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Summary information

Extent of area

This area is located between the settlements of Watchfield to the south-west and Fernham in the south-east, and between Buscot in the north-west and Eaton Hastings in the north-east. It comprises a low ridge that rises above the Upper Vale landscapes to the north and south.

Landscape character context

The LLD includes parts of the following Landscape Character Areas:

• LCA 7A: Faringdon Ridge Hilltops
• LCA 11A: Thames Upper Vale

Location of Faringdon and Buscot LLD - View map full screen

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Statement of significance

A low, gently undulating ridge rising from the Thames floodplain, with some steeper slopes associated with watercourses and hills. The farmland landscape features a combination of large-scale arable and smaller-scale pasture close to settlements. Large areas of woodland combine with the small valleys to form a strong sense of enclosure. The River Thames lies in the north, and small watercourses vein the landscape on their westward path to the River Cole. Settlement is characterised by historic nucleated towns and villages as well as scattered farmsteads. Faringdon Folly and Buscot House Registered Park and Garden are situated on local high points and serve as local landmarks. Good recreational access to the landscape through a network of public rights of way. Small rural lanes connect the settlements, preserving tranquillity. The LLD forms part of the wider northern setting to the North Wessex Downs National Landscape and a backdrop and skyline in views from the lower-lying vales to the north and south.

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Summary of special landscape qualities

• Distinctive areas of more complex topography, including steep slopes around watercourses and localised high points, contrast with the Thames floodplain to the north and lower-lying vale to the south.
• A rural, patchwork landscape combining arable and pastoral farmland, estate land, and smaller-scale parcels of land associated with settlement.
• A diverse range of semi-natural habitats, as well as riparian vegetation combine with woodland to contribute positively to the landscape providing visual interest and adding ecological diversity.
• Historic, mostly nucleated settlements at Faringdon, Great Coxwell, Little Coxwell, Buscot, and Coleshill, as well as several other historic sites, provide time-depth.
• Strong visual relationship with the adjacent nationally designated landscape of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, and with the Thames floodplain to the north.
• Wooded areas provide a strong sense of enclosure and intimacy, remoteness and tranquillity, and skies are typically darker than in much of the district.

Long views north towards Badbury Forest

View south from Faringdon Hill toward North Wessex Downs National Landscape

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Full evaluation

Local distinctiveness and sense of place

• A low ridge of limestone, siltstone and mudstone which forms gently undulating farmland with some steeper slopes around watercourses and localised high points which add topographic interest.
• The landscape is predominantly undulating but becomes more complex in places where small streams create shallow valleys and where hills, such as Bradbury Hill and Folly Hill, form local landmarks.
• North-facing slopes are relatively steep and south-facing slopes are gentler, transitioning to the upper vale.
• Settlement comprises several historic villages and scattered farmsteads. There are also a number of large country houses which are generally located on high points with views over the vale landscapes.
• The Thames riverside has a distinct, tranquil character and time-depth.

Landscape quality (condition and intactness)

• A mixture of post-medieval and modern fieldscapes with a relatively intact network of hedgerows and mature hedgerow trees. Some areas of ancient woodland are thought to be medieval or earlier.
• Watercourses with associated valley landforms and riparian vegetation, including the River Thames in the north, the River Cole and Pennyhooks Brook, add landscape and ecological diversity.
• Intact historic features include post-medieval estates associated with country houses such as Buscot Park Registered Park and Garden, with associated avenues of trees, as well as two Iron Age hillforts at Badbury Camp and Little Coxwell Camp.

Scenic qualities and perceptual aspects

• A rural, relatively tranquil, farmland landscape, with an intact network of hedgerows and mature hedgerow trees, providing the rural setting to settlements.
• The LLD forms part of the wider northern setting to the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, with a strong visual relationship between the North Wessex Downs and the south of the LLD.
• Forms an undeveloped wooded backdrop and skyline in views from the lower-lying vales to the south and north. Wind turbines at Westmill are prominent in views to and from the North Wessex Downs National Landscape and are locally detracting.
• Wooded areas, particularly in the north, provide a strong sense of enclosure and intimacy, remoteness and tranquillity, and skies are typically darker than in much of the district.
• Long-distance views towards the River Thames to the north and the River Ock to the south contribute to the sense of expansiveness and exposed character of the ridgetop.
• The A420 is the main road through the area and is locally detracting, otherwise access is predominantly via small rural lanes and tracks which connect the small settlements.
• The edges of larger settlements (Faringdon, Shrivenham and Watchfield) are generally well-integrated by vegetation but some exposed edges are evident more recent development has a localised, detracting effect.

