Appendix C: Landscape Characteristics of the Isle of Wight AONB

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Chalk Downs

An open landscape with long vistas, distinct skylines, large fields, sparse hedge or field boundaries, few mature hedgerow trees and a sense of space and exposure. This landscape character type is the most dominant within the Isle of Wight AONB. It is also the landscape type best known by the public because of the dramatic white cliffs at either end of the east–west central ridge, including the Needles Chalk stacks. There is another large area of chalk on the southern downs around Ventnor. Landmarks and seamarks such as St Catherine’s Oratory and the Tennyson Memorial occur on high vistas.

The geology of this area was laid down on a seabed during the Late Cretaceous period from 98 to 65 million years ago. It was subsequently folded and eroded to give the landform, angular flint deposits and soil base that we see today.

Chalk grassland has a very rich ecology and holds a number of important habitats for rare plants and animals. The habitats within this landscape character type continue to be under threat from intensive farming techniques, inappropriate grazing, recreation pressures and scrub invasion. Management of this important habitat is heavily dependant upon a correct grazing regime, which is in itself linked to the economic conditions of farming for graziers.

Ancient semi-natural woodlands on northern slopes, with distinctive woodland wildlife, are an important feature of the area.

A number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) fallwithin this landscape character area, representing the important nature conservation value of chalk downs. Small pockets of chalk heath occur on flint gravel deposits.

Rich in archaeology, with many scheduled and non-scheduled sites and monuments, this landscape has a strong time depth. Neolithic farmers started woodland clearance. Situated on cleared chalk downland, the Afton Down Longbarrow and Tennyson Down Mortuary Enclosure are burial monuments from this time. More extensive woodland clearance on the chalk took place in the succeeding Bronze Age. Many Bronze Age round barrows are situated on the central chalk ridge and the southern chalk downs. Roman villas are situated in close proximity to the central chalk ridge and major Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been recorded from this area.

Manors and farms originating in medieval times cluster around the edge of the downs. Although traditionally grazed, with areas of common land, archaeological remains such as lynchets and ridge and furrow indicate that some chalk grassland has been ploughed in prehistory, Roman times or the Middle Ages. In the 20th century old chalk grassland was ploughed up for use as arable or reseeded as improved pasture.

Historic removal of chalk for liming of heavy clay soils and for building materials has resulted in a number of disused quarries. These are now regenerating naturally and have become a rich nature conservation resource. Place names often refer back to this former use such as Lime Kiln Shute, at Mersley.

Settlement is mainly linear in nature. It is found at the base of the chalk downs in valleys and combes where shelter and water is available from the chalk aquifer through natural springs. Place names often reflect these landscape elements (Shalcombe). Access via footpaths, bridleways and track ways along the ridge have left a strong pattern on the landscape. The modern Tennyson Trail follows part of the route of a trackway, of possible prehistoric origin, which ran along the central ridge from Freshwater Bay to Brading. Evolving throughout history these routes are echoes of the movement of animals, a route to high ground for ceremonial purposes or as a vantage point, and as passage on horse back, horse drawn cart or carriage across the chalk ridge when lower routes were wet and impassable. Traditional build uses local hard chalk, flint and a common scale and design. Slate or thatch roofs (some tile), small windows and large walls and roofs of a simple style are typical.

High areas have been used throughout history as look out points for defence and the safety of seafarers. St Catherine’s Oratory, The Needles Battery and other smaller installations, and beacon sites were used as an early warning against invaders. Few Iron Age hillforts exist, one on Chillerton Down, together with a recently discovered defended site just north of Bembridge Down. The earliest defences at Carisbrooke Castle date from the Anglo-Saxon period, if not earlier, and the medieval castle, with its chalk cut moats, dominates the surrounding landscape. On the southern downs, St Catherine’s Oratory provided a rather ineffectual lighthouse for medieval mariners and a chain of medieval beacons on the chalk warned of possible invaders. Victorian and later defensive sites on the chalk include the Old and New Needles Batteries at the western end of the Island and Bembridge Fort at the eastern end. History was made at the New Needles site when it was used for testing the Black Knight rocket in the 1950s and 1960s. On the southern downs, Ventnor Radar Station played a vital defensive role in the Second World War.

Key Characteristics

  • Open and exposed with sparse hedgerows and no mature hedgerow trees.
  • Limited windswept and scrubby vegetation on higher downs.
  • Traditional grazing with extensive arable cultivation.
  • Broadleaved woodlands predominantly beech and ash on the lower downs.
  • Dominant high chalk cliffs.

