Northamptonshire Vales/ Leicestershire Vales
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Character Area Northamptonshire Vales/ 89/94 Leicestershire Vales This description is an amalgamation of 89 Rockingham Forest to the Nene Valley, which is sharply Northamptonshire Vales and 94 Leicestershire defined on its southern bank by the Cambridge and Vales Bedfordshire Claylands. Key Characteristics The gently undulating clay vales and ridges which make up much of the area, have a strong pattern of Tudor and ● Gentle clay ridges and valleys with little woodland parliamentary enclosure, often with low, but well- and strong patterns of Tudor and parliamentary maintained, hedges and variable densities of hedgerow enclosure. trees. Woodlands are small. They are confined mainly to valley sides areas and to copses and spinneys on the ridges. ● Distinctive river valleys of Soar, Welland and Nene As a result of this open character, the frequent large with flat floodplains and gravel terraces. settlements can dominate the landscape. Leicester and ● Large towns of Leicester and Northampton dominate Northampton are large towns with extensive edges of much of the landscape. commercial and retail buildings and out of town development and there are several smaller towns like ● Frequent small towns and large villages, often Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Hinckley and Earl characterised by red brick buildings. Shilton where the high density of 19th and 20th century red ● Prominent parks and country houses. brick houses and urban fringe buildings are prominent. There are also many large villages but the frequent small ● Frequent imposing, spired churches. ones show less 20th century influence. This is particularly ● Attractive stone buildings in older village centres true in the east, where an older character of mellow brick, and eastern towns and villages. and fine stone churches in some of the most celebrated English stones, is present. Even when the landscape is not ● Great diversity of landscape and settlement pattern influenced by prominent built up edges, settlements are with many sub units, eg Nene Valley and Welland never very far away and the church towers and spires are Valley. the most characteristic feature of rural areas. Landscape Character This large, complex and heterogeneous area comprises low- lying clay vales and river valleys extending between wold landscapes and other areas of higher ground, including the area referred to as High Cross Plateau in Warwickshire. In the north, the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield and Charnwood rise quite steeply from the low- lying land west of Leicester. To the north-west there is a more gradual transition to the flat, glacial till dominated, edge of the Mease/Sence Lowlands, while to the south of this there is an equally gradual transition to Dunsmore and Feldon. The Vales narrow south eastwards with the VID BURTON/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY VID BURTON/COUNTRYSIDE Northamptonshire Clay Uplands to the south and High DA Leicestershire to the north. The Welland valley extends A gently undulating landscape retaining reasonably good north eastwards as part of the area while, to the south, the hedgerow structure in a largely arable area. Dingley Church is in Vales sweep between the Northamptonshire Uplands and the background. 141 The river valleys of the Soar, Welland and Nene are much causeway roads. However, north of Ringstead the landscape larger-scale landforms than the clay vales forming the is unaffected by the gravel industry and the flood plain has hinterland of this area. They have wide, flat floodplains on meadows of high nature-conservation interest. Rising out of which an older landscape of meadows, willow pollards and the floodplain, the land is in both arable and pasture use alders survives. There are frequent settlements, usually on and there are bluffs on the valley sides which are dominated the edges of the valleys just off the gravel terraces. Each by the rectilinear pattern of parliamentary enclosure. There valley is very different in character. are frequent villages, predominantly in local limestone, along the valley and they usually have linear layouts. There The Nene has well-defined terraces which are the sites of is high historic interest at places like Oundle and the often many ancient settlements and it is fed by numerous spectacular churches like Fotheringhay. tributaries forming side valleys. Much of the floodplain is now dominated by either active gravel working or the lakes The Welland valley is narrower and more remote, the main formed on former workings and is crossed by willow-lined industrial influence being the views of Ketton cement Area 89 boundary Character Area 89 Adjacent Area 92 Northamptonshire Vales Motorway CITY OF A Road PETERBOROUGH UA A47 B Road LEICESTERSHIRE