Appendices to Proof of Evidence Landscape and Visual Issues & The Setting of Heritage Assets
Prepared by: Michelle Bolger CMLI, Dip.LA, BA, PGCE, BA On behalf of: Norfolk County Council
In respect of: Appeal by Earsham Gravels Ltd
Concerning: Haddiscoe Quarry
PINS Refs: APP/X2600/A/13/2197841 LPA Ref: C/7/2011/7020 April 2014
CONTENTS
MB Appendix 1 Figures MB Figure 01 Local Landscape Character Areas MB Figure 02 Topography and ES Viewpoint Locations MB Figure 03 Proposed Land Raising Contours and Existing Contours MB Figure 04 Aerial View
MB Appendix 2 National Character Area (NCA) 83 - South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands
MB Appendix 3 Extracts from South Norfolk District Landscape Character Assessment
MB Appendix 4 English Heritage Listing for Church of St Mary, Haddiscoe
MB APPENDIX 1
Figures
MB Figure 01 Local Landscape Character Areas
MB Figure 02 Topography and Viewpoint Location MB Figure 03 Proposed Land Raising Contours & Existing Contours
MB Figure 04 Aerial View
N Legend
Planning Application Area
The Broads Authority Boundary
Temporary grassed soil storage mounds 4 Working phases
ES Viewpoint locations
PHASE 6 The Broads Authority Landscape Character Areas
16. Yare/Waveney Valley - Norton PHASE 5 Marshes to Haddiscoe dismantled railway 2
1 PHASE 4 South Norfolk District Landscape Character Areas PHASE 7 PHASE 2 11 3 C2 Thurlton Tributary Farmland with 7 Parkland 9 PHASE 1 PHASE 8 PHASE 9
PHASE 1 PHASE 10
8 12 13
5
0 250m 500m
14 15 10 project OX5057 Haddiscoe Quarry
drawing title Local Landscape Character Areas
drawing number MB Figure 01
revision drawing status client 01 FINAL Norfolk
date scale County Council SEPT 13 see bar scale
drawn Checked
AK MB I St John’s Square, London, EC1M 4DH © Crown copyright, All rights reserved. 2013 Licence number 100047514 P 0207 253 2929 F 0207 253 3900 E [email protected] N Legend
Planning Application Area
The Broads Authority Boundary
ES Viewpoint Locations
Core Strategy and Minerals and Waste Development Management Policies Development Plan Document, 2010-2026
Core River Valley Development Management Policy DM2
Topography
4 30 - 35m
25 - 30m
20 - 25m
15 - 20m 2 1 10 - 15m 11 7 3 5 - 10m 9 0 - 5m
8 13 12
5
0250m 1.0km 14 15 10
project OX5057 Haddiscoe Quarry
drawing title Topography and ES Viewpoint Location
drawing number MB Figure 02
revision drawing status client 01 FINAL Norfolk
date scale County Council SEPT 13 see bar scale
drawn Checked
AK MB I St John’s Square, London, EC1M 4DH © Crown copyright, All rights reserved. 2013 Licence number 100047514 P 0207 253 2929 F 0207 253 3900 E [email protected] N Legend Legend derived from ES Figure 6.0 (34)
Plant site boundary
Re contouringg in this Extent of temporary land raising area to be broughtbrouought to End of bund to 17.0m top of roadsideide bank be feafeatheredthered inintoto land raising Screen bund TopTop of bund 2m above level of adadjoiningjoining carriageway Plant site area
E
16m Haul road
50m 16m Proposed temporary land raising contours 16.0m Existing contours from survey information in
17m the electronic copy of Fig 6.0 (34)
Existing contours derived from LiDAR 10 02m2 ( From Fig 4.2 (1) Rev E )
15m15 m Section lines + 3.25m D End of bubbundundn to be feafeatheredththeth red inintototo llandand raisinraisingg Visibility splay line (215m x 4.5m)
16m 15.0m 6
StoStocktotockc Piles Slope 5m A .O.D (1:1)
14m1 + 3.5m 14.0m Approximate location of conveyor
RMC P
lantantannnt t Existing Planting 13.0m PlantPlaP nt SiteSite 77mm A .O.D.O.D 13m13 + 3.5m m New hedgerow (3m high)
12.0m 12m1 Maximum height of proposed land + 3.5m 11m CConcreteoncrete 16m16m raising above existing bbatchingatching plaplantantn 11.0m BBatchingatchingng plapplant/nt/ D 15m1 Indicative Location of Solar Panels officooffioffice/storeffi e/storoorre CContainers/storage/ontait ners/s/s/storage/ ttemtemporaryporppoo ary gegeneratorenerator 14m14m 10.0m E
FFueluelu WeighbridgeWeighbrb idge tantankanank 025m 100m 9.0m OfficeOffice 13m1 project PLEASE NOTE: CarC papparkarkr OX5057 The purpose of this figure is to show the relationship between the Haddiscoe Quarry existing landform and the proposed land raising. Existing contours 12mm drawing title have been derived from Figure 6.0 (34) Comparison of Existing and Restoration landforms - Plant Site (which were interpolated from Proposed Land Raising Contours and Existing Contours 11mm LiDAR data) and from survey information contained within the drawing number electronic copy of Figure 4.2 (1) Rev E . Proposed Land Raising MB Figure 03 Contours- Plant Site. This information was not shown on the printed copy. revision drawing status client 01 FINAL Norfolk There are slight differences between the existing contours as shown date scale County Council on Figure 6.0 (34) and Figure 4.2 (1) Rev E. (In the latest set of drawings Dec 2013 this information is also shown on Figure III (2) A SEPT 13 see bar scale
Plant Site Layout). However we do not consider there would be any drawn Checked difficulties in achieving the landform, proposed. It is the appearance of the landform, not its achievability, that we consider would give rise AK MB I St John’s Square, London, EC1M 4DH to harm. P 0207 253 2929 F 0207 253 3900 E [email protected] N Legend
Planning Application Area
St Mary’s Church
Landspring Beck
0 250m 500m
project OX5057 Haddiscoe Quarry
drawing title Aerial View
drawing number MB Figure 04
revision drawing status client FINAL Norfolk
date scale County Council SEPT 13 see bar scale
drawn Checked
AK MB I St John’s Square, London, EC1M 4DH Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, Swisstopo and the GIS User Community P 0207 253 2929 F 0207 253 3900 E [email protected]
MB APPENDIX 2
National Character Area (NCA) 83 – South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands
National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
www.naturalengland.org.uk
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Introduction National Character Areas map
As part of Natural England’s responsibilities as set out in the Natural Environment White Paper1, Biodiversity 20202 and the European Landscape Convention3, we are revising profiles for England’s 159 National Character Areas (NCAs). These are areas that share similar landscape characteristics, and which follow natural lines in the landscape rather than administrative boundaries, making them a good decision-making framework for the natural environment.
