Historic Landscape Character Area 5

Chalk Downland

Map of HLCA 1

The area comprises two discrete areas of the AONB

Large scale open 19th and 20th century fields the boundaries of which often cut across the prevailing topography. These were created from vast areas of former downlands.
The southern downland belt has discrete areas of older or contrasting land use within it, including parkland at Kingston Lacy, Wimborne St Giles, Gunville and Eastbury Park, and pre 1800 fields at Martin, Chettle and Handley Green.
Pockets of open downland survive, notably at Martin Down.
Both areas have extremely rich archaeological records.
The West Wiltshire Downs is notable for its Iron Age and Romano British archaeology, while the southern downland belt is famous for its spectacular Prehistoric archaeology, including the Dorset Cursus.
Both areas are associated with historic road junctions.
The areas are crisscrossed by Roman roads and other ancient routeways such as droveways.
There is a planned Medieval village at Hindon.

The full Historic Landscape Character Area description is available to download from the
Historic Environment Action Plan Pages