Melbourne Parklands
An article about the Melbourne countryside from the UK Countryside Agency.Pdf version
1 Key Characteristics
* Steeply-undulating landform.
* Large landscape parks with grand country houses.
* Reservoirs.
* Frequent woodland on steep slopes.
* Open areas of arable cultivation.
* Localised quarrying.
* Imposing and dramatically-sited churches.
2 Landscape Character
This area comprises the land hugging the northern flanks of the Charnwood forest. The Trent valley forms its northern and western boundary in a wide arc sweeping round from its confluence with the river Soar as far as Burton upon Trent.
The Parklands lie to the north of the ridge of high ground between Swadlincote and Burton upon Trent. The area has extensive stretches of arable cultivation with low, sparse hedges and few hedgerow trees.
The Melbourne Parklands are steeply undulating and several valleys have been blocked to create large reservoirs such as those at Foremark and Staunton Harold. Historically important parklands at Calke, Melbourne, Staunton Harold and Bretby are surrounded by substantial woodlands and there are commanding views across the Trent Valley. In the west, the broken ridge of Carboniferous Limestone that extends northwards has been extensively quarried so that the dramatically-sited church at Breedon Hill overlooks steeply-undulating parkland from one aspect and a vast quarry from the other. Settlements are more substantial along the edge of the Trent Valley than in the Lowlands, with Repton, Melbourne and Castle Donnington being small towns. An urban fringe character is apparent where the uplands slope down to the river Trent around Donnington Park Motor Racing Circuit and the East Midlands Airport.
3 Physical Influences
The area is dominated by the Triassic Mercia Mudstones, which give rise to productive, reddish clay soils but are partially overlaid by glacial till in the east. The area is geologically complex. There are outcrops of Carboniferous Limestone of which the extensively quarried Breedon Hill is the most conspicuous. An outcrop of Millstone Grit occurs around Melbourne and Sherwood Sandstones extend towards the River Trent.
The high ground of the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield and Charnwood Forest forms a watershed from which streams drain into the Trent and Soar, some with substantial reservoirs in their upper sections.
4 Historical and Cultural Influences
There is scattered evidence of Mesolithic occupation in the Melbourne Parklands but this, and the later Neolithic and Bronze Age finds and sites, appear to relate to activity spreading out from the Trent and Tame valleys. While there was certainly occupation and clearance of the areas throughout the Iron Age and Roman periods, and heathlands had become established over the glacial hill soils, the first substantial present day evidence of human influence comes from the Anglo-Saxon period. Repton and Breedon on the Hill were major ecclesiastical centres of the kingdom of Mercia. The many tons, few woodland names and occasional heath names indicate that the landscape was substantially, if sparsely, settled at an early date. There was still room for Scandinavian settlements not least at Ingleby where an important Danish pagan burial site has been found.
By the time of the Domesday Book the area was still widely, if rather sparsely, settled. In the post-Conquest period, Melbourne was an important market and manorial centre and there were monasteries at Calke, Repton and Gresley with extensive parks in the surrounding area including those at Staunton and Donnington. In the 16th century the dissolution of the monasteries and the developing land market led to the formation of large estates and ultimately to the landscape parks and country houses which dominate the Melbourne Parklands. Calke and Melbourne are the most conspicuous of these, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Lowlands, Market Bosworth Hall and Gopsall represent a rather different situation where incomers were able to buy upland to create new estates, parks and mansions.
However, most of the land remained in open fields and was unenclosed until the 18th and 19th centuries when the rectilinear pattern, which still dominates the landscape today, was created. At that time farms were built in the newly enclosed fields. Industrial development largely passed the area by, apart from the conspicuous Ashby Canal. In the 20th century the main impacts have been the quarrying of limestone at and around Breedon Hill, the construction of reservoirs and the imposition of prominent power stations on what is often a very open landscape. Agricultural change has included the removal and frequent cutting of hedges in the more intensively farmed areas and the loss of hedgerow trees.
