This large area, some twelve by ten miles (see figure 4.3.9) is centred on W orcester itself and so it comes as no surprise to find a number of estates (10 not counting the divisions within the composite estate of W ican) all clustered around this important centre. Due to the size of the large estate held by Pershore Abbey in the south of the area it has been necessary to bisect this estate with the a rea’s boundary for the purposes of this study: it is too large to m ake an extension of the region practical. The extent of the region lies wholly within the large expanse of the Severn Vale, which reaches out in all directions for som e distance, except to the west where the land rises steeply to form a number of hills, such as W oodbury and Abberley Hills, and the Malvern Hills which lie to the south west of the region. These features result from resistant Silurian and Precambrian rocks being thrust upwards into the surrounding softer rocks. They do not themselves represent limits of the Vale, which continues to the west beyond them.
T h e region itself is particularly flat and low-lying. The only land above 100m occurs in the extrem e west of the region, where the land begins to rise towards the hills mentioned above. There is also a very small area that just reaches above 100m in the north east of the region, but this is so small as to be almost negligible. The bulk of the region is situated within a range of 30-
Wican Little Witley Bently Holt Dunhampstead HImbleton Oddinqlev Hallow Dumbleton/Kinqton Clopton St, John’s
Broadwas Cudlev Bredfcot
Cotheridge
Whittinqton
Lower Wolverton
Pershore Holdinqs
Figure 4.3.9
Estates in the Region
.0
1
2
3
4
5 Miles
: --- i --- 1--- 1— 1 ■
100m
150m
Piddle and Bow Brooks with their numerous minor tributaries create a subsidiary drainage system, flowing into the Avon and eventually into the Severn som e distance to the south of the region.
T h e city of W orcester is by far the largest modern settlement, situated in the centre of the area. T h e town of Droitwich, which is sited some five miles north east of Worcester, also takes land out of agricultural use, but is not nearly so large. The remainder of the area is dotted with a number of small villages and farms which seem to fall som ewhere between isolated and nucleated, being clustered to only a slight degree.
T h e geological formations occurring in this area can be simply divided into three. In the extrem e north west of the region, where the land rises, the Silurian and Precambrian rocks mentioned above outcrop. In the northernmost quarter of the area undifferentiated sandstones of the Permo-Triassic phase are found. These rocks are fairly soft and are the same as those seen in the red and green banded cliffs from the Severn Bridge. The remainder of the area is underlain by mudstones of the Triassic Period. These rocks are also soft and naturally succeed the Perm o-T riassic sandstones, leaving no obvious topographical boundaries, hence the uniformity of the region.
T h e range of soils represented in this area is relatively diverse, largely on account of the concentration of water channels (see figure 4.3.10). However, particular three soil associations can be seen to occur more frequently than others, these are the Bishampton 2, Bromsgrove and W him ple 3 associations. All three are typical brown earths, though the W him ple 3 series is of slight stagnogleyic form. All three share a loamy texture, with the Bishampton 2 series representing the fine end of the scale and the Bromsgrove representing the coarse end. These soils are better than average, the best being the Whimple 3 series with a classification of good, reflecting its suitability to both grass and crop production. T h e remaining two have been classified as moderately good on account of both being of only m oderate quality with respect to grass. This is a result of the droughtiness of these soils, in turn a result of a deep profile and their both being of a well drained and permeable nature.
Due to the particularly low-lying, level nature of the area there are no slopes to be found in the region which pose a threat to agricultural potential. Therefore the overall classification of the land is the same as that arrived at based on the classification of soils alone (figure 4.3.11). T h e overall picture is one of better than average quality with the bulk of the region covered by soils of either grade 1 or 2 land, with remainder being almost exclusively comprised of grade 3 and 4 land.
= '" ','4 3 . ^ 3 1 541W 712b / 4 3 I / / » I / / 541w
Figure 4.3.10
The Estates and Soil Associations (see appendix C for key)
4
5 Miles
J
I
Extent of Estate
100m 150m 200mFigure 4.3.11
The Estates and Land Quality (1=best, 10=worst)
W ii
5 Miles
^
Extent of Estate
100m
150m
200m
COMPARISON:
It will be helpful to condense briefly the above summaries into a series of short comparisons which enable an overall view of the range of contrasts and similarities between the three chosen regions. The three regions represent the three areas within the study bounds with the highest concentration of estates. As a result of the uneven distribution of estates to the west of the W ye it has only been possible to take one region in the limits of the property ownership of Llandaff, thus not allowing comparison within this corpus of estates between regions. On the other hand two regions containing W orcester estates have been selected, due to the somewhat concentrated pattern of these estates into distinct clusters.
To give some idea of location, the Gwent region lies approximately 30 miles south-west of the central Worcestershire region and approximately the sam e distance from the Cotswold region in a broadly westerly direction. The Cotswold estate in turn lies about 15 miles south-east of that in central Worcestershire.
Topographically the three regions are quite different, with the majority of the central Worcestershire region situated below 100m whilst very little of the Cotswold region is below 100m and in places reaches 300m . Both of these regions are made up essentially of gentle slopes which do not infringe on agricultural use or potential. The Gwent region, however, alternates between low and high land, as a result having a greater proportion of steep slopes and thus many areas where agricultural activity is markedly effected and limited by topography.
Hydrologically all three regions are broadly similar, with a relatively even coverage of water bearing channels over their extent. One distinction which can be m ade is the lack of any larger channels in the Cotswold area where there is a greater number of river sources giving rise to sm aller channels. In contrast the Gwent region is directly influenced in the south west by the Usk river and in the north east by the Monnow, the W ye and to a lesser extent the Trothy. Meanwhile the T em e and Severn both flow through the central Worcestershire region. The larger rivers, i.e. the Severn, Usk and W ye, are all navigable along their lengths in the regions discussed here by smaller craft, whilst the W ye is navigable by larger vessels as far as Llandogo, one of the Gwent estates (pers. com. Paul Courtney): the W ye flows just beyond the eastern limit of the Gwent region. This may well have been of great economic importance to the region in our period, though there is no direct evidence to point to the exact impact of water navigation in this period.
As regards soils, it is clear that the central Worcestershire region is far more diverse than the other two. In the Cotswold region the Elmton 1 soils cover over half of the area and in the Gwent region the Milford and Bromyard associations cover a wide extent. T h e Cotswold region does however display a greater degree of variation in the east. With such a variation in the extent of homogenous soil coverage represented it should be possible to see how or whether at all the degree of soil variation effects the location, shape and size of estates. It should also be pointed out that the Gwent region is the only one of the three which does not have a large expanse of land removed from agricultural use by urban development. In both of the other regions soil classifications have not been possible in certain areas on account of urban land use, but, whilst
of variation can be seen between them. T h e region with the greatest diversity of land quality grades is the Gwent region on account of the extensive slopes that inhibit agricultural potential. This is despite a fairly homogenous soil coverage. On the other hand the Cotswold region has by far the least variation with the vast majority of the area of grades 3 and 4. The central Worcestershire region lies somewhere between the two.
T h e region with the best land on average, that is land of grades 1 to 3, is the Worcestershire region with much land of grade 2 and a significant amount of grade 1 land. Of the remaining two areas the Gwent region has a significant amount of land which is clearly better than that found in the Cotswold region, but at the sam e time has a good deal which is of poorer quality. It is therefore difficult to choose between them in terms of overall quality.