Steep Landscape Character Assessment Contents Introduction 1 Landscape History 2 The Landscape Today 5 Our Landscape Appraisal Process 9 Field Surveys 9 Some Statistics 10 Capturing the landscape character 10 Field Survey Results 11 Principal views and features 18 Public Opinion 20 Expert Opinion 21 South Downs National Park Ranger 21 Hampshire Countryside Service Manager 22 Parish Tree Warden 22 Biodiversity 24 Aspects of Landscape Management 28 Trees and woodland 28 Forestry and timber management 28 Incremental change 28 Agriculture and farming 29 Turf Production 30 Equestrian activities 30 Petersfield Gold Course 30 Relationships with the South Downs National Park Authority 31 Landscape Management Priorities and Design Guidance 32 Conclusions 35 The following reports also form part of the work of the Steep Parish Plan Steering Group and are available in separate documents, either accessible through the Steep Parish Plan website www.steepparishplan.org.uk or from the Steep Parish Clerk. Steep Parish Plan Steep Buildings and Monuments Record Steep Settlement Character Assessment October 2012 Introduction Our landscape is one of the most important England (CPRE). Their goal is to assist factors that makes our area special, and is the production of these assessments to an essential element in all our lives. This help “local people influence the decisions Local Landscape Character Assessment that local authorities and landowners report describes the key elements of make about local landscapes and help to that landscape; explains how they have ensure that future change protects local developed; and looks at how they can be distinctiveness.” We were also encouraged protected and managed in the future. by Hampshire County Council to test this approach to Local Landscape Character Landscape character refers to the Assessment (LLCA) as part of our work on contribution that the different elements the Parish Plan. of our countryside, the roads & tracks, the settlements and the built environment The report concludes that Steep has a make to the local sense of place and much-loved landscape of outstanding distinctiveness. The report covers the quality which is in a healthy condition. landform in the various landscape areas, However, it is also a fragile asset which will the geology and soils, and the landscape need to be carefully nurtured and managed issues that matter to those who live and if future generations are to be able to work in Steep. appreciate it as we do. The pressures to which the landscape is subject - and how We were helped in undertaking our they might be addressed - are examined in assessment by material produced by some detail in the report. the Campaign for the Protection of Rural “The landscape retains the most permanent marks of the past, and a wise ex- amination of it should evoke the beginnings of the majestic sentiment and our oneness with the future and the past, just as natural history should help to give the child a sense of oneness with all forms of life. To put it at its lowest, some such cycle of knowledge is needed if a generation that insists more and more on living in the country is not to be bored or to be compelled to entrench itself behind the imported amusements of the town.” Edward Thomas - The South Country 1 Landscape History The northern boundary of the parish is the Hangers (from the Old English word formed by the upper escarpment of the “hangra”) illustrated in the Parish steep-sided wooded slopes known as map below. Steep Parish Steep Parish The Hangers dominate the Steep landscape Lythe Farm comes from the Middle English and have inspired generations by the word lythe meaning sloping hillside. This magnificent views from their steeply cloaked sense of history is an important feature of slopes across the undulating terraces to Steep’s landscape. the Rother Valley and the South Downs. The gently sloping terraces at the foot of the Hampshire County Council’s Archaeology Hangers are characterised by a rich mosaic and Historic Buildings Records show of small fields and wooded copses evidence of a significant concentration (see the aerial photograph) lending an air of of Mesolithic and Bronze Age settlement largely unspoilt spaces and views. On the activity on the heaths around Petersfield ground, there are glimpses of spires and and to the east of Steep. There is also landmark buildings. The network of fields, some evidence to suggest that there was hedges, woods and streams that make up Neolithic settlement and farming further this area at the edge of the Hangers has north in the Wey Valley and on the chalk to been worked from medieval times. Evidence the south. However, it is not clear that any for this can be found in the field patterns, in of this settlement activity extended into the twelfth century All Saints’ Church and in present-day Steep. It seems more likely that the names of the farmsteads. For example, our land was used for grazing and hunting 2 Steep Parish showing