Management Aim

To retain the generally open nature and long views to and from the downs and to conserve and enhance their ecological and historic importance.

Traditional Enclosed Pasture

This landscape character type occurs most frequently on heavier soil or in wet areas where arable cultivation has remained unviable. Most of this landscape character type is found north of the central and southern chalk downs because of the geology of the Island. To the north of the central chalk ridge is a landscape of lush green pastures with large hedges, small copses and woodlands that may be characterised as ‘ancient’ countryside. This landscape includes areas such as the pasturelands around the Newtown estuary, Farringford, Calbourne, Combley, Quarr, Nunwell and south east of Osborne. Field shapes tend to be irregular, reflecting subtle changes in local topography, with some more regular hedgerows reflecting later enclosure. There are many mature oak trees within pasture fields and as hedge trees, giving a sense of permanence to this landscape. Country lanes, footpaths and bridleways are winding in nature and enclosed by hedges. Some arable cultivation takes place where modern farming equipment has made this possible. Some traditional pasture has been made more intensive to produce silage.

The chalk valley pastures of the Bowcombe Valley have a different character. Grazed by sheep, they have a more open aspect and views to the surrounding chalk downs.

Other areas of this landscape character type are clustered around the foot of the southern chalk downs on the Lower Greensand or on the Upper Greensand slopes that form a part of this downland. Areas of note include Sainham, Appuldurcombe, Wydcombe and Gotten.

Copses and woodland in this landscape character type are semi-natural and some may benefit from active coppicing and management to retain their integrity.

Villages south west of the central chalk ridge are either of an open linear pattern or comprise small clusters of historic settlement, usually associated with farms. To the north of the central chalk ridge the settlement pattern is more dispersed. The main traditional building material in the northern part of this area is Bembridge Limestone, with the softer Greensand employed in the southern part.

The historic landscape to the north of the central chalk ridge includes areas such as the failed medieval borough of Newtown and the landscape parks of Westover and Nunwell. On the Greensand is situated the remains of the Island’s largest Georgian landscape park at Appuldurcombe. The landscape parks of Westover, Nunwell and Appuldurcombe are all on the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Reliant on small farms, livestock rearing and woodland management, this landscape is most at threat from changes to the agricultural sector that result from economic pressures.

Key Characteristics

  • Land mainly used for pasture.
  • Well preserved and dense hedgerows with mature hedgerow oak trees in the northern part of the area
  • Irregular small fields.
  • Narrow enclosed winding lanes.
  • Well wooded, with numerous copses.
  • Small scattered farmsteads.
  • Settlement patterns mostly linear in nature or small clusters.

Management Aim

  • To ensure the retention of a viable, well farmed landscape as a buffer for urban areas and woodlands, characterised by a mosaic of permanent pasture, well managed hedgerows and copses.

Intensive Agricultural Land

This landscape character type is found in a number of areas within the AONB. The first and most significant is the large, flat lower Greensand arable plain stretching from the south west of Rookley to the Tennyson Heritage Coast between Barnes High and Walpan Chine. A second sizeable area lies to the south of Arreton Down and stretches eastwards to Alverstone. Both of these areas are sub categorised as Intensive Arable Land. A third area is to the north of the chalk downs at Chessell and running west to Afton along with two areas both sides of the Western Yar Estuary. This area is sub categorised as Central Agricultural Belt. Finally, two small areas occur at Southford near Stenbury Manor, and in the Whitcombe Valley south of Newport.

The land in the Central Agricultural Belt involves farming on heavier soils, with greater prevalence of dairy farming and winter cereal crop production. Farming units tend to be large and associated with evergreen shelter belts. Hedgerows are scarce and, where present, often degraded.

The land in the Intensive Arable Lands exists on the Lower Greensand hills and Greensand plains, the most productive arable land on the Island. This part of the AONB has seen dramatic change due to Dutch Elm Disease. This has resulted in the loss of a former key feature of this landscape and the intensification of agriculture practices since the middle of the last century. The outcome is an open and sparsely populated landscape, with broad sweeping views, where the coastal climate has a strong influence. This landscape changes with the seasons; the gold and brown of autumn and winter give way to the greens of spring, and the greens, yellows and blues of summer. In this part of the AONB the dynamics of the landscape are most apparent, with the use of farm machinery to turn the soil, irrigation of crops with large water canon, the use of polythene for early potato and maize production and the movement of ears of cereal crops emulating the waves along the Heritage Coast.

Although a long tradition of arable agriculture has removed whatever archaeological earthworks may have formerly existed in this landscape, the light and easily worked soils of the Lower Greensand were attractive to farmers from prehistoric times onwards.

