ENVIRONMENT WORKSHEET EN2: The Town & the Wider Countryside
TASK: to record the quality of the town‘s surrounding countryside, how it is changing and the links it has with the town
1: Introduction to the task
Market towns and their surrounding countryside are linked both visually and physically. Most of the practical links between the town and its surrounding countryside (hinterland) are based on the town‘s traditional role as marketplace, shopping centre and the source of necessary local services for those living in the area. It is important for market towns to appreciate the changes happening in the countryside and to be able to adjust their services and facilities to meet changing needs. During this task try to:
*Identify the important present and past features that link the residents of town and countryside residents and their what they do for a living
*Assess the impact of management practices on the quality of the countryside
*Where appropriate make links to Worksheet T2: Accessibility of services
If your County Council has not already carried out a landscape assessment of the surrounding countryside, you could map your own findings to help people understand the character of the surrounding countryside.
2. Getting the following information will help you define the environmental links between the town and countryside
Sub-section 1: Links between town and countryside
EN2 Q1
What is the location and impact of any natural or man-made features such as rivers, canals, roads or railway lines that physically or visually link the town and country?
(Worksheets EC6 Q1; EC7 Q18; S2, S3 Q11; S5 Q8 and S6 Q1& 3 also refer to the built environment. Worksheets S5 Q6; S6 Q5 also refer to environmental features)
Starting points for information
Maps or aerial photographs Local survey
Q1 DRAFT ANSWER: The Blackwater River forms both the northern boundary of Yateley and the county boundary with Berkshire. The major landscape impact has resulted from gravel extraction since WW2. The exhausted workings have been allowed to fill with water to form lakes which are now used for recreational fishing and other sports. Some workings have been infilled which has allowed the creation of a golf course and community playing fields. These recent recreational facilities form a made-made extension to the few remaining undeveloped fields of no longer existent farms. For the most part the historic water meadows remain within the floodplain. However, except to the north of Yateley Green and to the east of Sandhurst Road, high density housing estates have been built right up to the land owned by the gravel companies.
The southern boundary of the settlement is also often modern high density housing estates built right up to the edge of registered common land. There are three areas in which this is not true. Blackbushe Trading Estate has a boundary with common land. the mediaeval field system at Cobbetts Lane, and Fox Farm at Monteagle Lane provide a buffer between the common land and the high density estates built up to their boundaries. The western boundary of development along the Eversley parish boundary is a solid line of high density housing, which spills into Eversley Parish north of the B3272. The definition of the boundary of town and country is thus mostly very marked.
EN2 Q2
Are there unique design elements found in both the town and the surrounding countryside?
Look, for example, at distinctive local house types, local architectural detailing and use of local materials.
(Worksheets EC6 Q1; EC7 Q18; S2, S3 Q11; S5 Q8 and S6 Q1 & 3 also refer to the built environment. Worksheet S6 Q5 also refers to local distinctiveness)
Starting points for information
Local survey
Q2 DRAFT ANSWER: Yateley's oldest housing (mostly now listed buildings) was timberframed, and is still found in nearby Hampshire villages. There are now very few such houses left in Yateley. Many of the larger timberframed houses were refronted in the 18th century, or absorbed into larger structures, one or two of which still survive as listed buildings. Yateley has a long history of providing 'council houses' from the earliest post WW1. Vast council estates were built post WW2. In the 60s and 70s many of the private estates were constructed by a single local house builder, T. Lucas. In the interwar years a considerable number of architect designed private houses were built by persons who appeared in the pages of Who's Who. Very few of these buildings survived the post WW2 estate-building boom.
EN2 Q3
What are the memorable views either from the town to the countryside, or from the countryside to the town, and where can they be seen from?