Natural and cultural qualities

• Some settlements, including Buscot, Faringdon, Great Coxwell and Little Coxwell, contain historic cores covered by Conservation Areas, and clusters of Listed Buildings (Church of St Mary Buscot, Faringdon House and Coleshill Park gates and piers are all Grade I listed), which contribute to the time-depth of the area; for which the landscape provides a rural character and open landscape setting.
• Further historic character is provided by historically significant sites, including Badbury Camp and Little Coxwell Camp which are Iron Age enclosures and hill forts (Scheduled Monuments), as well as more recent landscape history in Buscot Registered Park and Garden, and non-designated sites such as historic parklands associated with large country houses – the Grade II Listed Faringdon Folly Tower is a distinctive local landmark.
• Large areas of deciduous woodland, many of which are ancient (Old Wood/Eaton Wood, Grove Wood, and Coleshill Park-Flamborough Wood) contribute positively to the landscape and provide surviving examples of rare, semi-natural habitats.
• Floodplain habitats along the River Thames including priority habitat coastal and floodplain grazing marsh and lowland meadows. Grafton Lock Meadows SSSI is designated for its unimproved neutral grassland and rare snakes-head fritillary population.

Recreation value

• The area has an abundance of public rights of way, including the D’Arcy Dalton Way and The Vale Way long distance paths.
• National Trust sites at Badbury (famed for its bluebell displays in spring) and Great Coxwell Barn (Scheduled Monument) are popular recreational destinations for walkers.

Associations

• Folly Tower, located on top of Folly Hill was built in 1935 and is thought to be the last folly constructed in England.
• Great Coxwell Barn was a favourite of William Morris, who lived at the adjacent Kelmscott Manor (in West Oxfordshire District). Morris was inspired by this landscape to write his utopian novel News from Nowhere. The barn is the sole surviving part of the 13^th-century grange that once provided income to Beaulieu Abbey; it is an impressive reminder of Gothic carpenters and the wealth of great monastic orders.

Westmill Wind Farm near Watchfield

Woodland-flanked road on approach to Coleshill

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Landscape guidelines

Guidance to protect/conserve current landscape character

• Retain and enhance the pattern of dispersed blocks of woodland across the landscape.
• Retain riparian vegetation along watercourses to maintain their distinctive character and ecological value.
• Conserve the wetland habitat of the Thames floodplain, including by protection against harmful effects of livestock grazing and drainage for agricultural use.
• Protect historic features in the landscape to ensure their legibility (contribution to a sense of time-depth) and historic integrity including those that are non-designated. Consider the setting the landscape provides to historic features outside of the administrative boundaries, for example, Kelmscott Manor.
• Encourage management in Buscot Registered Park and Garden and support plans for restoration where appropriate. Conserve and appropriately manage veteran trees within parkland areas and the distinctive avenues of trees on the approach.
• Protect the experiential qualities of the landscape, particularly the high levels of tranquillity and intact rural character.

Guidance to manage landscape character

• Encourage landowners to manage woodland appropriately, including to reduce the impacts of pests and diseases and to increase the age structure and structural heterogeneity of woodland. Consider the promotion of natural colonisation adjacent to existing woodland, allowing locally native species to develop resilience to the pressures of climate change through natural processes.
• Encourage appropriate management of the floodplain landscape to enhance its contribution to landscape character and nature conservation value. This includes continued light grazing by cattle and reinstatement of gappy hedgerows.

Guidance to plan (enhance, restore, create) landscape character

• Prevent further loss or decline in the quality of remaining boundary hedgerows and encourage their restoration/reinstatement; when establishing new hedges, aim to diversify the range of species and select species and provenances adapted to a wider range of climatic conditions.
• Seek opportunities to enhance connectivity between the floodplain wetland habitats and other nearby habitats to create green corridors and networks.
• Encourage landowners to develop a woodland management strategy to conserve existing woodlands (including ancient woodland) and extend woodland where appropriate. Ensure any new woodland planting is respectful of local character and ecological conditions and maximises opportunities to link with other habitats.
• Encourage farmers to maintain and expand the area of land available for uncultivated arable field margins; seek to maximise the diversity of margins to provide a range of habitats and to assist in the movement of species through the landscape and include species and cultivars that are able to tolerate and flower under hotter, drier summers.
• Consider the impact of any new development on the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, particularly in the south of the LLD where there is strong intervisibility.
• Avoid new development on the widely visible ridge hilltops. Use trees and woodland to integrate development into the landscape, including any proposed residential development on the edge of settlements, particularly at Faringdon.
• Respect the existing small-scale, scattered settlement pattern, and use materials in keeping with the existing settlement character such as stone, brick and timber, limestone rubble, and thatch.