA to the north-east (and also the Thames headwaters in the Cotswolds). The Thames then runs out through the Inner London NCA and into the Greater Thames Estuary NCA.

The Thames Valley NCA is dissected by major transport links that connect London to the west, including the M4, M40, the London orbital (M25), and the Paddington main line to the west, as well as a plethora of A-roads linking the main urban areas. It also includes nearly 35 km of the Grand Union Canal, linking London to the Midlands. These links, and the area’s geographical proximity to London, make the Thames Valley vital to the capital in terms of recreation and provision of resources. The area plays a key part in the flood defence strategy for central London, and the river and its reservoirs supply most of the city’s water needs.

There are views of the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs to the west, while, further east, the view of St Paul’s cathedral from Richmond Park is protected – an example of the important connections between this area and the capital.

The Thames Valley today

The Thames Valley is the principal western approach to London. The area is steeped in history and bound by the sweeping meanders of the main rivers and major arterial transport routes.

The underlying geology is dominated by the London Clay, giving rise to the heavy (and in places waterlogged) soils typical of much of the central part of the area. This is overlain by a complex sequence of sands and gravels that form the Thames flood plain, and a more complex record of river terraces that are important in understanding both the archaeological and more recent geological history of the area.

In the south-west, the gently rolling valley sides give way to a flatter plain east of Reading, which widens to include the Slough and Windsor areas. Much of this area is near flood level, although Slough lies on slightly terraced land above the flood plain and Windsor Castle sits on a prominent local outcrop of chalk.

Further north, the land is underlain by the edge of the Chilterns chalk aquifer and reflects the rolling hills of the nearby Chilterns. As the Thames approaches London in north Surrey, the flood plain is bounded in the distance to the south and west by low, wooded hills in the adjoining Thames Basin Heaths NCA.

In the centre, the open Thames flood plain dominates. This grazed pasture includes a number of designed parklands on higher ground. South of this are clay vales characterised by large, regular field patterns and small woods.

Further south, the Thames Valley is edged by wooded ridges and rolling farmland. The central and northern parts are dominated by medium-sized riverside towns such as Maidenhead, with many private rural houses.

The wealth of the area over a long period, and its natural scenic attractions, have left an overall atmosphere of sophistication that heightens along the Thames and especially at Windsor, with its Great Park characterised by rides, ancient woodland and ancient pollard trees. Windsor Forest and Great Park, as well as Richmond Park, are recognised internationally as being important for wildlife – particularly invertebrates, and notably violet click and stag beetle. Both have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Richmond Park has also been designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR).

Water is the unifying characteristic of the area and the Thames Path National Trail runs through its entire length. As well as the Thames and its tributaries, around Slough, the Colne Valley and areas further east, the overwhelming influences are from lakes left from mineral workings and vast raised reservoirs. This NCA provides most of the clean water for London and is important for wildlife. Over 800 ha of its waterbodies are internationally designated for their importance to breeding and wintering wildfowl; this area is known as the South-West London Waterbodies SPA.

Major roads (such as the M4, M40 and M25 motorways), Heathrow Airport and railways all contribute to the wealth of the area, but also give it a feeling of patchiness. The areas around these routes are surrounded by storage facilities and industrial units.

Rapid development has often left new structures and buildings unrelated to the landscape around them. Open spaces, many of them golf courses, are interspersed. The overall impression is of a lack of cohesiveness, although older villages and woodlands survive in surprising seclusion, and areas such as those owned by the Crown and Eton College have been preserved. The area along the river between Hampton and Kew reflects its royal patronage. The Thames forms the focus within a series of formally designed landscapes and fine historic houses, including Hampton Court Palace and Marble Hill House.

The landscape through time

The NCA forms the western part of the London Basin, a syncline bounded to the north by the chalk hills of the Chilterns and to the south by the North Downs. Chalk, deposited in an extensive shallow sea during the Cretaceous, underlies the NCA today, forming an aquifer and, in the north, a series of low hills, including the hill on which Windsor Castle sits. The Chalk is overlain by Cenozoic clays and sands, most notably the marine London Clay, which has led to the heavy and waterlogged soils typical of much of the NCA and underlying areas such as Richmond Park.

Much of the area is overlain by a complex sequence of Quaternary river-lain sands and gravels. These were deposited by the Thames as its course altered in response to ice-age warming and cooling. Most notable was the Anglian ice age, when ice advanced to the immediate north of the area, pushing the River Thames into its present-day course. The complex sequence of river terraces associated with the evolution of the Thames since this period have left the hillside terraced landscape characteristic of much of the NCA. These free-draining sands, gravels and associated soils have been important for market gardening and fruit growing, for the development of heathland and for numerous gravel extraction sites.