NCA profiles are guidance documents which can help communities to inform their decision-making about the places that they live in and care for. The information they contain will support the planning of conservation initiatives at a landscape scale, inform the delivery of Nature Improvement Areas and encourage broader partnership working through Local Nature Partnerships. The profiles will also help to inform choices about how land is managed and can change.
Each profile includes a description of the natural and cultural features that shape our landscapes, how the landscape has changed over time, the current key drivers for ongoing change, and a broad analysis of each area’s characteristics and ecosystem services. Statements of Environmental Opportunity (SEOs) are suggested, which draw on this integrated information. The SEOs offer guidance on the critical issues, which could help to achieve sustainable growth and a more secure environmental future. 1 The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature, Defra NCA profiles are working documents which draw on current evidence and (2011; URL: www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm80/8082/8082.pdf) 2 knowledge. We will aim to refresh and update them periodically as new Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and Ecosystem Services, Defra information becomes available to us. (2011; URL: www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13583-biodiversity-strategy-2020-111111.pdf) 3 European Landscape Convention, Council of Europe We would like to hear how useful the NCA profiles are to you. You can contact the (2000; URL: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/176.htm) NCA team by emailing [email protected]
MB Appendix 2 Page 1 2 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Summary
The South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands National Character Area (NCA) Large areas of woodland are scarce, with most confined to a narrow band on occupies a large area of central East Anglia stretching from just below Norwich the edges of the plateau. Views are frequently open, only sometimes confined in the north down to the River Gipping in the south. The area is bounded to by hedges, hedgerow trees and scattered smaller woodlands that are still the north by Mid Norfolk and The Broads NCAs and to the east by the sandy notable elements of the landscape. Occasionally there can even be a feeling heathland of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths NCA. To the west the landscape of exposure, although within the valleys it is possible to find quite confined merges into the drier and more open character of The Brecks NCA and to landscapes with intimate views. the south it meets the South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland NCA with 78 NCA 83 boundary Central North Norfolk its noticeably more undulating topography. ‘High’ Suffolk originally derives Other NCA boundary 79 80 Area outside NCA 83 84 The Broads its name from the contrast between this formerly well-treed area and the National Park Mid Norfolk Area of Outstanding openness of the adjacent areas to the east and west. Today it is probably Natural Beauty 0 10km The better understood as meaning the high and predominantly flat clay plateau Broads
that dominates the character of the NCA. The plateau is incised by numerous 85 Breckland small-scale wooded river valleys with complex slopes that in places are much unexpected for East Anglia. The underlying geology is chalk, which forms the principal aquifer, and shallow marine deposits overlain with glacial till, buried 82 river gravels, lake sediments and bands of glacial outwash deposits. Suffolk Coast & Heaths Rivers are mostly small and slow flowing, contributing to the character of the landscape as well as providing water for irrigation and public usage. The Waveney, the largest of the NCA’s rivers, forms the division between 86 the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The river valleys contain an important South Suffolk & North Essex Clayland mosaic of small-scale pasture, wet heath, reedbeds and woodland that Suffolk National Character Area 83 Coast & provide ecological connectivity into the heart of the claylands. Remnant South Norfolk & High Heaths areas of unenclosed ‘semi-wild’ valley fens are designated as a Special Area of Suffolk Claylands Note: In most instances, the NCA boundary is not Mappingg © copyright Lovell Johns Limited. precisely mapped and should be considered as a Containsns Ordnance Survey data Conservation and support a great diversity of wetland species including the fen zone of transition between NCAs. © Crowownoww copyright and database right 2010. Natuuralur England OS licence number 100022021 raft spider. Click map to enlarge; click again to reduce.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
The equable climate and widespread, moderately fertile, heavy chalky clay plateau soils support farming, predominantly for arable crops, which utilises 90 per cent of the land area. Valley soils are more workable, less heavy clays, and in places along the Waveney there are some extensive areas of peat.
It is mostly an ancient, long-settled landscape, and above all this is farming country, with a strong utilitarian and rural character, evoked best in its ancient irregular field patterns that are still discernable over much of the area, its medieval churches, historic timber-framed barns and houses with colour- washed walls and thatched or tiled roofs. This is an area of mixed settlement patterns with nucleated villages found in the west and along the river valleys, intermixed with dispersed hamlets and moated farmsteads. Large, often interconnected village greens or commons are a key feature of the area. Market towns such as Eye and Framlingham have largely retained their medieval character, derived from their vernacular architecture. Today the main pressures for change are posed by a need to accommodate increased development in and around these traditional centres, especially along the main transport
corridors. Public rights of way, including the Boudicca Way and Angles Way The wide village green at Old Buckenham in Norfolk, with the village spread thinly long-distance footpaths, and country estates and parklands continue to around its edges. The green covers 16 hectares and is one of the largest in East Anglia. provide recreational opportunities.
Since the 1940s changes in farming methods have had an impact on farmland habitats and species once common on arable land such as tree sparrow, grey partridge, cornflower and brown hare have significantly declined in numbers. Over recent years the uptake of agri-environment options for land management has targeted this decline. Sustainable approaches to commercial farming practices are key opportunities for this NCA.
MB Appendix 2 Page 2 4 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Statements of Environmental Opportunity SEO 3: Maintain and enhance the river valleys and their grazed flood plains which provide linkages through the landscape, including their valley fens and SEO 1: Maintain and enhance the rural character of the landscape and the con- riparian habitats. This will support the operation of natural processes and their trast between the arable plateau and pastoral river valleys by maintaining agri- contribution to biodiversity, geodiversity, soil quality, water availability and cultural productivity and encouraging sustainable land management practices regulating water flow and their function in contributing to the traditional rural that protect and enhance the landscape, geodiversity and biodiversity assets character of the area. while benefiting water quality and water availability, as well as the rural sense SEO 4: Protect and enhance the area’s ancient semi-natural woodlands, copses, of place and tranquillity. river valley plantations and ancient boundaries including hedgerows and SEO 2: Encourage measures that conserve and enhance the characteristic historic hedgerow trees, through the management of existing and the creation of new settlement patterns including notable village commons and greens, and historic woods and hedgerows to benefit biodiversity, landscape character and habitat features such as moated farmsteads and windmills, ensuring that access and edu- connectivity, and for the benefits to soil erosion reduction, water infiltration cational opportunities are maximised; and ensure that the design and location of and quality, timber provision and carbon storage. new developments add to the sense of place and history across the NCA.