Key Characteristics

  • Large, open fields.
  • Large-scale hedge removal and degraded remaining hedges.
  • No hedgerow trees.
  • Land use is predominantly rural.
  • Large farms and farm buildings.
  • Trees restricted to shelter belts.

Management Aim

  • To recognise and retain the open nature of this well farmed zone, but to increase its visual and ecological interest by encouraging hedgerow and watercourse management.

Southern Coastal Farmland

This landscape character type largely occurs in one area between Shippards Chine and Barnes High and inland to the villages of Brighstone and Shorwell, with a further small area at Yaverland on the east coast. It has an open and exposed feel, with a gently undulating landform.

The influence of the sea can be seen by the few mature trees, which have been bent over by the salt laden winds, and the dramatic cliff falls along the seaward edge of fields. Travelling westwards along the Military Road, there is a gradual change from arable to pastoral land use. Most fields have a regular shape, with low hedges and few trees. The existence of Chines along the coastline adds drama to an otherwise largely gentle landscape.

The continuing coastal erosion process often exposes fossil remains in the soft geology of the cliffs. Archaeological finds are also frequently uncovered by coastal erosion in this area and along the whole of the AONB coastline. The Chines and eroding cliffs provide important habitats for rare species such as the Glanville fritillary butterfly. Willow scrub occurs in areas of wet pasture and adjacent to drainage channels such as at Sud Moor.

Ancient tracks and paths have created a dense network of public rights of way running from settlements to the coast and Chines. Settlement tends to exist in the form of small hamlets associated with formal communal grazing areas now known as greens (Marsh Green and Brook Green).

Key Characteristics

  • Large regular gently undulating fields.
  • Low hedgerows with few hedgerow trees.
  • A transition from arable in the east to pastoral in the west.
  • Valleys, old drainage channels and Chines cross the arable landscape and are associated with willow scrub and unimproved pasture.
  • Eroding coastline of key geological and archaeological interest.

Management Aim

  • Seek to diversify habitats while maintaining the dominant mixed agricultural use. To allow natural coastal processes to occur unhindered.

Sandstone Hills and Gravel Ridges

This landscape character type appears primarily in small land parcels south of the central chalk ridge. The largest area is to the west of Arreton at St Georges Down, with further small ridges in the area of Knighton, Southdown at Pyle near Chale, south of Chillerton and in a long band west of Shorwell to Brook.

The high Greensand hills (Sandstone Hills), in general support pasture except on steeper slopes. These slopes are often planted with mixed forestry and occur immediately to the south of the central chalk ridge.

From prehistoric times until the twentieth century there was some heathland in this area, as at Mottistone Common. The Neolithic ‘Longstone’, a burial mound with a stone marking the former entrance, is situated here. Conifers were planted on Mottistone Common before the Second World War. However, much of the forestry plantation has now been cleared and heathland is being re-established.

Gravel ridges and terraces are often wooded or support gorse and bracken communities. Occurring as high ground in the south of the Island, they are in stark contrast to adjacent flat and fertile agricultural land.

Sunken lanes or shutes are a feature of this landscape, often on the slopes facing on to the chalk downs. These historic track ways support ancient woodland flora and give an intimate and secretive ambience.

Settlement, where present, tends to nestle in the steep sided valleys that offer shelter and access to the natural springs that filter through from the chalk aquifer.

The geological resource of this landscape character type has led to pressure for quarrying for sand and gravel extraction. This needs to be managed carefully as it can have a major impact on the visual quality of the landscape.

Key Characteristics

  • Some traditional pasture, steep slopes planted to mixed forestry.
  • Lower gravel terraces support gorse and bracken.
  • Sunken lanes support ancient woodland flora.
  • Traditional sheltered settlement in the valleys.

Management Aims

  • To encourage sympathetic management to ensure that the very visible, often steeply sloped areas, rich in flora are retained.
  • Where practical, restore former heathland and encourage management of areas that are neglected at present.
  • To consider carefully the visual impact of any proposals to extend quarrying activity.
  • To retain the character of the rural road and rights of way network.

Northern Woodland

Occurring on the heavier soils in the north of the Island where agricultural use has been unviable, these large areas of plantation and mixed woodland are a dominant feature in the landscape. Bouldnor, Combley and Firestone Copse are managed by Forest Enterprise, with smaller areas of copse and other ancient woodland in private ownership.