The area is rich in archaeological remains, including the iron-age hill fort at Bulstrode Park, a Mesolithic site at Braywick near Maidenhead, bronzeand iron-age earthworks around Burnham Beeches, and many important Neolithic and bronze-age sites, particularly along the river. (Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement on the Buried Floodplains of Runnymede, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, P Needham, 1985)

The strategic importance of the Thames made it an ideal route way and base for early invaders. In the first years of their campaign, the Romans built bridges, roads and camps around the Wimbledon and Staines areas. Windsor Castle was built by the Normans for defensive purposes soon after the Conquest. During the reign of Henry I it became a royal residence and the area began to flourish under royal patronage. Runnymede, considered to be neutral ground between Windsor and London, was selected for sealing Magna Carta in 1215.

As medieval London expanded, the surrounding countryside became tamed to support the growing population. In its natural state the River Thames would have been shallow and meandering, flowing through a wide bed of river gravels below Richmond Hill. This would easily have flooded across an extensive flood plain of marsh, reedbed, wet woodland and swamp extending inland for many miles. As settlement spread, wetlands were drained and the river corridor was modified to allow easier navigation, causing the tide to extend much further upstream than was natural. Before Teddington Lock was built (1810-12), the Thames was tidal as far as Staines. Agriculture thrived on the rich soils and, more recently, large areas of the flood plain were built on.

By the 15th century large tracts of woodland were managed to provide timber, charcoal and oak bark. Commercial activities on the Thames included fishing (particularly eel trapping), coppicing willows and osiers, and the operation of watermills for flour production, paper production and metal beating.

Following the construction of Richmond Palace and Hampton Court Palace during Tudor times, the landscape began to evolve as successive aristocratic families moved to the area or adapted their medieval estates in the modern style. Great houses were constructed along the river amid the water meadows and woodland.

Proximity to London ensured the prosperity of the area and provided a refuge from the dirt, disease and noise of the city. In the 18th century especially, the area attracted the most influential thinkers, poets, artists and landscape designers of the day. Inspired by the Thames and, notably, by the view from Richmond Hill, a radical new way of perceiving beauty in the landscape was born. Alexander Pope’s garden at Twickenham claims to be the origin of the English Landscape movement, and the landscape has provided continued inspiration for some of England’s greatest artists and writers. J M W Turner painted some of his best-loved works here and Shakespeare shows familiarity with the locality in his The Merry Wives of Windsor. It also inspired poets such as Wordsworth. Meanwhile, Horace Walpole’s house at Strawberry Hill was one of the most influential individual examples of Georgian ‘gothick’ architecture. It was also a time of science, and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew were created in 1759. From 1773, under Sir Joseph Banks, the gardens established their international reputation as a centre not only for botanical collections, but also for economic botany, exploring the practical relevance of newly discovered specimens from the new colonies. The river and other parts of the area became foci for development with villas, ornamental parks and residential development, from the mid 19th century especially.

The Thames was the principal means of transportation between London and the west until the 19th century. The Great Western Railway mainline, which ran through the area, and the completion of the M4 along a similar route in 1971, both ensured that the NCA continues to benefit from this role today.

The area’s proximity to London has led to relentless development, particularly during the 20th century. There have been several attempts to curb the spread of London since the time of Elizabeth I, but the principle of greenbelt was not firmly established until 1947. Nearly half of the NCA is designated as greenbelt land, characterised by some remnants of agriculture or market gardening. Nevertheless, the east has been drastically altered by the spread of outer London. The first-edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1865 show an open, farmed landscape of regular fields, relatively treeless but with groups of trees and orchards around the small villages. The scale, speed and range of development have left little sense of continuity. Yet there remain ‘lost villages’ where the relationship between village and immediate landscape survive intact. In 1880 the Corporation of London bought Burnham Beeches to protect it from development and maintain it as a public space, reflecting the area’s importance as an amenity for the population of London.

The farmed landscape has become extremely limited due to demands made on it by reservoirs, gravel pits, and recreational uses such as pony paddocks and golf courses. Once an important area for fruit production, being the birthplace of famous varieties such as the Cox’s Orange Pippin, 40 per cent of the fruit-growing area was lost between 1990 and 1998, and orchards now lie derelict or await development. Reclamation of disused mineral extraction sites has resulted in large expanses of lake and wetland, which are valuable recreational resources as well as providing important habitats for wildlife. The area remains a popular leisure amenity area, used for a wide range of activities such as boating, angling, walking and horse-riding.

While much of the Thames Valley is now developed, influenced by transport infrastructure, or altered by the extraction of aggregates, it is still possible to appreciate the verdant and productive landscape that attracted royalty and nobility. The view from Windsor Castle described by William Camden in 1586, although fragmented, can still be found and experienced in the ancient woodlands, meadows, parklands and productive agriculture of the area:

“It gazes down over the prospect of a wide and far-reaching vale, patterned with ploughland, green with its meadows, clad here and there with woodlands, and watered by the softly flowing Thames. Behind it the hills rise all around, neither rough nor very high, but crowned with woods as though Nature herself had dedicated them to the chase.”