The characteristic historic settlement pattern of Saxtead Green with its historic Post Mill, one of many built across the area from the late 13th century.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Description Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas
The South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands National Character Area (NCA) shares a boundary with five other NCAs: the South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland, The Brecks, Mid Norfolk, The Broads and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths. They all share a relatively flat topography, incised by stream and river valley corridors, with underlying bedrock geology of Late Cretaceous Chalk, overlain by glacial tills as well as sand and gravel deposits from the ice age. The underlying chalk forms the principal aquifer which supplies East Anglia, functionally linking these areas. Those NCAs to the east also share underlying bedrock geology of Neogene/Quaternary shallow marine deposits locally known as Crag. The British Sugar factory at Bury St Edmunds processes the sugar beet grown in the NCA and dominates views to the south-west. The South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland and the Mid Norfolk NCAs combine with the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands as part of the same continuous till plateau. Intervisibility between the surrounding NCAs is varied the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands. The principal river, the Waveney, due to the claylands’ characteristic low, undulating nature. The town of Bury St flows into the southern part of The Broads at Earsham on its route out to the Edmunds and its largest landmark, the British Sugar factory, which processes North Sea. The River Chet, a tributary of the River Yare, also flows into The the sugar beet grown in the NCA, dominate views in the south-west. Broads NCA at Loddon. It is one of the focal points for boating tourism within the southern Broads, with many boatyards in the town providing hire boats The NCA’s main rivers begin on the plateau and flow out into the surrounding and crews during the summer tourist season. Some 108 ha of the Broads NCAs and so provide ecological and hydrological links. The ecological status of National Park are included within the NCA. the river valley habitats and many of their ecosystem values are subsequently dependent on sustainable water management and land use practices within The rivers Blyth, Alde and Deben all flow east into the dry, sandy Suffolk Coast and Heaths, whereas the Little Ouse flows westward into The Brecks, and MB Appendix 2 Page 3 6 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
finally out through the Fens to the North Sea. In dry years the catchment of the Little Ouse supplies water via the Ely Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme to rivers and reservoirs in the South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland, to help to meet the increasing demand for potable water from south Essex and London.
Recreational links include the popular Boudicca Way walking path from Diss to Norwich, and the Angles Way, which follows the county boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk, linking Great Yarmouth on the coast, in the North East Norfolk and Flegg NCA, through to Thetford in The Brecks. The Mid Suffolk Footpath also links Stowmarket in the South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland with the small village of Hoxne near Scole.
Key transport links include the A11, A12, A14, A140 and A143 main roads, together with the Norwich to London main rail line and branch lines between Ipswich and Cambridge, Ipswich and Lowestoft (East Suffolk Line), Cambridge and Norwich (Breckland Line) and Wymondham and East Dereham (Mid Norfolk Railway).
Coppice management and replanting at Wyken Wood near Stanton. As well as improving ancient woodland habitats, the timber is also used to fuel a woodchip boiler that is providing sustainable energy for the Wyken Farm enterprise.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Key characteristics
¯ Large plateau area of chalky glacial till that is generally flat or only gently undulating, but can be locally concave. The edges of the plateau have been dissected by watercourses that form greater slopes, especially along the tributaries of the Waveney.
¯ Views are frequently open, only sometimes confined by hedges and trees, with some woodland present. The small valleys support quite confined landscapes with intimate views.
¯ Chalk bedrock overlain by glacial till, gravels and sands. Heavy, seasonally waterlogged chalky clay soils occur on the plateau, with small areas of better soils at the edges. The valley bottoms contain areas of glacial outwash deposits as well as some areas of deep peat.
¯ Scattered areas of ancient woodland, game copses, shelterbelts, valley floor plantation and carr woodland as well as hedgerow trees provide a treed landscape character, despite much boundary loss.
¯ A mix of remnant medieval ancient countryside, some of it with a decidedly coaxial character, although irregular field patterns and large modern amalgamated open fields dominate.
¯ Sinuous field boundaries are formed by deep ditches, some with hedgerows and hedgerow trees. Looking east along the A143 and the meandering River Waveney, with the Suffolk village of Oakley on the boundary with Norfolk.
MB Appendix 2 Page 4 8 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
¯ Extensive areas of arable land dominated by cereals with break- ¯ Small slow-flowing rivers and streams and the River Waveney drain the clay cropping of sugar beet and oilseed rape, and some pastures along plateau. The River Waveney has a relatively large-scale open valley landscape valley floors. Intensive pig and poultry production is common. compared with the other river valleys which have narrow valley bottoms. High density of isolated farm ponds in the southern half of the NCA. ¯ Remnant parkland, ancient woodlands, commons and greens with a diverse grassland flora. River valleys support areas of ecologically rich ¯ Historic features include Palaeolithic archaeology, evidence of Roman unenclosed ‘semi-wild’ fenland and remnant dry heaths dominated by enclosures, bronze- age and iron-age activity, remnant medieval and poor dry grassland. Tudor deer parks, scattered small parkland estates and Second World War airfields. Round-towered Saxo-Norman and medieval churches and 19th-century windmills are prominent historic landscape features.
¯ Large number of isolated moated timber-framed farmhouses and farm buildings with steeply pitched clay-tiled or long-straw thatched roofs. Little flint, some brick (especially in towns).
¯ A dispersed settlement pattern of small nucleated market towns with architectural variety and colour, loosely clustered villages and scattered hamlets. Settlement is often focused around large medieval greens. Many of the market towns have modern extensions.
¯ Some major transport links including the Norwich to London main rail line but infrastructure routes are predominantly an extensive network of narrow lanes and byroads.
¯ The Mendlesham and Tacolneston masts (tall communications masts), Isolated, timber-framed farmhouses with steeply pitched clay tiled or thatched wind turbines at Eye airfield and high-tension overhead power lines roofs, are a key characteristic of the plateau claylands. are prominent modern features in the landscape.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands today
The whole of the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands NCA is a plateau, dissected by shallow, intimate valleys that are mostly small in scale, especially those fringing the eastern boundary. The streams and rivers that drain the plateau meander slowly between low banks lush with riparian vegetation. The area has little variation in height, although the River Waveney, which forms the Norfolk–Suffolk boundary, and its tributaries have locally pronounced effects. The Waveney with its broad valley is the principal river within the NCA.
