The Shropshire Landscape Typology

Home , Barkers Green, Baschurch, Brandhill, Bridgnorth, Brown Clee Hill, Clee Hills

September 2006 Contents

Part I – Setting the Scene 1 Introduction 2 The Shropshire Character Framework 5 Assessing Landscape Character 6

Part II – The Typology 11 Defining landscape types 12 High Open Moorland 14 High Enclosed Plateau 16 High Volcanic Hills and Slopes 18 Upland Smallholdings 20 Upstanding Enclosed Commons 22 Pasture Hills 24 Principal Wooded Hills 26 Wooded River Gorge 28 Wooded Hills and Farmlands 30 Wooded Hills and Estatelands 32 Sandstone Hills 34 Sandstone Estatelands 36 Incised Sandstone Valleys 38 Wooded Forest 40 Forest Smallholdings 42 Timbered Plateau Farmlands 44 Principal Timbered Farmlands 46 Timbered Pastures 48 Wooded Estatelands 50 Estate Farmlands 52 Settled Pastoral Farmlands 54 Principal Settled Farmlands 56

i Contents

Part II – The Typology continued Enclosed Lowland Heaths 58 Lowland Moors 60 Riverside Meadows 62 Lowland Moss 64 Coalfields 66

Glossary 68 Further Information 73

ii Part I Setting the Scene

“For the personality of a man reacting upon the spirit of a place produces something which is neither man nor the place, but fiercer and more beautiful than either”

Mary Webb. The Golden Arrow

1 Introduction

Shropshire possesses one of the richest and most varied landscapes of any of the English counties. It offers a diverse range of scenery: from the lakes and rolling pasturelands around Ellesmere in the north, to the gaunt moorlands of the Clee Hills, with their stark industrial ruins, in the south; the densely wooded scarps of Wenlock Edge; or the straight, sandy lanes of the north-eastern heathlands, with their large arable fields and ‘big skys’. Shropshire’s countryside has inspired, and continues to enthuse, generations of writers, poets and artists, whose works have in turn shaped our perceptions of the county’s landscape.

Shropshire’s landscape has been shaped by a broad range of factors. No other area of equivalent size in the UK exhibits the same degree of geological variation. This ‘geodiversity’ has in turn given rise to a complex array of soils and a range of different landforms. The county’s ecology is correspondingly varied, and includes a broad assortment of nationally important habitats, such as the calcareous grasslands on the limestones of Wenlock Edge and the Oswestry Hills and the lowland raised bog at Whixall Moss.

In terms of its historical development, Shropshire straddles the boundary between what the landscape historian Oliver Rackham terms the ‘ancient countryside’ of western England and the ‘highland zone’ landscapes that predominate in Wales, northern England and Scotland. Inevitably, these broad, national classifications mask

2 detailed local distinctiveness. Many of the more fertile soils have been cultivated since later prehistory, and have a present day character that has been deeply influenced by the gradual, informal enclosure of the medieval open fields between the 14th and 17th centuries. Where conditions are less favourable, either because of altitude and/or the infertile nature of the soils, cultivation has been more sporadic, and the present day landscape has often developed from once extensive commons. Some of the latter locations, which today represent some of most tranquil corners of the county, bear the scars of frenetic 18th and 19th century industrial operations: a legacy of rich mineral deposits within the underlying rocks. The aim of this document, therefore, is to define and describe the different types of landscapes that occur within Shropshire, and to explain how and why these distinctions have arisen.

Because of these factors, Shropshire’s landscape forms an integral part of the county’s unique environment. It is vital to the county’s economy, not only because of the farming industries it sustains but also because of the tourists and investors it attracts. In addition, the landscape forms part of the surroundings in which we all live and work, and therefore makes an important contribution to our quality of life and sense of place.

The importance of the landscape of the Shropshire Hills has long been appreciated and is formally recognised through its designation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This ensures that around 25% of the county continues to receive added protection from unsustainable development.

3 The character of the landscape, as we see and experience it today, represents the product of past changes. Some of these changes – such as the slow weathering and erosion of rocks, or gradual changes in © Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership soil conditions - operate over such a long timescale that they are imperceptible to most of us. However, the majority stem directly or indirectly from peoples attempts to modify and adapt their surroundings, in order to secure a living from the land. In the past change often occurred quite slowly; for instance, the ongoing clearance and enclosure of woodland during the medieval period. On other occasions it was rapid and socially disruptive: such as the attempts of rival landowners to drain and enclose parts of the Wealdmoors, to the north of Telford, during the later 16th century. Some parts of the landscape, such as the network of small irregular pasture fields, winding lanes and scattered farms on the floodplain of the Severn around Melverley, are truly ancient and have remained largely unaltered for centuries. In other places, like the higher parts of the Clun Forest, apparently timeless patterns of hedged fields and isolated farmsteads are sometimes less than 150 years old.

Change, therefore, forms an integral part of all landscapes. Over the past five or six decades, however, the scale and pace of change in the landscape has been unprecedented. The result has often been the erosion of landscape character that has been centuries in the making, and the removal of the factors that make one landscape different from another. The challenge facing us today, then, is to ensure that future changes occur in a way that is sympathetic to landscape character, allowing it to be maintained for future generations to enjoy. In other words, we need sustainable management of landscape change.

4 To achieve this aim, Shropshire County Council, in partnership with English Heritage, English Nature, The Countryside Agency, the Living Landscape Project and the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership, has been engaged over the past seven years in analysing the landscape character of the county. Together the methodologies and results of the assessments which the County Council have produced are known as the Shropshire Character Framework. This document describes the context of this work and presents some of the results. Firstly, it will outline the process of identifying landscape types. The factors that define the types will then be explained and the typologies themselves described.

The Shropshire Character Farmework provides a powerful tool that planners, landscape and countryside managers, developers, communities and other decision makers can use to ensure that sustainable management of change is achieved. Over the coming years Shropshire County Council will work with local communities and partners to build policies that will safeguard and strengthen the unique character of our county’s landscape.

5 The Shropshire Character Framework in Context

During the mid 1990s, the Countryside Agency worked with English Nature and English Heritage to produce The Character Map of England. This provided an analysis of landscape character at a broad, national scale and resulted in the definition of 159 different Regional Character Areas. Following on from this initiative Local Authorities were encouraged to undertake more detailed assessments, in order to provide a finer degree of definition. In 1999 the Countryside Agency commissioned a Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) from Shropshire County Council for the pre-1996 county of Shropshire.

English Heritage also commissioned an Historic Landscape Character (HLC) assessment from the County Council in 2001. This project, which ran for three years until the end of 2004, formed part of English Heritage’s national HLC programme. The aim was to undertake a rapid analysis of the historical development of the whole of the county’s landscape, using a limited but consistent range of sources (e.g. historic editions of Ordnance Survey maps etc).

In 2005 the additional information about the historical development of the landscape, which the HLC assessment provided, was integrated into the Landscape Character Assessment. The results were then used as the basis for defining the Landscape Types described within this document.

6 Assessing Landscape Character

Landscape character is determined by six elements – Geology, Landform, Soils, Settlement, Tree Cover and Land Use - each of which can be represented in different ways via a series of different ‘attributes’. In Shropshire a broad range of attributes are present for each of the six elements.

The first set of elements – geology, landform and soils – represent the physiographic component of landscape character:-

• Geology is a primary determinant of landscape character, since it significantly influences the other two physiographic elements. No other area of comparable size in Britain can rival the degree of geological variation found in Shropshire, and rocks from eleven of the thirteen geological periods are present in the county. During the 19th century, some of the stratigraphic sequences in the county were studied by a number of the pioneering figures of British geology, including Sir Roderick Murchison and Charles Lapworth.

• Landform is largely determined by the underlying geology. The older, harder rocks are more resistant to erosion and usually form areas of more prominent and dramatic topography. In contrast, younger, softer rocks tend to underlie areas of lower ground. Shropshire exhibits a wide variety of different landforms; from the low lying wetlands, low sandstone hills and rolling pastures of the Shropshire plain in the north; to the dramatic hills and valley systems of the Shropshire Hills in the south.

7 • Soils are formed through the weathering and breakdown of the underlying rocks and drift deposits. The key attributes that determine what kind of vegetation a soil will support and how it is utilised by farmers are its chemistry – its fertility and acidity – its depth and its drainage. The physical and chemical properties of the underlying parent material strongly influence those of the resulting soil. Land use can also initiate changes in the properties of a soil. For example, cultivation of some areas with light sandy soils in later prehistory depleted them of nutrients and helped to increased their acidity, resulting in the formation of heathlands.

All of these elements are subject to only very gradual changes and, in terms of human perception, can be regarded as permanent (although human activity can, and has, had a significant effect on soils). Whilst not necessarily determining peoples actions, they have played a significant role in constraining it, particularly with regard to the agricultural practices they have employed over time.

Settlement, tree cover and landuse make up the cultural elements of the landscape:-

• Settlement comprises two variables – dispersion (scattered farmsteads/ isolated dwellings) and nucleation (towns, villages and hamlets). A strongly nucleated settlement pattern exists where most dwellings are clustered together in villages or hamlets, whilst in highly dispersed settlement pattern dwellings are scattered throughout the landscape. Invariably settlement patterns reflect the broader history of the landscape. In Shropshire, the origins of many settlement patterns lie in the medieval period. Others result from the colonisation of formerly unsettled areas of common land between the 16th and 19th centuries. Some locations, such as The Long Mynd and the upper slopes of the Stiperstones remain largely unsettled.

8 • Tree cover is a significant determinant of landscape character, framing or filtering views and shaping our perceptions of scale and degree of enclosure. Conversely, an absence of tree cover usually creates the impression of an open, exposed landscape. The extent and composition of the tree cover within Shropshire has been significantly influenced by several thousand years of human activity.

• Land Use in Shropshire reflects the physical factors which affect the agricultural productivity of the land, particularly soil type and relief. However, cultural choice has also played an important role. In particular, the gradual growth of specialised forms of farming between the 15th and 19th centuries, which themselves represented responses to the emergence of an increasingly complex, market-based economy. The changes that have occurred in agriculture since World War II – mechanisation, intensification and agricultural subsidies – have to a certain extent reversed this trend, blurring some of the long established distinctions between land use in different areas.