(Worksheet S6 Q5 also refers to local distinctiveness)
Starting points for information
Local survey
Local Tourist Board
Maps
Q3 DRAFT ANSWER: Yateley is built on a north facing slope looking towards the Finchampstead Ridges, an early National Trust property. Historic houses were built to command such views (noted in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1794). Today the view of Finchampstead Ridges can still be partially seen from the high ground on Monteagle Lane, and from Fox Farm. There are also good views across the meadows from Darby Green. In reverse Yateley can be seen from the war memorial at Finchampstead and from public footpaths in Sandhurst.
EN2 Q4
What historic commercial links such as market halls, a corn exchange, mills, wharves, market squares between the town and country are still evident?
(Worksheets EC6 Q1; EC7 Q18; S2, S3 Q11; S5 Q8 and S6 Q1 & Q3 also refer to the built environment. Worksheet S6 Q5 also refers to local distinctiveness)
Starting points for information
Local knowledge
Local History Group
Local Tourist Board
Library
Q4 DRAFT ANSWER: There are no historic commercial links between town and country of the type suggested. This is because Yateley was a village of large private mansions and small farms. To find such commercial links we have to go back many centuries to the fish farms which supplied the Lord of the Manor (the Abbey at Winchester) and others. The continuing evidence are the fish ponds still found in Yateley's landscape. Some of these are mentioned in the manorial records by name.
Blackbushe Airport is a continuing reminder of the wartime activities of RAF Hartfordbridge, and the large postwar airport.
EN2 Q5
Does the character of the surrounding countryside become less distinct the closer it gets to the town edge?
(Worksheets S5 Q6; S6 Q5 also refer to environmental features. Worksheet S6 Q5 also refers to local distinctiveness)
Starting points for information
Local survey
Q5 DRAFT ANSWER: The character change between the surrounding countryside is the town edge is mainly very sharp as explained in the answer to EN2 Q1 above.
Sub-section 2: Countryside landscape character
EN2 Q6
What are the unique characteristics of the local countryside?
Look, for example, at farmed land, heath or moorland, open, small fields with hedgerows or dry stone walls, and traditional settlements.
(Worksheets S5 Q6; S6 Q5 also refer to environmental features. Worksheet S6 Q5 also refers to local distinctiveness)
Starting points for information
County Council (ask for landscape character assessment)
Q6 DRAFT ANSWER: Our answer to EN2 Q1 explains the reasons for the limits to the built environment. The now rare lowland heath forming the southern boundary to the town is protected by two European Directives (see answer to EN2 Q7 following). This heathland area was described and characterised in the Environmental Analysis of the Plan Area in the Consultation draft of the Adopted Local Plan June 1995 (paras 3.3.14 to 3.3.18). This environmental analysis was retained, but slightly strengthened, in the Deposit Draft of June 1996 (paras 3.3.15 to 3.3.19). However this whole section of environment analysis of the heathland, without doubt the most important landscape to be found in the whole of Hart, was removed from the Adopted Hart Plan, December 2002. Incredibly the only landscape descriptions of the heathland areas of Yateley are split into brief mentions within the landscape types of Minley and Bramshill. The Minley type mentions Yateley's heathland "heavily used as a recreational resource" and the Bramshill Hill type mentions the "localised noise and activity and suburbanising influence of the major through routes, particularly the busy A30 and A327, and Blackbushe Airport."
EN2 Q7
What areas are covered by national, regional or local landscape, conservation or wildlife designations such as:
a. National Parks
b. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
c. RAMSAR
d. Special Protection Areas
e. Special Areas of Conservation
f. National Nature Reserves (NNR)
g. Local Nature Reserves (LNR)
h. Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
i. Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
(Worksheet EC7 Q10,17,18; S3 Q7,11 also refer to environmental quality)
Starting points for information
District Council (ask for Local Plan)
County Council
English Nature
Local Wildlife Trust
Q7 DRAFT ANSWER: There are no National Parks, AONB or RAMSAR sites in or near Yateley. Much of Yateley Common is designated as a Special Protection Area for Wild Birds as part of the Thames Basin Heaths SPA. Units 1, 2, 4 and & 7 are within the Civil Parish. The SPA is also by far the largest SSSI in Hart comprising 921 hectares. Yateley Common was designated an SSSI in 1979. Castle Bottom was designated an SSSI as a direct consequence of the Yateley Society inviting Dr David Goode, then Chief Ecologist of the GLC, and an authority on hanging bogs, to look at the site before giving a lecture to the Society. Now Castle Bottom, part of the wider SPA/SSSI is itself one of only nine National Nature Reserves in Hampshire. There are also SINCs in Yateley, one of which is also on Blackbushe Airport.
