Woldingham Character Assessment Tandridge District Council
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Woldingham Character Assessment Tandridge District Council 3rd March 2011 Maps in this document are reproduced from Ordnance survey material with the permission of Ordnance survey on behalf of the controller of her Majesty’s stationery Office. © crown copyright, unauthorised reproduction infringes crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Tandridge district council 1000 18265 2010. historic Maps reproduced by permission of surrey history centre. Note: This document is set up to be printed in a3 (double sided). Consultants to Bracknell Forest Council: Tandridge District Council The council Offices station road East Oxted,surrey rh8 0bT Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design Prepared by: 19 Maltings Place 169 Tower Bridge Road SE1 3JB London Tel.: 020 7089 2121 Fax.: 020 7089 2120 [email protected] www.tibbalds.co.uk KIRKHAM LANDSCAPE PLANNING LTD Tall Trees, Tanners Lane, Chalkhouse Green Reading RG4 9AD ©Tibbalds March 2011 Tel: 01189723589 Fax: 01189721872 E-mail: bettina@ kirkhamlpc.fsnet.co.uk ❚ Contents � 1. Introduction 2. Historic development 3. Landscape Setting 4. Structure 5. Character Areas area a - high drive area b - long hill area c - Western hillside area d - Woldingham centre area E - Park View / Northdown road close area F - historic core area G - southern approach area h - core Fringe area i - southfields road area J - Eastern hillside 6. Summary ©Tibbalds March 2011 Woldingham Character Assessment 3 ❚ 1 Introduction � Woldingham is a village located between Oxted and Planning ltd, working together with Tandridge Warlingham and falls within the Tandridge district district council and Woldingham Parish council. council area. it is identified within the Tandridge it provides an assessment of the built up area of district core strategy as having special character, as Woldingham, setting out the key characteristics follows: that contribute positively towards its distinctive “within the built up part of Woldingham the character and identifying the potential opportunities Council will require development to be a high and threats that may be presented by development standard of design and not to harm the special proposals or other physical changes. character of the area...” (para 6.12) it considers a broad range of influences, based on The core strategy policy csP18: character and the English heritage methodology for conservation design, requires that: area appraisals, such as: station road “new development must be of a high standard of ■■ historical development of the area; design that reflects and respects the character, ■■ siting and topography; setting and local context, including those features that contribute to local distinctiveness.” ■■ landscape setting; csP19: density, requires density for a settlement ■■ Townscape and built form; such as Woldingham to be within in the range of 30- Park View road ■■ Vegetation and hard landscape; and 40 dwellings per hectare: ■■ boundary treatments and typical street scenes. “unless the design solution for such a density slines Oak road would conflict with the local character and design quality and in particular character has not distinctiveness of an area”. always been a priority for national planning policy and guidance. some examples of development in National Planning Policy statements (PPs) Woldingham will have been approved and built under The Glebe emphasise the importance of new development previous policy frameworks which placed much contributing towards the character and quality of less emphasis on the importance of context and an area. in particular, PPs1: delivering sustainable character than there is today. such examples may development, states that: not contribute positively to the character of the area, “Good design should contribute positively to although they may be of high quality in themselves. making places better for people. Design which Where appropriate, both positive and negative is inappropriate in its context, or which fails to examples are highlighted to illustrate key aspects of take the opportunities available for improving the local character. character and quality of an area and the way it This character assessment seeks to establish what functions, should not be acceptable.” makes Woldingham distinctive and provides an Northdown road PPs3: housing, also states that design quality evidence base for the special residential character is assessed to the extent to which the proposed of the place. it forms the evidence base for the development: Woldingham design Guidance which is intended to be used as a tool to inform the design of proposals, “creates, or enhances, a distinctive character by developers, architects, designers, planners, that relates well to the surroundings...” highway engineers and the local community, and to This document has been prepared by Tibbalds help ensure that future development or other change Planning and Urban design