Whilst the cultural elements of the landscape are shaped to some degree by the physiographical character of the landscape, they are also strongly influenced by socio-economic factors. Because the cultural character of the landscape is the product of human agency, change occurs more rapidly than is the case for the physiographic elements. The descriptions of the cultural patterning of the landscape presented in this volume have been informed by the results of the Historic Landscape Character Assessment.

9 Landscape Character

Cultural Character Land Use Urban Arable Farmland Pastoral Farmland Rough Land Woodland Settlement Urban Clustered Dispersed Coalfields Planned Unsettled Tree Cover Unwooded Other Trees Coverts & Tree Groups Estate Plantations Secondary Ancient Woods

Physiographic Character Soils Deep Soils Shallow Soils Impoverished Soils Gleyed Soils Bog/Fen Peat Landform Vales & Valley Floors Rolling Lowland Upstanding Sloping High Land Geology Fluvial Drift Tertiary & Mesozoic Upper Palaeozoic Caledonian

10 Part II The Typology

“It was one of those places where the spirit of aboriginal England still lingers, the old savage England, whose last blood lingers still in a few Englishmen, Welshmen and Cornishmen.”.

D.H. Lawrence. St Mawr

11 Defining Landscape Types

The methodology for assessing landscape character outlined in Part I makes it possible to identify the factors that make the landscape in one area different from that in another. These distinctions result from the different combinations in which the various attributes occur. Wherever a particular set of attributes occurs repeatedly they give rise to a ‘landscape type’.

Landscape types are therefore generic: a given landscape type occurs wherever a particular set of attributes exists, but all of the areas assigned to that type will have a similar character. For example, in Shropshire the Stiperstones, much of The Long Mynd, and the tops of the Clee Hills have all been assigned to High Open Moorland landscape type. Whilst each of these areas have certain unique features (such as the exposed ‘stacks’ of quartzite rock on the Stiperstones), they have a number of factors in common with one another, which lends them the same character. Thus, they are all exposed areas of upland that provide panoramic views over the surrounding countryside, they contain large tracts of unenclosed moorland which remain unsettled, and all are open, large scale landscapes.

In Shropshire 27 different landscape types can be recognised. Some of these, such as the Forest Smallholdings or Lowland Moss types, have a very limited distribution and are present in only one or two locations. Others, like the Estate Farmlands or the Principal Settled Farmlands, occur widely in the county.

Each of the following landscape type descriptions sets out the key characteristic and describes the broad character of the type, defines its distribution within the county, and provides a visual example of what they look like ‘on the ground’.

Landscape Types Wooded river gorge Timbered plateau farmlands Lowland moors

High open moorland Wooded hills & farmlands Principal timbered farmlands Riverside meadows

High enclosed plateau Wooded hills & estatelands Timbered pastures Lowland moss

High volcanic hills & slopes Sandstone hills Wooded estatelands Coalfields

Upland smallholdings Sandstone estatelands Estate farmlands Urban

Upstanding enclosed commons Incised sandstone valleys Settled pastoral farmlands Pasture Hills Wooded forest Principal settled farmlands

Principal Wooded Hills Forest smallholdings Enclosed lowland heaths

13 . High Open Moorland

Key Characteristics

• Upland plateau and slopes with extensive tracts of heathland • Largely unenclosed landscape with few signs of habitation • Large scale landscape, offering open views

Description Heather, Bilberry and grasses such as Red Fescue and Common Bent. This landscape type is found only Further ecological diversity is added within the Shropshire Hills; on the by the localised bogs and wet tops of the Clee Hills, across much flushes, which often form stream of The Long Mynd and the sources. Tree cover is restricted to Stiperstones ridge, and to a more limited areas of scrub on some limited extent on Heath Mynd, Cefn slopes, and regular blocks of Gunthly and Stapeley Hill. These conifer plantations towards the are largely unenclosed upland southern end of The Long Mynd landscapes, notable for their and the eastern flanks of Brown extensive tracts of moorland. They Clee Hill. Consequently these derive from harder rocks including landscapes have a large scale and Precambrian and Ordovician open character, which means that, sedimentary rocks and, on the from the ridge crests and gently summits of the Clee Hills, igneous undulating plateau tops, there are Carboniferous dolorites. These give panoramic views. On the lower rise to shallow, impoverished soils, slopes, and particularly within the including peat, and block scree, narrow steep sided valleys that which support a mosaic of occur in some places, known locally heathland and rough grassland as ‘batches’ or ‘beaches’, views are plant communities. Typical species often framed and the scale of the include Heather and Common Bell landscape is smaller.

14 . d n a

Large scale with l

open views r Unenclosed Moorland landscape vegetation o o m n e p s o n e k c i h D n g o i d r o h G ©

Within the open moorland, fields and later smallholdings barrows and other prehistoric sometimes occur towards the earthworks survive well, as a result edges of these landscapes, of the low intensity of historic land especially lower down the slopes use. During the Middle Ages all of and within some of the batches. the areas where this type occurs Signs of habitation are restricted to within Shropshire were covered by the scattered cottages and small forest law, which reserved the right farms associated with these field to keep deer for the king. In most systems. On the Clee Hills these cases the moorland associated landscapes also contain extensive with them were intercommoned by industrial remains associated with the surrounding settlements. mining and quarrying. These These common rights survived industries first emerged in the their eventual ‘disafforestation’ (i.e. Middle Ages and exploited the the removal of their legal status as areas coal and ironstone deposits a forest) in the 14th century. and, latterly, the local ‘dhustone’ Although some parts of the Long (dolerite). Mining remains, related Mynd were temporarily brought to the south-west Shropshire lead into cultivation between the late industry, can also be seen in 17th and early 19th centuries, they places on the Stiperstones ridge remain largely unenclosed. and, to a more limited extent, on However, limited areas of ancient Cefn Gunthly and Stapeley Hill.

15 High Enclosed Plateau . Key Characteristics

• High, upland plateau • Regular, planned field pattern • Relict thorn hedges • Medium to large scale landscape with open views © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. • Dispersed settlement pattern Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description A regular pattern of geometric fields, and a low density, Located mainly in the upper dispersed pattern of isolated reaches of the Clun Forest and brick farmsteads and wayside elsewhere in the west of the cottages, exists in most areas. county, these are high, rolling, Straight thorn hedges once medium to large scale, upland formed the majority of field landscapes with predominantly boundaries, although in the open views. The exposed Oswestry uplands drystone walls conditions and impoverished were also used. On the lower soils mean that the dominant slopes, however, the field land use is moderate to low systems tend to be older and intensity pastoral farming. more irregular, and the cottages Localised patches of semi-natural and associated pattern of small vegetation are apparent in some fields provide additional diversity places. An exception occurs on in some areas. Long Mountain, however, where Tree cover is generally sparse, areas of better quality soils also with woodland largely confined to permit high intensity arable regular forestry plantations. production.

16 Regular planned Dispersed field pattern Settlement Pattern . u a e t a l p d Relic thorn hedges e s s n e o k l c i D c n o n d r o e G © h g These landscapes have evolved However, the dominant, geometric i h from areas of moorland and wood field patterns in these landscapes pasture and, with the exception of are result of the planned the northern Oswestry hills, all lay enclosure of these former within medieval forests. The more woodland and wastes during the irregular field patterns – for late 18th and 19th centuries. example, around Shelve and on Enclosure and improvement of parts of Long Mountain – some of the highest areas did not represent early enclosure from take place until the later 20th ‘waste’ (common rough pasture), century. The introduction of dating to the later medieval and arable cultivation into these early modern periods. On the landscapes also dates to this western slopes of the period. Stiperstones, around Pennerley, miners working in the local lead industry established cottages and smallholdings from the 16th century onwards.

17 High Volcanic Hills and Slopes

Key Characteristics . • Precambrian volcanic geology • Prominent hills with notable steep slopes • Unsettled, unenclosed landscape with few signs of habitation • Rough grazing © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description Although the type is predominantly open, the lower This landscape type is associated slopes of The Wrekin are heavily with some of the most prominent wooded. The corresponding landmarks of the Shropshire Hills variations in landcover create a –The Wrekin, Earl’s Hill, The range of views: open and large Lawley, Caer Caradoc, Hope scale in areas of open grassland; Bowdler Hill and Ragleth Hill – more confined and intimate where which are all characterised by a views are filtered by tree cover. dramatic, steeply sloping landform. It occurs solely in There are few signs of habitation, relation to a series of outcrops of and what settlement there is hard Precambrian volcanic rocks, generally comprises dispersed of the Uriconian series, though cottages located at the foot of the the hills are formed from volcanic slopes. The principal land use deposits rather than being remains a mixture of low intensity remnants of volcanoes pastoral farming and forestry. themselves.

The shallow, impoverished soils that have formed over these rocks support botanically rich acid grassland plant communities, although bracken is widespread throughout and scrub is present in some places.

18 Prominent Hills . s e Rough p grazing Exposed, o

panoramic l

views s d s n e n k c i a D n o s d r l l o i G © h c Traditionally these landscapes Encroachment by squatters i n

would have been utilised for around the margins of these a c common rough grazing and former commons occurred in l wood pasture and, with the some places from the 17th o v exception of Pontesford Hill/ century onwards, resulting in the h

Earl’s Hill, all lay within medieval creation of localised areas of g i

forests or chases. The low small, irregular fields. Whilst h intensity of historic land use these landscapes remain means that archaeological unenclosed, field banks dating to earthworks generally survive in the later 18th and 19th centuries good condition, and well are present on Hope Bowdler Hill preserved Iron Age hillforts exist and Pontesford Hill. in a number of locations. In the later 20th century conifer Ancient woodland once occurred plantations were established on more widely but gradual The Wrekin and Pontesford Hill. clearance over the centuries, and recent planting of conifers, means that it is now restricted to The Wrekin.

