8I: HILL OPEN DOWNS

Portdown scarp from Port Solent – ; Development has crept up the foothills on the south side – defence related sites on the skyline.

Approaching Fort – downland Commanding view over Portsmouth Upper parts of the scarp overlooking and scrub on scarp side © Geograph harbour. Drayton – the area is criss crossed by informal paths.

Open views were maintained to the .The area west of the Wallington Fort Nelson – one of the iconic north of the forts on the dip – known stream is also of Open Downs Palmerston forts- looking along the as ‘the killing fields’ – Forest of Bere character – Knowle just visible to the ridge © Palmerston Forts society. beyond. right.

Hampshire County 1 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Open Downs

Hampshire County 2 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

1.0 Location and Boundaries 1.1 The extent reflects the area of chalk geology and cuts across townscape areas which are on this geology.

1.2 Component County Landscape Types: Open Downs, Chalk Scarp, Settlement, Lowland Mosaic Medium Scale (small).

1.3 Composition of Borough/District LCAs: BC Winchester CC BC North Fareham Downs Portsdown Hill Portsdown Hill Portsdown

This character area also partly falls within Portsmouth CC land. The County assessment includes the lower lying western foothills (west of the Wallington river – North Fareham Downs). Although the distinct escarpment tails out to the west the chalk geology and soils is a unifying feature.

1.4 Associations with NCA and Natural Areas: NCA 126: South Coast Plain NA 75: South Coast Plain and Hampshire Lowlands

1.5 Townscape assessment areas: Fareham (extreme north west) Cowplain, Purbrook, and Horndean (extreme south)

2.0 Key Characteristics • An outlying chalk escarpment set in a predominantly low lying clay and coastal landscape giving the landscape added prominence. • Large predominantly arable fields with straight boundaries set between drove lanes, with more irregular fields around the Wallington stream and some fringe areas. • Generally low hedges or no hedges, and occasional banks to field boundaries associated with drove routes. • Very small copses including 19th century plantations – otherwise a distinct lack of trees and woodland. Chalk scrub on southern scarp side. • Elevated exposed east-west ridge line gives rise to long panoramic views over the Forest of Bere to the north and Portsmouth, the harbours, and the hilly profile of the . • Victorian Palmerston forts which form a series of historic landmarks on the hill top with grassy moats and banks or glacii. • A popular green lung with easy access from settlements to the south – with significant areas of open access on the steeper south facing slopes.

Hampshire County 3 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

• Other than the military dominance there is little settlement. Occasional farms are located on the springline on the northern boundary. They are associated with Wallington and the fringes of contracted medieval villages. • 20th century housing development spreading up the southern and eastern slopes

3.0 Physical Characteristics and Land Use 3.1 A very prominent chalk anticline escarpment forms a ridge between the coastal plain and the Forest of Bere to the north. The southern facing scarp slope rises steeply to around 120m AOD. The scarp face reveals several Upper Chalk formations, in horizontal bands which are made visible in the cut face north of Porchester. This includes distinctive bands of flint. Sands and gravels associated with periglacial deposits are confined mainly to the Wallington river valley at the western foothills, and small patches in small short dry valleys on the dip slope. The geology and topography give rise to freely draining calcareous soils often very thin on higher and steeper slopes. On the northern edge and to the west the soils have greater clay content.

3.2 Arable land use is very dominant with large fields with regular straight boundary patterns. The average field size is medium to large, 12 to 25 ha, with smaller fields to the east. Fields are frequently not bounded by hedgerows, and those that exist tend to be low and gappy without mature trees. There is more permanent pasture in the Wallington valley. Fringe areas to the south and east have had encroachment from 20th century development. There is very little woodland cover. There are active chalk pits and landfill operations on the ridge, but the topography often renders them almost invisible in the landscape. Other land use is defence-related in very prominent ridge top locations.

3.3 The course of the Wallington stream is deflected in a westerly direction through a low point in the Portsdown foothills and into Fareham. Otherwise there are no streams or waterbodies in this landscape.