the Hangers and Ancient Semi Natural Woodlands (shaded green areas) rather than being settled or farmed in those of Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917), who times. There is little evidence of Iron Age lived in Steep and Froxfield and walked settlement either, but the important Roman the area regularly. The sites of his poetic villa sites at Stroud and Liss – together with descriptions are annually re-visited by some small pottery finds in Steep – suggest members of the Edward Thomas Society that there was a Roman thoroughfare from a wide area, and a memorial to him running diagonally across the area. in the form of a bronze plaque set into a sarsen stone rests on the Shoulder of The Hangers are the defining characteristic Mutton hillside. Long, narrow remnants of of the Steep area. This is the landscape ancient woodland cling to the steep slopes, lyrically celebrated in the prose and poetry because the nature of the terrain has made Ridge Hanger 3 Cleared assart fields at Steep Marsh them difficult to cultivate. However, the there are more fields between the copses woods themselves have been exploited in of trees. These fields and enclosures, or the past for woodland products such as assarts as they are known, were created as coppice poles, and there have been small- trees were cleared. The early settlements scale chalk and malmstone extractions. of late and post-medieval times begin as farmsteads at the foot of the Hangers. The fertile soils of the Upper Greensand The pressure on the land has fluctuated terrace, immediately below the scarp, through the years. Evidence suggests that have been subject to intensive arable it was most intense just prior to the Great use, particularly for hop growing in Steep Plague of the seventeenth century. At that Marsh. This is typified by large fields with time, much of the land was being used for wavy boundaries in an irregular pattern, food production. Following the collapse in including a variety of formal and ragged population after the Plague, the pressure on informal hedges. We can still see the poplar the land lessened and forest re-established windbreaks showing where hops were itself on abandoned fields. It is thought that once grown. many of our ancient semi-natural woodlands date back to this period. As you move further from the Hangers Looking across Aldersnapp Farm to the South Downs across an almost invisible Petersfield 4 The Landscape Today The Hampshire County Integrated Character Assessment and the East Hampshire Landscape Character Assessment both define 23 broad landscape types, based mainly on the underlying geomorphology, ie the rock type, soil etc. Five of these occur in Steep, as shown in the map. The landscape types are numbered in black and our study areas (see page 9) are shown in red. Steep Parish Landscape Character Assessment black numbers = landscape types red numbers = study areas The landscape types are briefly described below with an indication of where they are found in Steep. 5c Chalk Scarp Chalk has been more resistant to the erosive forces than the softer Greensand resulting in the proud steep scarp we recognise as the Hangers; an east facing ridge that forms a dramatic barrier. With high and steep slopes, and significant areas of ancient, semi-natural woodland of beech, yew and lime, the Hangers are recognised as one of Hampshire’s most beautiful and important woodlands. They provide a dramatic and distinctive backdrop to Steep with extensive views to the South Downs and beyond. The Hangers are rich with birdsong and wild flowers, and carry a pervading sense of history. They present a prominent landscape feature from near and far. When walking on the extensive network of lanes, tracks and paths within the Hangers there are many fine viewpoints out across the parish and beyond to the South Downs chalk escarpment. The importance of the Hangers is recognised far beyond the parish. They have been given international recognition as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The Ashford Hangers have been designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR) by English Nature and are part of the Wealden Edge Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). 5 View from the Hangers across Steep’s wooded landscape with the South Downs beyond 6a Greensand Terrace The Greensand terrace landscape comprises the layer of Upper Greensand rock which outcrops at the foot of the steep chalk scarps. Springs emerge from the foot of the chalk scarp and the resulting streams often carve deep valleys through the softer Greensand. Sunken lanes criss-cross the terrace revealing the underlying geology in the deeply eroded banks. Ashford Lane cutting deep through the Greensand terrace 6 In Steep we find this terrace running from the foot of the Hangers down to Ridge Common Lane in the west of the parish, across Ashford Lane to Church Road in the centre and out to Coldhayes and just short of Steep Marsh in the east.