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| Acid grassland |
Vegetation dominated
by grasses and herbs on lime-deficient soils derived from
acidic bedrock or from sands and gravels. |
| Ancient woodland |
Areas that have had continuous
woodland cover since at least AD1600 and have only been cleared
sporadically for scrub and timber production. |
| Anglo-Saxon period |
The period traditionally dated
to AD410-1066 when, following the decline of Roman power,
England was settled by several Germanic peoples. |
| Annual |
A plant that grows, flowers, produces
seed and then dies within one year or growing season. |
| AONB |
Area of Outstanding National Beauty
- a statutory national landscape designation. |
| Aquatic plants |
Plants that grow whilst being
entirely covered by water. Some plants can be both aquatic
and emergent. |
| Assart |
An enclosure or field formed by
the clearance of woodland. |
| Bedwork |
A bedwork water meadow is a series
of earthworks designed to irrigate a meadow using a system
of drains and channels to transport water to and from a river
channel or other watercourse. Usually found in •Uê shaped
valleys. |
| Berm |
Shelf at the base of a river or
stream bank. |
| Braided |
A network of small, shallow, interlaced
streams derived from a single river; formed after the original
stream had deposited sediment, dividing and forming new channels. |
| Broadleaved woodland |
Woodland that is dominated by
deciduous trees with broad flat leaves, such as oak, ash or
beech. |
| Bourne |
An intermittent stream that mainly
flows during the winter months. |
| Bronze age |
A period characterised by the
first use of copper and bronze. Generally speaking this period
dates in England from 2,300BC - 700BC. |
| Brown earths |
Brown or greyish brown naturally fertile soils
of well mixed organic and mineral material developed under
deciduous forests. |
| Brown rendzinas |
Thin upper black or dark brown granular soil
over limestone with fragments of limestone,often very fertile
but dry. |
| Calcareous grassland |
Vegetation dominated by grasses
and herbs on shallow, well-drained soils which are rich in
lime formed by weathering of chalk. |
| Carr |
Woodland dominated by tree species
tolerant of high water tables such as alder, willow and birch,
often associated with wetland shrubs, fern, mosses and liverworts. |
| Catchwork |
Similar to a bedwork water meadow
but with a series of earthworks designed to irrigate a meadow
using a gravity fed supply of water. Usually found in smaller
and narrower valleys. |
| Colonisation |
The successful occupation of a
new habitat by a species not previously found in that area. |
| Combe |
Valley on the flank of a hill. |
| Communities |
Groups of plants or animals living
together under characteristic, recognisable conditions. |
| Coppice |
An area of woodland, often hazel
or sweet chestnut, which has been or is managed for wood production
by cutting stems close to the base on a regular cycle, generally
5-10 years. |
| Common |
Piece of land on which certain
individuals have commoning rights such as grazing for cattle
and ponies, foraging for pigs. Often open to the general public
for quiet rural activities. |
| Covert |
Woodland and understorey shelter
for game birds. |
| Dark skies |
Night time skies which are largely
undisturbed by artificial manmade lighting. |
| Deer park |
First recorded during the medieval
period these were areas where settlement was restricted as
were grazing rights and the ability to clear ground for fuel.
These areas were principally managed for their hunting and
were surrounded by a bank and ditch surmounted by a fence
(known as a park pale). |
| Downland |
Upland area, mainly found in the
south of England, found on chalk soils, usually with wide
open views. Traditional vegetation cover is unimproved calcareous
grassland but arable farming is a common modern land use. |
| Diffuse pollution |
Pollution caused to water bodies
caused by fertiliser, silt and pollutant run off from fields,
roads and hard surfacing. |
| Earthwork |
One or more archaeological features,
such as a bank, wall, mound or setting of some kind, that
appears in topographical relief in the ground surface, usually
as a rise, projection or series of •humps and bumpsê. An earthwork
is not necessarily made of soil; it may comprise stones and
other materials too. |
| Extensification |
The term is used here to describe
a change in farming practice to lower livestock densities,
or to an outdoor farming method such as for pig rearing. |
| Floodplain |
The low relief area of a valley
floor adjacent to a river that could be periodically inundated
by flood waters. |
| Heath/ Heathland |
A mosaic of mire, acid grassland
and area dominated by heathers. |
| Historic landscape |
The physical manifestation in
the landscape of peopleês interaction with their natural and
cultural environment, through time. |
| Historic Landscape Characterisation |
The process by which historic
components of the present day landscape are identified, described,
categorised and evaluated both temporally and spatially in
order to determine historic landscape character. |
| Inlier |
A mass of older stratified rocks
forming an island showing through the surrounding newer strata. |
| Intimate |
A sense of enclosure combined
with a varied landscape of small-scale features such as narrow
valleys, small fields and copses, narrow winding watercourses
and tracks or paths. |
| Iron age |
The Iron Age in England dates
from 700BC to AD43. It is characterised by the use of iron
and the construction of large hill forts. |
| Landscape character |
A distinct, recognisable and consistent
pattern of elements in the landscape that makes one landscape
different from another, rather than better or worse. |
| Landscape Character Area |
Geographically identifiable areas
of landscape that have their own indiviual sense of place.