The area is covered in chalky glacial till (also known as boulder clay) and bands of glacial outwash sands and gravels. In the north the deposits are typically less chalky and include far-travelled erratics of igneous rocks brought here by the ice sheets. The till gives rise to typical stagnogley soils on the plateau which, while difficult to work when wet, are extremely fertile if drained. The geology of the river valleys is dominated by alluvium with sand and gravel deposits on The ancient countryside of irregular medieval fields, old species rich hedgerows and the valley sides, which are exposed in quarries such as at Flixton and Earsham. hedgerow trees. Arable farming dominates, particularly cereals, as seen here in the Sconch Beck Valley, Homersfield. The valley sides mostly have deep, well-drained coarse loamy and sandy soils, while the valley floor soils contain areas of deep peat, particularly so along the Waveney and Little Ouse. A distinct and isolated area of peat occurs to the west edged fields of the central plateau, which have infrequent hedgerow boundaries. of Diss and relates to Bressingham and Roydon Fen. This is especially evident south of Wymondham and north-west of Framlingham which has seen some extensive field amalgamation. There are, though, still some The area is predominantly agricultural with arable farming dominating, historically significant holding boundaries and areas of small and long-enclosed particularly cereals, sugar beet and oilseed rape, whose bright yellow flowers fields which often have wide and high species-rich hedges, with closely spaced make a dramatic visual statement across the plateau in early summer. Intensive pig hedgerow oaks, which are indicative of great age. This former unchanged and poultry rearing takes place in large units, especially in the areas of lighter soils landscape quality is retained in an area to the south-east of Bungay, known as ‘The around the edges of the plateau and sometimes on redundant airfields. There is Saints’. There are no major estates and only a scattering of medium-sized ones. It is a strong contrast between the treed small-scale pastures and wetland vegetation an area of modest landholdings, suggestive of a distant history of winning a patch in the shallow river valleys, such as along the Deben, and the large arable, ditch- of farmland from the primeval oak forest. MB Appendix 2 Page 5 10 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
There is a relative lack of woodland across the NCA, although there are some While much of the landscape has seen change through evolving agricultural important ancient woods that survive or have since been restored, such as Tyrrels practices, there remain pockets of land with a rich biodiversity. These range in Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). They support rich woodland ecosystems, scale from the floristically rich expansive medieval greens and commons on especially where the practice of coppicing is maintained. Most woods are located the heavy wet clays to the many individual farm ponds which support large towards the edges of the plateau, although along the rivers Waveney, Little Ouse and populations of great crested newt, water vole and dragonfly as well as aquatic Dove there are widespread poplar and cricket bat willow plantations together with plants such as water crowfoot and water forget-me-not. These ponds are a legacy patches of carr woodland, such as around Horse Fen and Roydon Fen to the west of of the area’s former use as a dairying region and their density in the southern Diss. Despite the low woodland cover, trees are a notable element of the landscape half of the NCA (High Suffolk) is almost unparalleled in England. Dew’s Ponds, a owing largely to treed lanes and hedgerow trees. There is some localised estate group of 12 ponds in the parish of Bramfield, is designated as a Special Area of influence from landscape parks and the associated plantings of belts and coverts, Conservation (SAC) as it supports one of the largest known breeding populations and Lombardy poplars are regularly found in association with farmsteads. of great crested newt. A handful of typically species-rich meadows that have avoided modern agricultural improvement lie across the central and southern part of the NCA. These include Monewden and High House Meadows SSSI to the north-east of Otley, which support floral species including snake’s-head fritillary, green-winged orchid and meadow saffron. The valleys contain remnants of what were once extensive wetlands, including Redgrave and Lopham Fen SSSI/Ramsar site, the largest remaining river valley fen in England and the source of the River Waveney. These valley fens are unique as the underlying acid and alkaline geology has resulted in characteristic wildlife, including many species now rare in the UK. They are recognised as being of international importance and so are designated as the Norfolk Valley Fens SAC and Waveney and Little Ouse Valley Fens SAC.
The area’s rich archaeology provides evidence of a long history of settlement, including the Palaeolithic archaeology at Hoxne, the Scole Roman settlement, Eye’s Norman motte-and-bailey castle, the late-12th-century stone castle at Framlingham and Wymondham’s Benedictine abbey. The area is exceptionally rich in Saxo- Norman and later medieval round tower churches, with a convergence towards Redgrave and Lopham Fen SSSI/Ramsar, the largest remaining river valley fen in England the Waveney Valley. Numerous 19th-century windmills form distinctive landmark and the source of the River Waveney. features, such as Saxtead’s post mill and Billingford’s tower mill, alongside modern
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
structures that include the transmitting masts at Mendlesham (305 m high) and Much of the rural part of the NCA has a residual tranquillity, with large areas Tacolneston (206 m high), the wind turbines at Eye and high-tension overhead remote from main roads and some remaining inaccessible by road, such as the power lines and pylons. There are few great houses, although notable exceptions fens west of Diss, and the stretch of land between Billingford and Brockdish. include Helmingham Hall, an early-16th-century moated Tudor mansion with later However, tranquillity is reduced close to the main transport infrastructure of the additions, and Heveningham Hall, one of the few Palladian buildings in Suffolk, with A11, A12, A14, A140 and A143. grounds and a lake fashioned by Capability Brown (and completed by Kim Wilkie in the late 20th century). Pillboxes of the 1940 military ‘stop lines’ and remnant wartime The area does not support high levels of recreation, although canoeing is airfields lie among the landscape. Some, including Thorpe Abbotts, Parham, popular on the River Waveney. The Boudicca Way and Angles Way long-distance Horham and Rougham, host Second World War Bomb Group Memorial Museums. footpaths and the intricate network of quiet minor roads that link settlements provide good access to the countryside for walkers, horse riders and cyclists. The traditional dispersed settlement pattern retains much of its medieval character. The principal manorial halls are often moated and sited in close proximity to the medieval parish churches in valley-side positions. The more ‘upland’ areas of the plateau are scattered with numerous other farmsteads, some of which are also moated, interspersed with more concentrated groupings of farmsteads around the margins of common pastures which are variously called greens or commons. Particularly in the Norfolk part of the area, these greens and commons can be interconnected, giving an impression of long commons that widen and narrow at intervals. Hales Green and Wingfield Green are among the few commons that are still managed by cattle grazed by commoners. Farmhouses and barns are largely timber framed, the former with colour-washed walls with steeply pitched roofs if thatched with long straw or less so if originally tiled. There are a number of small market towns, including Wymondham, Eye, Harleston and Framlingham, which contain a wealth of architectural styles from the 15th to 19th centuries. While retaining their historic core many have acquired a perimeter of post-war modern and pseudo-vernacular housing. Immediately to the south of Norwich, ancient villages have agglomerated into an extensive commuter belt which lends a Home Counties character. Diss, on the main railway line, is also The modern shapes of pylons and high-tension overhead powerlines crossing the ancient countryside in the south-east of the NCA near the village of Clopton. becoming a commuter town but still retains its market town influence. MB Appendix 2 Page 6 12 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
The landscape through time
The underlying bedrock of the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands is Cretaceous ‘Middle’ and ‘Upper’ Chalk, deposited between 100 and 65 million years ago, and Neogene/Quaternary shallow marine sands and gravels known locally as Crag. Silica was left behind and formed nodules of hard flint within the Chalk. About a million years ago sands and gravels were deposited by the ancestral River Thames which flowed north-eastwards across the eastern edge of this area, and the Bytham River which flowed from the Midlands and along much of the course of the later Waveney.
