4C: BEAULIEU OPEN HEATH Open heath at Wormstall Hill, expansive open landscape – with occasional furze / gorse and varying amounts of heather. Open heath meets heath associatedAngling at Hatchett pond created by Controlled burning is an important small holdings and dwellings atdamming clay diggings – © Jim part of the heather management © Broomhill. Champion Geograph Jim Champion Geograph Bronze Age barrows are oftenCampsite at Roundhill – surrounding Commoners cattle have right of way covered with gorse making theminclosures help limit the visibility of on the highway – Turgcutters Arms more prominent in this openthe campsite © Jim Champion East Boldre © Jim Champion landscape; Laurence’s Barrow © Jim Geograph Geograph. Champion Geograph Hampshire County 1 Status: Final May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Beaulieu Open Heath Hampshire County 2 Status: Final May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Beaulieu Open Heath 1.0 Location and Boundaries 1.1 The extent of poor sandy soils and landcover of continuous tracts of heather and gorse broken only by woodland or pines growing singly or in clumps or along the upper part of the Beaulieu stream corridor defines this character area. The boundary extends to include the small holdings and dwellings on the edge of the heath outside the perambulation of the New Forest on the south and east sides. 1.2 Component County Landscape Types Open heath 1.3 Composition of Borough/District LCAs: New Forest District Council (includes Hampshire part of the New Forest National Park) Beaulieu Heath The boundary is aligned closely with the District level assessment apart from this area includes the plantations at Newlands and Beckheath as they are considered to be visually part of the same landscape. 1.4 Associations with NCAs and Natural Areas: NCA 131: New Forest NA 77 New Forest 2.0 Key Characteristics • Gently undulating plateau of predominantly open heath, bog and occasional woodland with small holdings on the southern and eastern edges. • Short small streams e.g. the Crockford and open bodies of water most notably Hatchett pond and boggy hollows and wet flushes. • Large expanse of open lowland heath grazed by ponies with small isolated clumps pine trees and furze. • Large area of open access land which feels natural and peaceful. • Occasional distant views to the Isle of Wight and Fawley complex. • Dominated by lowland heath which is recognised by designation as internationally important habitat. • Bronze Age burial mounds are visible archaeology features. • Open forest landscape which has been stable in appearance and subject to little change, during Forest Law to the current day. • Settlement form of linear low density detached small holdings and modest sized properties which face onto the heath confined to the south and east sides. 3.0 Physical Characteristics and Land Use Hampshire County 3 Status: Final May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Beaulieu Open Heath 3.1 An elevated gently domed landscape sandwiched between the Lymington and Beaulieu valleys. Geologically the area is underlain by the Barton Group of predominantly sand formations including Headon Beds, Becton, Charma and Barton Clay. This sandy geology is overlain extensively by plateau gravels. These shelly clay areas impede drainage and produce conditions for small ponds and bog areas. The marine deposits laid down in the Tertiary period include a sequence of clays of international importance, including the Barton formation – it is rich in molluscun and associated fossil faunas56. The extent of this character area is mirrored by the distribution of the ‘Bolderwood’ soil a naturally vary acid coarse loam over clayey soils with a bleached subsurface horizon – subject to seasonal waterlogging. There are humose or peaty surfaces typically with some flints which are agriculturally very poor. 3.2 The predominant landcover is open heath, mire and bog. The land is managed through the historical continuation of common grazing at low intensity. Specific controlled heather management burning takes place periodically. There is a small inclosure of ancient woodland and ornamental woodland at Norley. There is very little built development and that which does occur is on the south and eastern edges as detached houses of various form and ages. 3.3 There are frequent small short streams and boggy shallow valleys and ponds. The Crockford stream in the flows into the Sawley river. There are some areas where the drainage has been improved by herring bone drainage such as Dibden bottom or areas formalised into ponds such as at Hatchet pond. The dark acidic waters of these streams are and enduring feature of this landscape. 4.0 Experiential/Perceptual Characteristics 4.1 Large scale expansive views across predominantly open heath, ending in wooded horizons and piecemeal small holding development to the south and east give rise to a visually contained landscape. The predominantly open and expansive character is broken up by gentle undulations and hollows or ‘bottoms’ and low ridges. Although elevated, there are few visual links with the Solent and Isle of Wight. 