Lower dale

Description

Broad upland valleys with narrow flood plains or incised gorges on the valley floor. Alternating strata of Carboniferous limestones, sandstones and softer shales and mudstones give a gently stepped profile to the dale side in places, and outcrop occasionally in gorges and dale side quarries. On lower slopes they are masked by glacial boulder clays, or sands and gravels marked by undulating terrain. Fast flowing rivers course on rocky beds through steep sided gorges or meander across floodplains of river terrace gravels and alluvium. Soils are heavy, often waterlogged clays, with more fertile brown earths and alluvial soils on the dale floor.

The lower dales are pastoral landscapes with mosaics of improved and semi-improved pasture and occasional flower-rich hay meadows. Field systems are sub-regular or linear in pattern and have their origins in the enclosure of common town fields surrounding the dales villages that took place mostly in the 17th century. Relics of ancient agriculture – rigg and furrow, lynchets and cultivation terraces – are widespread. Field boundaries are a mixture of hedgerows and stone walls. Walls are made of locally quarried stone or rounder boulders from riverbeds and field clearances. Hedgerows are often tall and overgrown and rich in trees, with frequent ash, oak, sycamore and wych elm. Regular parliamentary enclosures are found on more recently enclosed land on the higher dale sides.

Ancient ash and oak woodlands are found along rivers and streams and in gills and gorges. Plantations of pine and larch are scattered across the dale side. Woodland cover is not high, but the frequency of small woodlands, hedgerow and field trees, tree-lined watercourses and overgrown hedgerows gives the landscape a well-wooded feel.

Small and medium sized villages lie on the valley floor connected by winding roads. Most villages are of medieval origins and some still retain a central village green. Others were enlarged in the C18th and C19th century with housing for workers in the quarrying, lead mining and steel working industries. Farms and field barns are scattered across the dale side or stung out along minor roads. Buildings are of local stone with roofs of stone flag or slate and have a strong vernacular character. Active and abandoned quarries are prominent on the dale side in places following outcrops of the Great Limestone.

The landscape is relatively broad in scale, defined by encircling moorland ridgelines, but locally it is visually enclosed by woodlands, trees and hedgerows giving it a more intimate scale. A settled and largely tranquil upland fringe landscape that, with its vernacular buildings, old villages and pastoral land use, has a strong sense of both visual unity and cultural continuity.

Measures: land management

Natural features

See Nature Recovery section, Outcomes NR3, NR4 and NR5, for main measures relating to trees and woodland, rivers and streams and grasslands.

Cultural features

• Conserve and maintain traditional field barns and farm buildings.
• Protect and restore or consolidate old lime kilns - taking archaeological advice.
• Protect archaeological features including rigg & furrow, cultivation terraces and lynchets from damaging activities such as cultivation, overstocking, or poaching.
• Conserve and enhance old quarries by avoiding tipping and excluding livestock to promote natural regeneration. Maintain access to geological exposures.

Field boundaries

• Protect, restore and maintain existing dry-stone walls and hedgerows. Reinstate hedges and walls where they have been replaced by fences.

Measures: development

Agricultural buildings

Site new farm buildings close to existing buildings where possible, and reflect their scale, character and materials.

• Reduce the impact of larger modern buildings by careful selection of colour, breaking up mass and planting screening belts of native species. Follow the North Pennines National Landscape Planning and Design Guidelines.

Housing and economic development

• Protect and conserve the character of villages by ensuring that new development respects their scale, structure and vernacular character.
• Retain and enhance open green spaces within villages, and particularly village greens, old gardens and orchards, and tofts or garths.

Energy, telecommunications & infrastructure

• Avoid the siting of tall structures such as masts, pylons and wind turbines in the Lower Dale landscape generally.
• Where masts, pylons or domestic scale wind turbines are needed, site them close to existing buildings or woodland edges and avoid sensitive skylines. Where possible underground services.

Minerals & waste

• Avoid damage to sensitive natural landforms.
• Avoid extraction on prominent dale side slopes, or breaching local skylines with extraction areas or storage mounds.
• Restore quarry faces to naturalistic profiles using restoration blasting.
• Restore quarries to semi-natural woodland, grassland, wetland and bare rock habitats using natural regeneration where appropriate.

Tourism & recreation

• Tourism and recreational development should be undertaken in such a way as to avoid any urbanising influence on the landscape. Existing buildings should be re-used where possible. New buildings should, where possible, reflect the scale, form, materials and vernacular detailing of traditional farm buildings in the area.
• Facilities like chalets and caravan parks should only be developed or extended where there is a high degree of year-round visual containment – either from the topography or robust woodland cover – so that they do not detract from the rural character and scenic quality of the area.