The area was strongly influenced by the Anglian Glaciation, which swept over The medieval church of St Andrew at Norton, one of a large number of medieval most of East Anglia around 450,000 years ago, eroding the earlier chalk and churches that appear as focal points in the landscape. Jurassic clays along its path and forming a mantle of till up to 75 m thick, and associated outwash sands and gravels which capped the bedrock. The resulting plateau dissected by shallow river valleys dominates the physical character the poorly drained central plateau, which developed a thick tree cover. Areas of of the NCA, while remnants of former flood plains are preserved as suites of prehistoric coaxial field systems survive in the Scole–Dickleburgh–Yaxley area. river terraces in the valleys. Lakes formed in the depressions (for example, at Hoxne) and, as the climate warmed over thousands of years, layers of peat built By the 1st century ad human settlement was expanding into the central wooded up creating an interconnected series of valley fens along the Little Ouse and areas, and by the end of the Roman occupation a network of dispersed settlements Waveney. Solution processes in the chalk bedrock created the basin lake of Diss spread across the area, although the widest interfluve plateau has always been least Mere; its sediments contain the most complete record of Holocene environmental favoured. By 1066, most of the present villages and many isolated farmsteads and change in the UK. hamlets had been established and the area was one of the most densely populated in England. A large number of Saxo-Norman round tower churches and medieval There was certainly human occupation in this area before the Anglian Glaciation churches were built, with notable examples at Wymondham, North Lopham, but most traces of it have been obliterated by the Anglian ice sheet. Hoxne is Framlingham, Eye and Laxfield. The lack of a good local freestone meant that most the most important post-Anglian Palaeolithic site and type-site for the Hoxnian churches were built of irregular field flints set in mortar. Their characteristic round Stage of the Pleistocene. Later prehistoric settlement focused on the fringes of the towers, more common in Norfolk than Suffolk, are most probably a reflection of the plateau and the river valleys, whose slopes were easier to drain and cultivate than region’s strong cultural links with the countries bordering the Baltic and North Sea.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Expanding populations in the 11th and 12th centuries led to the establishment Houses built on the plateau required water and drainage, both of which could be of ‘secondary’ settlements on the central plateau. These often gathered around provided by digging a moat, although the main purpose of moats is believed to the edges of large grazed commons or greens which replaced former areas of have been to act as a status symbol. These predominantly timber-framed houses woodland and wood pasture, such as at Mellis, Burgate, Chippenhall, Wortham are often concealed behind colour-washed plaster. Barns along with rare surviving and Old Buckenham. These green-side settlements continued to be formed into cattle housing (locally termed ‘neathouses’) and other farm buildings from this the 13th and 14th centuries. Diss and Harleston, which were on the main coaching period are of great historic and architectural interest and form one of the most route from London to Great Yarmouth, expanded as two of the most important widespread and impressive survivals of pre-1750 farmstead buildings. From the market towns in Norfolk and there, and also at Scole, a number of fine coaching 1790s South Norfolk also acquired a national reputation for its barns, which further inns remain as a legacy of that time. reflect the wealth and pride of the area’s farmers. Brick was increasingly used from the 16th century and ‘fashionable’ 18th- or 19thcentury brick facades often conceal Although Norfolk and Suffolk were two of the least wooded counties in medieval older timber frames. ‘Clay lump’ (large bricks of unfired clay and straw) was also times, the area contained several privately enclosed deer parks, such as at used for farm buildings, cottages and some farmhouses in the first half of the 19th Framlingham, Dennington, Earl Soham and Saxtead. These often contained century when there was a tax (introduced in 1784, repealed in 1850) on fired bricks. pollarded trees which were a valuable commodity in a relatively treeless landscape. Sotterley Park is a fine example of a ‘pseudo-medieval’ 18th-century Although predominantly a farming area which was described by the great park. Infield trees were numerous in the wood pasture areas, and field-edge agricultural writer Arthur Young as being the ‘dairying region’ of the country, ‘rows’ were commonplace up to the Napoleonic Wars. The alternative name of a cottage industry developed in the 16th to 18th centuries with linen weavers ‘Woodlands’ for High Suffolk has an implied contrast between the openness of processing locally grown hemp and flax. They contributed to the local landscape the adjacent areas such as the Suffolk Sandlings and The Brecks (where there were with the necessary ponds in which the plants were ‘retted’ (soaked to separate the large common fields) and this formerly well-treed area. fibre from the plant stems) before further processing. There were several markets for linen, sailcloth and sackcloth, particularly in the Waveney Valley, close to the The mixed arable and dairying economy that evolved encouraged the concentration of main growing area between Eye and Beccles. Although linen weaving was labour wealth in a broad central swathe of lesser gentry and substantial numbers of yeoman intensive it combined well with farming and its cultivation fitted better with dairy farmers. Today this is reflected in the high number of sizeable moated farmhouses, farming than with arable. Trade declined in the late 18th century. especially across Suffolk. Demesne farms and fields were large, with some fields of over 40 ha, contrasting with the smaller fields of the tenant farmers. Early tenant holdings From the late 18th century the high price of grain and the urban demand for usually had dispersed fields and ‘pieces’ of land, and over time there was a marked foodstuffs ushered in the period of Victorian ‘High Farming’. The introduction trend to buy, sell and swap land in order to create ring-fenced holdings. Farm sizes grew of clay drains, for under-field drainage, enabled the conversion of many of the after the Black Death, and this has continued to the present day. dairying pastures into more lucrative arable units. This conversion led to the MB Appendix 2 Page 7 14 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
rationalisation and straightening of many of the small, meandering fields. Ancient include Parham, Seething and Mendlesham. woodlands were also grubbed up and fens were drained for agricultural use. Greens were also enclosed and linear greens were often built on to accommodate The rapid post-1950 intensification of farming changed the face of this landscape in the rapidly rising population. A large number of windmills used for milling wheat many places. Most notable was the loss of narrow stream-side ribbons of meadow, or barley were at work across the area, but their numbers declined, slowly at first field ponds, further ancient woodland and many hedges. The removal of hedges but rapidly after 1900, in the face of competition from large steam-powered flour affected primarily internal farm boundaries and older (medieval or earlier) holding mills and smaller farm mills driven by steam or internal combustion engines. boundaries survived in many places. Wetland habitats were further drained, with the The onset of the Second World War saw military ‘stop lines’ drawn across the result that what was once a largely well-connected wetland in the valleys was reduced countryside, with pillboxes appearing at key locations and a high number of to a group of isolated fens. The only areas to escape these changes were those owned fighter and particularly bomber airfields constructed across the plateau. Examples by local charitable bodies that held pockets of fen on behalf of the poor of the parish.
