 General
Description
The River Valley Floor landscape character type is a prominent feature
of the Test Valley Borough landscape, linking many of the other landscapes.
The river valleys which extend through the Test Valley fall into two principal
categories; the wider flat bottomed valleys of the main river systems
and the narrower valleys with steeper sides and which contain either tributaries
of the main river system or bournes/winterbournes. The valleys are predominantly
under pasture, with characteristic waterside tree species such as willow
and alder running alongside individual watercourses and areas of meadow
grassland, reedbeds, marshlands and other wetland habitats.
The settlement pattern originally consisting of mainly nucleated villages
and hamlets, which since the 18th century have expanded along their approach
roads to become more linear in form.
Location
This landscape character type includes the River Test runs into Southampton
Water (divided into three reaches) and six of its tributaries (Pillhill
Brook, River Anton, River Dever, Wallop Brook, King’s Somborne Brook
and the River Dun). The River Valley Floor covers the valley bottom, with
the valley sides lying within the adjacent landscape character types (predominantly
LCTs 3 and 10). The transition is marked by river terraces along the River
Test and a change in slope at the edge of the valley floor. The ten Landscape
Character Areas are as follows:
Physical Influences
Geology and Soils: The underlying geology
consists of river deposits of alluvium with side areas of river
terrace gravel deposits, deposited over the solid geology of chalk
or sands, clays and gravels.
Landform: Valley with a flat flood plain
of varying width.
Drainage: Characterized by a single channel or a multiple
braided system of streams.
Biodiversity and Vegetation Pattern
The River Valley Floor is a characteristically flat low lying area this
type is typically pastoral bordering the river, often with wet swampy
areas. There are frequent copses dominated by Willow, Poplar and Alder
and often river banks are fringed by standard trees. The hedgerows have
a much looser structure than other farmland areas and more use is made
of water meadow ditches as wet hedges. This type is one of the most ecologically
diverse in the District with a variety of wetland habitats, unimproved
grasslands and carr woodlands.
Notable habitats
- Unimproved calcareous grasslands
Historical Influences
The river valleys have in recent times offered fertile and freely drained
soils with access to a generally continuous supply of fresh water. However,
throughout much of the prehistoric period the river valleys were often
dominated by dense forests with movement only possible via either the
ridge ways or along the river network. Little survives of early human
activity which is often buried beneath considerable deposits of alluvium
or destroyed by the continuous cutting and recutting of the river channel.
The most prominent feature throughout this landscape is the numerous
surviving systems of post-medieval water meadows interspersed by stands
of valley floor woodland, rough grazing and what are termed ‘miscellaneous
valley floor enclosure’. The water meadows (reputedly developed
by Rowland Vaughn in the later sixteenth century) were a system whereby
the growing season could be extended and two crops of grass could be grown
instead of a single one.
The water meadows fall into two distinct categories; bedwork and catchwork
systems. The bedwork system (Types 2 and 4) are generally found in wide
open valley floors where extensive blocks of water meadow could be constructed
and supplied by a complex series of sluices, leats and drains. The catchwork
system (Types 1 and 3) tended to occupy narrower valley floor and sides,
were fed often by a single leat and relied on gravity to move the water
to (and from) the fields. This pattern of bedworks on the River Test and
catchworks on the tributaries is largely repeated throughout the Test
Valley Borough.
Settlement Pattern
Chalk and Clay River Valley Settlement Types are predominantly associated
with this landscape character area. The settlement types are generally
linear in plan and are located upon valley floors as the focus of a network
of valley floor and side roads. Smaller settlements tend to occupy a single
riverbank while larger examples can span river channels to occupy both
banks. Such settlements can often retain one or more bridges which are
either medieval in date or are early medieval structures with medieval
precursors. River valley settlements often retain a historic core of sixteenth
and seventeenth century date and possibly building of an earlier date
including early medieval churches and manorial complexes.
Communication Network
The principal feature of the communication network within the river
valleys is that they tend to align themselves with the main channel and
only cross infrequently at fording or bridging points. A series of main
roads extend along the valley floor of the River Test with short spur
roads extending at right angles to these main routes.
Key Natural and Cultural Landscape Issues
- Maintenance of water quality and flows and prevention of further pollution
of water bodies from diffuse pollution, run off and aqua culture ventures
(fish farms, water cress beds)
- Impact of development and increasing traffic within the valley floor
leading to loss of remoteness and tranquillity
- Increasing pressure for recreation
- Loss of unimproved mesotrophic grassland to arable or through application
of fertilisers
- Scrub through changes in land management
- Increased silt loading through erosion of previously permanent pasture
- Manicured river banks for commercial fisheries causing loss of aquatic
habitat
- Further loss of original nucleated settlement form to linear development
- Increased need for water abstraction leading to wet grasslands and woodlands
drying out causing a reduction in biodiversity
- Potential for increasing biodiversity through sensitive land management
- Presence of expanses of historically significant early/late post-medieval
water meadow earthworks. surviving within the valley floor.
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