CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description LCA - Mid Cornwall Moors LCA No CA20 JCA Constituent LDUs Total 5: 27, 55, 87, 299, 300 © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Cornwall County Council 100019590, 2008. Location This area lies inland, north of St Austell and the china clay district. It extends west almost to Indian Queens and east towards Lanivet, Lanhydrock and Lostwithiel. Designations No AONB; there are SSSIs in all LDUs. 6 LDUs contain SACs and there is one NNR; 6 LDUs contain SMs and 3 contain CGS. Description This area is an open plateau which comprises the remnants of the poorly drained wildland/moorland of Goss Moor at its heart and Red Moor and Breney Common to the east. These combine with areas of rough grazing with pastoral farmland on the surrounding slopes. The associated wetland and heathland flora and fauna found within this area is important locally and nationally.There are extensive views to higher land around and south to the china clay area (Landscape Character Area 17 St Austell or Hensbarrow china clay area) The higher ground encircling the Moors to the east of the Landscape Character Area forms part of Landscape Character Area 39 (St Austell Bay and Luxulyan Valley). Tree cover is sparse on the higher ground but the sheltered slopes and lower land are well wooded. The northern part of the area features the Iron Age hillfort of Castle-an-Dinas. The re-routing of the A30 which crosses most of the area provides enhanced opportunities to restore the integrity of the wildland but has significantly damaged an extensive and well-preserved medieval stripfield system. Much of the area has a scatter of industrial and residential development and infrastructure. Key Landscape Characteristics High ground in a series of interlinked 'soft' ridges with outcrops of bare granite and tors. Pastoral land use on rising ground, with large expanses of open low-lying wetland with wet woodland and rough grazing. Exposed upland feel, with few hedgerow trees. Wooded around upper river valleys, with much wet woodland. Lightly settled with isolated farms, but with major transport routes. Strong visual influence of adjoining china clay area. Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA20 Page 1 of 4 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description Geology and soils Impoverished soils on hard metamorphic rocks; granite intrusions into metamorphosed slates. Field boulders (the result of glacial processes) especially in the Luxulyan area. Topography and drainage A low lying bowl or shallow valley with impeded drainage protected by the high ground to the south (LCA17 St Austell or Hensbarrow china clay area and LCA39 St Austell Bay and Luxulyan Valley) and on the north by the low hills of Castle an Dinas, Belowda Beacon and Penvivian Downs. Ridges of granite intrusion from Landscape Character Area 39 (St Austell Bay and Luxulyan Valley) stretch into the area almost encircling the basin (Red Moor) at the eastern end. The area is drained by the River Fal at the western end and the Luxulyan River at the eastern end. Biodiversity Within the low-lying part of the Landscape Character Area there are significant areas of Purple Moor Grass and Rush Pasture at Red Moor SSSI and Criggan Moor; Wet Woodland (mostly of Grey Willow) on Goss Moor SSSI, Red Moor SSSI, Breney Common SSSI and Criggan Moor; and Fens on Goss Moor SSSI and Red Moor SSSI. Some of these SSSIs form the Breney Common Goss and Tregoss Moors SAC. The past tin-streaming and china clay extractive industries have left an area with a high density (for Cornwall) of small pools, ditches and shallow depressions, and within the mosaic of wetland, heath and woodland habitats. The area is now important locally and nationally for its wetland and heathland flora and associated fauna; several species have their main populations witin Cornwall here. On the higher parts of the LCA, the largest areas of Lowland Heathland are found: at Tregoss Moor, Tregonetha Downs and Belowda Beacon SSSI, and there are extensive patches of European Gorse in some areas of rough ground. Small fragmented areas of the BAP habitats are found throughout the LCA, these mostly linking within the area or to other wetlands or broadleaved woodland along river corridors into the north, west and east flowing stream valleys of the rivers Camel, Fal and Fowey, and other smaller rivers, into LCAs 14 (Newlyn Downs), 17 (St Austell or Hensbarrow china clay area), 21(Fowey Valley), 33 (Camel and Allen Valleys) and 39 (St Austell Bay and Luxulyan Valley). The small fields between the low-lying wetland and woodland tend to be enclosed by Cornish hedges with good scrubby growth but with few mature hedge trees. These fields are mostly improved grassland but some neutral grassland is found, with any arable land found mostly in the northwest of the LCA. Goss Moor is a National Nature Reserve. Land Cover A mixture of