©Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
| Landscape Character Assessment | HertsDirect | Environment | |||
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©Crown
Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
From Lamsden Common, north of Watton-at-Stone, this area extends northwards along the valley to Walkern and the upper reaches of some of the Beane tributaries. It is defined to the west by the urban edge of Stevenage and to the east by the narrow Benington settled ridge.
©Crown
Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
Open arable farmland with small grouped woodlands linked by hedges. Medium to large-scale field pattern over strongly undulating slopes, with a remote character despite proximity to Stevenage.
View south west over undulating open arable fields (P. Shears)
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Geology and soils. Deep fine loamy over clayey and clay soils with slowly permeable subsoils, over plateau drift (Hornbeam 2 series), with well-drained calcareous loams over chalky drift on the valley slopes (Swaffham Prior series) and slowly permeable calcareous clay soils over chalky till (Hanslope series) on the plateau to the west. Chalk is visible at the surface on both sides of the river.
Topography. Strongly undulating valley slopes.
Degree of slope. 1 in 10 on the steepest slopes to 1 in 40 further north.
Altitude range. 60 m to 100m.
Hydrology. A few streams flow into the river, especially south of Walkern, and the river has a significant impact on local topography, having carved out a well-marked U-shaped valley. The main source of the Beane is the springs to the north of the village. To the east a narrow plateau forms an interfluve between the Beane valley and The Old Bourne tributary. The Beane has a predominantly natural chalk stream character, with shallow banks and gravel beds set within an intensively agricultural landscape, but now suffers from reduced flows due to water abstraction at Whitehall.
Land cover and land use. This area consists mainly of intensively cultivated open arable farmland, with a little woodland in the west. The central area and the river valley itself are unsettled, but there is settlement at the northern and western extremities of the area.
Vegetation and wildlife. Species in the woodlands are ash and oak, with blackthorn and poplar. Most of the woodland in this area is ancient woodland and there are no elms. Field boundaries are few or missing, although there are examples of young hawthorn hedges and one Scots pine hedge. Hedgerow trees are not common, and consist of oak, of various ages, or young pear locally. Orchids can be found in the verges and chalk-tolerant species such as goatsbeard, scabious and bracken are frequent.
This is fundamentally an unsettled area, dominated by arable production. Formerly there was chalk grassland on Oxshot Hill and on banks below Benington High Wood; now only vestiges remain. The traces of Walkern castle can be found at Bassus Green, in the form of an oval enclosure with bank and ditch and traces of a mound. The earliest record of a deer park at Walkern Park (farm) is 1360; it is still in existence, albeit in modified form.
Field pattern. Variable; usually large and regular or irregular (which is difficult to discern in the field at this scale) but occasionally appearing to be of a smaller scale around the farms. The large common arable fields of the area probably originated in the late Saxon period and most survived well into the 19th century, in spite of piecemeal enclosure over the centuries. The current regularity is due to parliamentary enclosure in the 19th century.
Transport pattern. Winding, narrow-verged lanes link to the wooded plateau settlements of the north east, which focus on Dane End. Whemstead (sic) Road marks the boundary between the valley slope and the plateau, while Walkern Road runs north/south below the plateau edge on the eastern valley slope. To the west a network of narrow lanes links Aston village and Aston End to the encroaching housing development on the edge of Stevenage.
Settlements and built form. The central area and the river valley itself are unsettled, but there is settlement at the northern end and Aston village in the west, very close to the eastern edge of Stevenage. Until the mid-20th century Stevenage was a small town on the Great North Road and appears to have had very little influence on the landscape of this area
Rowe, A. The Protected Valley, Hamels Publishing (1999).
Munby, L., The Hertfordshire Landscape, Hodder and Stoughton (1977).
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From the outside this area is visible from the west, less so from the plateau to the east, being concealed by topography. The overwhelming impressions here are of remoteness, tranquillity and continuity, a sense that nothing has changed much over the centuries. Within the area there are quite extensive views as there is little woodland and the topography is quite simple.
Rarity and distinctiveness. Although this area is similar to the boulder clay plateaux of the north-east of the county, this is its first expression in the centre of the county. It also demonstrates well the south west/north east shift in vegetation patterns across the county, with boulder clay and alluvial gravels on opposite sides of the river, both mixed with chalk.
This area is quite widely visible due to its sloping landform and elevated position. It offers extensive views across the Beane valley, which to the east are blocked by the plateau landform. It is a simple, unified landscape of arable fields, rendered more interesting by the often sculptural shape of the landform.
Readily accessible from both Stevenage and Hertford by modern fast roads, but unlikely to offer recreational opportunities due to the dominance of arable production. A Chain Walk links the extensive footpath network to Watton in the south, and a footpath runs up the valley from Frogmore Hill to Walkern. There are several footpaths from the development on the eastern edge of Stevenage.
The Beane Valley has been promoted by HCC as a special project. There was insufficient data from the community exercise to establish a perceived level of distinctiveness; this area has been estimated as (D).
'A journey...passing over the Beane at Walkern, is like moving on a switchback, as one crosses the plateaux between the Rib, the Old Bourne, the Beane, and their tributary streams. The roads zigzag crazily but give constant glimpses of enchanting scenery.' Lionel Munby, The Hertfordshire Landscape, Hodder and Stoughton (1977), p. 27.
Landscape Conservation Area.
SSSI: Benington High Wood.
Heritage Roadside Verge: Walkern Road
| CONDITION | |
|---|---|
| Land cover change: | localised |
| Age structure of tree cover: | mixed |
| Extent of semi-natural habitat survival: | fragmented |
| Management of semi-natural habitat: | good |
| Survival of cultural pattern: | interrupted |
| Impact of built development: | low |
| Impact of land-use change: | low |
| ROBUSTNESS | |
| Impact of landform: | prominent |
| Impact of land cover: | apparent |
| Impact of historic pattern: | continuous |
| Visibility from outside: | widely visible |
| Sense of enclosure: | open |
| Visual unity: | coherent |
| Distinctiveness/rarity: | unusual |
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