Part 1.5 Southern Magnesian Limestone

Part One: Landscape Character Descriptions 5. Southern Magnesian Limestone Landscape Character Types • Limestone Farmlands ............. 5.4 • Limestone Gorges ..................... 5.9 Southern Magnesian Limestone Character Area 30 Part 1 - 5.1 Southern Magnesian Limestone CHARACTER AREA 30 A gently rolling agricultural plateau punctuated by large woodlands, nucleated villages and incised river valleys. Landscape Character Types • Limestone Farmlands • Limestone Gorges Introduction Limestone Farmlands. In some original habitats to survive. In these lower lying areas to the east, the valleys, impeded drainage has The Southern Magnesian Limestone occurrence of mixed farming is restricted farming activities to the Character Area occurs in the north- indicative of heavier soils over clay. minimum, rendering much of the east of the county as a narrow belt In the Limestone Gorges where land as unimproved wet grassland. of elevated land, approximately waterlogged soils prevent arable Magnesian limestone can support 10km wide by 20km in length, which cropping, grazing meadows are a very species-rich flora, including runs between Barlborough in the characteristic. some species that occur nowhere north to Hardwick and Pleasley in else in the county. the south. This is part of the great Natural Influences band of magnesian limestone that Human Influences outcrops just north of Nottingham The plateau was once covered by and extends to Bedale in North dense deciduous forest, which was The caves in Creswell Crags within Yorkshire. The topography of the progressively cleared for cultivation. the Limestone Gorges provide land strongly contrasts with the Since the early 19th century, the evidence of the earliest human industrial coalfields in the west, and plateau has become dominated by occupation in Britain, dating from the low-lying regions in intensive cereal cropping and, as a 50,000 to 12,000 years ago. The Nottinghamshire to the east. result, much of the ecological post glacial period saw the development of a forested interest of the Limestone Farmlands landscape exploited by hunter has been lost. The size and ancient Physical Influences gatherer groups, but their impact origin of the remaining woodlands on the landscape would have been The magnesian limestone is are important attributes for nature minimal. It was not until the associated with other rocks of the conservation; however, many have adoption of farming in the Neolithic Permian era, including marls, which been replanted with coniferous period that significant clearance of were deposited in a desert sea trees. the forest would have occurred. approximately 250 million years Settlement and exploitation of the ago. Magnesian limestone is a soft The narrow, steep sided Limestone area continued throughout the rock, made from the skeletal Gorges remain as important natural prehistoric period and the remains of sea creatures. Marl is features in this landscape. Their succeeding Romano-British period; limey clay that formed as dust inaccessibility, along with the steep however, there is very little evidence accumulated in shallow water. rocky sides, have minimised human of their activity in the landscape disturbance and allowed many today. The magnesian limestone has Derbyshire Nottinghamshire formed an escarpment, which dips Hardwick gently eastwards before Hall County Boundary disappearing under the overlying Sandstone sandstone in Nottinghamshire. The Marls escarpment forms a distinctive, Magnesian upstanding, gently rolling plateau Limestone dissected by the Limestone Gorges, which were cut by torrents of melt- Coal water at the end of the last Ice Age. Measures Limestone Farmlands The rock weathers to form a light, Magnesian Limestone very fertile, friable soil which has Limestone Gorges resulted in arable farming becoming the dominant land-use of the Derbyshire Coalfield Southern Magnesian Limestone Character Area 30 Part 1 - 5.2 Parliamentary Enclosure Acts beneath the magnesian limestone. between the mid 18th and mid 19th The development of collieries, spoil centuries, which often gave rise to tips and infrastructure inclusive of larger, regular fields and straight red brick terraced housing, roads, which are predominant in the radically altered the character of Limestone Farmlands. many existing villages. The disappearance of the coal industry The magnesian limestone is a good at the end of the 20th century is building material. Traditional now leading to the removal of the buildings are almost exclusively buildings and spoil heaps constructed of this stone and associated with mining and their roofed with clay pantiles which have replacement with new forms of a brilliantly red/orange colour, industry. These, in turn, are having giving these buildings a certain a major