​​Dramatic landscape​

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The narrow upland plateau of the Quantock Hills is the only National Landscape based on sandstone rocks of the Devonian Period; the hills reach a height of 386m lifting the Quantock Hills above the surrounding lowland plain and providing exceptional panoramic views. The ridge landform of the Quantock Hills with its deep folds and varied land cover gives the landscape a highly distinctive identity separating it from the lowlands in which it sits. This narrow upland plateau is imposing above the surrounding agricultural plain and provides a dramatic backdrop feature over a wide area. 

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In the southern Quantock Hills rolling hedged farmland with numerous copses, hamlets and villages climbs through wide hedged combes and slopes to open hilltops of neutral grassland and scattered scrub. The western flank of the Quantock Hills is a steep scarp slope of pasture, hanging woods and historic parkland with ancient trees above the string of settlements and large houses lining the bottom of the slope. Deep stream-cut combes to the north east contain extensive oakwoods that climb towards small flower-rich bogs in the high heaths of gorse, heather, bracken and thorn. This virtually unbroken hilltop heathland has, in many places, distinctive beech hedgebanks separating it from surrounding extensive grass enclosures, woodland and conifer plantations. The coastal edge of the Quantock Hills provides foreshore and cliff features that add to the area’s landscape richness and diversity. 

The whole landscape is a watershed laced with streams and brooks while distinctive beech hedgebanks, tree lines and avenues link farmland to higher heaths. A network of country lanes ranges mainly around the lower contours connecting distinctive villages often built from the hard red sandstone that shapes the higher hills. 

 

Dramatic landscape elements:

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• Hilltop Common – unenclosed semi-natural grazed heathland (and upland oak woods), these areas are of the very highest landscape and wildlife value.

• Unimproved hill land – rough grazing grassland outside the hilltop Common – a rare resource valued for its biodiversity and wild and open character. 

• Improved hill land – green grass areas high in the hills with comparatively low levels of biodiversity. 

• Farmed combes – mixed management often hedged pastures with streams, springs and small woodlands, important for biodiversity and landscape. 

• Lower farmland – varies from areas of intensive arable with little interest to small scale mixed farming with high biodiversity and landscape value. 

• Farmed coastal strip – mixed arable, miscanthus and improved grazing with areas being returned to low input extensive grazing / arable. This area is adjacent to narrow cliff edge zone of unimproved grass / scrubland. Wildlife and landscape interest mixed – some very high. 

 

Dramatic landscape field boundaries:

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Field patterns and the hedges that enclose Quantock Hills farmland are important structural and historic features, creating rhythm and form in the agricultural landscape. The combination of topography and landform means that their importance is magnified, as the farmland fringes are often looked down upon or across to from the summits and hillsides. 

• Saxon or older hedgerows and banks – these hedges are mainly of Saxon-medieval origin sometimes created directly from woodland and other unenclosed wastes, with possible vestiges of the older Iron Age landscape pattern represented by some smaller enclosures. 

• Significant historic boundaries e.g. parish or Common – in the combes, boundary banks are a Common feature, often bordering the steep, narrow lanes: earth banks (some stone-faced), with or without a hedge on top. 

• Banked beech hedgerows – highly distinctive C18 and C19 features consisting of earth banks topped with a row/double row of beech trees, many surrounding rectangular parliamentary enclosure fields. They create distinctive and visually prominent landscape features on the edges of the central/ northern hilltop plateau and on lower ground further south taking in previously unenclosed land. Occasionally, beech trees have also been planted along far older boundaries such as the Drove Road, which runs along the central spine of the hilltop. 

• Established species-rich hedgerows and new native-species hedges, typically composed of hawthorn, blackthorn, ash, elm, oak and hazel. 

 

Dramatic landscape woodland:

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Quantock woodlands have very significant wildlife and landscape value while providing other benefits including timber products, local employment and access, recreation and tourism opportunities. Woodland and plantations in and around the Quantock Hills form a multifunctional green infrastructure network of an exceptionally high standard. (“Green infrastructure is the network of high quality green and blue spaces and other environmental features. It needs to be planned and delivered at all spatial scales from national to neighbourhood levels.” www.naturalengland.org.uk). 

• Small farm woodlands – in the lower enclosed landscape are broadleaf and/or conifer and in some cases are on ancient woodland sites. Small woodlands and copses are significant elements in the farmed Quantock Hills landscape; they also have biodiversity interest. 

• Ash-hazel woodlands – are found in the lower lying areas on the less acid rocks of central and southern parts of the Quantock Hills. Examples include the Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve of Aisholt Wood and part of Buncombe Wood on the lower southern slopes of Cothelstone Hill. The Ash-hazel mix allows good light levels at the woodland floor leading to a healthy ground flora sometimes including extensive bluebell cover. 

• Western sessile oak woodlands – are dominated by sessile oak, with rowan, birch, holly, hazel, alder, willow, ash and hazel also represented. These woods cloak the deep combes which cut into the hard sandstone rocks of the north east hills, placing them mainly within Quantock Common. The cool, moist conditions support a moss, fern, fungi and lichen community of international importance. The sessile oak woodlands are designated SSSI and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) at European level; they are absolutely key elements of Quantock Hills landscape and biodiversity significance. The oak trees nestled in the steep combes of the eastern Quantock Hills have a skeletal appearance draped in lichens and mosses, hiding the historical “industrial’ use of the woodland. The woods were an important resource in charcoal production, with the density of charcoal platforms suggesting that charcoal was being produced for a specific industry rather than for general use. It is likely that charcoal production from these woods became industrial in scale in the early post-medieval period and were joined in the 17th and 18th centuries with the felling of oak trees for timber and oak bark, which was used in the many local tanneries. This activity started to decline in the early 19th century, with no significant woodland industry present after the Second World War (Riley, H 2005 The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills, Historic England). The significant decline in activity have created the wonderful visual and wildlife resource however the woodlands are still in need of careful management to ensure their special qualities can continue.  

• Coniferous plantation – largely planted in the early 20th century dominate a large area of the central upland plateau at Great Wood, with other significant plantations throughout the Quantock Hills. Foresty England has significantly softened the landscape impacts of plantations through special design interventions over the last fifteen years, however these extensive areas of mixed and non-native tree species can impact on the special qualities of the National Landscape. More positively these forests provide an important habitat for red deer and a distinct range of invertebrates and birds and provide other benefits including timber; carbon storage, and in some areas very high access and recreation value. 

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