National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents www.gov.uk/natural-england 1 National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents Introduction National Character Areas map As part of Natural England’s responsibilities as set out in the Natural Environment 1 2 3 White Paper , Biodiversity 2020 and the European Landscape Convention , we are North revising profiles for England’s 159 National Character Areas (NCAs). These are areas East that share similar landscape characteristics, and which follow natural lines in the landscape rather than administrative boundaries, making them a good decision- Yorkshire making framework for the natural environment. & The North Humber NCA profiles are guidance documents which can help communities to inform their West decision-making about the places that they live in and care for. The information they contain will support the planning of conservation initiatives at a landscape East scale, inform the delivery of Nature Improvement Areas and encourage broader Midlands partnership working through Local Nature Partnerships. The profiles will also help West Midlands to inform choices about how land is managed and can change. East of England Each profile includes a description of the natural and cultural features that shape our landscapes, how the landscape has changed over time, the current key London drivers for ongoing change, and a broad analysis of each area’s characteristics and ecosystem services. Statements of Environmental Opportunity (SEOs) are South East suggested, which draw on this integrated information. The SEOs offer guidance South West on the critical issues, which could help to achieve sustainable growth and a more secure environmental future. NCA profiles are working documents which draw on current evidence and knowledge. We will aim to refresh and update them periodically as new 1 The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature, Defra information becomes available to us. (2011; URL: www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm80/8082/8082.pdf) 2 Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and Ecosystem Services, Defra We would like to hear how useful the NCA profiles are to you. You can contact the (2011; URL: www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13583-biodiversity-strategy-2020-111111.pdf) NCA team by emailing [email protected] 3 European Landscape Convention, Council of Europe (2000; URL: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/176.htm) 2 National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents Summary Vast arable fields stretch across the sparsely settled, rolling Chalk hills of the In the valleys, woodlands are found on steep slopes, and settlements cluster Berkshire and Marlborough Downs National Character Area (NCA). There are along the valley bottoms. Marlborough and Hungerford sit beside the River extensive views from the escarpment in particular, punctuated by landmarks Kennet. The Kennet catchment feeds the Thames and, like other watercourses in including chalk-cut horse figures, beech clumps and ancient monuments. the Downs, is a chalk river fed by groundwater in the chalk aquifer. The rivers and Historic routeways, including the Ridgeway National Trail, provide public access aquifer are affected by abstraction and pollution. Wetlands support Desmoulin’s across this landscape. Writers and artists have been inspired by this landscape, whorl snail in the Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain SAC and extensive wet including Eric Ravilious and Richard Jefferies, while monuments around Avebury woodland lies in the Kennet Valley Alderwoods SAC. Meadow and pasture in have attracted historians and antiquarians such as John Aubrey. Avebury stone the valleys combine with arable farming and small woods to create a mixed circle is a popular visitor destination and part of a World Heritage Site and there agricultural landscape, defined by hedgerow boundaries. are numerous other Scheduled Monuments and heritage features across this landscape. Heritage features are at risk from damage by cultivation and animal burrowing. The natural beauty and special scenic qualities of the area lead to the majority of the area (97 percent) being included in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Farmland habitat supports brown hare, harvest mouse, rare arable plants and farmland birds including stone curlew. Along the escarpment and steep slopes, limited tracts of hanging woodlands and species-rich chalk grassland can be found. Open access downland offers the public the opportunity to see species such as the skylark and Adonis blue butterfly. At Hackpen Hill and Pewsey Downs Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) early gentian can be found. Downland at Fyfield displays sarsen stone ‘trains’ lying largely undisturbed since the Quaternary glaciations. Click map to enlarge; click again to reduce. 