19 Upland Smallholdings

Key Characteristics . • Prominent, sloping topography • Dispersed settlement pattern of wayside cottages • Small hedged pasture fields • Areas of unenclosed moorland © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description network of narrow winding lanes and dispersed wayside cottages These landscapes mainly occur with associated farmsteads. around the fringes of high Such areas contrast strongly with moorland in the Shropshire Hills, a secondary, planned component such as Catherton Common in in the field patterns, defined by the Clee Hills and the area straight thorn hedges and around Bentlawnt and Hemford, associated with a thin scattering to the south-west of Minsterley. of farmsteads. They are generally characterised by poorer soils that favour These variations in landcover moorland and rough pasture create differing views: open, habitats, which occur extensively medium to large scale within in those areas which remain areas of unenclosed land and unenclosed. planned enclosure; small scale and intimate within the areas of Small irregular fields, mainly used smallholdings. for pastoral farming, form the main element within the field Along the edges of higher systems; some of which remain ground, particularly on the Clee unimproved hay meadows. Their Hills and around White Grit and boundaries are defined by mixed Hemford, many of the least hedgerows, often containing productive areas within both holly, rowan and gorse, as well as types of field systems are in the hawthorn and blackthorn. These process of reverting back to fields mesh together with a moorland and scrub.

20 .

Small hedged pasture fields s Dispersed Pattern of Cottages g n i d s l n e k o c i D h l n l o d r a o G © m s

During the Middle Ages these mines and quarries reached their d landscapes consisted of peak in the 18th and 19th n a extensive areas of moorland and centuries. l p unimproved grassland which Their decline over the course of u were used for common rough the 20th century mirrored that of grazing. Those on the Clee Hills the industries upon which many and at Bentlawnt/ Hemford also of the smallholders were lay within private chases. dependant, with the most The mineral wealth of many of marginal locations being these areas – limestone around abandoned altogether. Llanymynech Hill, lead around White Grit, coal and ironstone on the Clees – was exploited, in the latter two cases at least, from the medieval period onwards. These extractive industries expanded in the early modern period, and those employed within them began to establish smallholdings on the surrounding commons. These settlements achieved their maximum extent when the local

21 Upstanding Enclosed Commons

Key Characteristics

• Upstanding, sloping topography • Regular to sub-regular pattern of hedged fields . • Medium to large scale landscapes • Dispersed settlement pattern © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description moorland survive in places – for example, on the crest of Lyth Hill This landscape type occurs in a - and in more marginal locations limited number of locations in the landscape is beginning to central, western and north- revert to a pre-enclosure state. western Shropshire, and is distinguished from the previous The predominant field pattern landscape types by the lower consists of regular or sub-regular altitudes at which they occur. hedged fields, associated with a They are formed of a mixture of dispersed pattern of farmsteads. Precambrian (Norbury Hill, Lyth However, a secondary Hill and Bayston Hill) and component comprised of small igneous (Mynd y Bryn) and irregular fields associated with sedimentary (Rhydycroseau) cottages and smallholdings can Ordovician rocks. These strata be seen in places. give rise to landscapes with Woodland is largely confined to prominent, upstanding coverts and tree groups, with topographies and predominantly some relic ancient woodland on poor soils. Lyth Hill, whilst additional tree Pastoral farming of improved cover is provided by scattered grassland represents the most hedgerow trees. widespread land use, although on Lyth Hill mixed farming is more prominent. Relict patches of rough or acid grassland and

22 Dispersed Upstanding settlement Regular field topography pattern

. s n s n o e k c i D m n o d r m o G o © c

These various elements create centuries. The sub-regular field d e medium to large scale patterns tend to be earlier, with s o landscapes, which because of irregular hedgerows that contain l the sloping landform, generally greater numbers of trees. The c n

offer open views, even where later planned field systems are e hedgerow trees are present. characterised by straight hedges g

with few, if any, hedgerow trees. n The field systems and settlement i d

patterns within this type are The areas of smaller fields, n a

characteristic of landscapes associated with cottages and t derived from former upstanding smallholdings, result from s commons and, in the case of ‘encroachment’ onto these p u Lyth Hill, woods and commons. commons between the 16th and Lythwood lay within the medieval 18th centuries. The village of Long Forest and was retained by Bayston Hill, between Lyth Hill the Crown after 1301, when the and Sharpstones Hill, originated extent of Shropshire’s forests was in this way, although later 20th drastically reduced. century housing developments have modified the historic The irregular and planned field settlement pattern. systems were created through successive phases of enclosure between the 16th and 19th

23 Pasture Hills

Key Characteristics

• Prominent, sloping topography • Hedge fields with mainly ancient origins • Pastoral landuse • Dispersed settlement pattern . • Medium to large scale landscape with © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. filtered views Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description places, particularly on the eastern side of Brown Clee Hill. Further The Pasture Hills are prominent, tree cover is provided by sloping landscapes that occur scattered hedgerow trees, mainly around the fringes of higher Ash or oak, set within species rich ground in parts of the Oswestry hedgerow networks that define Hills, on Long Mountain, the ancient, irregular field systems. northern and western flanks of Unimproved hay meadows, The Long Mynd, along Yell Bank associated with species such as north-east of Church Stretton, on Common Knapweed, Betony and the north slopes of the Kerry Devil’s-bit Scabious, survive more Ridgeway, and on the Clee Hills. frequently than in other The mixed but generally landscapes types. The settlement impoverished soils are used for pattern is primarily one of pastoral production. Some dispersed farmsteads and hillsides retain areas of wayside cottages, although a unenclosed moorland and rough number of small hamlets and pasture, which often support good villages also exist in some areas, populations of ground nesting particularly on the northern slopes birds. Relict ancient woodland is of The Long Mynd. Together found throughout most of these these elements combine to form landscapes, particularly along small-medium scale landscapes, watercourses and on the steeper which offer filtered views through slopes. Regular blocks of conifer hedgerows and trees. plantation also exist in some

24 Irregular field patterns

Dispersed . s

settlement pattern n e s k l c i l D i n

Pastoral land use o h d r o G e r © u t

These landscapes have complex, rough grazing land was also s varied histories. During the reduced through successive a p medieval period, small open fields phases of enclosure. The earliest existed in a number of places, are represented by rectilinear or particularly around the older irregular ‘intake’ fields on the upper settlement foci on the slopes of The slopes, which were enclosed from Long Mynd and the Clee Hills. The the margin of the common in the field patterns in these areas indicate early modern period. Partially that the enclosure of these fields contemporary with these are the was undertaken on a piecemeal squatter encroachments, with their basis; a process that was largely associated cottages and complete by the beginning of the smallholdings, which were 17th century. In the early Middle established from the 16th century Ages the areas of woodland and onwards. The final phases of open rough pasture were much enclosure took place in the 18th larger. The ‘assart’ field patterns and 19th centuries, and are (i.e. those cleared and enclosed represented by relatively localised directly from woodland) present in areas of geometric fields subdivided some areas - for example, on the by straight thorn hedges. Examples steep eastern slopes of Linley Hill - include Prolley Moor, to the east of suggest that woodland clearance Wentnor, Smethcott Common, near was underway by the later medieval Picklescott and the upper slopes of Yell period. The extent of the common Bank.

25 Principal Wooded Hills

Key Characteristics

• Prominent, sloping topography • Interlocking pattern of large blocks of mixed broadleaved woodland with ancient character • Wooded land use with occasional

Description Mercury, Ramsons and Sanicle. Conifers have, however, been This landscape type is located on planted in place of broadleaved the The Ercall, Eastridge Wood species in many locations. near Snailbeach, the scarp slopes of Wenlock Edge, the Clee Where the slopes are less steep, Plateau and View Edge/ Weo limited areas of pasture do occur, Edge near Leintwardine, Coxall many of which are associated Knoll near Bucknell, and the with a pattern of irregular fields ridges of the Mortimer Forest, to with a woodland origin. On the west of Ludlow. The Wenlock Edge these include character of these prominent, fragments of unimproved wooded landscapes is heavily limestone grassland, a habitat influenced by landform, mostly that is rare in Shropshire. comprising scarp and folding These landscapes vary in scale features in sedimentary rocks. from small and intimate with In many places the steepness of framed views inside the the slopes makes them unsuitable woodlands, to medium scale with for agriculture. As a result they filtered views in more open areas. remain largely uncleared and The type is very sparsely settled, retain a significant cover of with a highly dispersed pattern of ancient semi-natural broadleaved farmsteads and wayside woodland, associated with cottages. species such as Bluebell, Dogs

26 Interlocking blocks Prominent sloping of broadleaved topography woodland s n e k c i

D . n o d s r l o l G i © h d

During the medieval period many On Wenlock Edge, in particular, e

of the woodlands within these the underlying Silurian limestones d landscapes were held in have been extensively quarried o o common and managed for since at least the medieval w

coppice or wood pasture. A period. l number of the areas in the county a p where this type occurs lay within i c medieval forests or private n i chases. In the early Middle Ages r many of the woods were p probably much larger.

Progressive clearances from the medieval period onwards gradually reduced the extent of the tree cover to something near its current extent, creating the irregular woodland boundaries and areas of ‘assart’ fields (woodland clearance) we see today.

27 Wooded River Gorge

Key Characteristics

• Steeply sloping valley sides • Interlocking woodlands of ancient character • Small scale, intimate landscapes with framed views

. Description inhibited clearance for agriculture in the past. Where fields do Principally located along sides of occur, however, they are mainly the Ceiriog/ Dee valley, on the associated with pastoral Welsh border, and the Severn production, with some mixed valley, between Ironbridge and farming in places. Highley, these are steeply sloping, heavily wooded, linear Overall these landscapes remain landscapes. The woodlands are sparsely settled with a highly primarily ancient and of dispersed pattern of farmsteads significant ecological interest, and wayside cottages. The because of their humid, Ironbridge Gorge forms a overgrown character, although noticeable exception, with a many have been heavily densely clustered settlement replanted with conifers. pattern.

Deeply eroded by glacial Historically, these landscapes meltwaters, the steep valley sides have been managed for the have localised rocky outcrops, timber resources they provide. some of which have been Where fields exist within this type accentuated by quarrying and their form is usually suggestive of mining activity, especially along assarting (woodland clearance). the Ironbridge Gorge. As with Principal Wooded Hills, the steepness of the slopes has

28 Interlocking woodlands s

Small scale with n e

framed views k c i D n o d r o

G . © e g Within the Ironbridge Gorge the r o readily accessible mineral g

resources, managed woodland r cover and the presence of the e v i

River Severn facilitated the r development of coal and iron d industries from the medieval e period onwards. These d o

industries reached their peak o

between the 17th and the 19th w centuries, during which period the settlements within the Ironbridge Gorge expanded rapidly.

Around Quatt, to the south of Bridgnorth, parts of these landscapes were also incorporated into the parkland around Dudmaston Hall, which gives the woodland in this area an estateland quality.

