Rolling Clay Lowland

Marden Green, Calne Landscape and Visual Appraisal and Landscape Strategy ANNEX B Extracts from Landscape Character Assessments CE/232/06 Final_Planning Issue November 2012 Marden Green, Calne Landscape and Visual Appraisal and Landscape Strategy National Character Area CE/232/06 Final_Planning Issue November 2012 Character Area 117 Avon Vales Key Characteristics ● Undulating clay vale with varied hedgerow pattern and a mixture of arable and pasture. ● Low ridges from which the frequent medium-size towns are viewed. ● Wide river corridor with ancient pattern of flood meadows but much influenced by modern development. ● Attractive, old, stone-built centres to market towns. ● Small woods. ● Large historic parks and mansions. ● Wide views across the area from the higher surrounding chalk downs. JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE Landscape Character Avon Vales, a characteristic view: near Dauntsey Lock between Swindon and Chippenham. The Avon Vales are a low-lying clay-dominated landscape bounded by the dip slope of the Cotswolds to the west and However, it is the towns that make the area distinctive. by a band of Corallian Limestone and Greensand to the Some, like Malmesbury, are very ancient and most, east, with the Salisbury Plain and West Wiltshire Downs including Calne, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge, beyond. In the south there is a gradual merging with the are dominated by attractive centres built of limestone clay of Blackmore Vale and the Vale of Wardour. ashlar, reflecting their post-medieval prosperity as centres of the wool trade. Many towns contain exceptional In contrast to the strong character of the nearby Downs and collections of buildings closely linked to the rivers and Cotswolds, the distinctiveness of the Vales is less obvious there is an interesting range of stone across the area from and lies as much in the settlement pattern and building styles rough brown Corallian Rag to the smooth splendours of along the Avon as in the countryside. It is a varied landscape Bath and Cotswold stone. Within a short distance of many with a considerable extent of open arable land with low of the towns there are large landscape parks, for example hedges, particularly in the west. However, there are many Bowood, some reflecting the work of major landscape areas of smaller fields, often with overgrown hedges and designers like Capability Brown, and it is around these pasture. The landform is generally flat, rising to long, low parks that many of the larger woodlands are found. Most ridges with small streams between them, often with willow of the towns lie close to the Avon. The floodplain is still pollards and occasional alders. The open quality is dominated by the low mounds of abandoned flood emphasised by the lack of hedgerow trees in some areas, a meadows and there are many attractive and remote areas consequence of Dutch Elm disease. There is, however, with pollards, alders and lush pasture. The Kennet and considerable local variation. On the northern boundary, for Avon Canal is an attractive feature in the south of the area. instance, an open, exposed, flat area around Brinkworth Brook contrasts abruptly with the undulating ground, Near the Avon and its tributaries there are pleasant, frequent hedges and hedgerow trees around Malmesbury. compact stone-built villages with spired churches and 62 Character Area 117 Avon Vales Area 117 boundary Adjacent Area 107 Motorway A Road B Road Railway and Station County boundary GLOUCESTERSHIRE 107 Cotswold District boundary A433 District Shipton 9 Moyne Easton Grey Malmesbury 108 Norton Corston A429 Great Hullavington Somerford M4 Wootton Lower Stanton Bassett St Quinton Tockenham Wick 8 M4 Lyneham Tockenham Sutton Christian Church End Kington Benger Malford St Michael Bushton Kington Goatacre A350 Langley Foxham North Wiltshire District East Tytherton Hilmarton A420 Tytherton A3102 CHIPPENHAM Lucas Bremhill A4 WILTSHIRE A350 Notton Calne A4 7 River Avon Lacock 116 107 Bowden Sandy Hill Lane Stockley Whitley A365 A342Bromham Broughton A3102 Gifford Melksham Bradford Rowde on-Avon Holt A365 A361 Devizes Kennet & Kennet District Avon Canal Seend 6 A363 Ashton Poulshot Stert Common Potterne A342 TROWBRIDGE Great Bulkington Hinton Wedhampton A366 Marston A360 A383 A36 Wingfield Steeple Urchfont A361 Ashton Southwick West North Ashton Great West Wiltshire District Coulston Cheverell Market Rode Bradley Hawkeridge Lavington SOMERSET Bratton Edington 600-800' Beckington 132 Mendip District 400-600' Westbury Oldford Dilton 200-400' A350 5 A361 Marsh Berkley ST 0 SU 0-200' A3098 A36 9 Upton Scudamore height above sea- FROME Chapmanslade level in feet 141 A362 Corsley WARMINSTER Heath 8 133 0 10km 63 manor houses which mirror the character and history of the high Middle Ages, there were probably extensive open towns although brick is also a frequent material. Around fields around most settlements. the larger villages and most of the towns there has been During the later Middle