North East Hampshire Open Downs

8C: NORTH EAST HAMPSHIRE DOWNS Sense of prospect over the lower slopes of the chalk to Basingstoke and the lowland mosaic landscape in the distance from near Upton Grey. View over Crondall at the foot of theView from Pyott’s hill above Horsedown Common and Odiham chalk escarpment. Basingstoke – large scale fields and airfield © Andrew Smith scattered woodland. Source of the river WhitewaterPond at Upton Grey – © Ron Strutt Old Basing Motte and Bailey site. south of Upton Grey Geograph. Hampshire County 1 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment North East Hampshire Open Downs . Hampshire County 2 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment North East Hampshire Open Downs . 1.0 Location and Boundaries 1.1 This character area forms part of the northern Hampshire Downs which broadly slopes northwards and sits between an area of higher downland plateau to the south and lower lying heath landscapes to the north. The northern boundary to this character area is particularly marked as a result of a dramatic change in geology. To the south the change is more transitional as the land rises onto an elevated, and often wooded clay capped chalk plateau. To the west the area is boarded by Basingstoke located at the head of the Loddon Valley and to the east is the Hampshire administrative boundary. 1.2 Component County Landscape Types: Open Downs, Downland Mosaic Large Scale. 1.3 Composition of Borough/District LCAs: Basingstoke and Dean Hart District Tunworth and Upton Grey Down Hart Downs This character follows broadly similar boundaries to the local assessments. 1.4 Associations with NCAs and Natural Areas: NCA 130: Hampshire Downs NA 78: Hampshire Downs 1.5 Townscape assessment areas: Old Basing 2.0 Key Characteristics • Rolling chalk landform with broad sweeping hills and ridges and dry valleys. • Northern areas slope northwards towards the lower lying heaths while southern areas form a gently undulating plateau. • Extensive tracts of intensive arable cultivation defined by well trimmed hedgerows. • Patches of improved and semi-improved grassland and wetlands add biodiversity value. • Scattered blocks of woodland habitats and stronger hedgerow structure in southern parts of the area. • Springs occur along the northern fringe of this landscape where the chalk meets the clay. • Remote and quiet landscape which is lightly populated with dispersed nucleated villages (including spring line villages at the foot of the chalk) and occasional farmsteads. Hampshire County 3 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment North East Hampshire Open Downs . • Sense of openness, space and expansiveness. • Generally, formal enclosures in the north and informal enclosures in the south • Nucleated settlement pattern of springline villages along the northern boundary, and small hamlets and villages in dry valleys to the south on higher ground. 3.0 Physical Characteristics and Land Use 3.1 This area comprises mainly chalk geology overlain in places by areas of clay with flint. This geology gives rise to strongly rolling landforms and smooth hilltops with dry valleys. Along the northern fringe the landscape is mainly north facing overlooking the lower lying clay and heaths landscapes, while further south it rises to approximately 150m AOD and becomes more topographically complex. In areas where there are thicker clay with flints deposits the elevation and topographic variation is at its greatest. Soils are mainly shallow, well drained calcareous soils over chalk with areas of fine silty soils over clay deposits which are often very flinty. The agricultural land quality of much of this area is medium, with small areas of higher quality occurring particularly in the southeast and within some dry valleys through the centre of the area. 3.2 Woodland blocks are a feature of the southern half of this character area where there are thick deposits of clay with flint e.g. Little Park Copse, Humbly Grove Copse and Brick Kiln Copse. These woods represent remnants of much greater woodland cover before clearance for agriculture or assarting began in the early medieval period. Elsewhere the land use is predominately arable within a medium to large scale field pattern defined by closely trimmed hedgerows and no hedgerow trees. In the northern fringes where natural springs occur there are areas of waterlogging or poor drainage resulting in permanent pasture and wet woodland/scrub. 3.3 The area falls within the Environment Agency Loddon catchment area. The springlines along the northern fringe of this landscape form the headwaters to the Loddon, Lyde, Whitewater and Hart. Elsewhere there are no major watercourses or water bodies as a result of the underlying chalk geology. 4.0 Experiential/Perceptual Characteristics 4.1 This an open and often exposed landscape with wide and long distant views across the rolling chalk hills, orientated mainly northwards over lower lying land. In the southern part of this character area the views can become more enclosed due to the increasingly complex topography and woodland blocks. 