©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
North of Cuffley Woods to Epping Green and eastwards to Hammond Hill. Partly bisected by Newgate Street ridge.
©Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA
076678, 2001
Medium-scale strongly undulating parkland, pasture and arable farmland, with notable mansions and linked woodland.
Wall of Old St.Dominics School (HCC Landscape Unit)
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Geology and soils. Slowly permeable seasonally waterlogged clay soils over Tertiary clay (Windsor series).
Topography. Strongly undulating.
Degree of slope. 1 in 15.
Altitude range. 65m to 100m.
Hydrology. An eastward flowing stream in Ponsbourne Park has been dammed to create a lake and is interrupted by the railway in the valley. ('Bourne' means stream and the Pons-stream is part of a spring system.)
Land cover and land use. Wooded parkland, which is generally equine pasture, with some arable to the south. Woodland is a notable feature locally. There is a small golf course within Ponsbourne Park and equestrian activity around Tolmers Park.
Vegetation and wildlife. The exotic species planted in Tolmers Park (Wellingtonia, etc., representative of 'new' landscaping in the 19th century) spill over into the wider landscape, with massed horse chestnut at the bottom of Darnicle Hill. Elsewhere the local species are oak and ash, with hawthorn, field maple and blackthorn as hedgerow species. Hedges are variable in height rather than species, either medium with trees, as tree rows (i.e. overgrown/
unmanaged hedges) or very tall, mixed species hedges without standards. The pastures are mainly acid/neutral wet grassland (some now lost to the golf course within Ponsbourne Park) and are probably of complex origin, possibly semi-natural ancient hornbeam wood pasture. The wetlands along the stream system are ancient and contain many ferns in the understorey.
The historic parkland pattern of this area is very apparent. Ponsbourne Park and Tolmers Park abut each other. Ponsbourne had a deer park in 1577, was a school in the early 1960s (St Dominic's Priory) and now has a golf course. There is a suggestion that both mansions are in institutional use at the time of writing (unconfirmed).
Field pattern. This is a designed landscape of medium-sized regular fields except within the more open parkland.
Transport pattern. There are few roads within this area, only the dramatically swooping road linking Newgate Street and Hammond Street via Darnicle Hill. The railway is set within the valley bottom and serves to separate this area from the next.
Settlements and built form.
* Ponsbourne Park has a Victorian exterior dated 1876, concealing a house built c.1761. It has a large domed winter garden, an early 19th-century Greek Doric dairy and a lodge on Little Berkhampsted road.
* Tolmers Park, which is more visible, has a 19th-century stucco front with a four-column Ionic porch, facing east within its parkland.
Cuffley library Local Studies section
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There is a spectacular view of Tolmers Park from the upper slopes of Darnicle Hill and of Ponsbourne Park from the track north of Newgate Streeet, but elsewhere there are only glimpsed views from outside this area. Within the area views are screened or filtered by topography and vegetation. This is a medium scale, contained landscape, but the variable topography and lack of viewpoints makes it difficult to assess. It is generally tranquil, with some road traffic noise associated with the urban developments.
Rarity and distinctiveness. This is in some ways a curious rather than a distinctive area, although the parkland is significant. It exhibits disturbed parkland, with utilities on Darnicle Hill juxtaposed with equestrian and recreational activities within the parkland.
There is significant visual impact from the urban edges of Cuffley and Goffs Oak/Hammond Street, but little within the area, due to the absence of built development. Within the parklands there has been a change of land use from pasture to golf course.
Noted recreational land uses are the golf course at Ponsbourne and horse riding at Tolmers.
Footpaths are localised rather than extensive.
Significant value is attached to Ponsbourne and Tolmers Park and their historic and cultural associations (C).
| CONDITION | |
|---|---|
| Land cover change: | localised |
| Age structure of tree cover: | mixed |
| Extent of semi-natural habitat survival: | fragmented |
| Management of semi-natural habitat: | not obvious |
| Survival of cultural pattern: | interrupted |
| Impact of built development: | moderate |
| Impact of land-use change: | moderate |
| ROBUSTNESS | |
| Impact of landform: | apparent |
| Impact of land cover: | prominent |
| Impact of historic pattern: | interrupted |
| Visibility from outside: | locally visible |
| Sense of enclosure: | contained |
| Visual unity: | incoherent |
| Distinctiveness/rarity: | unusual |
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Ponsbourne Park (HCC Landscape Unit)
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