farmland and wildland with a low proportion of arable. Land Use This is an area of ancient pastoral farmland and wetland with heath and wet woodland merging into woodland on the drier ground. Relic mining areas mainly for china clay can be found close to the southern rising ground of LCA 17 (St Austell or Hensbarrow china clay area) as well as tin streaming on Goss Moor. Wolfram was also mined on Goss Moor. Field and woodland pattern Curving sinuous Cornish hedges (with trees) form boundaries of small fields comprising Anciently Enclosed Land on lower land outside the rough ground (around Bodwen and Lockengate, for example). There are particularly well-preserved examples of fossilised medieval stripfield systems at Belowda and Tregoss, running downslope to the edge of the moor (the former now truncated by the new alignment of the A30). Much of the former higher rough ground has been enclosed in the post-medieval period, creating large Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA20 Page 2 of 4 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description rectilinear fields with straight boundaries, often with post and wire fencing; this is particularly prevalent around Roche and Castle-an-Dinas. Low-lying moorland is not enclosed. Interlocking woodlands. Settlement pattern Sparse pattern of dispersed settlement with small farms, mainly in the east of the LCA; vernacular style, using granite and slate, with rounded (i.e., moorstone) rather than dressed stone on higher areas. The only nucleated settlement of any size is Roche, a medieval churchtown which expanded under the influence of the china clay industry in the nineteenth and particularly the twentieth centuries. Victoria is a nineteenth century settlement focused on the main east-west route (former A30) and Roche railway station. There has also been twentieth century development in the vicinity of Bugle station, representing expansion of the village just outside the LCA to the south, and at small roadside settlements adjacent to industrial areas at, for example, Bowling Green and Bodella. Around the fringes of the clay / industrial area a significant portion of the settlement pattern is in the form of smallholdings. Small areas of working and disused industrial use. Transport pattern Winding lanes and straighter dual carriageway, trunk road (A30); and railway run throughout the Landscape Character Area. Extensive footpaths, with Saints Way in the north and long-distance footpath out of St Austell in the SE. Historic features Prehistoric features within the LCA include a late Neolithic henge at Castilly, near Innis Downs roundabout, with an accompanying group of Bronze Age barrows. Another barrow group lies to the north of Roche village and another around Belowda Beacon. Castle-an-Dinas is one of the largest and best preserved Iron Age hillforts in Cornwall, incorporating further barrows within its multiple banks and ditches; it is possible that there was an earlier prehistoric enclosure on this site. The higher land around the fringes of the LCA also includes the sites of a number of Iron Age and Roman-period defended farmsteads (rounds). Many of the farm settlements are of early medieval or medieval origin and medieval manorial centres are recorded at Gaverigan and Domelioc. Roche is a medieval churchtown. Medieval field systems at Belowda and Tregoss are notable examples of fossilised stripfields. The moors themselves in this LCA, in addition to having been a long-term resource to nearby settlements for grazing, have been extensively streamworked since at least the medieval period; valleys running off the higher ground to the south have also been streamed. Post-medieval mining focused particularly around Roche, Criggan and Belowda Beacon, with a wolfram mine beneath Castle-an-Dinas in the first half of the 20th C; many of these areas have left distinctive industrial remains. There are old gravel beds at Breney Common and several disused clay works in the area east of Roche. Condition Farmland generally intact and well managed, but wildland Landscape Character diluted by pylons, and loss of semi-natural habitat to land raising schemes, recreation/tourism development and scrubbing up. Ecological corridors are fragmented, especially on high ground and in centre around transport network. Widespread high impact of transport corridor and industry - industrial estate on A30, and spreading development around Roche. Pressures Urbanisation industrial development around Roche. Loss of low lying wetlands to inert landfill. Impact of A30 improvement scheme new dual carriageway and associated development. Increased equestrian use of farmland. Wednesday 11 June 2008 LCA No.CA20 Page 3 of 4 CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY LANDSCAPE CHARACTER STUDY Landscape Character Area Description Aesthetic and sensory Pylons are widely visible and intrusive; Helman Tor in Landscape Character Area 39 is distinctive.