Management Plan 2014 - 2019 Tamar Valley AONB Tamar Valley Centre Cemetery Road Drakewalls Gunnislake Cornwall PL18 9FE 01822 835030 [email protected] www.tamarvalley.org.uk AONB Management Plan 2014 - 2019 Valley Tamar A vibrant, dynamic, living landscape Photography All photographs are taken from the Tamar Valley AONB archives: Ted Giffords, Chris Chapman, Barry Gamble, Simon Burt, Okeltor Boathouse and the Tamar Valley AONB Team Production Tamar Valley AONB Team with the support of the Tamar Valley AONB Partnership. Design Rebecca Lumbis, Tamar Valley AONB Print Latimer Trend, www.latimertrend.co.uk The quotes at the beginning of each chapter are drawn from a community activity - ‘Diarykeepers’ - run by Anne-Marie Culhane for the AONB in 2012 as part of the Interreg IVa project Cordiale. During June of that year, Tamar Valley residents were asked to write a daily diary reflecting on the one thing that had struck them that day, limiting themselves to only a few lines. Almost 90 people took part, including two school groups. ‘Diarykeepers’ was inspired by the diaries of Joe Snell, a St Dominick market gardener who wrote one line everyday (except on Sundays) for 24 years from 1914. The 2012 diaries not only provide an insight into people’s lives in the Valley today (most entries commented on the awful unseasonable weather), but provide a fascinating contrast with life in the Valley 100 years ago. ‘Started cherry picking, full hands’ – Joe Snell, June 29 1914 “I have never seen so many natural beauties in such a limited spot as I have seen here.” The artist, J.M.W. Turner, referring to the Tamar Valley | Page 1 | Page 2 Ministerial Foreword Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are some of our finest landscapes. They are cherished by residents and visitors alike and allow millions of people from all walks of life to understand and connect with nature. I am pleased to see that this Management Plan demonstrates how AONB Partnerships can continue to protect these precious environments despite the significant challenges they face. With a changing climate, the increasing demands of a growing population and in difficult economic times, I believe AONBs represent just the sort of community driven, collaborative approach needed to ensure our natural environment is maintained for generations to come. AONB Partnerships have been the architects of a landscape-scale approach to land management. This approach is a key feature of the Government’s Natural Environment White Paper and emphasises the need to manage ecosystems in an integrated fashion, linking goals on wildlife, water, soil and landscape, and working at a scale that respects natural systems. This Management Plan also makes the important connection between people and nature. I am pleased to hear that local communities have been central to the development of the Plan, and will be at the heart of its delivery. From volunteers on nature conservation projects, to businesses working to promote sustainable tourism, it’s great to hear of the enthusiasm and commitment of the local people who hold their AONBs so dear. AONBs are, and will continue to be, landscapes of change. Management Plans such as this are vital in ensuring these changes are for the better. I would like to thank all those who were involved in bringing this Plan together and I wish you every success in bringing it to fruition. Lord de Mauley Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Natural Environment and Science | Page 3 Page 4 | Tamar Valley AONB Management Plan 2009 - 2014 Our Thoughts... It is a privilege to once again write a few words of welcome to this our fourth Management Plan. We, for a limited time, are but temporary custodians of this important landscape designated in 1995 as the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In order to celebrate, enjoy and recognise the diversity of the 3 river valleys , we present our new 5 year Plan that is only achievable by working closely with our supportive communities, Defra and its Ministers, the 5 local authorities and other local bodies who form the Partnership. At first glance, few would grasp the many remarkable transformations that these very special valleys have experienced over the last 8000 years. It just requires a pause at some vantage point or a stroll off the main road to experience what and how our ancestors worked and changed the land – both above and below ground, marked today by the many remaining signs of human habitation: Neolithic hunters and gatherers, Celtic burials and Roman villas, Saxon farmsteads and field enclosures, Norman churches, deer parks of medieval kings, chapels and high hedges and a mining industry of great importance. The once booming industry extracting a multitude of minerals is now celebrated with the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, and still to