4.2 The Three Castles Path long distance route passes through this landscape connecting Tunworth with Greywell. Otherwise this landscape has a moderate network of public rights of way which generally follow the historic drove road routes from the lower lying clay landscape in the north onto the downs. As a result the footpaths tend to run in a north-south direction and connect into the narrow lanes that run east-west. 4.3 The CPRE national tranquillity mapping 2006 indicates that the south-eastern parts of this character area away from major conurbations such as Basingstoke and from major transport routes such as the M3 have the greatest tranquillity, with the rest of Hampshire County 4 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment North East Hampshire Open Downs . the character area of generally moderate tranquillity. The blocks of woodland and the extensive views over undeveloped landscapes suggest that in reality this area is probably of a higher level of tranquillity than the study indicates. There is night blight from the settlements of Basingstoke, Farnham and the Aldershot/Fleet conurbations which lie on lower lying land beyond this character area. Tranquillity is intermittently disrupted by low flying in association with RAF Odiham. 5.0 Biodiversity Character 5.1 This is an agricultural landscape dominated by arable land and agriculturally improved grasslands. However, small patches of other habitats exist throughout. There are many patches of unimproved and semi-improved grassland, most of which is neutral but there are some areas of calcareous grassland. Adjacent to streams and waterways there are occasional patches of wetland vegetation, including swamp vegetation and base rich fen, which is an unusual habitat for this area, due to the calcareous geology. 5.2 Woodland is varied; there are many small copses and strips of broadleaved woodland, some of which is ancient and semi-natural woodland. There are also areas of mixed plantation, parkland and active coppice with standards. Many of these woodland types interlink. Woodland cover is greater in the west and towards the south west, with some significant areas of parkland. Ancient and semi-natural woodland is well distributed throughout the area, being more dominant further south. In the north, there is running water associated with the River Whitewater. There is also an area of medium density residential development in this landscape, and areas of amenity grassland/ sports pitches. 5.3 This landscape character area includes Greywell Fen SSSI, a calcareous valley mire extending along the headwaters of the River Whitewater comprising wet fen meadow grazed by cattle, with the exception of an area of carr woodland along the side of the Basingstoke Canal. Some areas have been agriculturally improved in recent years, reducing their floristic diversity. Collectively, however, there is still a very rich flora, including most fen species, together with meadow species such as cowslip, dyer’s greenweed and pepper-saxifrage. One small area supports colonies of an unusual variant marsh helleborine and the fen subspecies of fragrant orchid. 5.4 The south of this area is fringed by the Herriard Wooded Downland Plateau BOA which comprises an exceptionally dense concentration of ancient semi-natural and replanted woodland SINCs, which support rare plant populations. There are over 60 SINCs in this landscape character area. Many are designated for the ancient and semi natural woodland that they represent. 6.0 Historic Character 6.1 Archaeology 6.1.1 There are clusters of recorded Mesolithic activity in this character area which indicate a preference to areas of water i.e. on the fringes of the Loddon valley, Wey valley and Whitewater. Elsewhere in this character area there is limited evidence of activity. Hampshire County 5 Status: FINAL May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment North East Hampshire Open Downs . 6.1.2 To the west of Hampshire the open downland areas are associated with Neolithic settlement and Long Barrows, and the evidence suggests that open downland is most closely associated with early landscape evolution. However this pattern is more ambiguous in this LCA due to the fact that there are no Neolithic sites or Long Barrows, and although there are Neolithic finds it is not possible to be confident whether this is an area of open downland associated with early settlement. 6.1.3 There is evidence for Bronze Age burial mounds, but whether these indicate extensive exploitation and local settlement is not clear. There is a Bronze Age settlement at Odiham and there are more burial mounds in this area than the area immediately to the north where extensive exploitation and lack of settlement is more reliably modelled. This may lead to the hypothesis that this character area was evolving but at a slower rate than equivalent areas of downland to the west. This pattern appears to continue into the Iron Age, for which there is evidence of settlement, but not at the density associated with the open downland to the west.

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