4.0 Experiential/Perceptual Characteristics 4.1 The elevated exposed ridge line and upper parts of the escarpment give long panoramic views over the Forest of Bere to the north, and spectacular views south over Portsmouth, the harbours and eastern Solent to the hilly backdrop of the Isle of Wight. Consequently it is an outward looking landscape. Within the character area the limited woodland, hedgerow and smooth topography there is a strong sense of space, prominence and intervisibility.

4.2 This a popular and, importantly, a very local greenspace which provides a contrast to the dense urban development to the south. There are several footpaths, with open access land and small common on the south facing scarp. Fort Nelson and Fort Purbrook are important visitor attractions.

4.3 The commanding views over the rural hinterland to the north and the harbours to the south, combined with the semi natural habitats on the scarp are very influential on raising the perception of the area’s tranquillity. In addition there is a powerful contrast between the exposed ridge top (which provides wide open space, a sense of prospect and relief) and the adjoining urban environment to the south. However,

Hampshire County 4 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

the relative tranquillity of the area is tempered by unsightly elements in the form of masts, traffic, the M27 and the exposed scarp face (resulting from quarrying activities).

5.0 Biodiversity Character 5.1 This is an arable farming landscape. There are a few large patches of improved grassland throughout the area. In the south east, abutting urban development in the adjacent area, there is a long strip of habitats along Ports Down, comprising a mosaic of mainly calcareous grassland with dense scrub, semi-improved calcareous grassland, amenity grassland and (at each end of the strip), small patches of unimproved neutral grassland. Woodland is very limited in this area although there are very small patches of woodland scattered throughout and varying in type. Much is broadleaved woodland but there are also strips of mixed woodland, patches of parkland and a coniferous plantation. In the north east of the site there is a very small area of base rich fen surrounded by broadleaved woodland and unimproved neutral grassland.

5.2 The area contains two SSSIs. Portsdown SSSI is an isolated east-west chalk anticline with a long south-facing escarpment which remains un-reclaimed. On the lower south-facing slopes raised beaches mark former sea levels and it is postulated that former wave erosion has removed the Tertiary deposits and some of the chalk, leaving very steep slopes. Despite the absence of grazing, and extensive disturbance, these slopes still support a rich chalk grassland flora and a rich and diverse insect fauna. At Downend Chalkpit SSSI, quarrying has exposed a complex of contemporaneously folded and disturbed beds. Well exposed chalk of this age (early to mid Campanian) is rare in Britain and there are no other exposures of this age with a comparable density of hard grounds which yield rich and important fauna. There are several rare fossils, including heteromorph ammonites previously unknown in Britain.

5.3 Portsdown Hill BOA covers the SSSI sites and extends to include other relict fragments of species rich chalk grassland (designated SINCs) and areas of high suitability for restoration to chalk grassland. There are over 20 SINCs in this landscape character area, although none exist in the west. Most are designated for the unimproved chalk grasslands which they support, although a small few are designated for their ancient and semi-natural woodland resource.

6.0 Historic Character 6.1 Archaeology 6.1.1 There is Mesolithic evidence on Portsdown Hill as part of a wider distribution along the coastal plain and then extending northward towards the Greensand and heathland.

6.1.2 Portsdown hill is a prominent crest of chalk overlooking the coast and harbours, and as such is a distinctive location to view and from which to view. The evidence suggests that this is a landscape that was valued in different ways through time, as both a practical and a ritual landscape. There are two Neolithic long barrows perched on the hill above the coastal plain, and a string of Bronze Age burial mounds along the hill as well as cremation urns and other Bronze Age sites. There are Iron Age settlements and enclosures, Roman buildings, Roman burials and Saxon

Hampshire County 5 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

cemeteries. This is a landscape that is rich in archaeology, including unusual archaeology, and as such it seems reasonable to link its extraordinary topographic location with a value to past communities that is beyond settlement and agriculture and reflects monuments and burial. Evidence of late prehistoric and medieval agricultural fields systems have also been noted.