29 Wooded Hills and Farmlands

Key Characteristics

• Prominent, sloping topography • Hedged fields with predominantly ancient origins • Large discrete woodlands with ancient character

. Description Limited areas of unimproved rough grassland and heathland This landscape type is most also exist, such as Hopesay prevalent in the hills of the lower Common in south Shropshire, Clun valley, with two significant and the western side of outliers on Haughmond Hill, near Haughmond Hill near Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury, and around the fringes of the Wrekin, in the centre The field patterns are of the county. They are broadly predominantly ancient and similar to the Principal Wooded irregular, with species-rich Hills, although the slopes in the hedgerow networks. However, Clun valley are more rounded due areas of planned fields with of the softer underlying Silurian straight thorn hedges occur in sandstones, mudstones and some places, for example on the siltstones. As a result farmland eastern slopes of Haughmond tends to be more extensive, with Hill, and on Brandhill to the east of large, discrete blocks of woodland Clungunford, in south Shropshire. of ancient semi-natural character The settlement pattern within this on the steepest slopes. Some of type is one of dispersed these woods have been farmsteads, although a scatter of significantly enlarged through the smaller hamlets also exists around planting of conifers, particularly on the fringes of the Clun Forest. the eastern side of the Clun Forest.

30 Large, discrete blocks of ancient Mixed farming woodland land use s n e k c i D n o d r

Dispersed o

settlement pattern G © . The sloping topography gives ultimately derive from small s

rise to medium to large scale medieval open fields. d landscapes that offer framed, n a

Elsewhere, the pattern of fields l and sometimes filtered, views. and woodland, the winding m These landscapes have complex network of roads, and dispersed r a and diverse histories. During the pattern of farmsteads are the f medieval period many of the product of ‘assarting’ (woodland d woods were held in common and clearance). Perhaps the best n a managed for coppice or wood- example of this can be seen to s l l

pasture. At this time there was the north of Wart Hill, northwest i also more open rough pasture of Craven Arms. h

land. These commons were d

In other places, particularly in the e gradually reduced by successive upper reaches of the river valleys d phases of enclosure, and by the in the Clun Forest, the pattern of o establishment of coniferous o irregular fields systems and forestry plantations in the 19th w dispersed farmsteads probably and 20th centuries. represent a mosaic of small The older, irregular field patterns closes, assarts and intakes from have varied origins. Around the the commons, the creation of hamlets, the form of the field which began in the medieval boundaries indicates that they period if not before.

31 Wooded Hills and Estatelands

Key Characteristics

• Prominent, sloping topography • Large discrete blocks of woodland with ancient character • Mixed farming landuse • Clustered settlement pattern of hamlets © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. and villages Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) • Medium-large scale landscapes offering filtered views

Description views, although generally the landform and the large size of the Wooded hills and estatelands are . fields make for open vistas. medium to large scale, agricultural Parklands associated with large landscapes with sloping estates can form an important topographies. They only occur in feature within these landscapes, southern Shropshire, particularly providing a focal point for along Wenlock Edge and around ornamental woodlands. The field the former Shirlett Forest, to the systems within this type are largely east of Much Wenlock. Mixed ancient in origin and are generally farming, on a range of shallow bounded by mixed hedgerows. A clays and sandy or loamy free clustered settlement pattern of draining soils, forms the most hamlets and villages prominent landuse. Large, predominates, some of which prominently located blocks of reflect the influence of the estates. woodland, with irregular or partially irregular boundaries and an In the Middle Ages most of the ancient semi-natural character, larger blocks of woodland were form one of the defining held in common. ‘Assart’ field characteristics of the type. Game patterns occur in places, for coverts also occur widely, whilst example on the north-western hedgerow trees - predominantly slopes of Hope Dale and to the oaks – form an important south of Broseley, indicating that component of the tree cover in the extent of these woodlands was some areas. In places the tree reduced through successive cover creates framed or filtered episodes of clearance and

32 Large, discreet blocks of woodland Mixed farming land use s n e

Medium to large k c scale i D n o d r o G © enclosure. Wood pasture also important role in shaping the existed in the medieval and early character of these landscapes. .

modern period in some places, They achieved their greatest s

particularly on the highest parts of influence in the 18th and earlier d

Wenlock Edge and around Shirlett, 19th centuries, during which period n a both of which lay within medieval most of the associated parklands l e

forests. These areas were reached their maximum extent. t gradually enclosed in the early ‘Improving’ landlords also a t

modern period: between the 16th established new farms on their s and 18th centuries small holders wider estates, or partially e

established encroachments in remodelled existing ones, d some parts of Shirlett forest, whilst sometimes as part of a wider n enclosure of the remaining areas scheme of agricultural a s

came in the 18th and early 19th improvements. Similarly, many l l centuries and are associated with estates constructed labourers i regular, planned field systems. cottages within the villages. The h

During the Middle Ages many of larger landowners were also d the villages and hamlets within responsible for the planting of e these landscapes were surrounded coverts to provide cover for foxes. d o

by medieval open fields. These The latter half of the 20th century o

had been largely enclosed in saw a marked increase in the w piecemeal fashion through informal intensity of agriculture, which agreements by the beginning of resulted in the enlargement of the 17th century. The estates of many fields to facilitate the the landed gentry played an expansion of arable production.

33 Sandstone Hills

Key Characteristics

• Upstanding sandstone hills • Light sandy soils • Woodland on steeper slopes • Abandoned stone quarries

Description of ancient woodlands. Plantations of Scots Pine are a notable feature This landscape type occurs on a of this landscape type, and lend south-west to north-east axis them an estateland quality. across northern Shropshire, and in Parklands provide additional focal two outlying locations to the north- . points of tree cover in some areas. west of Newport. These Moderate to high intensity pastoral landscapes are defined by production represents the main upstanding, in places steeply agricultural land use, together with sloping, topographies based on a mixed farming on the deeper soils. series of low hills formed of ruddy The field patterns predominantly Triassic sandstones. These consist of small to medium sized outcrop at the surface in some fields with mixed species places, and have been exposed hedgerows and scattered through quarrying activity. The hedgerow oaks, trending towards overlying soils are predominantly larger fields in those areas with sandy and free-draining. Where mixed farming regimes. they are at their shallowest, for Settlement patterns vary across example at the top of Grinshill Hill the type. For example, dispersed to the south of Wem and The Cliffe farmsteads and wayside cottages near Nesscliffe, they support predominate around Ruyton-XI- heathland plant communities. The Towns and to the north-west of woodland component comprises Newport. Around Clive and mixed secondary and plantation Weston, however, the settlement woodland, occasionally on the site pattern is more clustered, with

34 Upstanding Abandoned sandstone hills quarries

Relic heathland

vegetation s n e k c i D n o d r o G © hamlets and villages as well as a with large country houses, were moderate-high density dispersal of established in some places in the cottages and smallholdings. 18th and 19th centuries, most notably at Hawkestone Park. The .

Arable cultivation in these s sandstones which underlie these l l landscapes has probably always i landscapes are easy to work and been constrained by the sandy h have been extensively quarried for soils, although small open fields e

building stone, probably since the n

existed around the villages and o

Roman period. The remains of t

hamlets in the Middle Ages. s this industry are widespread and

Beyond these fields, the field d occur throughout the type, patterns usually become more n

although they are often partially a

regular, and the place names s masked by woodland. Traces of associated with them suggest they 18th and 19th century copper were enclosed directly from open mining can also be seen in some heathland and woodland between places. The labour requirements the 17th and early 19th centuries. these industries generated is Prior to enclosure, these heaths largely responsible for the and woods were utilised for dispersed pattern of wayside common rough grazing, and the cottages and associated small areas of unenclosed land smallholdings that occur in some still preserve something of their locations. character. Parklands, associated

35 Sandstone Estatelands

Key Characteristics

• Arable landuse • Regular field patterns • Parkland with associated country houses • Clustered settlement pattern • Medium – large scale, open landscapes © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description cover more generally. Beyond these areas, the tree cover Located on the eastern side of the comprises thinly scattered field county, and extending into and hedgerow trees, together with Staffordshire and Worcestershire, occasional blocks of planted these are gently rolling, open woodland, some of which may landscapes formed over Permo- . have ancient origins. The Triassic sandstones. Historically, settlement pattern principally the light, sandy brown soils consists of villages and hamlets, supported extensive areas of together with a scatter of large heathland but are utilised for estate farms. intensive arable and, in some areas, mixed farming. As a During the Middle Ages arable consequence of successive agriculture was constrained by phases of agricultural the light soils. Open fields improvements, plant species existed around the villages, associated with heathland and separated by expansive areas of acid grassland are now largely heathland and ‘waste’ (common confined to hedgerows and rough pasture) that provided roadside verges. Parklands of ample rough grazing for sheep various sizes, with their associated and other livestock. They would country houses, occur throughout also have provided cover for these landscapes. They frequently game, and a number of the contain veteran trees and provide parklands within this type were significant focal points of tree originally established as deer

36 Rectilinear fields Medium to large with straight scale boundaries l i c n u o C y t n u o C e r i h s p o r h S © parks. Enclosure of the open new farms in the open fields around the villages had countryside, and the laying out of largely been completed by the straight new roads. In some 17th century, and the extent of places earlier, more irregular field the heathlands progressively systems were also reorganised. . reduced by a gradual process of These changes often produced a s informal enclosure. The 18th and pattern of regular fields defined d

19th centuries saw the by straight hedgerows. The n a establishment of new parks, and growing popularity of fox hunting l e the expansion of existing ones, in the early 19th century led many t a most of which were transformed landowners to establish t through formal landscaping plantations to provide cover for s e schemes into the designed their quarry. During the later 20th e landscapes we see today. century these landscapes have n

Between the mid 18th and later undergone a period of rapid o t

19th centuries landowners also change. Mechanisation and s invested considerable sums in to agricultural subsidies have d n the agricultural improvement of favoured the intensive arable a their wider estates. regime evident today, creating s Consequently, this period also the current pattern of the saw the formal enclosure of most enlarged fields and open vistas. of the remaining areas of open heathland, the construction of

37 Incised Sandstone Valleys

Key Characteristics

• Shallow, steep sided valleys • Planned woodland character – interlocking estate plantations • Linear tree belts along watercourses • Clustered settlement pattern © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) • Parklands • Small-medium scale landscape with filtered views

Description Planned woodlands with an estateland character form a This landscape type is confined to notable element within this the valley of the River Worfe and landscape type. On the valley its tributaries, in eastern floor wet woodland species Shropshire. Here the associations predominate but the watercourses have cut shallow, woods on the drier valley sides steep sided valleys through the . contain significant amounts of underlying Permo-Triassic beech. In addition, many of the sandstones, producing a watercourses are lined by dense landscape that contrasts markedly belts of trees dominated by willow. with the surrounding rolling plateauland. A clustered settlement pattern, which largely avoids the valley The flat valley floors were floor, exists throughout the type, traditionally utilised for wet with a low density dispersal of pastureland, whilst the thin sandy other dwellings, many of which soils on the steep valley sides represent former mills. support semi-natural acid grassland. On the upper valleys In addition, parts of this landscape sides much of the land is utilised have been incorporated into the for intensive arable farming, which parklands surrounding large prevails in the surrounding country houses. Sandstone Estatelands.

