©Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
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©Crown
Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
Valley formation stretching northwards from the northern edge of Sacombe and Woodhall Parks, eastwards to include Great Munden and westwards around the northern edge of Benington.
©Crown
Copyright. All rights reserved. Hertfordshire County Council, LA 076678, 2001
This area is a group of small, remote pastoral and arable valleys carrying tributaries to the river Beane, dominated by important relic woodlands. The Old Bourne is a small watercourse with wetland flora but no trees, lying within a wide, shallow valley, while the Dane End Tributary, often no more than a ditch, has its course marked by non-wetland trees within a long, narrow valley with moderately steep sides and a gentle gradient. It is a long-settled area, with grouped hamlets.
Bluebells in Comb's Wood near Whempstead (J. Crew)
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Geology and soils. Deep fine loam and clay soils with slowly permeable subsoils over chalky till. The chalk is very near the surface in some places and the local vegetation reflects this.
Topography.
Degree of slope. 1 in 20 in the Old Bourne valley; 1 in 15 in the Dane End Tributary valley; 1 in 30 at the southern end, above Sacombe village. The Old Bourne tributary falls by 1 in 200 between its upper reaches near Moor Green and Sacombe.
Altitude range. 60 m to 105m.
Hydrology. The headwaters of the river Beane have been surveyed recently by the Environment Agency. They are of poor quality, heavily influenced by land use, groundwater levels and pollution sources, but are still important as chalk streams, which are considered to be internationally important because of their ecological communities. The dry valleys are bournes, with winter flows from subterranean sources.
Land cover and land use. Most of this area is in arable cultivation, with pockets of pasture around settlements and farms and sheep pasture notable locally. In many places arable cultivation now extends right to the water's edge, which reduces the impact of the watercourses within the landscape. Pasture is, unusually, more frequent on the plateau than in the valleys. There is a golf course south east of Dane End on former arable farmland.
Vegetation and wildlife. This is an area of small, discrete woodlands, composed of fragmented ancient woodland, mainly hornbeam coppice, and mixed plantations. Hazel is the most common species, with oak, ash, hornbeam and some lime. Willow can be found along the ditches. Hedges are generally infrequent, having been lost to arable intensification. Where present they are usually hawthorn, sometimes with hazel and dogwood. Hedgerow oaks are infrequent. Many of the former commons are now under arable cultivation, although their place names are still marked on the OS map. There is some grassland around Dane End, with isolated patches of chalk grassland and a few small chalk pits.
This is an area that has been settled since at least the early Bronze Age but has lost many small settlements. Parts of the parish boundary are at least 1400 years old and probably formed the boundary between two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Records suggest that there was a deer park at Smart's Hill until the 18th century, and there is a very prominent bank indicative of this. The earliest records of deer parks in this area are 1283 (Great Munden) and 1299 (Little Munden). In the 19th century the rose gardens at Dane End Park were renowned and visited.
Field pattern. The large common arable fields, which are characteristic of NE Herts, probably originated in the late Saxon period and most survived well into the 19th century, despite piecemeal enclosure. The sloping ground on the valley sides drains more freely and is therefore easier to plough than the heavy clay on the neighbouring plateaux. The former meadows along the watercourses have been ploughed up since the mid 19th century.
Transport pattern. In their upper reaches the road system follows the watercourses along the valley slope, while between Dane End and Sacombe the road and the watercourse criss-cross, with the stream an open ditch which used to flood regularly. The A602 forms part of the southern boundary of this area, but is not typical of its character.
Settlements and built form. Little Munden (Dane End) consists of five hamlets: Dane End, Green End, Haultwick, White Hill and Potters Green, set in rolling farmland, with narrow lanes, and is known locally as 'Little Devon'. Dane End is set in the valley (dene=end of valley), its satellite hamlets on the hills above.
Bluebells in Comb's Wood near Whempstead (J. Crew)
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This is a very coherent and unified landscape, based on its landform of small valleys, remote and tranquil. There are extensive views within and beyond the area, especially to the east and west, with only small blocks of woodland to filter views and few hedges. It is thus also an open landscape, of medium scale.
Rarity and distinctiveness. This is not an unusual landscape but should be valued for its historic integrity and blend of form and function.
The built development in this area is generally in keeping, although Dane End is out of scale with its neighbouring settlements.
Good track along The Old Bourne, elsewhere a bit sporadic.
Insufficient data (estimated D).
Landscape Conservation Area
| CONDITION | |
|---|---|
| Land cover change: | localised |
| Age structure of tree cover: | mature |
| Extent of semi-natural habitat survival: | fragmented |
| Management of semi-natural habitat: | not obvious |
| Survival of cultural pattern: | interrupted |
| Impact of built development: | high |
| Impact of land-use change: | low |
| ROBUSTNESS | |
| Impact of landform: | prominent |
| Impact of land cover: | apparent |
| Impact of historic pattern: | interrupted |
| Visibility from outside: | locally visible |
| Sense of enclosure: | open |
| Visual unity: | unified |
| Distinctiveness/rarity: | unusual |
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View north-east up Old Bourne Valley (P. Shears)
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