impact on the appearance distinctiveness when seen in the of the landscape. However, despite landscape. the impact of deep-coal mining and more recent urbanisation, the area Wealthy landowners have had a still retains a rural character. Creswell Crags notable influence on the area by The present character of the developing estates centred on great Due to the suitability of the soils for landscape starts to take shape in houses set in parkland. The best cultivation, the pastoral landscape, the centuries before the Norman surviving example is Hardwick Hall. which predominated up to the late Conquest. This is an ill-documented The park at Hardwick has escaped 19th century, gradually gave way to period in history and the the intensive arable farming arable production. This change was establishment of villages and their common over much of the accentuated during the Second associated fields are difficult to date. Limestone Farmlands and World War when large areas of land Place names, however, provide clear preserves historic landscape were ploughed up. Thereafter, evidence that some settlements features absent elsewhere. Government and European such as those ending in -ton (meaning a farm) and -ley (meaning a clearing or wood) originated in the Anglo-Saxon period. Villages like Palterton, Elmton and Pleasley are good examples of these. Most, if not all, of the settlements mentioned in Doomsday Book are likely to have been old by the time they were recorded. In the Midlands at the time of the Middle Ages, the majority of Hardwick Hall and park set within the Limestone Farmlands settlements would have been surrounded by their open fields, A further layer was added to the Economic Community farming beyond which would have been landscape with the development of policies have sustained the extensive areas of wastes, industry, particularly from the late intensive arable landscape. As a commons and woodland. The 18th century onwards. The rivers, result, floristic richness is confined enclosure of the open fields may particularly the Maun, Meden and to very small, uncultivated margins have begun during the late Middle Poulter, were utilised for first corn associated with rocky outcrops, the Ages; certainly early 17th century and then cotton mills in the late grips and crags, and derelict or maps show enclosures in various 18th century. Charcoal burning and reclaimed land. areas, for example around Bolsover. lime burning had probably been Enclosure of the open fields carried out on a local scale for Other Considerations continued in a piecemeal fashion decades but limestone quarrying throughout the 17th and 18th on a large scale began in the 20th • Lowland Derbyshire BAP centuries, leading to a pattern of century and saw the development • Creswell Crags Limestone relatively small, irregular fields of major quarries, particularly at Heritage Area Management around the village core, with the Whitwell. The late 19th century saw Plan wastes and commons being divided the expansion of the coal mining • Creswell Limestone Strategy into larger, more regular fields. This industry eastwards to exploit the • The Creswell Crags pattern was completed by deeper seams of coal running Conservation Plan Southern Magnesian Limestone Character Area 30 Part 1 - 5.3 Southern Magnesian Limestone LANDSCAPE TYPE: LIMESTONE FARMLANDS A gently rolling, agricultural landscape, characterised by large scale open farmland, estate woodlands and limestone villages. Ecology Key Characteristics Due to the gentle slopes and • Gently rolling limestone plateau inherently fertile soils, the Limestone • Fertile soils supporting productive arable farmland Farmlands are dominated by • Large and medium estate woodlands intensive cereal cropping. As a • Amenity trees around small rural villages and isolated result, a considerable degree of farmsteads ecological interest has been lost. In • Large regular fields bounded by hedgerows spite of this, large woodlands are • Straight roads with uniform width verges still present and pockets of • Nucleated settlement pattern unimproved magnesian limestone • Historic buildings constructed of limestone with red clay pantile grassland still survive. The major roofs landscape features are the large • Panoramic views across lowland to the west woodlands, including Whitwell Wood, Scarcliffe Park and Pleasley • Long distance views over plateau often ending in a wooded Park. The planting of coniferous skyline trees has obscured and suppressed their ancient origins and species- Geology and Landform Soils and Land-Use rich flora. Even though many of the original species remain, they only occur as scattered individual The magnesian limestone has Arable farming has become the specimens along ridges or on rocky formed massive blocks

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