Character Area Description
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CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description LCA - Bodmin Moor LCA No CA32 JCA Constituent LDUs Total 9: 28, 74, 75, 241, 242, 304, 308, 309, 356 © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Cornwall County Council 100019590, 2008. Location Extensive inland upland area towards eastern end of county. No large settlements. Designations 3 LDUs are completely covered by the AONB, and a further 5 are partly covered; all LDUS contain SSSIs; 2 LDUs are within the Caradon District WHS. 5 LDUS contain SACs; All LDUs contain SMs and 2 contain CGS. Description An extensive exposed granite upland of tors, rocky outcrops and heath with pastoral farmland in the more sheltered areas especially in the valleys around the edges of the moorland. This is some of the highest land in Cornwall with Rough Tor and Brown Willy being the two highest peaks. Much of the area is unenclosed and unsettled, wild and often bleak with panoramic views of moorland grass and wet heath sweeping into the distance punctuated by granite boulders and scree as well as hidden bogs and mires and unsettling blocks of coniferous plantations. From the moorland plateau streams flow in all directions cutting into weakness in the underlying rock to form narrow incised valleys that are wooded and enclosed with attractive cataracts and waterfalls. Anciently enclosed farmland with its small fields and sinuous boundaries can be found in the sheltering folds of the undulating plateau usually surrounded by more rectangular fields where the moorland has been more recently enclosed. There are signs of human activity everywhere with a wealth of prehistoric features such as burial chambers, stone circles, settlements and field systems, medieval farmsteads, chapels, wells, crosses and streamworks, and post-medieval quarrying around St Breward, china clay working in the centre and north west of the moor and mining in the south east around Caradon Hill and Minions. The area around Caradon Hill is part of the international World Heritage Site and carries extensive well-preserved remains of former industrial activity. The centre of the moor is crossed by the A30 trunk road which bypasses Jamaica Inn made famous by Daphne du Maurier and the planned post-medieval settlement of Bolventor. Other settlement is mainly isolated farms with the larger villages nestling around the edges of the upland. Camelford to the north and St Cleer to the south are the largest. Besides a natural water feature, the legendary Dozmary Pool, there are three reservoirs at Colliford, Siblyback and Crowdy that are used extensively for recreation. Key Landscape Characteristics Exposed large scale unenclosed moorland with gorse, bracken and heather. Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA32 Page 1 of 5 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description Several dominant tors and cairns visible over large areas - Roughtor and Brown Willy to the north with Stowes Hill and Caradon Hill to the south. Shallow narrow wooded stream valleys becoming more enclosed and incised around the edges of the massif. Isolated coniferous plantations. Villages and hamlets on sheltered valley sides (creases); mainly 19th C mining terraces using vernacular materials and of distinctive local style. Areas of recently enclosed moorland intake on moorland edge enclosed and subdivided, mainly with wire fencing and some drystone walls. Extensive wetland areas of marshland around streams, often with tin streaming evidence. Man-made reservoirs which are in scale but not in keeping with this wild landscape. Widespread evidence of prehistoric activity, such as relict field patterns and standing stones. Extensive upstanding industrial remains, with many chimneys and engine houses, tramways, dressing floors, spoil heaps and surface workings. Geology and soils Large granite boss and metamorphic aureole, forming an area of high ground rising to 420m AOD at Brown Willy. Erosion has assisted in the creation of rounded granite tors and scree-strewn slopes, locally known as clitter. Soils are generally poor draining, impoverished and often boggy, on the granite, but well- drained acid brown earths on the surrounding soils. The subsoil is a stony yellow-brown material known as growan or rab. Topography and drainage Gently undulating plateau with variably sloping sides, cut with shallow stream valleys in all directions. Rivers and streams follow lines of weakness in the granite across the Moor as shallow valleys that deepening dramatically across the softer rocks around the edge of the core, and feeding rivers to both north and south Cornish coasts. Biodiversity The Landscape Character Area has large areas of rough ground and moorland with acid grassland, and extensive areas of Lowland Heathland in the southern part, and some Upland Heathland, mostly in the northern part, and around tors. Some formerly grazed common land has scrubbed up with European Gorse or has been invaded by Bracken. The majority of the farmed land is improved grassland. Between the hills along the