A Landscape Strategy for Lancashire - Landscape Character Assessment

Industrial Foothills and Valleys

Location map of Industrial Foothills and Valleys - Character Areas
Industrial Foothills and Valleys Character Areas

6a   Calder Valley
6b   West Pennine Foothills
6c   Cliviger Gorge
6d   Adlington-Coppull

Landscape Character

The Industrial Foothills and Valleys are a complex transitional landscape of relatively small scale with intensive settlement. The area has a more gentle landform and varied vegetation cover than that of the nearby higher ground. Trees thrive around farmsteads, along stone wall boundaries and in small-medium sized woodlands. Fields are enclosed by gritstone walls or hedgerows. There is a dense network of narrow winding lanes in the rural areas and major roads link settlements along the valley floor. Settlement is heavily influenced by a history of industrial development in the villages themselves and the neighbouring urban areas. Thus the landscape character shows a mixture of rural agricultural and industrial land uses. Gritstone is the characteristic material of farm houses, laithe houses, mills, and cottages. The frequent mill terraces, industrial buildings and more modern housing developments (often built of brick), reflect the proximity to large industrial and commercial centres and lowland clay lands.

Read Village
Typical view photo 20:
Read Village

Physical Influences

South east Lancashire is predominantly underlain by Millstone Grits and sandstones with coal measures. These measures survived because they were downfaulted or deformed into basin structures during Carboniferous/ Permian times. Where increasingly thick layers of drift deposits overlie the coal, along the eastern fringes of this landscape type, extraction is limited and the landscape character is more agricultural. Where coal deposits lie closer to the surface, more extensive coal extraction has been possible and large scale exploitation, dating from the first phases of the Industrial Revolution has substantially altered the pre-industrial landscape in places.

The Industrial Foothillsand Valleys are typically found between 100 and 250 m above sea level; the higher limits form the transition to the moorland fringe. The lower slopes are generally less steep with even gradients. On the whole the Industrial Foothills are gentler and more sheltered compared to the more exposed Moorland Fringes .

Nature conservation value is limited although important habitats are found in the stream valleys. The main concentrations of semi natural woodland are found within the valleys of the Calder, Sabden, Hyndburn and Pendle Water between Nelson and Accrington. Occasional private estates and designed parklands are significant locally.

Human Influences

Within the Industrial Foothills and Valleys , extraction and industry has to some extent masked the evidence of early development of the area, although in places the origins of field patterns and boundaries can be discerned. Some early sites survive, such as the Iron Age hillfort at Castercliffe, along with the intricate network of fields, tracks, lanes, scattered hamlets and villages which combine to give evidence of the historic landscape.

The origins of industrialisation of the area date to before the 16^th century as a cottage industry based on a dual economy of agriculture and industry. It was dominated by weaving, with some small scale mining and manufacturing activity. Wool came from the South Pennine Hillsides and flax from the Lancashire and Amounderness Plain. The textile industry grew rapidly and factories appeared, which gradually replaced the domestic system. The weaving communities continued to grow and the proliferation of mills and residential development created a fragmented landscape.

Since the 1920s the textile industry has been in decline but the remains of mills and workers houses are distinctive landscape features.

Coal mining activity increased in the mid 16^th century and a number of small mines were sunk around Burnley. During the 18^th and 19^th centuries the shallower, more easily worked seams were being mined on an industrial scale and were employing large numbers of men. Industry required good transport links. Roads, railways and canals are conspicuous elements of the landscape and reflect the industrial age. Whilst some routes have become disused, many are still important transport routes today for commuting, commerce, industry and recreation. Evidence of coal extraction is frequently minimal due to subsequent reclamation and natural regeneration.

Brierfield fringe
Photo 21:
Brierfield fringe

CHARACTER AREAS - INDUSTRIAL FOOTHILLS AND VALLEYS

The Industrial Foothills and Valleys landscape type occurs in four distinct character areas, both located on the Lancashire Coalfield in the south of the study area.