Stibbington A6003 Railway and Station 93 A1 County boundary Huntingdonshire East Elton District District boundary River Welland Northamptonshire Rockingham District Ashley War mington MARKET Corby A605 9 HARBOROUGH Brampton District Oundle A427 Ash 94 A427 A4303 A6 88 1 Braybrooke 92 Barnwell A508 Desborough River Nene Rothwell Aldwincle A6 A605 8 Harrington Kettering Thrapston A14 Loddington District A14 A43 Woodford A14 Broughton A509 Burton Ringstead Latimer NORTHAMPTONSHIRE A45 CAMBRIDGESHIRE River Ise Orlingbury Finedon Wellingborough Raunds 95 Hannington District Stanwick 7 A510 Daventry WELLINGBOROUGH District A45 Higham Ferrers A50 Sywell SP 0 TL Earls A509 A508 Rushden Barton Irchester NORTHAMPTON A43 A510 Great Northampton A45 Doddington A428 District Bedford Harpole District A45 River Nene A428 6 Brafield-on-the-Green BEDFORDSHIRE Nether Heyford Bugbrooke Wootton 9 Grand Union Canal M1 91 Pattishall 8 A5 Blisworth A43 400-600' Greens Norton 200-400' A508 5 0-200' South Northamptonshire height above sea- District 7 level in feet Wappenham Helmdon 0 10km 6 142 works to the north. The scarp at the edge of Rockingham diminishes. In the south, the Ise Valley is in part dominated Forest is a dominant feature and the generally open by the settlements of Wellingborough and Kettering, character is punctuated by waterside trees. On the narrow However, while it is easy to break the area down into its valley bottom, meadows are frequent but there has been component parts, there are common qualities and features much conversion to arable in recent years and the overall which unify it and which stem from its long occupation, character is remote and rural. As in the Nene valley, there strategic location and natural resources. In a fairly uniform are many fine stone buildings with Ketton Stone and and sometimes rather bland sequence of landforms, ironstone tending to predominate. individual character often comes from views of the The Soar valley is dominated by urban development spreading surrounding higher ground. The landscape is rich in from Leicester. Tree cover is often low and locally negligible attractive individual settlements and buildings of historic and there are large- to medium-size fields. The larger villages, interest and there are very few parts where a village is not as well as Leicester, dominate this open landscape and features in view. Parks, waterside trees and meadows are common like pylons can be very conspicuous. Further upstream, the themes and the extensive settlements reflect prosperity hedgerow and hedge cover improves and the urban influence from a variety of sources over many centuries. Character Area 94 Leicestershire Vales 400-600' Area 94 boundary 200-400' Adjacent Area 93 height above sea- level in feet 69 Motorway A Road A46 1 B Road 73 A6 County boundary 71 A46 A50 District boundary Carlton Ratby CITY OF LEICESTER UA A563 0 Market 3 0 Bosworth 6 A47 A Desford 72 Hinckley and Ashby Canal Bosworth A447 Kirkby LEICESTER A5460 District Mallory Oadby SK Sutton A47 0 Cheney Thurlaston Oadby and SP M69 Wigston 93 Stoke Narborough District Golding East Blaby Wigston Newton Harcourt Barwell Shilton District Blaby Canal Stoney Croft Countesthorpe A50 River Sence 47 A6 A Stanton Cosby HINCKLEY LEICESTERSHIRE Broughton Peatling Sapcote Astley Magna Fleckney Kibworth Beauchamp Sharnford Arnesby M1 Ashby Saddington Res. Magna 9 Nuneaton and A426 Claybrooke A50 Mowsley Foxton Bedworth District Bramcote Magna Harborough District Wolvey Wa Ullesthorpe Gilmorton tling StreetA5 osse Way Walton Canal 97 F Bitteswell A4303 89 Bulkington Rugby District WARWICKSHIRE Lutterworth MARKET 7 HARBOROUGH A4303 River SwiftCotesbach Pailton A426 95 4 M6 Shawell 8 96 6 0 10km 5 143 thick with Bronze Age occupation and ritual sites and the valleys have probably been frequently settled ever since. The surrounding land, however, was less densely occupied in prehistory, particularly Leicestershire west of the Soar. By the Iron Age, much of the better land had been cleared and there was a regular system of land division with major settlement sites along all three main valleys. Dense occupation of the valleys continued in the Roman period, with a major Roman centre at Leicester, and pottery manufactured in the Nene valley was widely used throughout southern England. The Roman roads of the Fosse Way, Gartree Road and Watling Street form features which VID BURTON/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY VID BURTON/COUNTRYSIDE are still prominent in the present day landscape and villas DA clustered around centres like Towcester. The Anglo Saxons The area is variable in land use and the survival of features. Peatling Magna in Leicestershire is typical in being largely built took over a landscape that had been substantially cleared of from red brick. It is surrounded by a mixture of arable and woodland, except