©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
Northaw Common Parkland lies to the east of Potters Bar. The area borders the M25 and the southern boundary of Hertfordshire, less than 13 miles (20km) from the heart of London, and includes several country houses and estates. The village of Northaw lies on a ridge in the middle of the area and The Ridgeway at Cuffley defines the northern boundary.
©Crown
Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
A strong historical and cultural pattern is evident in the landscape and parkland features are common throughout. Fenced estate boundaries, large blocks of woodland and high hedgerows create a strong sense of enclosure. The settlement is generally confined to defensive sites on the higher ground. The parklands vary in enclosure size and shape but the landscape elements are consistent throughout. Access throughout the area is limited. Horse pasture with fenced boundaries is widespread.
Leggatts Park view west from Well Road (E. Staveley)
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Geology and soils. The area is a part of the gently undulating South Hertfordshire plateau, a sub-section of the North Thames basin. The large 'bowls' of land defined by narrow ridgelines, such as at Nyn Manor Farm north of Northaw and the ridge and dips further south at Barvin Hill, and narrow uplands of calcareous clay-with-flints are indicative of glacial drift. The soils are generally base-poor overlain with fine loamy soils and some calcareous clays (Windsor series).
Topography. Slopes are a prominent feature of this area. Ridgelines cross the area in an east-west direction, forming a series of parallel dips or valley bowls that create contained spaces.
Degree of slope. 1 in 10 to 1 in 30.
Altitude range. 65m to 124m.
Hydrology. Areas of wet ground are associated with the underlying geology. A number of small ponds are linked to the parklands. Springs issuing water on the higher ground at Well Wood and Northaw House flow into the field ditches and Northaw Brook in the east. The presence of a pumping station and Wells Cottages near Wells Farm is evidence of the presence of underground water supplies.
Land cover and land use. Parkland is the dominant land cover. Large areas of forestry engulf the formal landscape features of Nyn Park but the oak avenues and oak and pine circles can still be seen in the plantations. Land use is primarily horse pasture, associated with the proximity to settlement and the poor quality of the land for arable production. Fences are prominent throughout the area.
Vegetation and wildlife. Extensive woodland includes a combination of woodland types, such as hornbeam coppice, birch woodland and oak/hornbeam woodland in Well Wood and Leggatts Wood. Vast areas of hard and softwood plantations have been planted across Nyn Park. Elm is a common hedgerow species, with ash, hawthorn, bramble and dog rose locally significant. Hedgerow oaks are less significant in the area than the tree avenues and lines that mark the approaches and boundaries of the estates, such as the sequoia and cedar avenue to Leggatts Park and oak avenues at Nyn Park. Field trees are also common in the area. Well Wood (with Northaw Great Wood to the north) is designated SSSI for its oak/hornbeam community, wood pasture and heathland.
The influence of London on the history and culture of the area is significant. Large country houses have been located in the area for centuries and the landscape pattern has evolved accordingly. Boundaries have been marked by estate architecture (lodges, walls and fences), distinctive vegetation types (avenues and hedge banks) and noticeable changes in landcover pattern. The strong oval shape of the boundary at Nyn Park, clearly evident on aerial photographs, demonstrates the historic use of the park for deer, for which the earliest record is 1766. Northaw Common was wood pasture and heath until the early 19th century, when it was enclosed and the land use changed to woodland and farmland.
Field pattern. Fields are generally medium sized and along the southern boundary of the area the boundaries form a distinct linear pattern, associated with the arable land. The field pattern becomes more organic further north and fields are smaller, associated with the historic parkland boundaries and settlement edges. These smaller, often linear fields are used for horse grazing and their boundaries are a mixture of ancient relic hedgerows and post-and-wire fences.
Transport pattern. Winding lanes follow the ridgelines with a mixture of woodland and hedgerow margins.
Settlements and built form. Settlement is predominantly confined to the narrow ridgelines, such as the village of Northaw and 'The Ridgeway' at Cuffley, which forms a linear strip of large individual houses set well back from the road, quite typical of 20th-century development in the county. Large houses and manors are generally sited on elevated ground with a north/south aspect. Building materials vary and the use of red brick is noticeable. The manors of Northaw House and Northaw Park are of rendered Georgian style.
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Visibility in the area is limited or framed by topography, vegetation and access restrictions. Enclosed pockets of parkland are consistent throughout the area and public long distance views are rare.
Rarity and distinctiveness. This area is quite typical of the south-western part of the county, in which the influence of settlement out of London is very evident.
The site and sound of the M25 and the settlement of Potters Bar present a major impact on the south of the area. New housing developments, such as Barvin Park, have a more localised impact on its setting. The influence and taste of the local abundance of wealthy landowners continues to have a significant impact on the evolution of this landscape character.
Informal recreation is limited and some of the public footpaths are impassable in places. Much of the land is used exclusively for the enjoyment of the private landowners and public use of the land is discouraged for security reasons. In an area where car use is high, parking to enable access to some of the more remote public footpaths is almost non-existent, limiting the range of path users to the immediate vicinity of their home. A number of brushwood fences can be seen in the dip to the north from Northaw Road West indicating the use of a large area of land for equestrian activities.
The Swedish traveller Peter Kalm wrote the following in 1748: 'between Cheshunt and Bell Bar a great plain, yet not even, but having ridges and hollows...This plain extended nearly four English miles across. An abundance of common ling grew upon it, between which were found a great quantity of bracken and mosses, but only some isolated blades of grass. Sheep were pasturing there. In some places grew hornbeam enough, six feet high and totally thick. The tops were cut off for fuel...This was common land.' Kalms' Account of his visit to England on his way to America in 1748, Macmillan (1892) in So that was Hertfordshire by M. Tompkins, (1998).
'The National Trust estate at Morven makes a pleasant entry into the countryside' (Potters Bar Society, September 2000)).
This area appears to be valued for some distinctive aspects (C).
| CONDITION | |
|---|---|
| Land cover change: | insignificant |
| Age structure of tree cover: | mixed |
| Extent of semi-natural habitat survival: | widespread |
| Management of semi-natural habitat: | good |
| Survival of cultural pattern: | intact |
| Impact of built development: | high |
| Impact of land-use change: | high |
| ROBUSTNESS | |
| Impact of landform: | apparent |
| Impact of land cover: | prominent |
| Impact of historic pattern: | continuous |
| Visibility from outside: | locally visible |
| Sense of enclosure: | contained |
| Visual unity: | coherent |
| Distinctiveness/rarity: | unusual |
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Leggatts Park with sequoia and cedar avenue on horizon (E. Staveley)
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