Bath and North East Somerset Planning Services South Stoke Conservation Area Appraisal June 2014 Contents Introduction 3 Summary of Special Interest 3 Assessment of Special Interest 4 Recommended Management Proposals and Conservation Area Boundary Changes 17 Community Involvement 18 Planning Policy Context 18 General Guidance and Policy 19 Further Reading 20 Glossary 20 Contact Details 20 Introduction South Stoke was identified as being The appraisal identifies elements of special architectural and historic which contribute to the character of interest and was designated a the area and those that detract from Conservation Area 21 July 1982. it. This provides the basis upon The extent of its boundary which to develop proposals for incorporates the main core of the preservation and enhancement. village. The preparation of the statement The Council has a duty to preserve also enables the local community to or enhance the character or participate in the identification of appearance of Conservation Areas features which are important to the in exercising its planning powers, special character of the area in and to reappraise the boundaries which they live. from time to time. This appraisal will be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications. Summary of Special Interest Unusual hillside location and Facades and roof ridges follow exceptional landscape setting on topographic contours the southern edge of the Prominent position of the Manor Cotswolds within the Cotswolds Farm which constitutes an early Area of Outstanding Natural farm complex with rare surviving Beauty late mediaeval agricultural Village built into the slope of a buildings valley overlooking the Cam valley A heritage anchored in a Saxon Traditional walling is an important feature affording fine extensive vistas Charter of 961 and common boundary treatment unencumbered by large scale Prevalence of historic buildings modern development and boundary walls built of local Contribution of natural landscape Oolitic limestone including the features such as ancient Parish Church of St James The deciduous woodland and narrow Great of Norman origin (and often steep) lanes lined with Interesting historic street furniture hedgerows and features including listed K6 Spring-line settlement resulting telephone kiosk and historic post from underlying geological box character Proximity to Somersetshire Coal Small to medium irregular field Canal located in the Cam Brook Views from the footpath afford views of patterns with hedgerow valley below attractive internal green spaces boundaries dating from Village pattern and grain that has mediaeval period undergone little change and Peaceful rural atmosphere with witnessed limited modern little intrusion from traffic despite development proximity to Bath Nucleated village form with Absence of street lighting, traffic central village green signage, adverts and footways Vibrant community sustained by Strong archaeological presence centrally located parish church, and potential including the community hall and The Wansdyke 400 metres to the Packhorse Inn north, Roman villa sites and The church is an important landmark industrial heritage of the building Somersetshire Coal Canal 3 Modern OS map of South Stoke showing the pattern of footpaths Assessment of Special Interest Location and Setting deeply set with characteristic high that is otherwise hidden from view The village and Parish name of banks that meander freely across and a link to the landscape beyond South Stoke derives from Old the floodplains of these valleys. from where its landscape setting English meaning outlying farmstead They are also an important and context can be viewed and or hamlet, secondary settlement to contributor to local natural heritage understood. the south. It is one of many small and biodiversity. settlements to the south of Bath that has been able to maintain its These steep river valleys provide a historic rural character and striking landform on the southern- tranquillity despite its proximity to a most escarpment of the Cotswolds. busy urban centre. As the name The landscape has typically been suggests, it is located just to the influenced by millennia of south of the City of Bath on the side agricultural activity and there is a of a small but steep river valley mixture of arable and pastoral land typical of this area within the cover in roughly equal measure. The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding irregular field patterns tend to be Natural Beauty. small to medium in scale, with hedgerow boundaries. There are three main brooks that flow through these valleys: the Cam There are principally two public and Wellow brooks merge to form footpaths within the Conservation The village has a precipitous and the Midford brook, which is a Area: one to the west that joins the dramatic south facing position tributary of the River Avon, and it is Limestone Link national trail and the Cam that the settlement sits another to the east that progresses above. The landscape is to the south. These paths offer an considerably influenced and interesting opportunity to view the characterised by these small brooks interior of the Conservation Area 4 General Character and Plan Form is the particularly peaceful rural The absence of modern The village possesses a nucleated atmosphere and character of the development on the perimeter and village green form with the route village. the way in which the village and the through bisected by the Green, landscape opens out before you to which creates an interesting Because of the position of the the south as you enter from a narrow circuitous route that necessitates a village, built onto the south facing and enclosed entrance creates a slow passage through the village. slope of the valley, vistas are a key dramatic sense of arrival from the For the most part it has a compact and important element of the north. The juxtaposition and close and close grained townscape with character of the place and views proximity of the village and city offers some substantial buildings set within beyond the village are uninterrupted an intriguing and interesting contrast. large grounds hidden from view by by development of any kind. South This, while not unique, is unusual for trees and general plant growth. The Stoke has miraculously retained its a settlement so close to a large route out of the village to the south physical and emotional separation urban area but again is partly due to descending into the valley below is and its historical and architectural the village ‘having its back’ to Bath in remarkably steep and narrow integrity despite its close proximity being located on the side of a steep providing a sense of drama and to Bath, an aspect noted by Nikolaus escarpment within a different valley. atmosphere as one descends into Pevsner writing in the 1950s: the countryside beyond the village. ‘The happy sight of a village still Having entered the village it is easy entirely unsuburbanized, though only to forget that there is a bustling and two miles from the main station of a busy city within close proximity, such city’. Landscape organically within the landscape and The underlying geology originates fitting into, and working with, its principally from the Jurassic period geomorphology. This integration and is dominated by Oolitic with the landscape is further Limestone typical of the Cotswold enhanced and augmented by the range however the layers can be use of local limestone in the summarised thus in descending construction of the buildings order: including the Parish Church of St James the Great. Forest Marble Great Oolite The surrounding landscape is also Fuller’s Earth close grained with myriad Inferior Oolite patchwork of small irregular fields of Midford Sands different shapes and sizes with narrow steep sided lanes often South Stoke sits at the southern overhung with trees and lined with edge of the Cotswolds Area of hedgerows. The surrounding fields, Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), enclosed by hedgerow boundaries, a recognition of the outstanding and have changed little since the The Conservation Area has an special quality of the landscape. mediaeval and post mediaeval outstanding landscape setting within This designation provides a vitally periods. They were not, for the Cotswolds AONB important control for development instance, affected by the that could be potentially harmful to rationalising endeavours of the such a sensitive area in terms of Enclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th both its built and natural heritage. centuries. In the valley below the The settlement is located just settlement there is evidence of outside the southern limits of the mediaeval, possibly earlier, Bath World Heritage Site but within enclosure of water meadows its immediate setting. described as ‘rich, wet grassland’. There are also areas of ancient Despite its close proximity to the mixed deciduous woodland suburban fringes of Bath, the village consisting typically of native species feels entirely rural and distant from including ash and oak with willow the city. There is a feeling of a and alder lining the river banks. The buildings are typically constructed settlement having developed in local Oolitic limestone 5 Historic Development Tottanstoc, to Bath Priory, a From the archaeological record (see Benedictine monastery of the Archaeological Significance) that ‘Church of the Blessed Peter at includes Bronze Age, Iron Age and Bath’. The estate developed into the Roman pottery potsherds, including manor and remained in the Roman Samian