The 1970s saw the outbreak of Dutch elm disease, which removed the once- common sight of mature elm trees from the landscape. Development pressure in the late 20th century focused almost entirely on those towns that were well served by road and rail, such as Diss and Wymondham, which now have modern housing estates attached to them.
Today, comparatively little remains of the historic wood pasture which characterised this area up until the 18th century, but woodland has always been carefully husbanded as the numerous hedgerow trees, both standards and pollards, bear witness. Copses have been planted as game cover and there is still a scatter of ancient semi-natural woods such as Burgate Wood and Wyken Wood. While only a fraction of the species-rich grassland that existed in the 1940s remains, a significant proportion is managed sympathetically by owners and new species-rich hay meadows have been created in private nature reserves and through community- based projects. Some 90 per cent of the remaining wetlands – five valley fens – are The view from the control tower at the old Parham Airfield (also known as RAF looked after by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust as nature reserves, and agri-environment Framlingham). Parham was one of many military airfields built across the open expanse initiatives are working well to preserve the traditional function and appearance of the of the flat plateau during the 1940s. fragile valley ecosystems, especially in the Waveney Valley.
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National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Ecosystem services
The South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this document.
Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply) ¯ Food provision: 90 per cent of the land area is farmed with the widespread chalky clay soils (mostly Grades 2 and 3), equable climate and low-to-moderate rainfall supporting predominantly arable farming with large areas of cereals and oilseed rape.The area also provides dairy products and sugar beet, and there are fruit farms and market gardening on areas of lighter land. Livestock farming Early summer agricultural spray application to barley that is being grown on the includes pigs, poultry, sheep and lowland cattle. Value-added food producers (for widespread moderately fertile chalky clay soils. example, organic producers, pork butchers and brewers) cluster around market towns such as Diss and Wymondham, as do several ‘pick your own’ farms. ¯ Genetic diversity: There are two dual-purpose chickens that originate from ¯ Water availability: Water for human consumption, industrial use and the NCA; the Ixworth chicken originates from Ixworth in Suffolk and the agricultural irrigation of crops comes from the major underground chalk Norfolk Grey from Hethel in Norfolk. Both breeds are on the rare breeds list. aquifer as well as locally important sand and gravel aquifers that overlie the The NCA also contains members of the ‘Suffolk Trinity’ – the Suffolk Punch Chalk. The rivers, primarily the Waveney, Deben, Gipping, Alde, Blyth and Dove, heavy horse, Red Poll Cattle and Black Faced Sheep. Konik ponies, which are are also important sources of potable and irrigation water although these are related to the wild European horse, are used to graze Redgrave and Lopham currently over-abstracted. Groundwater resources within the chalk aquifer are Fen National Nature Reserve (NNR). Remnant traditional orchards also currently committed, and new groundwater abstraction applications are only provide a genetic stock of old apple varieties, many of which are no longer considered from drift deposits for non-consumptive purposes, highlighting the commercial (for example, the Suffolk Thorn pear raised at Glevering Hall, scarcity of water in the area. Hacheston, and apples including Lady Henniker from Thornham Hall and Suffolk Pink and Winter Wonder from the Braiseworth nurseries near Eye). MB Appendix 2 Page 8 16 National Character 83: South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands Area profile: Supporting documents
Key facts Landscape Analysis Introduction & Summary Description Opportunities and data change
Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation) ¯ Regulating water quality: Water quality is important for biodiversity, agriculture and public drinking water. The chemical status of groundwater is generally good. Some 29 per cent of rivers are assessed as having good chemical status and 27 per cent of rivers are assessed as having good or high biological status. Both groundwater and surface water quality is critically dependent on the land management in the NCA. Woodlands, hedgerows, grasslands, riparian vegetation and the filtering qualities of the underground sand and gravel and chalk deposits all contribute to the service. The main land use in the catchment is arable agriculture which has the potential to affect water quality (both ground and surface waters) through agricultural run-off. Subsequently all river catchments are priority catchments under the Catchment Sensitive Farming Project.
Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing) ¯ Sense of place/inspiration: The small-scale, intimate river valleys, along with their mixed land use patterns, contribute to the deeply rural character. Small woodlands and copses linked by hedgerows with hedgerow trees create a treed character around the edges of the open arable plateau. The presence of medieval churches and windmills provides important points of reference and vertical scale in the otherwise generally flat landscape. Large greens/commons and dispersed settlement, timber-framed houses and farm buildings, often rendered and colour-washed, with clay tiles or long-straw thatch add distinctiveness. Feelings of inspiration are associated with the strong historic character of the medieval settlements, while the surrounding landscape with its wide views, open skies and unspoilt rural tranquillity has provided inspiration for artists. Saxtead Post Mill provides a strong sense of place and history, as seen here lit by the High Suffolk evening light.
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MB Appendix 2 Page 9
MB APPENDIX 3
Extracts from South Norfolk District Landscape Character Assessment
South Norfolk District Landscape Character Assessment
Volume 4 Landscape Character Areas of the Rural Policy Area
Final Report for South Norfolk District Council by Land Use Consultants
Appendix 3 Page 1 SOUTH NORFOLK LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT
LANDSCAPE CHARACTER AREAS OF THE RURAL POLICY AREA
Prepared for
South Norfolk Council
By
Land Use Consultants
April 2006 [Final Amendments January 2008]
43 Chalton Street London NW1 1JD Tel: 020 7383 5784 Fax: 020 7383 4798 [email protected]
Appendix 3 Page 2 Appendix 3 Page 3 Appendix 3 Page 4 Appendix 3 Page 5 Appendix 3 Page 6 Appendix 3 Page 7 Character Area: C2 Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
C2
View across arable farmland to the skyline of the Broads Parkland at Ravingham Hall ± 0 2.5 5 10 15 20 km
Location within South Norfolk District
Isolated church north of Broome Crow stepped gable end
C2 0 2.5 5 km
Extent of the Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland Character Area Willow occurs in hedgerows near Wheatacre View across arable fields towards Tofts Monk
South Norfolk Rural Policy Area C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 8 14. C2: THURLTON TRIBUTARY FARMLAND WITH PARKLAND
DESCRIPTION 14.1. Location and Boundaries: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland lies to the extreme east of South Norfolk District adjoining The Broads to the east and extending to the district boundary with Waveney (Suffolk) to the south. The character area comprises the slopes that rise gently up from the low lying wetland landscapes on its boundaries. The visible presence of parkland landscapes distinguishes this character area from the tributary farmland landscapes to the north and west (B1, B4 and B5). 14.2. The character of the Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland is illustrated in Figure C2.
