Land at Barton in Fabis, Nottinghamshire: The Soil Resources and Agricultural Land Classification Received Survey and Report by Rodney Burton BA MScNCC 25/07/2017 April 2017 for Greenfield Associates Contract No. 15.10.117/gfa/SK5233 R.G.O Burton Soil Survey and Land Evaluation Agricultural, Archaeological & Environmental Consultant 2 Montgomery Road Cambridge CB4 2EQ E-mail: soil.survey(at)europe.com i Received NCC 25/07/2017 ii Barton in Fabis – Soil Resources and ALC Survey CONTENTS Page Executive Summary v 1. Introduction 1 2. Landscape and Geology 1 2.1 Geology 2 2.2 Soils 4 2.3 Topography 5 3. Survey Methods 2 The Soil Resources 4 4. Sources of Information 4 4.4 Soil Resources of the Floodplain 4 4.5 Soil Resources of the Slopes 5 4.6 Soil Resources of Mill Hill 6 The Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) 7 5. Introduction 7 Received 6. Investigation Results 9 6.1 Climatic Limitations 9 6.2 Site Limitations 9 6.3 Soil Limitations NCC 13 25/07/2017 6.4 Conclusions 15 5. References 17 Appendix 1 – Soil Profile Details, Available Water & Moisture Balance Calculations A1 Floodplain A1-1 Slopes A1-7 Mill Hill A1-9 Key A1-11 Classification of Soil Types A1-12 Appendix 2 – Soil and ALC Terminology A2 Texture Classification and Abbreviations A2-1 Definition of Soil Wetness Classes A2-2 Agricultural Land Classification System A2-3 iii Barton in Fabis – Soil Resources and ALC Survey Received NCC 25/07/2017 iv Barton in Fabis – Soil Resources and ALC Survey EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction The survey area (Figure 1) covers approximately 88 ha of land in total, a 68.5 ha site for development on the floodplain of the River Trent to the north east of Barton in Fabis, and a further 19.5 ha access site on steeply sloping land between Burrows Farm in the north east and Brandshill Wood in the south west, and on high ground adjacent to Green Street, here called Mill Hill. Fieldwork, which was undertaken in November 2015 and April 2016, consisted of recording soil profiles at 41 observation sites (Figure 1) taken by coring with a hand-held auger to 120 cm depth. A network of pre-determined auger bore investigation sites was superimposed upon a map of the land to be surveyed at an approximate 200-metre interval on the floodplain, and at a closer 100-metre interval on the slopes and Mill Hill field which represents one observation point per hectare. The Soil Resources The Floodplain: Riverine alluvium forms the bulk of the land in the northern and western parts of the survey site and fills low-lying, narrow, elongated palaeochannels. The main soil type occurrence is Wharfe series, a permeable and well drained (Wetness Class I) medium loamy stoneless soil. Most of the area has been ploughed at some time to give a darkened topsoil of 20-30 cm thickness. Slightly raised areas of remnants of terrace deposits occur through the centre of the floodplain, separated by alluvium and palaeochannels. They carry permeable and well drained (Wetness Class I) light loamy soils of the very similar Maplestead and Wick series (7 of the 8 bores). The sandy loam plough layer is from 22–35 cm thick at these bores and overlies a mainly sandy loam upper subsoil of variable thickness. At between 58 and 100 cm depth, the lower subsoil is usually sandier, with loamy medium sand texture. Received The Slopes: The underlying mudstones form the subsoil of much of the sloping area and there is a varying thickness of superficial drift of mainly light and medium loamy texture (sandy loams and clay loams). A typical soil profile is of the Worcester series in mudstone on a 15½° slope. NCC 25/07/2017 Mill Hill: Soils are developed directly in red mudstone on high ground along the north-western side of the field between Mill Hill and Brands Hill, with profiles of Worcester series and Whimple series with a thicker addition of drift over the mudstone in the lower subsoil. Along the south-eastern side of the field adjacent to Green Street are loamy over clayey soils developed in brownish to reddish glacial till with a typical profile of Salwick series. Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) Climatic conditions are not limiting. Slopes of up to 7° are not limiting. Gradient is limiting to subgrade 3b for strongly sloping land up to 11° and to grade 4 for moderately steeply sloping land up to 18°. This limits the steepest land south west of Burrows Farm to Grade 4 where gradients up to 15½° were measured. Microrelief and Pattern are considered limiting mostly to subgrade 3b on other land along the Slopes where soil and particularly site conditions vary over short distances. Flooding by the River Trent as the channel capacity is exceeded is a major feature affecting the land use and hence land quality of the Floodplain. The nature of the topography means there are no natural barriers to river flood water spreading across the whole floodplain, assisted by the palaeochannel depressions. Occasional long winter floods would limit most of the Floodplain to Subgrade 3b. Some parts of the slightly raised terraces and an area of permeable Maplestead soils adjacent to the flood bank is considered to have a less restricted limitation of 3a. v Barton in Fabis – Soil Resources and ALC Survey At none of the observations sites is there a direct limitation from topsoil texture and structure or soil depth. Topsoil stone content with more than 5% stones by volume of >2 cm diameter, but less than 10% is limiting to Grade 2. Chemical conditions are not directly limiting anywhere in the survey site. There are some soil and wetness limitations. Most of the Floodplain has loamy permeable soils of Wetness Class (WC) I and no wetness/texture limitation, except for soils within the palaeochannels which are WCIII with a non-calcareous heavy clay loam (hCL) topsoil and hence Subgrade 3b. Land on the Slopes and at Mill Hill has mainly a mix of soils of WCII and WCIII which equates to Grade 2, Subgrade 3a and Subgrade 3b, depending on topsoil texture and depth to a slowly permeable layer. The alluvial soils of the Floodplain have the largest available water capacity and most have no droughtiness limitation. The remaining alluvial soils and most of the terrace soils have a limitation to grade 2 for one or both standard crops. Each observation site has been assessed for its Grade according to all of the possible limitations, and an overall Grade has been allocated to each one based on the ‘most limiting factor’ principle. These allocations are given in Table 2 and the distribution is mapped in Figure 5. ALC Grades and Subgrades for the Development and Access Sites (Table 5) Development Site (Floodplain) Access Site (Slopes & Mill Hill) Grade ha % Grade ha % 1 0.00 0.0 1 0.00 0.0 2 0.00 0.0 2 0.45 2.3 3a 4.54 6.6 3a 5.70 29.2 3b 55.73 81.4 3b 3.71 19.0 4 0.00 0.0 4 2.73 14.0 non-ag 8.23 12.0 non-ag 2.0 10.3 Received unsurveyed 0.00 0.0 unsurveyed 4.91 25.2 Total 68.50 100.0 Total 19.5 100.0 Best and most versatile land (BMV) is defined as Grades 1, 2 and 3a and this comprises 4.54 haNCC or 25/07/2017 6.6% of the proposed Development Site and 6.15 ha of the surveyed Access Site. vi Barton in Fabis – Soil Resources and ALC Survey Received NCC 25/07/2017 vii The Soil Resources and Agricultural Land Classification of land at Barton in Fabis, Nottinghamshire by Rodney Burton, BA, MSc Agricultural, Archaeological & Environmental Consultant, Cambridge 1. Introduction 1.1 Greenfield Associates Ltd commissioned a soil survey and land evaluation for a proposed development between Barton in Fabis and Clifton in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City. The survey has provided information for a soil resource inventory, from which an agricultural land classification (ALC) assessment has been made to determine the distribution of Grades and Subgrades across the land. This document reports on the results of the survey. 1.2 The survey area, shown in Figure 1, covers approximately 88 ha of land in total, 68.5 ha site for development on the floodplain of the River Trent to the north east of Barton in Fabis, and a further 19.5 ha access site on steeply sloping land between Burrows Farm (National Grid Reference SK 5364 3396) in the north east and Brandshill Wood in the south west, and on high ground adjacent to Green Street, here called Mill Hill. Access to the survey site in the west is by a track extending from Chestnut Lane, Barton in Fabis,Received from where it crosses the flood bank (SK 5248 3321) and in the east from Green Street at Mill Hill (SK 5381 3355). NCC 25/07/2017 2. Landscape and geology 2.1. The structure of this report closely follows these three distinctive landscape facets which have differing soils, topography, flood risk and, to a minor extent, agricultural climate. 2.11 The Floodplain beside the River Trent lies at 24–30 metres above Ordnance Datum (aOD) and is subject to flooding by the river. There are subtle differences in elevation with higher ground formed in river terrace deposits with loamy soil over sand and gravel, the Holme Pierrepont terrace of the British Geological Survey; similar soils on the slightly lower Hemington terrace pass laterally into riverine alluvium in with deeper light and medium loamy soils.