Local

Character Areas

Description

Calder Valley

This landscape character area encompasses the landscape of the broad valley of the River Calder outside the urban settlements. It extends from the moorland fringes of the South and West Pennines (to the south) and Pendle Hill and Mellor Ridge (to the north) to the urban fringes of Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne. Agricultural activity is productive with lush, improved pastures utilised for dairy farming as well as sheep grazing. Stone walls remain the predominant boundary type on higher ground, although there are frequently hedgerows and post and wire fencing on the lower slopes and valley bottom. The landscape is well populated; there are many houses, footpaths and large farms. Stone walls and farm buildings are important remnants of earlier landuses, particularly where modern developments threaten to obscure the visual and cultural appeal of the area. Modern houses are conspicuous for their rendering or use of alien materials and their gardens and ornamental plants. Designed landscapes, such as Huntroyde and Read Park, are important locally to the visual and cultural qualities of this character area; they also contribute an important wooded element to the landscape. Mills, mill terraces and handloom weavers houses are reminders of a very different lifestyle and are usually located closer to the centres of urban areas. The urban fringes of Colne, Nelson and Burnley exert an influence over the landscape; close to the urban edge there are pockets of neglected land and urban fringe land uses such as horse paddocks, garden centres and retail or industrial buildings.

West Pennine Foothills

This rural area forms the rolling foothills to the West Pennine Moors. Although it has the same undulating landform, underlying geology and industrial influences as the Calder Valley, it is more rural in character It is dominated by sheep grazed pastures and includes a number of designed landscapes, with associated country houses. The villages reflect their industrial basis with rows of terraces, and sandstone quarries are present. Urban influences include allotments, horse paddocks, street lighting and kerbs, electricity pylons, communication masts, golf courses, suburban housing and road signs. Evidence of past quarrying can be seen in the numerous remnant spoil heaps which are common landscape features, for example near Withnell. The many public footpaths are an important recreational resource from which walkers may experience distant views of the urban conurbations stretching out below them.

Cliviger Gorge

The Cliviger Gorge is a dramatic feature which was carved out by glacial meltwaters and is significantly different to the other character areas included within this type, and indeed to any other landscape in Lancashire. It is one of the most spectacular examples of a glacially over-deepened valley in the Central Pennines and a well-loved local landscape which has affinities with other similar valleys in the Hebden Bridge area of West Yorkshire. The incision of a glacial meltwater channel along the valley has caused the tributary streams to be left hanging and these are now actively cutting down into the bedrock, producing natural exposures of Carboniferous rocks which are of great geological interest and which have in the past been exploited for coal. The steep slopes also have extensive landslips with a very distinctive landform. Rocky outcrops may be seen high on the valley sides, most obviously at Thieveley Scout. There is scattered settlement along the A646(T) on the valley floor. There are important small blocks of woodland around the settlement of Holme Chapel. These are mostly stands of late 18^th century tree planting, dominated by beech and sycamore, which is part of a wider designed landscape. Industrial remains such as the silver and lead mine at Thieveley are important as a reminder of the areas past.

Adlington-Coppull

This area is bordered by the Coastal Plain to the west and the town of Chorley to the north. Much of the area lies on the Coal Measures and has been extensively mined in the past, notably at Chisnall, Birkacre and Duxbury. This industrial past is reflected in the expanded industrial settlements of Coppull and Adlington. Whilst there is some evidence of early mine shafts and adits, much of the land has been reclaimed or has re-vegetated naturally. There is also evidence of sand quarrying, some disused, some ongoing, as at Rigby House. Whilst the area is not generally well wooded, it contains important semi-natural woodland within the Yarrow Valley and plantations associated with large reclamation schemes. The area is traversed by major transport routes, including the main west coast railway and M6 motorway. A major leisure facility is located at Park Hall and a large golf course at Duxbury Park. The area is under considerable pressure for further built development.

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