38 Shallow, steep Planned woodland side valley on valley sides

Linear tree belts along watercourses s n e k c i D n o d r o G ©

Taken together, these factors In the 18th century, this result in a small to medium scale combination of sheltered valleys landscape with views that are and carefully controlled filtered by woodland. watercourses attracted the eye of a number of the landscape Historically, the wet pastures and gardeners working for local land meadowland on the valley floors owners. As a result, a number of would have been a highly valued . locations have been transformed resource, particularly given the light, s

through formal landscaping y sandy nature of the soils on the e

schemes. In the 19th centuries l surrounding plateau. In this respect l

this landscape was further a

many of the older settlement v transformed through the planting centres within this part of Shropshire of woodland on the valley sides. e appear to be located on the edge n o

of this landscape type, permitting In their upper reaches the valley t ready access to the valleys and the floors are still dominated by small s resources they provided. wet pasture fields with elm d n

hedges, although in the lower a It is clear, from the nineteenth Worfe valley significant areas are s century map depictions of mill

now under cultivation. On the d leats and water meadow upper valley sides field e s

systems, that by the early i amalgamations in the later 20th modern period water had c

century have also created more n become a carefully managed i open and irregular field systems. resource within this landscape.

39 Wooded Forest

Key Characteristics

• Near continuous woodland cover • Woodland of ancient character • Unsettled landscape of small, intimate scale.

Description These factors impart a sense of remoteness to this landscape. In Shropshire this landscape type occurs solely in relation to the The prehistory and early history Wyre Forest, on the south-eastern of the Wyre Forest remains county boundary. The rolling obscure but after the Norman topography, composed of rocks of Conquest it was placed under the Carboniferous Coal Measures, forest law, and by the 14th is dissected by the narrow, steep century had become a private sided valleys of the Dowles Brook chase. and its tributaries. This landscape Parts of the forest were managed . is dominated by dense woodland, for timber from the later Middle of ancient character, typically Ages onwards, and supported associated with species such as industries such as charcoal Bluebell, Dogs Mercury, Ramsons burning and bark peeling for and Sanicle. tanning until the early 20th This gives rise to very limited century. The fast flowing streams framed views and creates and a also provided water power that small, intimate scale. It remains enabled an iron industry to largely unsettled, with a very develop in the Wyre Forest in the sparse scatter of farms and early modern period. In some wayside cottages that are areas around the fringes of the associated with small pastoral, forest the underlying coal ‘assart’ type, fields. deposits were also mined.

40 Continuous cover of ancient woodland

Small, intimate e

scale r u t a N h s i l g n E / y l e k a W r e t e P ©

The limited numbers of fields within these landscapes have been cleared directly from the forest, probably in the medieval and early modern period. Orchards occupy some of these fields, particularly along the stream valleys. .

In the later 20th century t s

significant areas of broadleaved e woodland were felled and r o replanted with conifers for f commercial forestry purposes. d e d o o w

41 Forest Smallholdings

Key Characteristics

• Small pastoral fields with hedged boundaries • Scattered hedgerow and garden trees • Small blocks of woodland • Dense pattern of wayside cottages and © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. small farms Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) • Small scale landscapes with framed views

Description Scattered hedgerow trees, small blocks of woodland and Within Shropshire, limited areas significant numbers of garden of Forest Smallholding trees impart a wooded feel. landscapes occur in two These elements combine to form locations around the edge of the small scale, intimate landscapes, Wyre Forest, on the county with views that are framed by boundary with Worcestershire. hedges and woodland. They have upstanding, gently rolling topographies, with free The Forest Smallholdings draining brown soils that have developed from areas of early . developed from the underlying medieval woodland. Clearance Carboniferous Coal Measures. and enclosure (or ‘assarting’) began in the Middle Ages, Small pastoral fields with tall producing a pattern of older mixed species hedgerows are dispersed farmsteads, irregular particularly characteristic of these fields and winding lanes. landscapes. They nestle into a closely worked pattern of small farms and wayside cottages, with associated smallholdings, and narrow winding lanes.

42 Small scale with Wayside framed views Cottages s n e k c i

Small pasture D n

fields o d r o G ©

From the 16th century onwards cottages with associated smallholdings were also established as ‘encroachments’ on the remaining areas of open common land, probably by those engaged woodland industries.

Around the Wyre Forest, orchards also represent a distinctive feature of these landscapes. . s g n i d l o h l l a m s t s e r o f

43 . Timbered Plateau Farmlands

Key Characteristics

• Upstanding plateau with rolling relief, dissected by valleys • Linear ancient woodlands in valleys and dingles • Mixed farming landuse

Description landscape type. Additional tree cover is provided by scattered This landscape type occurs hedgerow trees. widely in the Shropshire Hills and is mainly associated with Farming tends to be mixed, with sedimentary Ordovician rocks pasture – sometimes of and Devonian Old Red unimproved character - dominant Sandstones, with one outlier on where the terrain is more difficult. the Carboniferous limestone of The settlement pattern consists the Oswestry Hills. primarily of dispersed farms, The upstanding, rolling wayside cottages and hamlets, topography increases the visual although small villages are prominence of the hedgerows present in some areas creating a and woods, and creates a range more clustered pattern. of different vistas; from open The Timbered Plateau Farmlands views on plateau tops to framed have a varied history of views within the valleys. The development. Small open fields woodlands essentially have an existed around many of the ancient semi-natural character, hamlets and villages in the although much has been Middle Ages, which in most replanted. They vary in size, with cases had been enclosed wooded stream valleys being through piecemeal agreements particularly characteristic of this by the beginning of the 17th

44 . s

Visually prominent hedges d

and hedgerow trees n a l m r a f u a e s t n e a k c l i

Medium scale D p Ancient, irregular n

with filtered or o d

framed views fields r o d G e © r e century. A particularly good Expanses of rough pasture and b

example of such a field system woodland appear to have m i can be seen around Clee St persisted into the early modern t Margaret, on the western slopes period at higher elevations and of the Brown Clees. along some watersheds. In these areas, the creation of Much of the land beyond the smallholdings between the 17th open fields was enclosed directly and 19th centuries means that from woodland or ‘waste’ wayside cottages are more (common rough pasture) in the frequent, whilst 18th and 19th medieval period, creating an century enclosure of the organic pattern of hedged fields, remaining commons has created winding lanes and scattered a more regular field pattern. farmsteads. Examples include the area around Hope, south- west of Minsterley, and the area to the east of Alveley, on the eastern bank of the Severn.

45 Principal Timbered Farmlands . Key Characteristics

• Rolling lowland with occasional steep sided hills • Relic ancient woodland • Hedged fields with scattered hedgerow trees © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. • Predominantly dispersed settlement Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) pattern • Small to medium scale landscapes with filtered views

Description character, although some woods have been replanted with This landscape type occurs conifers. Oak and Ash represent throughout much of Shropshire, the main hedgerow tree species, with notable concentrations along whilst alder and willow dominate the northern boundary with along watercourses. Cheshire, and to the south of Shrewsbury. They are The settlement pattern typically predominantly rolling lowland comprises of a medium to high landscapes, with occasional density dispersal of farms and steeply undulating valley sides, wayside cottages, with and are characterised by a occasional hamlets and small mosaic of agricultural land. villages.

Tree cover, in the form of dense Like the Wooded Farmlands, stands of streamside trees, much of the agricultural land within scattered hedgerow trees, and this type was gradually enclosed small to medium sized from extensive tracts of woodland woodlands play an important role and ‘waste’ (common rough in structuring these landscapes, pasture) during the medieval and creating a small to medium scale early modern periods. This has and filtered views. Much of the produced an intricate countryside, woodland has an ancient characterised by a network of

46 Hedged fields . with scattered hedgerow trees Dispersed s

settlement pattern d n l a m r a f s d n e e k c i r

Small to medium D e scale with filtered n o d r views b o G m © i t l

winding lanes, scattered these areas, between the 16th a p

farmsteads, and small irregular and 19th century, account for the i fields. Examples include the areas small concentrations of wayside c n around Buttonbridge, on the edge cottages that occur in some i r

of the Wyre Forest, and Coptiviney, places. Enclosure of the p to the north-west of Ellesmere. remaining area of common land was completed in the 18th and Localised open fields existed 19th centuries, creating a regular around the larger settlement foci, pattern of rectilinear fields and the piecemeal enclosure of which straight roads. had generally been completed by the 17th century. During the later 19th and 20th century, conifer plantations were In some places, for example established in some locations, around Exfords Green and occasionally on the site of older Longden Common, to the south woodlands. Where more of Shrewsbury, and Ebrewood to favourable soils exist, the the north-east of the town, introduction of intensive arable sizable areas of common wood farming in the later 20th century pasture and rough grazing land has resulted in field enlargement, survived into the early modern creating more open conditions period. Encroachment by and a larger scale landscape. smallholders around the edges of

47 Timbered Pastures

Key Characteristics . • Rolling lowland

• Dense network of hedgerow trees

• Ancient woodland character

• Pastoral landuse

Description further ecological value. The nature of the tree cover also plays Occurring only in the extreme an important role in structuring north-eastern corner of the landscape, creating filtered Shropshire, in the area around views and a small-medium scale. the village of Woore, this is a lowland landscape of rolling This landscape is also glacial tills, where the heavy characterised by varied field overlying soils support medium systems and a complex intensity dairy farming. settlement pattern of dispersed farmsteads and wayside cottages Dense lines of trees along with occasional villages. hedgerows and watercouses represent one of the defining These landscapes have complex features of this landscape type. histories. Field systems derived Oak forms the dominant from localised medieval open hedgerow tree species, although fields exist around the villages. Ash is also common in some Beyond them, extensive areas areas, and willow predominates appear to have been cleared and along the watercourses. A enclosed (‘assarted’) from number of blocks of ancient woodland/ wood pasture and woodland, widespread wet ‘waste’ (common rough pasture), flushes and numerous small field creating a pattern of dispersed ponds, many of which probably farmsteads set within a matrix of occupy former marl pits, add winding lanes and irregular fields.