6.1.3 More recently, this prominence has been utilised by the military forts and other establishments, and the northern landscape was significantly altered by woodland clearance to create the ‘fields of fire’ for the forts. So in some ways this is also a military altered landscape. The landscape’s special nature is evident today as it would have been in the past.

6.2 Historic Landscape 6.2.1 There is cropmark evidence of an early field system around the Wallington stream of medieval and post medieval origin, which extends parallel with the course of the stream northeastwards into the clay landscape of the Forest of Bere. The ancient field pattern is much more extensive in this landscape than in the adjoining character area to the north. Some of the irregular field pattern has been influenced by these early fields. There are some early informal enclosures at the eastern end of the character area derived from open field systems. Some of the north-south boundaries represent former connections / routes between downland and the clay to the north. The vast majority of the landscape on Portsdown hill was open downland, and was only enclosed after 1800 as shown on the OSD mapping from c1800.

6.2.2 In the 1870s the Palmerstone forts were built on the ridge as part of the defence of the Naval base at Portsmouth. They form a ring to protect the port from landward attacked and so face away from the town. The dip slope was cleared of cover for approaching troops, creating a killing field. Many of the fields are bounded by parallel narrow sunken lanes with low or no hedging connecting land both to the south and the Forest of Bere to the north. First edition mapping shows and abundance of chalk pits, presumably for liming surrounding soils (which are often acidic) and in construction. Areas of downland on the ridge and scarp slope persist, often with areas of thick scrub. The rough grassland areas are tangible links to the previous open downland landscape. The 20th century expansion of Widley, Portsmouth (Drayton to Porchester) and have subsumed much of the lower southern and eastern foothills.

6.2.3 Roche Court, now known as Boundary Oak School is the only significant park in this area. There is also a small designed landscape at Belmont Castle and part of Fareham Park a deer park.

6.3 Built Environment 6.3.1 There are a number of sunken lanes or former drove routes leading up from the coastal plain and clay lowlands to the north. These often have banks. The ridge line road (part of which is the B2177) was the major east-west road until the development of the M27. The M27 is contained in a cutting through the hill, emerging at north of Porchester to give commanding views over Portsmouth and the harbour.

Hampshire County 6 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

6.3.2 This landscape has been very lightly settled. There are no villages within the character area. Settlement expansion of Widley and Fareham has spread into this character area. The northern Portsmouth suburbs are just to the south of the character area on the scarp foothills

6.3.3 There is a low density of farmsteads of mixed origin with greater density west of the Wallington. Most steadings are of 19th century origin.

6.3.4 The brow of the hill is dominated by a row of brick built Victorian forts – commissioned by Lord Palmerston – which form part of a much wider necklace of similar defence structures located strategically around to defend the naval dockyard. Beyond the polygonal outline of the forts there are outer grass covered moats and banks on the northern side known as glacis. These include Fort Nelson, Southwick Widley and Purbrook and Farlington redoubt. They are nationally important. The setting to these forts is generally well preserved with a limited amount of modern surrounding development. In addition, the hill top location was favoured for more modern defence development such as Portsdown West, Portsdown Main and land-based Test site.

6.3.5 The scar on the scarp face above Paulsgrove was created when land was reclaimed to form North harbour and Port Solent developments in the 1980s.

Hampshire County 7 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

EVALUATION

7.0 Forces for Change 1. Development creeping up slope sides, especially pressure for large MDA style developments. 2. Mineral extraction. 3. Climate change; storm frequency and intensity, changes in precipitation and temperature extremes. 4. Crop type and pattern changes and take up of agri-environment schemes. 5. Urban fringe related activities, traffic from new major developments, fly- tipping, tall structure development such as telecommunication masts.

KEY QUALITIES AND EFFECTS OF FORCES 7.1 A series of important historic landmarks along the hill top, from ancient burial mounds / ritual sites to the imposing, nationally important Victorian Palmerston forts whose setting is well preserved to modern MoD sites. FORCES FOR CONSEQUENCES CHANGE: 4.5 Threats: Adverse effect on visibility of upstanding archaeology due to other visually dominant development and change in land management – crop choice, scrub and tree encroachment. Remaining prehistoric field system crop marks (and other extant archaeology) which occur on the open downs landscape are vulnerable to damage from ploughing.

