Fareham Borough Landscape Assessment

May 1996

Landscape Character Area 14

North Sarisbury Fringe

Summary Description

This is a small area of semi-rural, wooded landscape that is sandwiched between the M27 to the north and the urban edges of Lower Swanwick, Sarisbury and Park Gate. It was formerly part of the mosaic of wooded farmland that characterise this general area before it became isolated from open countryside by roads and urban development. It lies on a north-facing valley side and is unified by its physical characteristics and its intimate and strongly wooded character.

The essential characteristics of the North Sarisbury Fringe are: * a steep north facing valley side; * a small-scale complex of horse-grazed pasture, farmland and horticulture set within mature hedgerows and small woodland copses; * parts of the area have a somewhat neglected and scrubby character, particularly at Beacon Bottom; * the presence of detracting urban elements, such as the northern urban edge at Addison Road, the M27 Motorway and the proximity of the landfill site.

Enhancement Priorities

This forms another fragment of rural landscape that has been severed from the wider countryside and is affected by a variety of urban influences. The priority should be to minimise those influences and to reduce the barrier effect of the motorway to the north. This would best be achieved through maintenance and extension of the wooded character that links both sides.

The priorities for enhancement are: * to maintain the predominantly rural character of the landscape and its complex of small-scale pastures, woodlands, mature hedgerows and copses; * to manage areas of woodland and to extend them by new planting, especially along the motorway corridor and along the urban edges; * to encourage a high standard of land management and enhancement of areas currently suffering from neglect.