48 Dense hedgerow tree network

. s Pastoral landuse e r u t s a p s n e k c d i D e n r Small to medium o d scale with filtered r e o

views G b © m i A number of deer parks were also The clusters of cottages and t established during the medieval associated smallholdings, which period, such as the one that once exist in some locations, suggest existed to the south of Bellaport that encroachment onto the Old Hall, north-west of Norton in remaining commons also Hales. occurred during this period. Enclosure of the last pieces of Dairy farming became increasingly common land was completed important in north Shropshire between the 18th and early 19th during the 16th and 17th centuries, centuries, creating regular and was dependent upon careful geometric fields subdivided by stock breeding and grassland straight thorn hedges. management. Enclosed pastures provided the best means of During the later 20th century meeting these requirements and, intensification of the traditional partially for this reason, enclosure dairying regimes has resulted in of the open fields had been largely amalgamation of some fields. completed by 1600.

49 Wooded Estatelands

Key Characteristics . • Rolling landform • Large blocks of ancient woodland • Large country houses with associated parklands • Mixed agricultural land use © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006)

Description of trees along water courses and scattered hedgerow trees, with oak The lowland equivalent of ‘Wooded as the predominant species, Hills and Estatelands’, Wooded provide additional tree cover. Estatelands are rolling landscapes Parklands associated with country with occasional wooded wet houses constitute another dingles. In Shropshire they mainly important element and represent occur to the west and south-west of focal points for tree cover in some Telford; on the Coal Measures to places. The settlement pattern the north of the Wyre Forest; on the comprises occasional villages county boundary with Herefordshire together with dispersed farmsteads to the west of Ludlow; around and wayside cottages. Alberbury in western Shropshire; to the north-east of Ellesmere; and on Many of the parklands within the the Shropshire/ Staffordshire county type originated as medieval and boundary around Bishop’s Wood. early modern deer parks. A The varied but often impoverished number were significantly extended soils are associated with high between the 17th and 19th intensity mixed farming. Large, centuries, and reworked through often prominently located woods of formal landscaping schemes. The ancient semi-natural character form mixed field patterns within this type one of the defining characteristics have a varied history of of this landscape type. These development. During the Middle woodlands represent the dominant Ages relatively limited areas of structural component, creating open field land surrounded the framed views and medium to large villages and hamlets. As scale landscapes. Dense stands elsewhere in Shropshire, the

50 Large country Large, prominently houses with sited blocks of associated parks ancient woodland

. s d n a l s n e e k t c i D Mixed farming a t n

landuse o d s r o e G © d e piecemeal enclosure of these fields remaining commons were d

had largely been completed by the enclosed, resulting in the creation o middle of the 17th century. of regular field systems subdivided o

Beyond the open fields, extensive by straight hedges. The largest w areas of common woodland, wood example of this kind of planned pasture and waste existed in the field system can be seen to the earlier medieval period. The west of Bishop’s Wood, in north- enclosure of these areas began east Shropshire. In the later 19th before the 14th century and and early 20th centuries the heavy continued into the early modern industry on the eastern coalfield period, producing a pattern of went into decline, and by the irregular fields and dispersed 1960s much of the area was farmsteads. Between 16th and derelict. Some of the ancient 18th centuries small holders woodlands were also partially encroached onto some of the replanted with conifers during this larger areas of common land; period, whilst agricultural particularly on the Coal Measures intensification after World War II to the west of Telford and around has resulted in field amalgamation the margins of Chelmarsh in many areas. The development Common, near Highley, where the of Telford new town from the 1970s expansion of coal mining provided onwards means that to the west of an additional draw. Between the the town these landscapes are later part of the 17th century and now situated on the urban fringe. the early 19th century the

51 Estate Farmlands

Key Characteristics

• Mixed farming landuse • Clustered settlement pattern

. • Large country houses with associated parklands • Planned woodland character © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. • Medium to large scale landscapes with Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) framed views

Description planned appearance, although some plantations occupy the sites Estate farmlands are gently rolling of older woods and small stands lowland and valley floor of ancient woodland occur in landscapes that occur across some places. They tend to create large areas of Shropshire. The framed views within medium to lower ground is usually underlain large scale landscapes. by softer, more easily eroded Parklands, with their veteran and rocks such as shales, sometimes specimen trees, are a particular in sharp contrast to nearby ridges feature of the type. The settlement of harder rocks. Glacial drift pattern is predominantly one of deposits form the basis of most villages and hamlets and large soils and these landscapes estate farmsteads. include some the best agricultural land in the county, which have The Estate Farmlands have varied traditionally been associated with histories of development. To the mixed farming. As with the south-east and east of Shrewsbury, Sandstone Estatelands, landscape along the Tern valley, and within Ape character is largely determined by Dale and Corve Dale, the density of an ordered pattern of fields and Iron Age archaeological sites woods, although the prevailing suggests that a carefully managed pattern of medium to large sub- agricultural landscape had existed regular fields means that they lack for some considerable time prior to their strong, planned aspect. The the Roman Conquest. By the later majority of the woodlands have a medieval period arable open fields

52 Clustered Large country settlement pattern houses with associated parklands

. s d s n n e k c i a D Medium to large scale l

with framed views n o d m r o r G a © f e extended across a considerable sums on the agricultural t a proportion of most parishes in these improvement of their wider estates. t areas, and they exhibit some of the As a result, the 18th and 19th s e strongest settlement nucleation century saw significant within the county. Beyond them, rationalisation of pre-existing field arable land was less extensive and patterns and the formal enclosure of the intervening areas of woodland, the remaining areas of unenclosed rough grazing land, meadows and rough grazing lands. This period pastures are correspondingly larger. also saw the construction of new The gradual informal enclosure of estate farmsteads in the open the open fields was under way by countryside, as well as labourers the late medieval period and largely cottages and schools within some completed by the 17th century. of the villages. As a result of the Although some deer parks were growing interest in fox hunting created in the medieval period, the during the 19th century, many of the 18th and 19th century saw the larger land owners planted game establishment of many new parks. coverts on their estates to provide Within Attingham Park, for example, cover for their quarry. Since World evidence of an earlier agricultural War II agricultural intensification has landscape, in the form of ridge and introduced considerable change, furrow, exists in some parts of the and field enlargements in particular 18th century parkland. Many of their have created a larger scale and owners also spent considerable more open views.

53 Settled Pastoral Farmlands

Key Characteristics

• Heavy, poorly drained soils • Pastoral land use

Description the Timbered pastures, they can be present in significant numbers Located mainly in the northern and, combined with the field size, and western parts of the county, generate a small to medium Settled Pastoral Farmlands are scale landscape with lowland agricultural landscapes. predominantly filtered views. Heavy, often poorly drained soils are one of the defining A medium to high density characteristics of this landscape dispersal of farmsteads and type and have traditionally been wayside cottages, linked by a associated with livestock farming. sinuous network of lanes, This land use means that the represents the prevailing historic pattern of small to settlement pattern. However, medium, sub-regular, hedged occasional hamlets and small fields has been retained in most villages also exist in some areas, places. for example around Kinnerley, south-west of Oswestry. Whilst small, relict pieces of ancient woodland are present in The irregular field patterns within some areas, tree cover is largely these landscapes have varied provided by scattered hedgerow origins. Where the settlement oaks and Ash trees, along with pattern is more clustered, many linear bands of willows and of the fields derive from the alders along watercourses. informal, piecemeal enclosure of Although these are not as open fields during the late densely distributed as they are in medieval and early modern

54 Scattered hedgerow trees

Small to medium scale with filtered views

. s n e s Irregular field k c i D patterns with d

pastoral landuse n o n d r o a l G © m r a

period. This process may have Between the mid-17th and mid- f been encouraged by growing 19th centuries rural industries l a specialisation within the became important in some areas, r o agricultural economy, particularly for example limestone quarrying t in northern Shropshire where around Llanymynech. s a

dairying farming became p During the later 20th century increasingly important during this agricultural intensification has d period. e l

resulted in widespread pasture t t

Beyond the open fields, for improvement and the introduction e example around Winnington of intensive arable cropping in s Green, near Middletown, and to some places. Overall, however, the south of Maesbury, near the historic field patterns remain Oswestry, the field patterns largely unchanged. derives from a mixture of woodland clearance, together with intakes and encroachment in areas of former common rough pasture.

55 Principal Settled Farmlands

Key Characteristics

• Mixed farming land use • Varied pattern of sub-regular, hedged fields

Description Like the Settled Pastoral Farmlands, this landscape type Principal Settled Farmlands are lacks significant woodlands, prevalent throughout northern although small pieces of ancient Shropshire, mainly in association woodland and plantation occur in with Permian and Triassic some areas. Characteristically, sandstones, together with the Rea however, tree cover comprises Valley, the Vale of Montgomery, scattered hedgerow and field the northern end of Ape Dale and trees (mainly oak and Ash), the areas to the south of both amenity trees around settlements, Ludlow and Bridgnorth. These and denser linear stands of alder are settled lowland landscapes of and willow along watercourses. small villages and hamlets, scattered farms and relict The Principal Settled Farmlands commons, with varied soil are also defined by a clustered conditions that are predominantly settlement pattern of hamlets and utilised for mixed farming. smaller villages and a medium to high density dispersal of Around Ellesmere, this patchwork farmsteads and wayside is further enriched by a series of cottages. natural lakes and mosses, which occupy kettle holes within the Together with the relatively small, rolling glacial tills that cover this sub-regular fields, these part of the county. elements combine to create medium scale landscapes with predominantly filtered views.