upper reaches and heads of streams large areas of wetland, with Fens, and Blanket Bog have developed by the combination of high rainfall and poorly-draining soils. The streams eventually form or join the rivers Fowey, East and West Looe, Seaton, Tiddy, Lynher, Inny and Camel (into LCAS 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 2 and 33) and link to the semi-natural habitats in the valleys of those rivers in those LCAs. The upper reaches of the River Camel is designated a SAC, as is Crowdy Marsh, and much of the northern part of LCA 32 is SSSI, and the Upper Fowey Valley SSSI. Three valleys have been dammed to create Crowdy, Siblyback and Colliford reservoirs, which adds to the area of open water in the LCA. The largest natural area of open water is Dozmary Pool SSSI. Broadleaved woodland is retricted to the fringes of the LCA on lower valley slopes and in valley bottoms, as at Draynes Wood, a SSSI and NNR, and Cabilla Manor Woodlands. These include some Upland Oakwoods, Upland Mixed Ashwoods and Wet Woodland. Some areas of rough ground have been planted with conifers as at Smallacombe, Halvana, Priddacombe and Davidstow Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA32 Page 2 of 5 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description Woods, forming extensive plantations. The area has had a long history of mining, and derelict areas of China clay quarries are found at Stannon, Whitebarrow and Glynn Valley Works. In the southeastern part near Minions, former areas of mining have developed an assemblage of rare species, with Phoenix United and Crow’s Nest being designated SACs for their importance. Where Cornish hedges are found, they are usually with open stone faces and turf tops, and without trees in the more windswept higher areas, but with variable vegetation on moorland fringes. Land Cover The majority of the LCA is an open upland area of Lowland and Upland Heathland, Acid Grassland, with pastoral farmland of improved and semi-improved pasture, reservoirs and conifer plantations. Former areas of open workings or mines are found in places. Land Use There is rough grazing on the open moorland and common land, with improved pastoral farmland with trees and small farms in less exposed areas; and very little arable. Much of the farmland is anciently enclosed and includes more recent enclosure of some of the former rough ground. On the open moorland area are large conifer plantations. There are significant areas of disused and working industry (mining and quarrying, china clay workings), reservoirs and ex-military areas. Field and woodland pattern There is considerable variation in field size and pattern, with a smaller and more sinuous medieval pattern on the lower land around the fringes of the Moor and in some river valleys, and a straighter and larger pattern on higher land where there has been post-medieval enclosure of the rough ground. There are extensive prehistoric field systems on the Moor, together with important examples of abandoned medieval settlements and associated fields. Cornish hedges with hedgerows; some visible stone facing and some drystone and wire fencing on later land intakes. Conifer plantations at Davidstow, Halvana plantation and Smallacoombe Downs. Settlement pattern Dispersed or unsettled, with isolated houses and farms, generally vernacular in style and materials on moorland in more sheltered areas, contrasting with nucleated villages on the moorland fringes. The latter are based on enlarged medieval churchtowns (e.g., St Breward, Blisland, Warleggan, St Neot, St Cleer) or developed as post-medieval industrial settlements (Minions, Darite, Pensilva). Bolventor is a planted nineteenth-century settlement on the main east-west route across the Moor (A30).There are some modern farm buildings. Transport pattern The A30 dual carriageway crosses the Landscape Character Area and has a significant impact on its landscape character. Elsewhere there are winding lanes throughout, open on the moorland edge but very enclosed on the sloping and lower land, creating a dramatic contrast at a local scale. Few defined footpaths cross the moor. Historic features Bodmin Moor is Cornwall’s best-preserved and most easily visible archaeological landscape, with features ranging in date from the early Neolithic (c 3500 BC) to twentieth-century industrial activity. Outstanding elements include the earlier prehistoric enclosures on Stowe’s Hill and Rough Tor, Trethevy Quoit, numerous barrows, cairns, stone circles, stone rows and other Bronze Age ceremonial monuments, widely distributed Middle-Late Bronze Age roundhouse settlements and field systems, deserted medieval and post medieval farm settlements, and early medieval and medieval religious sites including stone crosses and holy wells, (e.g., King Doniert's Stone (late C9th), St Cleer holy well). There are extensive remains of Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA32 Page 3 of 5 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description medieval and later streamworking and associated water management features, and of predominantly post- medieval peat extraction.