this day the Valley is littered with the bare spoil heaps of former arsenic workings, the saviour of the cotton fields overseas. Yet this often despoiled landscape has been won back by nature and its now very diverse ecology often secretly hiding away from initial gaze. We will promote sustainability and help the whole to be a living working environment for the woodsman, farmer, market gardener, rural business and resident alike. At the same time, we want to make the Valley accessible and invigorating, but resolving never to lose this treasure, its variety and its beauty which the changing seasons give us. These following pages are all about how we as an AONB Partnership can work within this unique environment cognisant of the challenges of our changing world. Cllr Neil Burden Chairman of the Tamar Valley AONB Partnership As a fairly recent ‘blow-in’ to the Tamar Valley, I feel very lucky to be working in such a rare and amazing landscape. It has been a daunting responsibility – but also a fascinating voyage of discovery to be charged with producing this Plan so early on in my tenure, as you all know so much more about this place that you live and work in, than me. This couldn’t have been done without the warmth, enthusiasm and support of the Valley people, our partner organisations and all of the Tamar Valley AONB team – members past and present. This has been a true collaboration and reflects how we will be working over the period of this five-year Plan. I hope that you will feel that this document builds on the excellent work that has gone before and sets a clear direction for the next few years. Our aspiration is to keep the Valley special – and together with you, I know we can! Corinna Woodall Tamar Valley AONB Manager | Page 5 Page 6 | Tamar Valley AONB Management Plan 2009 - 2014 Contents Introductory Chapters 1.0 The Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty 9 2.0 Purpose of designation and status of this Plan 17 Strategic Chapters 3.0 Landscape Character 21 4.0 Historic Environment and Local Distinctiveness 25 5.0 Biodiversity & Geodiversity 29 6.0 Rivers and Estuaries 35 7.0 Farming, Forestry and Land Management 39 8.0 Access, Recreation and Tourism 47 9.0 Planning and Development 53 10.0 Environmental Quality and Climate 63 11.0 Communities and Culture 71 12.0 Communication, Education and Awareness 75 13.0 The AONB Partnership 79 14.0 Action Framework 84 References 87 Annex 1 Landscape Character Areas, Special Qualities and Special 90 Features Annex 2 Landscape Character Areas and Historic Landscape 92 Characterisation Annex 3 Glossary 93 | Page 7 The South West Devon LAUNCESTON N Cornwall O V Milton Abbot E Dunterton D Dartmoor National Park L Sydenham Damerel L TAVISTOCK A W Luckett N R O Gunnislake C CALLINGTON Calstock Buckland Monachorum Yelverton St Dominick Bere Alston Crapstone St Mellion Lopwell Bere Ferrers Cargreen Roborough Ta ma r Br SALTASH idge St Germans PLYMOUTH TORPOINT Antony Cornwall AONB South Devon AONB Page 8 | Tamar Valley AONB Management Plan 2014 - 2019 Devon 1.0 The Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty 1.1 Background 1.2 Our 20-year Vision The Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Our 20-year vision, which guides the general Beauty is a protected landscape of great direction of the Management Plan, remains importance and natural beauty. Those factors, which unchanged from the 2009-14 Plan: contribute to the Tamar Valley’s outstanding status in a national context, relate to its completeness, cultural development and human scale. “The people of the Tamar Valley are This diverse landscape is defined and shaped by stewards of this rare valley and water the rivers Tamar, Tavy and Lynher, and by the human landscape of high visual quality, a unique activity focused around them. The river systems are wildlife resource with a remarkable a life force at the heart of the area and throughout heritage, which is a legacy of thousands the ages have dictated the patterns of settlement of years of human occupation. By and communication. supporting a thriving community with a The River Tamar has for centuries marked the Celtic sense of belonging and identity, we will border between Cornwall and England, but the ensure the sustainability of the area as a rivers have also been a uniting force, underpinning peaceful, tranquil breathing space; at a commerce, powering industry, transporting goods time of unprecedented change.” and providing food. This has shaped a distinctive local identity, built around hard manual labour, vibrant communities and strong religion. 1.3 The AONB Landscape The human imprint upon the area contributes to its sense of place; all around today’s tranquil Valley is The Tamar Valley AONB is located on the border evidence of episodes of huge historical landscape of Cornwall and Devon, and includes the lower change.