56 Mixed farming Irregular hedged landuse fields s n e k c i

D . n o d s r o d G © n a l The Principal Settled Farmlands to the south of Wem, and m also have a varied history of Hengoed, north of Oswestry. In r a development. During the Middle some places the growth of these f

Ages many of the villages and settlements was linked to the d e hamlets were surrounded by development of rural industries, l t open fields, the enclosure of most notably coal mining in the t e

which occurred on an informal Rea valley and the area around s basis during the later medieval St. Martin’s, north of Oswestry. l a and early modern period. The 18th and 19th century saw p i

Beyond these areas the field the rationalisation of pre-existing c n

patterns often become more field systems in some areas, such i irregular and appear to have been as the Vale of Montgomery, as r p enclosed directly from woodland improving farmers adopted new or rough pasture. In some places husbandry practices. In the Teme in north Shropshire relict valley, to the south of Ludlow, commons can also be identified, orchards also become a distinguishable by the associated particular feature, although many clusters of wayside cottages and are no longer actively managed. smallholdings. Such A general intensification of encroachments were established farming practices occurred in the between the 16th century and later 20th century, resulting in the beginning of the19th century. amalgamation of fields in some Examples include Barkers Green, areas.

57 Enclosed Lowland Heaths

Key Characteristics

• Undulating lowland • Impoverished, freely draining soils • Planned woodland character • Dispersed settlement pattern

Description associated blocks of smallholdings, are also common. Regular Enclosed Lowland Heaths are plantation woodlands form the gently rolling lowland landscapes most significant woodland that occur throughout northern and component. Hedgerow trees are eastern Shropshire, in areas with generally fairly sparse, although in predominantly sandy, impoverished some places linear bands of trees soils. Localised areas of semi- along water courses also make an natural heathland vegetation survive important contribution. This pattern in a small number of locations, for of tree cover creates a mixture of example on Prees Heath in north framed and lightly filtered views. Shropshire, where the only Settlement largely comprises a low population of Silver-studded Blue to medium density dispersal of butterflies in the West Midlands is farmsteads and cottages, although found. Overall, however, these are occasional villages and hamlets are medium to large scale agricultural present in some locations. landscapes, which have evolved from extensive areas of open The origins of the extensive tracts of heathland and ‘waste’ (common open heathland, woodland and rough pasture) over the past three wood pasture, which existed until or four centuries. They are the early modern period, probably characterised by an ordered extended back to the Bronze Age. pattern of rectilinear fields with thorn Common rights of access to the hedges, straight roads and important resources that such scattered brick farmsteads. areas of waste and woodland Clusters of wayside cottages, with provided- such as rough grazing

58 Dispersed settlement pattern Blocks of plantation woodland s n e k c Regular field patterns i with straight thorn D . n

maintained by the communities in encroach on some of the e the surrounding townships. In heathlands, creating an intricate h addition, the area to the east of pattern of wayside cottages and d Bridgnorth formed the core of the small, sub-regular or rectilinear n a medieval royal forest of Morfe, fields. Good examples occur at l although by the 14th century Halfway House, to the West of w o grazing pressures on the Shrewsbury, and Prees Green, l associated commons had north-east of Wem. Very d e

significantly reduced the browse substantial expanses of open s o

available for the king’s deer. heathland remained, however, and l

Limited areas of open fields existed the enclosure of these areas was c around some of the villages and completed during the 18th and n e hamlets, the enclosure of which 19th centuries. This process gave was underway by the later medieval rise to the characteristic pattern of period. Enclosure of the geometric fields, plantation surrounding waste also began by woodlands, straight enclosure this period, most notably on the roads and new brick farmsteads. extensive tract of heathland During the later 20th century, between Ford and Westbury, to the intensive arable cultivation replaced west of Shrewsbury. Both forms of traditional mixed farming practices enclosure produced irregular field on many of the Enclosed Lowland patterns, which can still be seen in Heaths, resulting in the some areas. From the 16th century enlargement of many fields.

59 Lowland Moors

Key Characteristics

• Flat, low-lying topography • Peaty soils • Wet ditches and drains • Open, unsettled landscape

Description of Cockshutt, small natural meres provide further ecological Lowland Moors occur throughout diversity. Elsewhere relic patches northern and north-eastern of wetland vegetation can be Shropshire; most extensively found along road verges. along the southern edge of Whixall Moss, around Baggy The historical wetness of the soils Moor, to the north of Ruyton-XI- means that these landscapes Towns, and the Weald Moors to remain largely devoid of the north of Telford. They are flat, settlements, whilst the few roads low-lying, wetland landscapes, within them were created as part which occupy shallow hollows in of the drainage schemes. the glacial drifts deposits. A small number of wayside Tree cover consists of scattered cottages are, however, present in willows along the drains and some places, most notably around other water channels, which also the edge of Whixall Moss. Together represent one of the defining with the medium-large scale and characteristic of this landscape open views, this lends these type, together with regular estate landscapes a secluded quality. plantations. After the end of the last Ice Age the Patches of wet rough pasture depressions which the Lowland survive where current land use is Moors occupy began to gradually less intensive, and in some silt up, eventually resulting in the places, such as Fenemere near formation of thick beds of fen peat. Baschurch and Crose Mere north Recent research on Baggy Moor,

60 Scattered willows along drains and Open, unsettled water courses landscape s n e k c i

Relic wetland D . n

vegetation along o d road verges r o G © suggests that these peats were capital intensive drainage schemes s covered by wet woodland during of the late 18th and 19th centuries. r o

later prehistoric and Roman The improved pastures that were o periods. This woodland cover established as a result enabled m appears to have been cleared some of these wetlands, particularly d

during the early medieval period, the Weald Moors, to be used as n a

creating more open conditions. fattening grounds for cattle and l

sheep. However, their enclosure w By the later Middle Ages these o

often proved contentious, l landscapes provided extensive particularly when it involved a commons, which provided an curtailment of common rights. important variety of resources, Disputes also arose over including peat (for fuel), fish, responsibilities for the maintenance particularly eels, wildfowl and of drains. The consequent neglect seasonal rough pasture. In some sometimes resulted in flooding and locations, small holders established the gradual reversion to wetland. cottages around the edges of these commons between the 16th and Ongoing drainage works in the later 18th centuries. 20th century has permitted intensive arable cultivation in some Improvement of the Lowland Moors locations, particularly on Baggy was undertaken by the larger Moor and the Weald Moors. landowners from 16th century onwards, culminating in the large,

61 Riverside Meadows

Key Characteristics

• Flat, floodplain topography • Pastoral land use • Linear belts of trees along watercourses • Hedge and ditch field boundaries • Unsettled. © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Shropshire County Council 100019801 (2006) .

Description watercourses, together with scattered hedgerow and field These are linear landscapes trees. Woodlands, if present at associated with the well defined all, tend to be wet, Alder floodplains that border the major dominated woods, together with rivers in the county, the Severn, estate game coverts and regular Vyrnwy, Tern and Teme, and their poplar plantations. larger tributaries. The river channels are flanked by extensive Because of the frequency of areas of waterside meadows flooding, the Riverside Meadows defined by hedge and ditch remain largely unsettled, with the boundaries, which are used for exception of occasional mill seasonal grazing within a buildings and small settlement predominantly pastoral farming clusters around bridging points. system. These meadows are Woodland cover was probably often associated with wetland removed from many of the habitats such as floodplain grazing floodplains in the county during marsh, which support species later prehistory. By the early such as Meadowsweet, Creeping medieval period many of these Buttercup and Silverweed and areas were used as common grasses like Perennial Rye-grass rough pasture and grazing and Meadow Foxtail. marsh, and the amount of Tree cover comprises linear enclosed meadowland remained pattern of trees – predominantly small until the 14th century. Alders and willows - along

62 s n e k c i

Towards the end of the medieval result, nutrient rich slits were s

period documentary sources deposited, which protected the w indicate that there was a pastures from frosts and o significant increase in enclosed encouraged a rich, early flush of d a

meadowland, enabling specialised grass in the spring. However, e livestock farming that was not because of the expense involved, m possible in the common open the impetus behind their e

fields. Although highly valuable, construction often came from the d i

meadowland was sometimes larger landowners. Water s r

broken up during the later Middle meadows remained in use into the e v

Ages and brought into temporary 19th century, and were particularly i r cultivation. The use of riverside extensive in the Tern valley. meadowland for fattening beef In the later 20th century advances cattle became increasingly in drainage technologies and flood important during the later 16th management techniques made century, and by the mid 17th cultivation of the floodplain viable century water meadows were where more favourable soils exist. becoming widespread in the Consequently, arable farming now county. These enabled water to extends up to the river banks be run over the land during the along parts of the Severn to the winter, via a system of dams and east of Shrewsbury, and along sluices that diverted water away much of the Tern Valley. from the main river channel. As a

63 Lowland Moss

Key Characteristics

Description at the northern (Welsh) ends of the Moss, together with some In Shropshire this landscape type secondary woodland on the occurs solely at Fenn’s/ Whixall peripheries. Moss, along the national boundary with Wales. This is a This remains an unsettled, large scale, open landscape secluded landscape, where peat which forms one of the largest cuttings provide the main and most southerly raised peat evidence for human activity. bogs in Britain. Peat formation at Fenn’s/ Whixall Analysis of the underlying Moss appears to have continued sediments has demonstrated that until the later Bronze Age, when peat began to form around 5500 the moss was colonised by pine BC, within a shallow depression forest. However, this episode in the glacial drift deposits that ended with the return of wetter blanketed this part of north conditions and the corresponding Shropshire. Acid bog/ mire resumption of peat formation. habitats remain dominant and are The existing unenclosed part of associated with a broad range of the Moss lay at the centre of a mire vegetation and invertebrate more extensive tract of ‘waste’ species, as well as good (common rough pasture) during watervale populations. the medieval period. By the late Woodland cover is restricted to a 16th century documentary large block of conifer plantation sources reveal the existence of a

64 Large scale, unsettled landscape e r u t a N h s

Flooded peat i l

cuttings g n E / y Extensive areas of l e

mire vegetation k a . W r e t e P © well-developed system of were initiated. Intensive common peat cutting rights, mechanised extraction began which may well have had earlier after the World War II and forestry origins. plantations were established at

the southern and northern ends s The principal drains appear to s

of the moss. o have been cut in the 18th century, prior to the construction Peat extraction continued until m of the Ellesmere canal across the the site was purchased by the d n

moss at the turn of the 19th Nature Conservancy Council a l century. The Whixall Moss (now Natural England) in the w