|
| Landscape Character Type |
Landscapes sharing broadly similar
combinations of geology, topography, drainage patterns, vegetation,
historical land use and settlement pattern, which may be found
in different parts of the country. |
| Landscape elements |
Individual components that make
up the landscape such as walls, trees, hedges. |
| Landscape feature |
A particular prominent or eye
catching element such as a hillock, church tower, line of
pylons. |
| Ladder fields |
Fields formed by short cross boundaries
with long, parallel wavy boundaries which extend across the
landscape. |
| Linear settlement |
Settlement in a linear pattern,
usually along a linear feature such as a road or watercourse. |
| Medieval period |
This period usually dates from
AD1066 up to AD1650. |
| Medium-scale landscape |
Refers to areas with larger fields
where hedgerows are still a significant features of the landscape.
Woodlands will be larger but less numerous |
| Mesotrophic grasslands |
Neutral grasslands (neither acid
nor calcareous) generally found on a loam soil and used for
grazing or hay. |
| Middle Chalk |
This is the oldest solid formation
within the Borough, formed during the Cretaceous period; it
is a hard white chalk with few flints. |
| Mire |
Area of wet peatland; includes
bog (acid) and fen (alkaline). |
| Natural |
Neither the work of, nor shaped
by people. |
| Nucleated settlement |
Settlement arranged in a clustered
pattern, particularly around a focal feature such as a village
green, square or church. |
| Osier bed |
An area of willow planting (Salix
viminalis) traditionally grown for basket weaving but often
referring to any wet willow shrub planting. |
| Parliamentary fields |
Fields created following an act
of parliament. Often occurring during the later 18th and 19th
Century they are characteristically larger, more regular and
have clearly surveyed, straight edges. |
| Pollard |
A tree managed by cutting the
trunk at head height to produce a rounded crown of new growth. |
| Post medieval period |
Dating from AD1650 up until the
present day. |
| Prairie field |
The enclosures have been formed
by loss of 19th Century field boundaries by the expansion
of field sizes during the 20th Century. |
| Rank species |
Plant species grow vigorously
and profusely, out-competing other species. |
| Remoteness |
A sense of removal well away from
urban and other developed areas into a rural landscape of
little habitation |
| River terraces |
Deposits of often gravely sediment
between a river floodplain and the valley sides. |
| Riparian |
Relating to the bank of a river
or stream. |
| Roman-British period |
The period from AD43, when Britain
was invaded the armies of Rome. Extended up to the early 5th
century AD when direct links with the continental Roman empire
were severed. |
| Scrub |
Woody vegetation usually less
than 5m high consisting mainly of shrubs, with some trees. |
| Seclusion |
A sense of separation from but
not necessarily far from urban and other developed areas,
protected by screening such as topography or woodland. |
| Set aside |
Agricultural land taken out of
production, usually for a fixed period of time, in return
for subsidies on the main crop, as defined by Council Regulation
(EC) 1251/99. |
| Skyline |
Visible horizon |
| Small-scale landscape |
Refers to areas with smaller size
of fields, more numerous hedgerows and small copses |
| Stagnogley soils |
Slowly permable, seasonally waterlogged soils (usually
clay). |
| Street furniture |
Man made structures such as seats,
signs, cycle racks etc designed to serve users of the road
or street. |
| Time depth |
The visible evidence in the landscape
for change and continuity over periods of time. |
| Tranquillity |
A sense of a lack of disturbance
from either visual or noise intrusion. |
| Upper |
Formed during the cretaceous period; this is a soft white
chalk with many flint nodules. Clay with flints: Laid down
during the Quaternary period, this is reddish brown clay with
unbraided flints; it rests on the chalk. |
| Vernacular |
Local domestic architecture and
building materials. |
| Water meadow |
A meadow or piece of low-lying
land which has been irrigated to improve fertility via a series
of earthworks which transport water to the field, across the
surface of the field and back to the river. |
| Wavy field |
Boundary to a field which displays
a wavy as opposed to a straight alignment suggesting an un-surveyed
nature. |
| Wetland |
Areas of bog, fen, peatland or
water whether natural or artificial. |
| Winterbourne |
An intermittent stream that mainly flows
during the winter months. |