EN2 Q7A
HEALTH OF SPA
What is English Nature's latest assessment of the condition of units of the Castle Bottom to Yateley and Hawley Commons SSSI?
Starting points for information
English Nature's website
Hampshire County Council Countryside Service
Q7A DRAFT ANSWER: The part of the SPA/SSSI within Yateley Civil Parish are units 1,2 and 7, which are all assessed by English Nature as UNFAVOURABLE DECLINING, and unit 4 which is PART DESTROYED. These assesments contrast unfavourably with unit 5 south of the A30, owned by the MOD, which is assessed as UNFAVOURABLE RECOVERING. There appears to be a disagreement in management objectives between the assessors and the site management.
The Castle Bottom National Nature Reserve is assessed by English Nature as UNFAVOURABLE RECOVERING. The SSSI citation states "Valley mire vegetation at the site is dominated by tussocky purple moor-grass and bog myrtle." The large area of tussocks of purple-moor grass was the major reason why Dr Goode, an expert on hanging bogs, arranged for Castle Bottom to be designated SSSI in the early 1980s at a time when it was owned by a mineral aggregate company. It now appears that management is being carried out to minimise the extent of the purple-moor grass tussocks.
Q7A NOTES: This is an additional draft question inserted by the Steering Group. It a Government Public Service Agreement target to raise 95% of the total SSSI area in the country to favourable or recovering condition by 2010. Despite 20 years of extensive management all of the SSSI in Yateley is below the required standard, perhaps because of differences in management objectives. This situation, which has only just come to light by the publication by English Nature of these assessments, should be resolved very quickly.
EN2 Q8
AREAS OF HISTORIC IMPORTANCE:
1. What areas of historic importance have concentrations of:
1.1 Listed Buildings
1.2 Conservation Areas
1.3 historic parkland
1.4 Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAM)
1.5 Areas of Archaeological Importance
2. What other areas of historic importance are there?
(Worksheets EC6 Q1; EC7 Q18; S2, S3 Q11; S5 Q8 and S6 Q1 & Q3 also refer to the built environment. Worksheets S5 Q6; S6 Q5 also refer to environmental features)
Starting points for information
District Council (ask for: Local Plans, Conservation Areas, Listed Buildings, archaeologically important areas, Historic Parks and Gardens)
English Heritage
Q8 DRAFT ANSWER: Most of Yateley's list buildings are concentrated along the Reading Road, the main route through the old village. This concentration has been caused by the destruction of most of the mansions, old farm houses, and cottages on the outlying areas, many of which, had they survived, may now have been listed. Preservation of the current listed buildings has been aided by the existance of Yateley's three Conservation Areas. There are no areas scheduled as historic parkland with the parish because the former parkland of the old mansions viz Frogmore, Hilfield, Yateley Manor and Yateley Hall are now completely covered by postwar estates, or have been substantially reduced in size. The grounds of Yateley Hall are listed in Hart's local register of historic parks and gardens.
The grounds of both Minley Manor and Elvetham Hall are listed by English Heritage as Historic Parks and Gardens.
There are no Scheduled Ancient Monuments or designated Areas of Archaeolgical Importance within the civil parish, but immediately to the south of the A30 there is a barrow near Minley, and Festen Dic, a berm earthwork south of British Car Auctions' site. Both are sited on Common Land.