4.2 This landscape is full of access opportunities being open access land – with a network of informal tracks leading from numerous parking facilities. There are a few rights of way outside the area of open heath while bridleways and footpaths in adjoining character areas terminate on the open heath boundary. 4.3 There is an overwhelming sense of tranquillity due to a high degree of perceived naturalness and lack of fields and intensive agriculture. The lack of development and fast road traffic makes the area particularly quiet. Summer visitor traffic can lower the feeling of tranquillity. 5.0 Biodiversity Character 5.1 The majority of this landscape character area is covered by internationally important habitats forming part of the wider New Forest RAMSAR and SAC. Habitat types include: Wet and dry heaths, valley mires including alkaline fens, transition mires, quaking bogs, and Rhynchosporion habitat. There is also wet and dry acid grassland, wood pasture, beech woodland, oak woodland, riverine woodland (alluvial forest) and bog woodland, rivers, streams, oligotrophic and temporary ponds and Inclosure woodland managed for silviculture. The New Forest SSSI extends across the same geographical areas as the SAC and covers the largest area of unsown vegetation in lowland England and includes the representation on a large scale of habitat formations formerly common but now fragmented and rare in lowland western Hampshire County 4 Status: Final May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Beaulieu Open Heath Europe. Nowhere else do these habitats occur in combination and on so large a scale. 5.2 This landscape also contains the Norley Copse and Meadow SSSI which comprises a small unimproved highly species-rich grazing meadow and the adjacent woodland known as Norley Copse. The SSSI also includes the Crockford stream, a clear unpolluted water course which links the two major habitat features. The meadow exhibits a mixture of lime-loving species together with neutral or acid-loving species in the more leached areas. Dyer’s greenweed is abundant in parts of the meadow, and other notable species include the heath dog-violet, sneezewort, yellow loosestrife, narrow-leaved lungwort, spotted and marsh orchids, and the pale sedge Carex pallescens. The flora totals some 140 species of higher plants. The meadow is particularly rich in invertebrates with, amongst other things, eight species of dragonfly, large numbers of green hairstreak butterflies, a rare picture-winged fly and a very local crab spider. The copse is predominantly oak woodland with hazel coppice. The flora is significantly richer than most woods in the wider New Forest area because of the comparatively base-rich soils and the absence of grazing by commoners’ animals, to which the Forest woodlands are subject. 5.3 Within the designated areas and also beyond, the heathland habitat is predominantly dry heath, sometimes existing in mosaic with acid grassland. There is also a significant resource of wet heath and these three types of heathland tend to exist together, in a mosaic with strips and patches of unimproved acidic grassland and dense scrub. Bracken is much more limited here than elsewhere where heathland is a dominant habitat. Woodland is varied in type with patches of broadleaved woodland existing on the peripheries of the heath with coniferous plantation and mixed woodlands. The woodland tends to separate the heath from the wider landscape. There are occasional patches of amenity grassland and gardens which provide further habitat diversity and opportunity. 5.4 This landscape character area is covered by the New Forest BOA which indicates high opportunity for restoring and linking heathland, grassland and woodland habitats and linking to the coastal habitats. 5.5 There are a few SINCs in this landscape character area, most are designated for their ancient and semi-natural woodland resource. 6.0 Historic Character 6.1 Archaeology 6.1.1 Although there are no Mesolithic finds within the character area, it falls within a general area of the New Forest that is being exploited by hunter gathering in this period and would also have been utilised. This is also true in the Neolithic despite no direct evidence, and it is likely that this area was exploited for hunting and grazing. 6.1.2 In the Bronze Age a considerable number of burial mounds reveal that this landscape was used and valued, but the absence of settlement sites presumably reflects its continued extensive not intensive use. Boiling mounds have also been found here and possibly a Bronze Age enclosure on the heath, which may be stock enclosure of some sort. Unusually there is a small settlement enclosure on the heath during the Iron Age and there are no Roman sites in the area. 6.1.3. The New Forest was declared a Royal hunting reserve by William 1. Forest Law meant that erecting fences to keep out deer was not permitted. Thus is both the Hampshire County 5 Status: Final May 2012 Integrated Character Assessment Beaulieu Open Heath Saxon and Medieval period this area remained as heath and there was no settlement.