In medieval times much of the Island’s woodland was concentrated to the north of the central chalk ridge. Most of the Island’s non-plantation woodland is still in this area. Combley Great Wood was owned and managed by Quarr Abbey in medieval times and is partly surrounded by a historic enclosure bank.

Some woodland has public access provision and is an important amenity for leisure pursuits for the local community. Active woodland management, including clearance and coppicing, is required to secure the integrity of this landscape character area.

Key Characteristics

  • Large woodland blocks of conifers and broadleaved species form a dominant feature in the landscape.
  • Small enclosed fields.

Management Aims

  • To retain, conserve and where possible extend woodlands and maintain the broadleaved woodland characteristics of much of the north of the Island. Conservation will require improved woodland management and public access.
  • To seek to develop the skills and markets for woodland products that would benefit woodland management and public access.

Landscape Improvement Zone

This landscape character type describes parts of the AONB that have changed as a result of sporadic and urbanising development over time. Usually found at the edge of larger development, these areas blur the boundary between urban and rural. They include areas of former agricultural land that have been changed by the addition of horse paddocks and stabling; intensive horticulture; poultry and pig farming; waste disposal sites; extensive residential, industrial or retail development; holiday camps, mobile homes, caravan and campsites.

This results in an increasingly chaotic character, with a decline in the quality of management of hedgerows, woodland and agricultural landscapes.

Areas included in this landscape type are Lower Woodside Wootton, Cranmore, Pilgrims Park Thorness, Forelands, Wilmingham, Afton, Rookley, and Alverstone.

Mitigation and enhancement measures should be sought whenever there is a proposal for development in these areas. These areas are also likely to be subject to increasing development pressures. The formulation of design or supplementary planning guidance on issues of concern may help to guide change that will restore the landscape and enhance the AONB.

Early review using the new landscape character assessment guidance will help to identify ways to enhance these areas.

Key Characteristics

  • Traditional agricultural landscape changed and often degraded by urbanising development.
  • Overall visual chaos and neglect of agricultural landscape in a town edge setting.
  • Degraded hedgerows and unmanaged woodland.
  • General feeling of neglect and blur in the setting and edge of settlements.

Management Aim

  • To prevent the expansion of urban influence, to retain and interpret sites of ecological interest and to seek landscape improvements by focusing resources into this landscape

Harbours and Creeks

This landscape character type covers those estuarine environments on the Island that are within the AONB boundary, namely Wootton Creek, Kings Quay, Newtown, and the Western Yar. All have common features such as mudflats, shingle, salt marsh, reed beds, an open aspect, and fringing oak woodlands. However, each has its own distinct form and features.

Of these, the Western Yar is the largest and is subject to a number of pressures. As one of the ferry terminals linking the Island with the mainland, the Yar is a busy harbour. It is also valued as a place for quiet leisure activities, such a cycling, walking and sailing. Of high importance for nature conservation, it supports a number of important plant species (Norton Spit) and is a resource for over wintering migratory birds. Designated as an SSSI, the area needs careful and considered management. The Western Yar Estuary Management Plan seeks to fulfil this function.

Newtown estuary has great historic, cultural and nature conservation value. The only National Nature Reserve on the Isle of Wight, it is primarily within the ownership and protection of the National Trust. It has a timeless, tranquil and secluded atmosphere, with a quality of light similar to the flat lands of East Anglia. Along with Kings Quay these two parts of this landscape character type represent the finest unaltered inlets on the Island.

At Wootton Creek, the upper part of the estuary south of Wootton Bridge is within the boundary of the AONB. It is quiet, rural and surrounded by oak woodlands.

From prehistoric times these harbours and creeks have been important for trade and transport. It is no coincidence that the Island’s medieval towns are all set beside harbours and creeks, even though Yarmouth struggled and Newtown failed to become viable.

In and around Wootton Creek and along the coastline from Wootton to Ryde a major archaeological project has found evidence of trade and subsistence activities dating back to Neolithic times. The Wootton-Quarr Project demonstrated the wealth of fragile remains that exist along this stretch of coastline, and that are under threat from erosion. The project also highlighted the enormous potential to increase our understanding of the past environment and landscape change. Other parts of the AONB coastline may prove to have equal potential.

Key Characteristics

  • Flat exposed tidal mudflats, shingle banks and grazing marshes.
  • Open aspect.
  • Peripheral; enclosure created by surrounding oak woodlands.

Management Aims

  • To retain the quiet solitude of harbours and creeks.
  • To conserve intertidal habitats and to record archaeological material.

