Fareham Borough Landscape Assessment

May 1996

Landscape Character Area 9

North Fareham Downs

Summary Description

The North Fareham Downs form part of an extensive tract of countryside to the north of the Borough which once extended right up to the fringes of Fareham but is now severed by the M27 motorway (the southern boundary of the area). To the north it is bounded by the wooded clay landscape of the Forest of Bere, to the east by the prominent ridge of Portsdown Hill, and to the west by the railway line near Funtley which marks a sharp change in character.

The essential characteristics of the North Fareham Downs are: * distinctively rolling landform, typical of chalk downland; * small-scale landscape features, such as the area of former parkland at Roche Court and the Wallington River valley, which have a distinctive and important local character but a localised influence on the wider arable landscape; * a distinctively rural, agrarian character with scattered farmsteads and rural lanes but few other buildings or urban fringe influences within the landscape aside from the immediate M27 motorway corridor and intrusive pylons and transmission lines; * dominance of intensive arable farmland with a large field pattern and an open, and denuded character to the south, with a very weak hedgerow structure and very few trees, but with expansive views and a sense of space and airiness; * visual containment to the north by the strong woodland structure of the Forest of Bere character area.

Enhancement Priorities

This is the most extensive area of open countryside within Fareham Borough and the emphasis should be primarily on the maintenance of its predominantly rural character. However, its quality has been affected by intensive farming practice and the intrusion of power lines and the M27 motorway. Emphasis should therefore also be given to landscape enhancement, primarily through planting of hedgerows, shelterbelts and copses, to mitigate such effects.

The priorities for enhancement are: * to protect the rural, agricultural character of this extensive tract of open countryside; * to avoid the introduction of buildings or structures that would be visually prominent within the open, rolling landscape; * to protect and manage important areas of woodland and historic parkland along the Wallington Valley and at Roche Court; * to encourage reintroduction of hedgerows, shelterbelts and small copses to improve landscape structure and reduce exposure; * to enhance the M27 corridor on the southern edge of the area by new hedgerow and tree planting.