Today the open downland of the AONB is limited to small areas on the edge of escarpments, in steeped sided coombes or to nature reserves such as at Martin Down in Hampshire.

However, historic Ordnance Survey maps show that as recently as 50 years ago the AONB was dominated by open downland and unimproved grassland. These high downlands were typified by vast uninterrupted vistas, lack of dwellings, few marked roads and very large flocks of sheep.

The open downland, areas of rough grazing, furze and heath were all extremely important features of the landscape in the past. These areas were subject to common rights which gave people access to fuel, summer grazing and materials for construction. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the growth of intensive farming meant that these more marginal lands were increasingly encroached upon. Open Land in the AONB shrunk to a fraction of its former size. The locations where it is still found mark an important historical survival, which is often also of great ecological significance.

Click map for large PDF version (240Kb)

The map illustrates the distribution of Open Land through today's landscape in the AONB by Major Type.

Open Land in the AONB has a very restricted distribution. There are distinct concentrations of surviving open land firstly in the area surrounding Martin Down, to the north of Mere and to the north of Shaftesbury around Semley Common. The area around Semley Common forms the only surviving common land in the AONB; common land is an unusual feature in the 21st century landscapes of England.

The surviving open chalk downland represents traces of what would have once been large tracts of downland. In the 18th and 19th century this land formed a major part of the sheep corn husbandry system of farming. Much of this land was transformed into fields in the 19th and 20th century, leaving only small areas remaining. The other types of open land represent the survival of land which would have been on the edge of settlements and fields in the past and often was poor quality agricultural land such as marsh or heath.

Follow the link to download Section 5.2 of the HLC Report PDF (1.3 Mb) - a more detailed description of the historic character of open land in the AONB.