Boundaries : Assessment of Significance / Heritage Merit

Importance of boundaries – general observations

Boundaries are of considerable historic and landscape importance for a number of reasons:

• as historical structures they have valuable internal chronologies, and they are capable of revealing complex land use histories
• individual features are components in patterns of boundaries forming field systems of various types and periods, some with considerable chronological depth (palimpsests)
• they are key elements of the historic landscape character of the countryside

Picture of Traditional Boundary : Greenlee Bank Parallel To Section 2

As features maintained by traditional husbandry practices they are important to local cultural landscapes:

• they are often features that seal extensive and varied buried soils containing important palaeo-ecological evidence for past environments and land-use
• they often support vegetation, notably hedgerow species and trees, which is revealing of historic land use
• they are important habitats in their own right, often included in biodiversity action plans (baps) for biodiversity value
• they also provide important corridors of movement for various species across the landscape, forming links with other areas of semi-natural habitat

Picture Of Traditional Boundary : Greenlee Section 2 With Bank Underlying Wall