5 Buildings and Settlement
The principal material of the older buildings in the villages is brick with pantile roofs although timber framing still survives in a few areas. The remoter areas tend to have quite attractive mellow brick but, where villages were easily accessible from the valleys, or where they expanded rapidly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a harsher red brick and imported slate have been used. The rather friable sandstone, of which many of the churches are constructed, weathers badly and they have often been substantially renewed in 19th century restorations. Some of the churches, and most of the manor houses and country houses, are constructed of imported stone while around Breedon, small quantities of Carboniferous Limestone have been used in a few farmsteads and in dry stone walls. Most of the villages are very rural in character and are connected by straight enclosure roads but, towards the edge of the area, those near the Trent Valley have been enlarged in recent times. Repton, Melbourne and Castle Donnington are now modest-sized towns.
The country houses are amongst the most imposing in the region. Melbourne has an attractive range of styles set within gardens created at the beginning of the 18th century. Calke Abbey is a fine baroque mansion with its surrounding estate landscape, cottages and what has been described as 'the house that time forgot' unaltered since the 1920s. Market Bosworth and Gopsall (now demolished) were described by Hoskins as 'the grandest houses in West Leicestershire'. One other building of note is Melbourne Church which is one of the most imposing Norman parish churches in the country.
6 Land Cover
Most of the land is in agricultural use. There are extensive areas of arable within low hedges and few hedgerow trees. On the steeper ground and heavier clays, the land is less intensively farmed and arable and pasture are mixed. Here hedgerows are more substantial, hedgerow trees are more frequent and there is some permanent pasture.
In the Melbourne Parklands there are quite extensive oak woodlands as well as fine trees within the parks. Elsewhere woodlands are small and intermittent although the spinneys, copses and game coverts have often been planted on ridges, giving a well-treed character to some areas. Many of the parks were formerly more extensive and parkland trees, often in a poor condition, can be seen within arable or short term leys. Along the minor streams there are often willows and alders but the main river courses are very open. Reservoirs occupy a significant area of the Parklands.
7 The Changing Countryside
* Part of the area lies within the National Forest and will benefit from landscape and nature-conservation improvements.
* Increasing intensification of arable cultivation, field enlargement and tree loss through Dutch Elm disease have created a very open landscape in many areas.
* Not all the parks are well managed and, where parkland has been taken out of permanent pasture, cultivation has damaged the parkland trees.
* Villages at the edge of the area are likely to come under increasing pressure for commuter development. Village Design Statements may well be appropriate.
* Past management of watercourses has tended to remove features of nature-conservation and landscape interest.
* Extension of arable areas many affect areas of ridge and furrow and deserted settlement sites.
8 Shaping the Future
* Much of the area lies within the National Forest. The National Forest objectives include large-scale planting, to complement the scale of the landscape, and will include commercial plantations ranging from woodlands to areas of short rotation coppice. Reinstatement of parkland will be an objective, as well as detailed landscape schemes around the settlements. It is intended that the quiet, peaceful character of the area be maintained and that only informal recreation be encouraged.
* In the Melbourne Parklands, similar broad-scale measures should be considered using the rolling landform to accentuate new planting and reinforcing the established character of the parks. Forest trails and other recreation routes will be encouraged to link the area's tourist attractions. Farm diversification might include catering for visitors. There is scope for the management of remaining unimproved grassland and the creation of new species-rich grasslands.
9 Selected References
Childs, J (1987), A History of Derbyshire, Phillimore, Chichester.
Hoskins, W G (1957), Leicestershire, Hodder & Stoughton.
Pye, N (1972), Leicester & its region, Leicester University Press.
Warwickshire County Council (1993), Warwickshire Landscape Guidelines: Dunsmore, High Cross Plateau, Mease Lowlands, Countryside Commission, Cheltenham.
Staffordshire County Council (nd), A Discussion Document on Staffordshire's Indicative Forestry Strategy.