Ages new monastic sites were quite extensive 20th century development. Some of it is founded at places like Lacock and Stanley in addition to the sprawling and intrusive, as at the northern edges of Calne growth of the ancient foundation of Malmesbury. At the and Chippenham where there is an open landscape. dissolution of the monasteries the land acquired by gentry and noblemen formed the basis of large estates and ultimately of the imposing landscape parks like Spye or Bowood. Although in the Middle Ages wool and cloth had been important industries throughout Wiltshire, in the post-medieval period the processing and sale of cloth became concentrated along the Avon Valley and the ‘wool towns’. Prosperity continued through the 18th century and is reflected in the town houses and the mansions as well as the civic buildings. Although it remained competitive during the 19th century the industry gradually lost out to northern manufacturers. JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE Avon Vales, Cowage Farm west of Malmesbury. Physical Influences This undulating area is dominated by the Oxford Clay and is cut through by numerous tributaries of the river Avon which drain westwards to join it on its generally southward course. There are gravels and other alluvial deposits along the river and the eastern boundary is formed by Corallian Limestone. JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE Lacock village, an outstanding example of a village estate Historical and Cultural Influences vernacular cared for by the National Trust in the clay vale between Trowbridge and Chippenham. In contrast to the early clearance and ancient occupation of the Chalk areas of Wiltshire, the Vales’ major clearance and During the 20th century the towns continued to expand settlement probably took place much later and its period of although on the basis of their residential and light industrial prosperity did not come until the post-medieval period. outer areas rather than their traditional industries. With the building of the M4 there has been a major shift in expansion Prehistoric occupation is evident. The area was overlooked to the adjacent towns. Although the area’s association with by hillforts and barrows on the surrounding high ground of writers and artists, apart from regional novelists, are few, it the Cotswolds and the Chalk downs. Bath, just outside the has great cultural significance as the location of many designed area, was a major Roman centre but there is limited Roman historic parks and the work of Capability Brown in particular. evidence from within. In the Saxon period the locations of the later towns like Calne along, or easily accessible from, Buildings and Settlement the Avon began to emerge as major centres and Malmesbury was one of the great ecclesiastical sites of pre- Most of the major settlements lie along the Avon, which Conquest England. Although much of the area lay within must have been the major axis of communication until the the later medieval forests of Chippenham, Melksham and turnpike roads and the Kennet and Avon Canal was built. Selwood, the placenames indicate that by the Saxon period Around the historic cores of the towns, built of a variety much of the land had been cleared. The principal of stones ranging from the warm yellow of Cotswold stone settlements of the tons and hams were along the river and to cold grey limestone and the rough brown of the low-lying ground but there were considerable patches of Corallian Rag, much of the settlement is 19th and 20th woodland marked by leah and wood names, for instance century. It extends out along the principal roads but with around Bowood. Commons were also frequent and, in the the river and stream corridors forming frequently quite 64 wide green corridors in between. The towns are linked by ● With such a dense network of settlements and industrial valley bottom roads but also by longer distance ridgeline activity there are more substantial urban fringe areas than roads like the A4 Great Western Road. in neighbouring landscapes. The ‘land in between’ is often neglected. Outside the towns, the villages are generally clustered along stream sides and linked by narrow, winding lanes ● Several major roads cut through the area and there is which also serve the scattered farmsteads. On areas of pressure for roadside development. Infill between former common there is settlement spread out along the settlements and bypasses or realigned roads is roadside with a dense network of tracks and pathways. widespread. New roads need to take account of the subtleties in the landform. ● Agricultural intensification has led to hedgerow loss and neglect. Fields have been enlarged and areas of ridge and furrow lost, as well as hay meadows. Shaping the Future ● Although many of the major historic parks are already in sound management many of the lesser parks would benefit from further conservation. ● The valley bottom wetlands are an important characteristic of the area.

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