KEY CHARACTERISTICS
• Land rises gently from the low lying Waveney valley with areas of flatter plateau cut by narrow tributaries (Becks) which create local undulations in the landform.
• A landscape of both openness and enclosure with open views to The Broads and enclosure provided by the varied topography and tree cover.
• Presence of distinctive tributaries locally known as Becks (The Beck and Landspring Beck) which flow eastwards to the adjacent Broads.
• Predominantly arable farmland with woodland, including ancient woodland occurring frequently.
• Medium to large-scale fields with sparse boundary hedges and hedgerow trees.
• Presence of large estates with their associated Halls and distinctive parkland landscapes.
• Relatively sparsely settled with the larger villages associated with the Becks.
• Isolated and round tower churches (e.g. north of Broome and at Haddiscoe).
• Modern development plus traditional vernacular of red brick and Dutch gable ends.
• A sense of remoteness and peacefulness away from the main roads (A143 and A146) which cross the area.
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 67 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 9 Geology and Soils 14.3. Glacial till (known as Lowestoft clay) underlies the higher land occurring centrally within the area. Sand and gravel and some pockets of peat correspond to tributaries draining towards the Waveney on the north eastern and eastern side of the character area. Alluvium dominates along the southern edge of the district, corresponding to the tributaries and lower land associated with the Waveney.
Landform, Topography, Scale and Enclosure 14.4. The land rises gently from the low lying Waveney valley and is predominantly between 20 and 40m AOD. Flatter plateau areas are cut by narrow tributaries (Becks), which create local undulations in the landscape. This variation in landform affords feelings of both openness and enclosure. Topography and tree cover provide containment, while to the north and east of the area there are some long views over The Broads.
Land Cover and Biodiversity 14.5. This is essentially a rural, agricultural landscape. Farmland is predominantly arable within medium sized fields, although these often appear larger where boundaries have been lost, particularly on the more open ‘plateau’ areas. In contrast, small areas of pasture are associated with the tributary valleys and create a locally distinct landscape. Deciduous woodland occurs in small and medium sized blocks throughout the character area, and is frequently associated with the parkland landscapes. Occasional pine shelterbelts are a further distinctive feature of this area. 14.6. The Beck, Landspring Beck and Broome Beck (Waveney Tributaries) inform much of the character of this landscape. However water is not always visible due to the small size of the watercourses. Wetland vegetation, changes in landform and crossings points are indicative of the tributaries and create a clear contrast with the adjacent areas. 14.7. Parkland is a defining feature in this character area, with the visual presence of woodlands, plantations, parkland trees and distinctive estate railings and lodges distinguishing it from the adjacent Tributary Farmland. 14.8. Woodland blocks are scattered across the area. Tindall Wood and Hedenham Wood are significant, both in terms of size and wildlife value, and form blocks of ancient woodland, designated as SSSIs. Scattered smaller areas of ancient woodland occur to the south and east of Toft Monks and to south and south west of Raveningham. Woodland also occurs in association with the parkland, which is characteristic of this area. The majority of County Wildlife Sites identified in this area are also Ancient Woodland. Leet Hill at Kirby Cane is a SSSI of geological significance showing a sequence of exposed deposits. Orchards are a local feature at Aldeby. 14.9. Sand and gravel pits occur on lower ground adjacent to the Waveney and its tributaries, corresponding to the underlying geology. Active pits occur at Kirby Cane and Norton Subcourse. 14.10. Moats and field ponds are frequent throughout the character area providing glimpses of open water.
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 68 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 10 Historic Character 14.11. Historic parklands and their associated eighteenth or nineteenth century halls contribute to the historic character of this area. Ditchingham Hall (Grade II) and Raveningham Hall (Grade II*) appear on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens. Raveningham Hall was built in the late 18th century and has a landscape park and woodland with plantations or belts of trees occurring along most boundaries of the estate. The parkland at Ditchingham Hall has a lake, fed by Broome Beck. Other estates in this character area occur at Hedenham Hall, which backs onto Ditchingham Hall; Ellingham Hall, which has an ancient moated farmhouse; Geldeston Hall set in wooded parkland and at Gillingham Hall which is surrounded by plantations. 14.12. Conservation Areas occur at Gillingham and Geldeston and around Hedenham Hall.
Settlement and Built Character 14.13. The area is relatively sparsely settled, with settlement primarily concentrated in larger villages of Haddiscoe and Thurlton (associated with The Beck and Landspring Beck respectively) and Gillingham. Villages are mainly residential with an absence of a centre/core, Tofts Monk is however set around a village green. Red brick is dominant and Dutch gable ends are a feature. 14.14. Isolated churches (e.g. north of Broome) and round tower (e.g. at Haddiscoe) churches are features in this character area and prominent in views. Red brick barns occur as a landmark feature throughout the character and a Windmill with a brick tower c.1800 is located at Thurlton. 14.15. Around Aldeby a network of footpaths are marked by Carboniferous Limestones. This is part of the Aldeby Millennium project called ‘Pathways in Stone’; it celebrates Aldeby through the Millennia and echoes the tradition of parish boundary markers. 14.16. The A143 runs through the area, connecting Kirby Row with Ellingham, this is crossed by the A146 in the centre of the character area. Otherwise a network of rural roads dissects the area. Away from the main roads this area has a very rural and peaceful character. Further modern influences include the pylons which cut north to south across the area, creating a very visible vertical feature.
EVALUATION
Significant Landscape Assets
National/International • Ancient woodland (e.g. Tindall Wood and Hedenham Wood).
• SSS1s (Leet Hill and Stanley Carr).
• Isolated and round tower churches (north of Broome and at Haddiscoe respectively).
• Role as Setting for The Broads.
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 69 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 11 District/County • Strong local vernacular character with red brick and stepped gables.
• Views to The Broads.
• Presence of historic parkland - Ditchingham Hall (Grade II listed) and Raveningham Hall (Grade II* listed).
• Landspring Beck and Broome Beck.
• County Wildlife Sites, predominantly woodland.
• Presence of moats.
Local • Pastoral farmland within the Beck Valleys.
• Mature hedgerow trees.
