Tailer's Family - journeying!
Project: Gloucestershire - Tewkesbury, with Worcestershire - Upton-upon-Severn.
No. 6 - 7: Travelling home to Essex!
Crossing the Upper Thames Vale and Berkshire and Marlborough Downs.
Key Characteristics
● Broad belt of open, gently undulating lowland farmland on Upper Jurassic clays containing a variety of contrasting landscapes. Includes the enclosed pastures of the claylands and the wet valley bottoms and the more settled open arable lands of the gravel.
● The valley bottoms, with open floodplain landscapes displaying gravel workings and flooded pits, a regular and well-ordered field pattern, willow pollards and reedbeds along the water courses.
● The Vales in Oxfordshire are dominated by 18th century enclosure landscapes of small woods and hawthorn/blackthorn hedges. Former and current gravel workings along the Thames floodplain also include open water features. The distinctive character of Otmoor with its patchwork pattern of small fields defined by healthy hedgerows of elm add interest and variety to this area.
● In Buckinghamshire, the Vale is a predominantly pastoral landscape including regular fields within a well-defined network of trimmed hedgerows often with oak/ash hedgerow trees and some small blocks of woodland.
● Brick-built buildings within the Vales reflect the widespread use of the local clay as a building material. Willow pollards along the Thames Valley and other river systems are distinctive features in the area.
Landscape Character
- the Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Vales form part of a larger belt of clay lowland that links the Cambridgeshire Claylands to the Avon Vales. This area consists of a broad loosely-defined clay belt of open, gently undulating lowland farmland and major river valley
floodplains. The clay Vales are bounded by the limestone scenery of the Cotswolds to the north and the narrow limestone outcrop of the Midvale Ridge to the south.
Much of the Vales are of a mixed farmland character with a regular and well-ordered field pattern defined by thick hedgerows. More open floodplain landscapes are also a feature of the area, especially west of Oxford and into Wiltshire, where gravel workings and flooded pits are features in the landscape. Water courses contribute greatly to local landscape diversity with their numerous mature willow stands and pollards, and waterside reed beds.
The Oxfordshire and Wiltshire parts of the Vales are characterised by 18th century enclosure landscapes of small woods and hawthorn /blackthorn hedges. Hedgerow elms were a significant feature although these have inevitably disappeared but there are still many hedges where this species survives as a major shrub component. Former and current gravel workings along the Upper Thames floodplain, many of which are now open water used for watersports and recreation, such as the Cotswold Water Park, are particularly characteristic of this area. Rivers and watercourses, particularly where tree-lined, are also important landscape features including the springlines which emerge from the base of the chalk escarpment. Further towards Buckinghamshire, the distinctive character of Otmoor adds interest and variety to the Vales. Noticeably devoid of settlement, Otmoor is a low patchwork pattern of small fields defined by healthy hedgerows of elm. Several distinctive villages fringe the area and are connected by a small road that skirts Otmoor itself.
www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/jca108uppert…
Larger size:-
farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/4073052877_ddd4c8935c_b.jpg
Taken on:-
August 29, 2007 at 17:10 BST
Project: Gloucestershire - Tewkesbury, with Worcestershire - Upton-upon-Severn.
No. 6 - 7: Travelling home to Essex!
Crossing the Upper Thames Vale and Berkshire and Marlborough Downs.
Key Characteristics
● Broad belt of open, gently undulating lowland farmland on Upper Jurassic clays containing a variety of contrasting landscapes. Includes the enclosed pastures of the claylands and the wet valley bottoms and the more settled open arable lands of the gravel.
● The valley bottoms, with open floodplain landscapes displaying gravel workings and flooded pits, a regular and well-ordered field pattern, willow pollards and reedbeds along the water courses.
● The Vales in Oxfordshire are dominated by 18th century enclosure landscapes of small woods and hawthorn/blackthorn hedges. Former and current gravel workings along the Thames floodplain also include open water features. The distinctive character of Otmoor with its patchwork pattern of small fields defined by healthy hedgerows of elm add interest and variety to this area.
● In Buckinghamshire, the Vale is a predominantly pastoral landscape including regular fields within a well-defined network of trimmed hedgerows often with oak/ash hedgerow trees and some small blocks of woodland.
● Brick-built buildings within the Vales reflect the widespread use of the local clay as a building material. Willow pollards along the Thames Valley and other river systems are distinctive features in the area.
Landscape Character
- the Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Vales form part of a larger belt of clay lowland that links the Cambridgeshire Claylands to the Avon Vales. This area consists of a broad loosely-defined clay belt of open, gently undulating lowland farmland and major river valley
floodplains. The clay Vales are bounded by the limestone scenery of the Cotswolds to the north and the narrow limestone outcrop of the Midvale Ridge to the south.
Much of the Vales are of a mixed farmland character with a regular and well-ordered field pattern defined by thick hedgerows. More open floodplain landscapes are also a feature of the area, especially west of Oxford and into Wiltshire, where gravel workings and flooded pits are features in the landscape. Water courses contribute greatly to local landscape diversity with their numerous mature willow stands and pollards, and waterside reed beds.
The Oxfordshire and Wiltshire parts of the Vales are characterised by 18th century enclosure landscapes of small woods and hawthorn /blackthorn hedges. Hedgerow elms were a significant feature although these have inevitably disappeared but there are still many hedges where this species survives as a major shrub component. Former and current gravel workings along the Upper Thames floodplain, many of which are now open water used for watersports and recreation, such as the Cotswold Water Park, are particularly characteristic of this area. Rivers and watercourses, particularly where tree-lined, are also important landscape features including the springlines which emerge from the base of the chalk escarpment. Further towards Buckinghamshire, the distinctive character of Otmoor adds interest and variety to the Vales. Noticeably devoid of settlement, Otmoor is a low patchwork pattern of small fields defined by healthy hedgerows of elm. Several distinctive villages fringe the area and are connected by a small road that skirts Otmoor itself.
www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/jca108uppert…
Larger size:-
farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/4073052877_ddd4c8935c_b.jpg
Taken on:-
August 29, 2007 at 17:10 BST