• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales PREFACE Introduction Derbyshire Dales has a varied and diverse landscape, from the open moors of the Dark Peak to the flat floodplains of the Trent valley. This document identifies and describes the key features and characteristics of the landscape of Derbyshire Dales outside the Peak District National Park. This has been achieved by undertaking a landscape character assessment of the district, a process of dividing the landscape into units of land with common characteristics. There are many characteristics that define the landscape. These can essentially be divided into the physical and natural processes; such as geology, landform and soils and human processes affecting settlement, enclosure patterns and land cover. This document is a reproduction of those parts of the assessment undertaken by Derbyshire County Council which relate directly to Derbyshire Dales District Council. The original document -”The Landscape Character of Derbyshire” was published in 2004. The Purpose of the Landscape Assessment The assessment is meant to guide and promote a number of primary planning aims: Aim 1: Landscape Character and Diversity To maintain and enhance the overall quality and diversity of landscape character across the district, the distinctive sense of place and individual identity of each particular area. Aim 2: Managing Change To support and complement planning policies by helping to ensure that new development respects and where practicable contributes towards enhancing the local character and sense of place of the landscape. Aim 3: Biological Diversity To support and complement the aims of the Biodiversity Action Plans for Derbyshire Dales, enriching biological diversity throughout the wider countryside and encouraging the sustainable management of the district’s Landscapes. The Approach The assessment recognises the important role that development plays, not only as a component of landscape character but also in contributing to the conservation, enhancement and restoration of character and local distinctiveness. Providing guidance for the design and location of new development in the countryside is, therefore, an important aspect of any landscape character assessment. It is important to recognise what this document does not do. It does not label areas as attractive or unattractive, high or low quality. All areas have features that contribute to or detract from the overall qualities of an area and this assessment is an objective exercise to identify these features and understand their development. Urban areas have been excluded. The study does, however, identify the overall contribution they make to settlement patterns and how they influence the landscape immediately surrounding them. Within Derbyshire Dales a total of 19 Landscape Character Types (LCTs) have been identified within 5 National Landscape Character Areas (LCAs). These are fully described within the document along with planting and landscape management guidelines for each LCT. The information supports the District Council’s Supplementary Planning Document concerning Landscape Character and Design and will provide the basis for landscape advice and decision making in a wide range of situations including: the formulation of planning policy, development control and countryside management. Additionally the work will inform and assist in the development of countryside strategies and management guidelines. The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales CONTENTS Landscape Character Area Landscape Type Page No DARK PEAK................................................................................................................................................ 1 Open Moors................................................................. 3 Enclosed Moors........................................................... 7 Settled Valley Pastures................................................ 11 Riverside Meadows...................................................... 17 WHITE PEAK............................................................................................................................................... 21 Plateau Pastures.......................................................... 25 Limestone Slopes......................................................... 31 Limestone Dales........................................................... 35 DERBYSHIRE PEAK FRINGE AND LOWER DERWENT............................................................................................................................ 39 Enclosed Moors and Heaths........................................ 43 Wooded Slopes and Valleys......................................... 47 Wooded Farmlands...................................................... 51 Settled Farmlands........................................................ 55 Riverside Meadows...................................................... 61 NEEDWOOD AND SOUTH DERBYSHIRE CLAYLANDS....................................................................................................................... 67 Settled Plateau Farmlands........................................... 69 Settled Farmlands........................................................ 73 Sandstone Slopes and Heaths..................................... 79 Riverside Meadows...................................................... 89 TRENT VALLEY WASHLANDS.................................................................................................................. 93 Lowland Village Farmlands.......................................... 95 Riverside Meadows...................................................... 101 The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales The Landscape Character of Derbyshire Dales DARK PEAK CHARACTER AREA 51 An upland landscape of high moors and settled valleys Landscape Character Types • Open Moors • Settled Valley Pastures • Riverside Meadows • Enclosed Moorland “Should you tire of the valleys and desire to breathe a larger air, the moors are never far distant - moors gloriously open and grand....These are the real moors of heather and bracken which flame with brown and yellow and purple in the autumn.” p8 JB Firth ‘Highways and Byways in Derbyshire’ contrast between the wild much of its character to the moorland and the small-scale underlying geology of Millstone domesticated farmland within the Grit sandstone. This hard Location of Dark Peak in-bye land around the margins. ‘gritstone’ interspersed with softer These differences form the basis shales has given rise to this Introduction for the sub-division of the Dark distinctive landscape of ‘high The Dark Peak extends over a Peak into Landscape Character moors’ dissected by broad valleys large area of north west Types. and narrow rocky ‘cloughs’. Derbyshire although much of it Gritstone outcrops creating rocky lies within the administrative Buildings constructed from the tors punctuate these extensive boundaries of the Peak District local ‘gritstone’ and dry stone areas of upland plateaux defining National Park. In Derbyshire the walls in the same material the Open Moors. Moorland tops Dark Peak extends from Glossop reinforce the character and provide long uninterrupted views and New Mills in the north and provide a visual link to the with vertical cliff faces referred to west to the urban fringes of underlying geology. as ‘edges’ regularly defining the Sheffield in the east and as far Moorland Fringe. Collectively south as Matlock. For the Physical Influences these rocky outcrops add to the purposes of the Derbyshire The Dark Peak is a dramatic wild and exposed nature of this Landscape Character upland landscape that owes landscape. Assessment the Dark Peak character area also includes the small area of the South West Peak and Manchester Pennine Fringe character areas that lie within Derbyshire. The expansive moorland of the Peak District is one of the most extensive semi-natural wilderness areas in England. Much of the moorland is traditionally managed River alluviium for grouse shooting and sheep grazing. Hedgerows and dry Millstone Open Moors Grit & sandstone stone walls enclose the more } Grit Clay shale Series sheltered valleys around these Moorland Fringe upland plateaux to provide Enclosed Moorland pasture for dairy farming with some beef cattle. Settled Valley Pastures Riverside Meadows The visual and environmental value of this landscape lies in the Dark Peak Character Area 51 1 The plateau tops, rising to 636m mesolithic period when hunter the open expanse of the moors. at Kinder Scout, are heavily gatherers were attracted to even Where the stone is fissile it has dissected by drainage channels. the highest moors, as indicated been used for roofing. Where run-off has been sufficient by finds of stone tools. The extent to create rivers like the Goyt and of settlement in the Bronze Age is Roads and tracks are infrequent Derwent these have eroded dramatically illustrated by the throughout. They are generally through the gritstone to form surviving landscape on the East direct and follow straight lines as broad, often steep sided, upland Moors. Here, because of the lack they cross the Open Moors and valleys that have provided the of agricultural improvement, Enclosed Moorland. Some were focus for settlement and farming remains of field systems, former Roman roads or historic highlighted in Settled Valley settlements and ritual monuments packhorse routes. Roads, railway Pastures.

Load more

  113

Copy Link