Other areas of historic importance are the 'Urn Field' site immediately to the north of Yateley Green. Burial urns of the so-called beaker people were found during gravel digging in 1928. The Yateley Green Conservation Area is particularly important historically since this was the core of the ancient village, although the historical links are becoming ever increasely harder to discern as urbanisation advances. The Darby Green Conservation Area has been threatened for several years by the existance in the current Local Plan of a substantial commercial development site immediately to the north. The Cricket Hill Conservation Area has retained it rural charm. The mediaeval field system of the Cobbetts Lane area was featured in a textbook on that subject, demonstrating ancient assarting into the common land. An area of fields to the west, and south of Wyndhams Pool is now managed by a trust to preserve its wet meadows. The common land to the south and east of Cobbetts Lane has is the subject of onarchaeological investigations - which has revealed mesolithic occupation including a flint knapping 'factory'.
Sub-section 3: Countryside landscape quality, use & management
EN2 Q9
LAND:
a. What are the proportions of agricultural land at Grade 1, 2 or 3a?
b. Where are they?
Starting points for information
County Council
Dept for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). (Ask regional office DEFRA for current schemes)
Q9 DRAFT ANSWER: Most of the undeveloped land in the civil parish is used for horsiculture (for which agricultural land grade is probably irrelevant) although some fields are still used for fattening beef cattle. Land grade was a big issue at major planning inquiries in the early 1980s (such as Monteagle Farm and Hill Farm) but hardly seems very relevant today.
Q9 NOTES: Find out from DEFRA the agricultural land grades of
HILL FARM (Cobbetts Lane)
COTTAGE FARM (Cobbetts Lane)
SILVER FOX FARM (Monteagle Lane)
FOX FARM (Monteagle Lane)
MOOR FARM (the URNFIELD)
MILL FARM (Mill Lane)
CLARKS FARM (Reading Road)
ROSEMARY FARM (now SSSI behind Hearsey Gardens)
EN2 Q10
What areas of the countryside are being managed through national agri-environment schemes?
Current schemes are:
a. Countryside Stewardship Scheme
b. Environmentally Sensitive Areas
c. Nitrate Sensitive Areas
d. Habitat Scheme
e. Moorland Scheme
f. Organic Aid Scheme
g. Countryside Access Scheme
(Worksheet EC7 Q10,17,18; S3 Q7,11 also refer to environmental quality)
Starting points for information
Environment Agency
County Council
Q10 DRAFT ANSWER: All the common land, plus the Castle Bottom Nation Nature Reserve, owned by Hampshire County Council, is being managed as a Special Protection Area for Wild Birds (SPA). Some of the finance has been provided by the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
EN2 Q11
GROUPS:
How do community and voluntary groups participate in the management of the local countryside?
How do they contribute to the town‘s and surrounding countryside‘s conservation?
(Worksheets EC2 Q5; EC3 Q10; S4; S6 also refer to community involvement)
Starting points for information
Internet (local community network)
Library
Local Wildlife Trust
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV)
Q11 DRAFT ANSWER: The Yateley Society has organised a group of Conservation Volunteers for some 20 years. This group usually meets at 10 am at Wyndham's Pool every 4th Sunday of the month. Participants do not have to be Society members, and a number of individuals from a wider area, concerned with conservation, regularly join Society members. The Society also encourages young people undertaking community service schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to come along and bring their Dad's. For an article about the Conservation Group click
Conservation Volunteers.
There are several groups of volunteers working to improve the Blackwater Valley. The nearest group to Yateley is the Moor Green Lakes Group which works through the winter 'maintenance season', meeting the second Sunday of each month, September to March. During winter 2005/6 the group attacked the bramble invasion, and removed invasive scrub from lake edges to allow grazing wildfowl to access surrounding meadows. Some 'stag beetle buckets' were installed and some sections of woodland were coppiced.