3 National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents Woodlands grow on clay-with-flints deposited on the lower dip slope. The numerous watercourses of the Hampshire Avon, incorporating part of the River historic hunting forest of Savernake is by far the largest concentration of Avon SAC. The Kennet and Avon Canal also passes through. Small settlements are woodland with much of it ancient. Farmsteads are small scale in Savernake, densely scattered and the Grade 1 soils are cropped, except near watercourses. unlike the huge landholdings on the Downs. The area also celebrates prestige associated with horse racing in the Lambourn Valley, and trout fishing. In the south-west, the Vale of Pewsey is floored by Upper Greensand and enclosed by the Chalk escarpments of the Downs and adjacent NCAs in the south, including Salisbury Plain and West Wiltshire Downs NCA. There are Across the vast fields of the high Downs, routeways and gallops stretch into the distance. 4 National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents Statements of Environmental Opportunity SEO 1: On a catchment basis, seek to conserve, enhance and restore the SEO 3: Across the open expanses of the Downs, identify and manage flora, fauna and heritage features of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the natural and man-made landmarks and associated viewpoints valued by chalk streams, springs and associated wetlands, such as those in the local communities and visitors in order to maintain sense of place and Kennet catchment and in the Vale of Pewsey. Enhance public access to key history and also so that they act as focal areas for engaging people in the features to reinforce sense of place and secure water quality and water conservation and sustainable enjoyment of the wider area. As well as high- availability as appropriate. profile landmarks such as Avebury, consider exposed scarp landforms, downland pasture, beech clumps, ancient monuments, historic buildings SEO 2: Across the huge arable fields of the high Downs, conserve and and sarsen stones. enhance linear features, field edges and in-field features, such as fallow plots and farm reservoirs, and manage these as an interrelated network of SEO 4: With the historic area of Savernake hunting forest being a key features. Manage this network to benefit wildlife (including arable plants focus, manage the Downs’ wooded features to maintain sense of place, and farmland birds), to conserve soils, to store water, to protect heritage to conserve and enhance woodland archaeology and biodiversity, and to features, to improve public enjoyment, and to regulate pests and diseases. maximise sustainable timber and wood fuel production. Ensure that new Maximise these benefits through targeted arable reversion of strips and plantings or restockings across the Downs reflect historic distribution areas to grassland, securing the additional benefit of expanding the patterns so that they strengthen sense of history and sense of place and species-rich chalk grassland network where possible. also seek to support networks of small woods. 5 National Character 116. Berkshire and Marlborough Downs Area profile: Supporting documents Description Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas The Berkshire and Marlborough Downs form the western limit of the London Basin. They are part of a much larger deposit of uplifted Chalk extending from East Anglia to Dorset and to the South Downs. To the north-east, the chalk hills continue into the Chilterns and, immediately to the south, lie Salisbury Plain and the Hampshire Downs. These chalk landscapes function as a massive principal aquifer and provide an ecological network supporting interconnected populations of species such as stone curlew. To the north and west, the escarpments offer far-reaching views over the low-lying Avon Vales National Character Area (NCA) and Upper Thames Clay The Kennet and Avon Canal linking Bath to London is a corridor for wildlife, water Vales NCA and beyond to the high ground of the Midvale Ridge, Chilterns and and recreation. Cotswolds NCAs. Views from Milk Hill reach as far as the Black Mountains in Wales. From the vales, the escarpments provide a backdrop and, in the case of The Downs are connected by historic routeways to adjacent vales and to NCAs the Vale of the White Horse, a Downs’ landmark has given the area its name. along the historic Ridgeway that extends from Norfolk to Dorset, including Rivers draining the dip slope of the Downs flow east into the Thames in the adjacent Chilterns NCA. The M4, A4 and railway are more recent corridors the London Basin, via the Thames Valley and Thames Basin Heaths NCAs. passing through to link London with Bristol. Watercourses at the base of the escarpments flow out into the surrounding Historic associations persist between Avebury and Stonehenge in Salisbury vales to the north, south and west (into the Thames, Hampshire Avon and Plain and West Wiltshire Downs NCA and they are managed together as a Bristol Avon catchments respectively). Groundwater flows out of the NCA World Heritage Site. largely in an easterly direction into the London Basin but water is also exported to nearby Swindon in the Midvale Ridge NCA.