Opportunities: Support initiatives which raise the importance of the Victorian fort line – such as World Heritage status. Emphasise the historical importance of retaining the intactness and form of ancient tracks and lanes which connect the lower lying land to the ridge line. Greater awareness of the likelihood of cropmarks associated with prehistoric fields could be raised with land managers.

7.2 The ridge landform of this relatively sparsely populated character area has been fundamental to controlling the spread of development from the coastal plain, and has helped to retain the remote and unspoilt feel of the Forest of Bere to the north. FORCES FOR CONSEQUENCES CHANGE: 1.5 Threats: Increase in local population and traffic from new major development to the east and west may start to make this landscape feel like an island surrounded by development, rather than separating urban from rural. Great pressure for the hill top to accommodate vertical structures may compromise the largely natural profile of the ridgeline. Particular pressure for larger farm shed development and increased visual presence in this open landscape subsuming the older farmstead layout. Cumulative impact of small scale development and holdings / plots extending up from the valley sides into this landscape could dramatically increase the perception of urban fringe character. Pressure for domestication and conversion to employment use of existing farmsteads. Car parking.

Opportunities: Promote the importance of retaining the scattered nature of small settlement and farmsteads in the area which underlies its visually remote character in contrast to urban

Hampshire County 8 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs

areas to the south of the character area. Emphasise the detriment large new sheds can have on the historic farmstead setting and layout. When designing new or built additions promote reference to historic building guidance documents (HCC, EH and local) particularly in respect of farmsteads and brick and flint.

7.3 Substantial strip of nationally important chalk grassland on steep slopes and south facing scarp. FORCES FOR CONSEQUENCES CHANGE: 2.3.5 Threats: Possible continued arable intensification on areas with particularly good current potential for chalk grassland creation. Scrub encroachment over species rich grassland. Species composition change/loss from climate change particularly temperature fluctuations and extremes of drought – particularly associated with remaining small isolated downland sites – as they are south facing and more susceptible to extremes.

Opportunities: Chalk grassland creation during restoration of extraction and fill sites. Agri environment funding and grant aiding is likely to continue in respect of supporting chalk grassland management and perhaps be extended in extent along south facing scarp. The physical conditions to extend chalk grassland are on the steeper slopes, un farmed slopes and in particular the M27 cutting and banks.

7.4 An open arable ridge landscape and ‘doorstep’ countryside to a large urban population, with unrivalled extensive and expansive views over the Solent, Portsmouth, Hayling and the harbours, and northwards over the Forest of Bere with the rolling backdrop of the . FORCES FOR CONSEQUENCES CHANGE: 1.2.4.5 Threats: The Forest of Bere CAP identifies the numerous shared rights of way with trafficked lanes are a deterrent to people accessing and enjoying the countryside, in particular the landscape to the north of the ridgeline. Tall structure development can often be very visible – reducing the rural experience of the landscape. The main open access sites coincide with the richest areas for biodiversity and there is potential conflict between species disturbance and people. Crop type changes from traditional arable crops (in response to climate change) could have a dramatic effect on the visual character of the landscape.

Opportunities: Sensitive approaches to providing and designing the alignment of alternative off road routes (reducing shared rights of way with trafficked lanes) could be identified with landscape input. The amount and location of different tall structures in this landscape needs to be seen as a cumulative impact. Take into account and identify the main exposed and accessible parts of the escarpment in new development proposals, and identify the main visual receptor sites. Local opinions could be sought for particularly valued views to help with identifying important receptor sites. Support CAP aims which address the issue of reducing conservation and access conflict, and possibly assist in providing advice on sitting and design of access facilities which are in particular conflict with conservation.

Hampshire County 9 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Portsdown Hill Open Downs