and Kirkham landscape is not only high in quality, but also appropriate in character to the existing environment and context. Figure 1: Plan of Woldingham Woldingham Character Assessment ©Tibbalds March 2011 4 ❚ 2 Historic Development � The village of Woldingham has a long history dating The Woldingham sssi south-east of slines Oak back to the domesday book. it remained a tiny road covers an area of grassland chalk downland hamlet until expansion from 1884 onwards with with scrub in the east and an old pit and adjoining the coming of the railway line and a station to serve field. To the west it appears that the boundary tree Woldingham. planting to The Wold and a plantation to the north of this still survive. similarly a short stretch of mature a number of features found in modern Woldingham trees reflect a 19th century small woodland at the date from this early period. The houses at Upper northern end of southfields road and the line of and Nether courts and their grounds include the rear garden trees represent those along the old field former farmsteads and their immediate settings. The boundary east of southfields road. flint cottages on The Green and at the junction of station road and slines Oak road frame the open The above surviving elements of the older rural space at the historic core of the village, as in the 19th hamlet are now subsumed into Gilford’s layout of century. the village. Modern Woldingham was built in phases with the first plots being laid out at The Wold and The village was developed from the land of two deepdale; east of little church Wood; and west farmed mediaeval manors (Nether court and Upper of The Green (1896 Os). by 1914 more plots had court) and this link with the farmed landscape been laid out on Northdown road; along Park View around Woldingham is still an influence on the road (mainly at the northern end); and individual Figure 3: historic Map character, particularly in the east. Figure 2: historic Map large plots scattered on most of the other roads. by 1896 1914 The modern ‘shape’ of the village is based on the 1933 large plots had been substantially developed principal road network and field patterns which along Park View road, long hill, high drive, station were in evidence in the mid 19th century, with the road, Northdown road and Upper court road. exception of the road link along station road and smaller plots were developed on southfields road Upper court road which post dates 1872 (Os and southern slines Oak road. st Paul’s church 1871-72). This is thanks to William Gilford’s sensitive and its grounds and the crescent were also laid out design of his new settlement which followed the in this period. Further plots followed, filling in gaps existing field boundaries, working with the contours along the roads and resulting in the character of and respecting ‘natural’ lines of communication. Woldingham today. The 19th century maps also show a predominantly Key to the character of these late 19th century and open field pattern to the study area with few trees in early 20th century plots is the extensive garden and its western and southern parts. To the east a series generous tree and shrub planting which contrived to of woodlands, plantations and linear wooded belts lose houses within their plots thus creating the leafy ran north to south along the upper steeper slopes character desired and covenanted by William Gilford. and included Kingsfield shaw and Kings shaw. apart from the subdivision of a few individual plots, These do not survive intact but several trees mark little has changed from the original plot layout. The the form and line of this feature from Nether court changes include the development west of The road to Upper court road. in the north part of Green and a few cul-de-sac developments. These the village, trees line lunghurst road and a steep are assessed in more detail under each individual bank east of long hill, both of which survive as tree character area. lines along rear and front boundaries today. a small copse at the southern end of this tree line survives as Figure 4: historic Map a group of trees next to the Woodlea county Primary 1938 school. ©Tibbalds March 2011 Woldingham Character Assessment 5 ❚ 3 Landscape Setting � aGlV boundary aONb Key views Designations and ridgelines are visually prominent. The quality of these landscapes enhances the character of the Woldingham is enveloped by a Green belt. it is also village, reminding us of the landscape history of surrounded by the surrey hills area of Outstanding Woldingham. Natural beauty (aONb) to the west and the area of Great landscape Value (aGlV) to the north, east and south. Woldingham Parish includes part of the Topography aONb in Marden Park and the defined study area is 200m from the aONb from its nearest point. at Woldingham village straddles a long ridgeline this point it lies at 140m above ordnance datum extending northwards from the escarpment to the (aOd) from which it rises to the west and south- south, as is typical of the North downs.