Landscape Character Types

View north-west across gently undulating farmland towards Hearson Hill.

Summary description

This Landscape Character Type (LCT) covers the distinctive estate farmlands and woodlands of North Devon and Torridge - concentrated on the main historic estates found in the two districts.

Link to Devon Character Areas

DCA 14: Codden Hill and Wooded Estates

DCA 65: West Torridge Upland Farmland

DCA 67: Witheridge and Rackenford Moor

Key characteristics

• Rolling hills and farmland drained by frequent streams, brooks and springs creating an undulating topography.
• Underlying geology comprising mudstones and siltstones, with harder outcrops of sandstone creating rolling hills and ridges ('Culm Measures').
• Mixture of sinuous medium-scale medieval fields and larger, more regular enclosures. Some villages retain small historic strip fields around their fringes.
• Fields enclosed by wildflower-rich Devon banks often topped with closely cut mixed thorn, beech and sycamore hedges. Some use of fencing (including estate railings where associated with historic parklands).
• Predominantly pastoral land use, particularly dairying, with areas of arable cultivation and some ancient wood pasture. Pony paddocks and alpaca farms are sometimes found around villages.
• Well-wooded character, with frequent mixed and broadleaved plantations (often beech and oak), areas of ancient semi-natural and wet woodland on valley sides, historic wood pasture and conifer blocks.
• Grown-out beech and oak hedgebanks, veteran in-field trees and streamside orchards further contribute to the wooded estate character.
• Nature conservation interest provided by areas of Culm grassland, rush pasture, unimproved meadows, ponds, valley mire and bogs. There are several County Wildlife Sites across the landscape.
• Historic Grade I and Grade II* parkland, estates and manors influence landscape character.
• Historic features contribute to the strong time depth, including Bronze Age bowl barrows, an Iron Age hillfort, a moated site and a medieval castle; many are Scheduled Monuments.
• Traditional local vernacular of whitewash and cream cob/render cottages with slate or thatched roofs, as well as some buildings of local stone.
• Linhays (traditional livestock shelters) constructed of cob and local stone with slate or corrugated iron roofs, reinforce a strong history of farming.
• Nucleated historic hamlets and villages (many of which are Conservation Areas) focused around crossroads or stream crossing points, with square stone church towers forming local landmarks. Frequent farmsteads distributed throughout.
• Winding rural roads bounded by flower-rich Devon banks restricting views, crossing many streams on stone bridges. Crossroads marked by distinctive white finger posts.
• Recreational routes (particularly in Torridge district) include National Cycle Network routes 3 and 27 and the multi-use Tarka Trail, plus some public rights of way through farmland.
• Strong sense of peace and tranquillity and feeling of being in the heart of Devon.
• Higher land affords long views across the landscape, including to Dartmoor National Park.
• Noise and movement from traffic on the A386 and significant industrial buildings detract from tranquillity locally.

Sheep grazing in historic parkland south of Heanton Satchville.

Valued landscape attributes

• Large specimen trees within parkland and open farmland reinforce historic character.
• Strong coherence in building styles.
• A managed, working landscape of agricultural and industrial character.
• Large areas of woodland (including ancient woodland) are important semi-natural habitats.
• A strong sense of history and culture.

Typical hedgerow-bound pastoral field within a well-wooded landscape, with farmsteads nestled among the fields and woodland.

Management guidelines

Protect

Protect and manage surviving traditional orchards.

Protect rural lanes and tracks and their associated hedges and flower-rich hedge-banks, resisting unsympathetic highways measures and intrusive signage.

Manage

Manage existing plantations, seeking to enhance their biodiversity value, and explore opportunities for reversion to a mixed structure with open grassland habitats upon maturity and felling.

Manage agricultural land to increase its wildlife interest and decrease agricultural run-off into watercourses, including through the use of buffer strips, uncultivated margins and field corners.

Manage the network of Devon banks, reflecting local variations in styles and species composition. Reduce flailing cycles, allowing lengths to grow out, particularly in lengths away from the road network.

Manage semi-natural habitats such as Culm grassland and wet meadows, including through appropriate grazing; encourage farms to manage these 'marginal' areas as integral parts of their farming systems.

Manage ancient and estate woodlands through traditional techniques such as coppicing, and control grazing levels by deer and livestock to encourage longevity and ground flora.

Manage parkland landscapes, including valued tracts of wood pasture, resisting the conversion of pasture to arable, and encouraging extensive grazing management.

Manage the distinctive character of veteran trees and parkland estates, including the retention of veteran and dead/dying trees as key wildlife habitats, pollarding where appropriate and planting the next generation of (climate resilient) specimen trees.

Promote careful management of park grasslands to prevent damage to tree root systems through nutrient enrichment and compaction associated with agricultural activities.

Plan

Plant replacement parkland trees as many existing specimens are reaching maturity; encourage open-grown trees within the wider countryside (choosing a diversity of species to improve resilience).

Respond to the UK-wide policy drive for tree/woodland planting in line with the Devon Local Nature Partnership's 'Right Place, Right Tree' principles. Ensure there is a balance of climate-resilient native species appropriate to the local landscape and which retain and enhance the distinctive characteristics of the landscape, including using new tree planting to help screen and soften visual impact of new built elements that detract from rural character.

Soften and integrate the visual impact of productive woodland into the landscape with broadleaf woodland edges and dynamic scrub habitat.

Identify opportunities for enhancing agriculture (e.g. through the new Environmental Land Management scheme) that would reinforce local distinctiveness and beauty of the countryside whilst also delivering other objectives, for example restoring ponds, hedgerows, orchards and copses as part of the farming landscape.

Restore lost or degraded lengths of hedgerow to strengthen ecological connectivity and natural flood management whilst respecting the characteristic local field patterns. Follow guidelines published by Devon Hedge Group.

Enhance and create areas of wet woodland to provide benefits for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and natural flood management.

Develop long-term restructuring proposals for the more prominent conifer plantations to mixed woodland and open habitats, including re-creation of Culm grasslands as part of local nature recovery networks.

LCT 5D Estate Wooded Farmland (PDF) [970KB]