The Moor Green Lakes Group have installed a floating pontoon to enable access for volunteers, machinery and wheelbarrows to the three islands on Colebrook Lake. The pontoon made of 'Cubisystem' modular plastic blocks was financed from the Aggregates Sustainability Levy Fund by a grant of £38,000 for site improvements through SEEDA. The BLackwater Valley Conservation Volunteers is a group which meets every Tuesday to carry out work as required anywhere from Farnham to Moor Green Lakes. For further details about the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership please click the Blackwater Valley homepage
EN2 Q12
Is there a horticulture or market gardening industry on the outskirts of the town which supplies the town markets?
If yes, identify proportionally how much they do supply.
(Worksheets EC2 Q2,3; EC5; also refer to land-based industries)
Starting points for information
Business directory
Local knowledge
Q12 DRAFT ANSWER: There is no horticultural or market gardening industry on the outskirts of the town -- basically because there are no "outskirts" left in the sense implied by the question because the land has practically all been developed as housing estates since 1961. Lack of such industry is rather sad since this horticultural or market gardening were precisely the industries prevalent in Yateley before the big expansion of housing estates, reaching back before the middle of the 19th century. For example Clarks Farm, Priors Lane and Globe Farm were managed in this way. Monteagle Farm grew Carnations under glass (now Bovis Homes) until the 1960s and there were extensive glasshouses growing tomatoes in Mill Lane before and during the war. Dickinson's Egg Farm also supplied their own vegetables from a small retail unit on their premises on Firgrove Road until the late 1980s but this land is now Lower Cames. What fields now remain undeveloped are mainly used for horsiculture, although some land is still used for fattening beef cattle.
EN2 Q13
How many local agricultural or horticultural produce businesses are certified organic producers or members of other environmental standards schemes?
(Worksheets EC2 Q2,3; EC5; also refer to land-based industries. Worksheets EC7 Q12; S5 Q9 also refer to food)
Starting points for information
Soil Association (look at organic farmers and growers)
Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF)
Q13 DRAFT ANSWER: This question is not relevant to the Civil Parish of Yateley (see answer to EN2 Q12 above). However there are certified producers in the immediate locality. For example Grays Farm, Heathlands Road, Wokingham is a "Pick-Your-Own" Farm audited to LEAF standards (see EN3 Q5). They advertise in Yateley and are used by Yateley people for a wide range of soft fruit and vegetables in season between June and October. There may be other PYO farms to the south and west used by Yateley people
EN2 Q14
CHANGES:
Are there plans for future major change on the urban edge?
What are they and when are they planned for?
What landscape impacts might they to have?
Look, for example, at community forest land, etc.
Starting points for information
District Council Local Plan
Forestry Commission
Q14 DRAFT ANSWER: There are no plans for substantial changes at the urban edge. As noted in other answers in most areas to the south of Yateley urban development has taken place right up to the boundaries of registered common land which is now a European site protected as a Special Protection Area for Wild Birds (SPA). The one major exception is the Cobbetts Lane area which is former Grade II (?) farmland now used primarily for horseiculture. Realtively recently beef cattle have been fattened on this land. Howvever due to its close proximity to the SPA (less than 400 metres) it is very unlikely that any major changes will occur in this area. The undeveloped urban edge to the north is mainly the floodplain of the River Blackwater. Former gravel workings are now mainly converted to fishing, watersports, a gold club and playing fields. To the east the urban edge of Frogmore & Darby Green Ward is contiguous with, an indistinquishable from the housing estates of Blackwater in Hawley parish. To the west urban development has taken place, right up to and in one case overrunning the parish boundary of Eversley. The area nearest to the Blackwater River is active gravel workings, with defined restoration plans for more recreational activities. The southwestern urban edge is the parish boundary and Yateley's high density housing backs onto farmland formerly owned by a Grade I listed building: Firgrove Manor.
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