Sensitivities and Vulnerabilities 14.17. The principal sensitivities and vulnerabilities of the Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland Character Area include: • the tranquil, rural character that persists across much of the area;
• open views across the marshes of The Broads and vulnerability to any change within views and the effect on the setting of The Broads;
• the land cover mix and contrast created by the arable character of the higher land and pastoral character of the tributary valley corridors;
• the intact field boundaries and the threat of further degradation and loss of hedgerow boundaries particularly on the plateau creating a more open landscape;
• the historic landscape/ landmark features such as isolated and round churches which are particularly sensitive to change and the need to protect the views to and setting of these features;
• the wooded character of the landscape (ancient woodland and woodland associated with parkland) and the need for appropriate forestry/ woodland management to prevent further decline in condition;
• the character of the historic parkland landscapes with their characteristic planting, boundaries and entrances;
• the rural character of the network of roads and lanes that cross the area;
• the character of the settlement and threat of further extension development and need to provide better containment and integration of settlement edges.
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 70 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 12 Landscape Strategy 14.18. The overall strategy is to conserve the peaceful, rural farmland character of the Thurlton Tributary Farmland with its distinctive historic parklands and tributary corridors and role as the setting to The Broads. This will include the following:
• maintain the pastoral/ arable contrast and in particularly seek to conserve and extend the pasture along the Beck corridors;
• conserve and enhance the historic parkland landscapes;
• consider opportunities to re-instate field boundaries, particularly where hedgerows have been lost and along roads;
• manage woodlands to conserve character and enhance biodiversity and consider opportunities to extend and link woodlands, including creation of new woodlands around settlements to help integrate stark development edges within the landscape setting;
• consider opportunities for restoring sites previously used for sand and gravel extraction to increase diversity of habitats. Heathland re-creation on sand and gravel sites along the edge of the Waveney Valley maybe an option;
• conserve the ponds and moats which are a distinctive feature of the area;
• conserve local landscape features such as orchards.
Development Considerations 14.19. Any development in the area must respect the character of Thurlton Tributary Farmland and in particular consider the following:
• conserve the relatively sparsely settled character with occasional larger villages and scattered isolated settlement and farms;
• conserve the sensitive open valley crest that forms the backdrop in views from The Broads to the east. Maintain key views into and from The Broads;
• continue to conserve and reinforce locally distinctive elements such as the recent parish boundary marker project;
• seek to improve integration of development within the rural setting and reduce the visual impact of harsh settlement edges. Woodland planting is a key opportunity;
• conserve the rural character of the road and lane network which cross the area;
• maintain the views to churches and protect and enhance the setting of these landmark features;
• conserve and enhance the rural setting of the main roads (A143 and A146) that cross the area and avoid linear developments along the road corridors, which would change the perception of the rural area when travelling along these routes;
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 71 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 13 • contain development on settlement edges and avoid linear extensions to settlement.
South Norfolk Landscape Assessment: Final Report 72 C2: Thurlton Tributary Farmland with Parkland
Appendix 3 Page 14 MB APPENDIX 4
English Heritage Listing for Church of St Mary, Haddiscoe
List Entry List Entry
This List entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information. List Entry Summary List Entry Description This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest. Summary of Building Name: CHURCH OF ST MARY Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. List Entry Number: 1169126 Reasons for Designation
Location Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
CHURCH OF ST MARY, CHURCH LANE History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. Details County: Norfolk District: South Norfolk HADDISCOE CHURCH LANE District Type: District Authority TM 49 NW Parish: Haddiscoe 7/13 Church of St. Mary 5.9.60 - I National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Parish church. C11 with C13 and C15 remodelling. Flint with limestone and Grade: I red brick dressings. Lead roofs over nave, aisle and porch; chancel slated. West tower, nave, north aisle, south porch, chancel. Round west tower, Date first listed: 05-Sep-1960 probably late C11, divided into stages by three stone bands. Round-headed west window, and round-headed lancets at cardinal points in lower stages. The bell stage has 2-light openings with triangular heads and restored central Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry. shafts with scallop capitals; billet moulded surrounds. Above, a corbel table surmounted by a C15 embattled parapet of flushwork chequering. C15 south porch with angle buttresses to gable. Knapped flint with flushwork around arch. Ogee-headed niche under square hood mould above arch. Blocked west Legacy System Information window; east window of two lights with cusped heads. Arch-braced porch roof with wallposts on head corbels (two corbels missing on west side). Very fine The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system. and elaborate south doorway with shafts with decorated scallop capitals and roll, scallop, zigzag and chip mouldings to arch. Good early ironwork on
Appendix 4 Page 1 Appendix Legacy System: LBS south door. Above the door a seated figure in a semi-circular headed niche with decorated engaged shafts and roll-moulded and decorated arch. South UID: 227015 nave and chancel windows all much renewed; 2-light Perpendicular tracery under segmental pointed arches with stilted drip moulds; staged buttresses divide bays. South-west bay of chancel has blocked red brick arched opening below window and two blocked circular windows. Plain-chamfered priests door opening east of window. Diagonal buttresses to east wall, gable parapet with Asset Groupings cross-finial. C19 4-light Geometrical east window, the cill level raised in red brick. North-west bay of chancel has C15 2-light window flanked by
http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle_print.aspx?uid=1169126&showMap=1&showText=1[24/08/2013 17:13:37] http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle_print.aspx?uid=1169126&showMap=1&showText=1[24/08/2013 17:13:37] List Entry List Entry
blocked circular openings. 3-light east window to aisle with square head and drip mould. Four-bay north clerestorey of C14 quatrefoil lights with red brick arches. North aisle has two 2-light C13 'Y' tracery windows and, at the north-west corner, a fine north doorway with billet hood mould and shaft, scallop and roll-moulded arches; shafts now gone. 3-light intersected window to west wall of aisle. Interior: north arcade of five bays: the arches of bays 1, 3 and 5 have a triple chamfer with no imposts, bays 2 and 4 have plain arches with imposts, possibly C12. Two small niches in the western face of the western arch. Arch-braced nave and chancel roofs; nave has wall- posts on corbel heads. Good aisle roof of arch-braced principals on wall- posts and corbels; some head-corbels. Tall, narrow tower arch with plain imposts, semi-circular headed doorway above. Chancel arch early C14, quadrant moulded with half-shafts. C14 double piscina in south-east corner of chancel. In the north-east corner, a wall monument to C.Ashby, rector of Haddiscoe (d.1671). Head corbels for lenten veil in mid north and south walls. C17 memorial slabs set in nave floor. Octagonal font, C15, possibly re-cut, with angels and the signs of the Evangelists around the bowl and four lions around the stem. Fragments of wall paintings: a C14 St. Christopher on the north wall of nave, with half a painted consecration cross. Fragments of a black- letter inscription on south wall of nave.
Listing NGR: TM4393196897
Selected Sources © Crown Copyright and database right 2012. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100019088. Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. © British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2011. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
Map This copy shows the entry on 24-Aug-2013 at 05:15:03.
National Grid Reference: TM 43931 96897
The below map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. For a copy of the full scale map, please see the attached PDF - 1169126.pdf Appendix 4 Page 2 Appendix
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