Enclosure Act 1814 resulted in 1990s. The moss is now o l the cutting of a further series of managed for its biodiversity value drains, although some of the land and is subject to a programme of enclosed at this time is now re-wetting, as part of which the reverting back to mire. incongruous plantation at the southern end of the moss has Within the unenclosed parts of been felled. the moss, commercial hand cutting of peat for the local market began in the 1850s and continued until the 1920s, after which larger scale operations

65 Coalfields

Key Characteristics

• Upstanding rolling plateau • Dispersed pattern of small farms and wayside cottages • Coal mining remains

Description Coal mining occurred throughout the type, creating large spoil tips, Coalfield landscapes are found in some of which now support two locations around the fringes heathland habitats. of Telford, in eastern Shropshire. They occur on an upstanding, These factors produced an gently rolling plateau formed of historic settlement pattern of Carboniferous Coal Measures, small dispersed farms and which is overlain by heavy, poorly wayside cottages. drained soils that once supported The extensive tracts of woodland extensive areas of woodland and and waste of the earlier Middle rough pasture. The field systems Ages were gradually reduced by within this landscape type were later medieval clearances: a created through the progressive process that was encouraged by clearance and enclosure of these the six monastic houses that woodlands, and small holders existed in the wider area. However, encroachments on areas of large areas of wood pasture and former ‘waste’ (common rough open rough grazing land remained, pasture). and some of that to the north-east Apart from the numerous recent of present day Telford was amenity plantations, tree cover is incorporated into Lilleshall Park. largely restricted to hedgerow trees, with oak as the dominant species.

66 Coal mining remains (spoils tips) Rolling plateau topography

Dispersed pattern of cottages s n e k c i

Coal mining activity was initially planting on the site of former spoil stimulated by the monastic tips, significantly increasing the foundations but intensified during amount of tree cover. The historic the mid-17th century, reaching a settlement pattern has also been peak in the 18th and early 19th modified by housing developments centuries. The local iron industry and the construction of an urban s also grew rapidly during this road network. d l

period, and workers cottages and e i f associated smallholdings were l established on much of the a remaining open common land. o c

Following a long period of industrial decline between the late 19th and mid-20th century, these landscapes have been transformed through the establishment of Telford new town. The extensive reclamation of derelict industrial land, which occurred alongside the development of the new town, has resulted in widespread amenity

67 Glossary

Ancient semi-natural woodland – Woodlands that have been in continuous existence since at least 1600, and which are identified as such on the Ancient Woodland Inventory (Provisional) for England. They normally comprise of mixed broadleaved species (although some have been replanted) and often have irregular boundaries.

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - A statutory designation, under the terms of National Parks and Access to the . Countryside Act 1949, intended to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape in a given area. The Shropshire Hills AONB was designated in 1958 and covers an area 804km2 in southern Shropshire. A statutory Management Plan is prepared and overseen by the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership; a formal structure between five Local Authorities, with core funding from the Countryside Agency.

Assarts – Fields cleared and enclosed directly from woodland, heathland or moorland, usually between the 12th and 17th centuries. Where they survive, they can sometimes be distinguished by their irregular form and association with a pattern of dispersed farmsteads, a network of winding lanes, and blocks of ancient woodland with irregular boundaries.

Attributes – the individual variables within each of the six elements that define landscape character (e.g. mezozoic rocks, rolling lowland topography, dispersed settlement pattern etc.).

Characterisation – the process of creating a broad and generalised appreciation of the character and significance of the environment or landscape (see also Historic Landscape Characterisation, Landscape Character Assessment).

Closes - small hedged or walled fields with medieval origins. Some lay beyond the margins of the common open fields and were created through assarting (see ‘assarts’ above). Others were situated between the ploughlands and the settlements, providing convenient enclosed pastures.

68 Coverts – small planted woodlands established to provide cover for game (particularly foxes).

Deer parks – A area of private woodland and/or wood pasture within which deer were kept, which were originally strongly enclosed with earthworks, timber pails or hedges. The creation of such parks reached a peak in the 13th and early 14th centuries.

Discrete woods – clearly defined blocks of woodland that are spatially separate from one another.

Ecology – the study (and science) of living organisms in terms of their . relations to one another and their wider environment.

Elements – six individual components which make up landscape character (e.g. Geology, Landform, Settlement etc.).

Encroachments – cottages and associated smallholdings established on common land by cottagers and ‘squatters’ between the 16th and 18th centuries. In some instances cottages were erected close to extractive industries by part-time colliers, quarrymen or lead miners.

Field pattern – an inherited configuration of fields, hedgerows, roads

and trackways, the form of which is determined by, and indicative of, a y r

particular set of historical processes. a s

Geodiversity – The natural range of rocks, fossils, landforms and soils s o that exist within a given area, together with the earth processes, both l g past and present, that have given rise to them.

Habitat – Locality where a particular plant or animal normally lives. Also used in a wider sense to refer to a major assemblage of plants and animals that occur together e.g. grassland, woodland etc.

Heathland/acid grassland – plant communities that have typically developed on free draining, nutrient poor soils, although localised areas with poor drainage may also be present.

69 Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) – a national programme co-ordinated by English Heritage, which is primarily concerned with mapping the historic dimension of today’s rural and urban landscape.

Intake – field enclosed directly from common land between the 16th and 17th centuries.

Intercommoning – commons to which two or more communities held customary rights of access.

Interlocking woodlands – a pattern of conjoined blocks of woodland.

. Key characteristics – a prominent and recurrent set of elements that define a given landscape type.

Landscape Character - a distinct, recognisable and consistent pattern of elements in the landscape that makes one landscape different from another, rather than better or worse.

Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) – an analysis, based upon a predetermined objective methodology, of the various elements that together comprise landscape character.

Landscape Type – these are defined by a particular and consistent combination of attributes. They occur wherever such a combination y

r exists and make one landscape distinct from another. a

s Moorland – plant communities developed over peaty soils and/or in s

o areas with impeded drainage. Often used in relation to heathland l

g plant communities in an upland setting, although it also applies to present and former wetlands at lower elevations.

Open fields – a communal agricultural system, with early medieval origins, in which a given settlement had two or more large arable fields that were subdivide into separate, unhedged strips. These were shared out between each farmer and mixed together with those of their neighbours, so that each holding was scattered across the territory of the settlement. In Shropshire most parishes had several open fields, the enclosure of which proceeded on an informal, piecemeal basis from the later Middle Ages onwards, such that most had disappeared by the 17th century.

70 Parks/parkland – designed landscapes usually associated with a large country house, which typically contain some or all of the following: ornamental planting, artificial lakes and ponds, kitchen gardens, lodges and other ornamental buildings such as follies, temples and pagodas. Many also contain significant numbers of veteran trees.

Planned enclosure – a regular geometric pattern of fields with straight boundaries typically associated with a network of straight roads and dispersed farmsteads. These field systems were generally laid out in the period between the later 17th and 19th centuries. Although some . can be attributed to the Parliamentary Enclosure movement, others were created through private agreements between improving landowners. In Shropshire, they largely occur in relation to areas of former common land, although in some instances similar enclosure patterns were produced by the ‘improvement’ earlier field systems in the 18th and 19th century.

Planned woodland – woods with regular boundaries, which in most instances have been planted.

Prehistory – The period of human history preceding the advent of written records. In southern Britain it is broadly subdivided into the y r

Palaeolithic (3.5 million years BP - 10,000 BC), Mesolithic (10,000 - a s

4000 BC), Neolithic (4000 - 2300 BC), Bronze Age (2300 - 700 BC) s o

and Iron Age (700 BC - AD43). l g Rectilinear fields – field systems with a regular form and predominantly straight boundaries (see also planned enclosure).

Rough grazing – areas associated with poor soils, which are also characterised by low intensity grazing of unimproved or semi-improved grassland, moorland or heathland.

Smallholdings – see encroachments above.

71 Sub-regular fields – field systems with predominantly curving or irregular boundaries. In many cases they will pre-date the 17th century, although encroachments established between the 16th to 18th century also tend to have an irregular form.

Tree cover – the overall pattern of woodlands and hedgerow trees within a given landscape type.

Veteran tree – a tree that is of interest biologically, culturally or aesthetically because of its age, size or condition.

. Waste – unoccupied and uncultivated land, often applied to areas of medieval common rough pasture.

Wood pasture – a land use combining trees and grazing animals (stock or deer). Often the trees are old, at low density and managed through pollarding. The underlying herbage, together with open glades occupied by scrub and rough vegetation, provides the pasture component. y r a s s o l g

72 Further information

The Shropshire Character Framework

For further information about the Shropshire Character Framework, or to obtain a copy of the information relating to a specific area, please visit our website, following links to ‘landscape’:- www.shropshire.gov.uk/sustainability.nsf

Alternatively, you can contact the Sustainability Group:- Telephone:- (01743) 252562 . Email:- [email protected]

Landscape Character Assessment.

For an introduction to Landscape Character Assessment see:-

The Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage. 2002. Landscape Character Assessment: Guidance for England and Scotland. Wetherby. The Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Further information about Landscape Character Assessment, together with an electronic copy of the above publication and subsequent Topic

Papers, can be obtained from:- n o i

www.landscapecharacter.org.uk t a m r o f n i r e h t r u f

73 Historic Landscape Characterisation

For an introduction to Historic Landscape Characterisation, together with examples of how it is being used to manage the historic environment, see:-

Clark, J., Darlington, J and Fairclough, G. 2004. Using Historic Landscape Characterisation: English Heritages review of HLC Applications 2002-03. Lancaster. English Heritage & Lancashire County Council.

. Further information about Historic Landscape Characterisation, together with electronic copy of the above publication, can be obtained from English Heritage’s website:- www.english-heritage.org.uk

Follow links to ‘Research & Conservation’, ‘Conservation’, ‘Archaeology & Buildings’ and ‘Promoting Characterisation’. n o i t The Shropshire Character Framework was produced in partnership a with:- m r o f n i r e h t r u f

Front Cover Image: Heath Mynd, near Bishop’s Castle © Gordon Dickens Back Cover Image: Prolley Moor, near Wentnor © Gordon Dickens