The Undercliff

The Undercliff is an area of landscape character that is unique to the Isle of Wight AONB. This is the largest inhabited rotational landslip in western Europe. It is of major geological, ecological and archaeological importance. There is the added pressure of the need to maintain and protect property, business and transport infrastructure in the area.

Running from Blackgang Chine in the west to Luccombe in the east, the Undercliff sits below the southern chalk downs. The landform is the result of coastal erosion processes and landslips caused by groundwater lubrication of slip planes within the Gault Clays and Sandrock Beds. Its picturesque beauty was appreciated from the late eighteenth century, when the earliest cottages ornés were built. Several more such cottages and marine villas were built in the early nineteenth century. Valued by artists in the early nineteenth century for its picturesque and sublime natural beauty, the Undercliff quickly became the subject of study as part of wider Victorian interest in geological development and processes. Latterly the Undercliff has been appreciated for its temperate microclimate afforded by the shelter of the inland cliff and its southern aspect. This led to the construction of more residences for the well-to-do and the formation of a ‘gardenesque’ resort in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with associated walled gardens and exotic plant species.

The modern Ventnor Botanic Garden, featuring significant plant collections, has been developed in the grounds of a Victorian hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis. The Undercliff retains all of the elements admired and created over the last two centuries, offering a varied landscape of natural elements and man-made additions.

Although areas of the inland cliff remain visible there has been a gradual increase in secondary woodland particularly with Holm oak and sycamore, leading to a more enclosed and secretive ambience. On-going natural coastal processes are of great ecological importance because the gradual re-establishment of plant species and specialist micro habitats caused by continued land slides is essential for many plant and animal species. This is reflected in the cSAC designation of this area as of great European importance.

Key Characteristics

  • Dramatic inland vertical cliffs.
  • Slumped grasslands.
  • Coastal pasture.
  • Exotic ornamental planting.
  • Nineteenth century villas and modern suburban housing with landscaped gardens.
  • Unmanaged natural woodland regeneration.

Management Aims

  • To maintain open slumping habitat.
  • To enhance the special atmosphere and architectural character of the area.

Osborne Coast

This landscape character type is a distinct part of the coast and hinterland to the north and east of East Cowes. A planned landscape of the nineteenth century, it was largely the concept of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s beloved Prince Consort. Designed as a very private area screened from the town, the house and terrace afford vistas of the landscaped grounds and Solent beyond. Lying mostly within the extensive grounds of the former Royal estate of Osborne House, this landscape is characterised by rich ornamental and exotic planting, distinctive architecture in comparison to the surrounding traditional enclosed pasture agricultural land, and a wooded shoreline.

Now in the care of English Heritage, Osborne House and its grounds are being restored to their former glory. Major works have been undertaken in the gardens, and on the external fabric of the building. One of the most visited sites under the care of English Heritage, Osborne House is an important cultural and tourism resource for the Isle of Wight. The grounds are included on English Heritage’s Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The private landscape grounds of Norris Castle are also included on the Register and fall within this landscape character type.

Unusually this is the only landscape within the AONB that has no legal informal public access, with no public rights of way recorded in the area. The return to private ownership of Barton Manor Estate immediately adjacent to Osborne has further restricted opportunities for quiet informal recreation in the area.

Key Characteristics

  • Exotic ornamental planting set within more naturalistic parkland.
  • Victorian villa architecture.
  • Very limited informal public access, the exception being the seasonal opening of Osborne House.
  • Ancient semi-natural woodland.
  • Wooded coastline.

Management Aim

  • To continue restoration of the landscape of the estate as conceived by Prince Albert, and to encourage access and interpretation.

Northern Coastal Cliffs

A small but important landscape character type occurring along the north-west coast of the Island from Gurnard through to Alum Bay. Consists of low slumped and sloping broken cliffs of clay and gravel that were formed as a result of the effects of the action of the sea on the underlying geology. The main characteristics of this area are rough cliff edges, scrub growth, hollows in the landform and a lack of development because of the instability of the land.

Bordered by agricultural land in the east at Thorness and Gurnard and plantation forestry in the west at Bouldnor  near Yarmouth, some opportunities for access are afforded by the Coastal Path and connecting footpaths running inland. Coastal access is always under pressure from erosion because of the need to realign the route. The majority of this coastline is also designated as Heritage Coast (Hamstead), reflecting its largely unspoilt character, importance for nature conservation, geology and as an area for quiet enjoyment.

Key Characteristics

  • Characteristically low sloping broken unstable cliffs.
  • Limited permanent development and public access.

Management Aims

  • To restrict development but, where safe, to allow or extend public access to rugged slopes of scrub and heathland

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