Lie of the Land

Above: Conifer plantations have replaced much heathland

Above: Salt marshes at Upton House

Above: A winding road across Studland Heath

Landscape Character Areas, defined by the Countryside Agency (now part of Natural England) as areas that carry a distinctive ‘sense of place’ and which are more than single landscapes, are almost by their very nature fairly unchanging.  Indeed, this apparent stability has made Dorset in particular a county that is renowned for its gentle pace and timeless scenery, and a place that is highly sought after in which to live. Yes, there have been changes in land management, and yes, like everywhere, development has made its mark, but generally, the 10 Landscape Character Areas that can be found in Dorset look pretty much as they’ve always done, don’t they?

Well, when it comes to the Dorset Heaths, nothing could be further from the truth! Today’s Egdon Heath, immortalised in the writing of Thomas Hardy, retains just 15% of its original heathland cover, and as a Landscape Character Area has become dominated instead by development, agriculture and coniferisation. 

Long gone are the days when a journey from Hengistbury Head to Dorchester could be undertaken across an almost continual blanket of heath, dissected only by the river valleys of the Frome, Piddle and Stour. Instead, the A35’s torturous trek across the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation suggests any form of ericaceous past only at its very end at Upton Heath, before the journey west continues via pasture and plantation towards Bere Regis.

In 1878, when Hardy wrote The Return of the Native, Bournemouth had just 16,000 residents, roughly one tenth of today’s population. Its expansion over the last 130 years, like its neighbours Poole and Christchurch, has been at the expense of the natural heathland communities of plants (Dorset boasts four heathers, including the county speciality, the Dorset Heath), birds (like nightjar and Dartford warbler), and reptiles such as the smooth snake and sand lizard. 

Thankfully, this tide of change that had reached a peak in the second half of the 20th century was stopped, pretty much in its tracks, and has since even turned around.

Government intervention in the 1980s to halt the further development of Canford Heath raised awareness of the value of this unique ecosystem, since which time, not only has further building been severely constrained, but European legislation has given heathland unparalleled protection. 

This heightened status, and a large injection of grant-aid, has enabled management to return to neglected areas, many key sites to move into the ownership of conservation organisations, and some plantations, for example, to be returned to their former heathland status, actually increasing this element of the Dorset Heaths Landscape Character Area.

Of course, the Dorset Heaths were always man-made, created by Bronze Age clearance of poor- quality woodland 4,000 years ago. This disruption on the tertiary rocks of the area led to the poor, acidic soils that allowed the heaths to flourish and to produce the characteristic landscape that can be both a source of inspiration on a sunny day with the heather in full bloom, or something somewhat bleaker on a cold and misty winter’s day.

Unlike the neighbouring Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase Landscape Character Area with its many hillforts and ancient landmarks, signs of early habitation are fairly scarce, although examples can be found at either end of the area at Woolsbarrow in the west and Hengistbury Head in the east.

The difficult heathland terrain made the area an unattractive one to inhabit, so towns were fairly few and far between for such a large area, prior to the major developments of the last century. Those larger settlements that did emerge did not rely on the poor returns from heathland farming: Wimborne Minster benefiting from the rich agricultural lands of Cranborne Chase, whilst Poole drew its wealth from fishing and its port trade, taking over those roles from Wareham, as access to the sea became more difficult for the latter across an increasingly silted Poole Harbour. 

For Wareham, the demand for ball clay provided something of an economic diversification, this quarrying setting the tone for an increasing demand for aggregates in the Dorset Heaths that continues to this day, right the way across the Landscape Character Area from Warmwell and Crossways, via Upton and Corfe Mullen, to Parley.

But high-value clay and large quantities of sand and gravel were not the only subterranean riches to be found in the Dorset Heaths: Europe’s largest onshore oil-production operation was established on the southern shores of Poole Harbour, soon after this new industry was first attempted at Kimmeridge, in the neighbouring Landscape Character Area of South Purbeck. 

In theory, the arrival of heavy plant, tanks, pipes, buildings, roads and towering derricks could have caused serious damage to the character of the Dorset Heaths, had it not been for a greener, but nonetheless fairly dramatic landscape change 20 years earlier: the arrival of the conifer plantations.

Ideally suited to being established on the poor soils, major plantations were created in the north-east of the Dorset Heaths centred on Ringwood Forest, Hurn Forest and the plantations near Ferndown and Colehill. This heathland-to-conifer conversion also created Wareham Forest, as well as the plantations at Wytch, Rempstone and Newton Heaths that formed the perfect screen behind which to carefully conceal the workings of the new Dorset oil industry.

But whether conversion of substantial blocks of heathland can be argued as having been a good thing for landscape diversity or not (and some of it is being undone, such as at Avon Heath Country Park where conifers are making way for heather once again) not even the tallest pine could have hidden two of the Dorset Heath’s most dramatic visual changes: the creation of the Atomic Energy Establishment at Winfrith Heath and the rapid growth of Bournemouth International (formerly Hurn) Airport. 

So much has changed the character of the Dorset Heaths in fairly recent times (even the arrival of the rhododendron is a fairly contemporary phenomenon) that it might appear that this is a landscape in constant turmoil. In fact, in many cases, change has been far more gradual. 

Agricultural improvements to turn heathland into more productive pasture, and occasionally arable, date back almost 400 hundred years. This process helped, in turn, to create some of Dorset’s most visually appealing villages such as Holt and Moreton, the latter given further stability by being situated on one of the area’s three rivers, the Frome. The more productive river valleys made farming easier and lessened the economic need for change so obvious in other parts of the Dorset Heaths.

And, of course, Dorset’s three main rivers don’t just pass through the Dorset Heaths, they end their journeys in one of the two great natural harbours that add yet another dimension to this wonderfully diverse Landscape Character Area. Both Poole and Christchurch Harbours are brimming with creeks, salt marshes, mud flats and reed beds more reminiscent of the south-east than the south-west of England. The two harbours also boast beaches, although their sands have to play second fiddle to the big vistas and dunes of Studland Bay and the long sweep from Hengistbury Head to Sandbanks.

The Dorset Heaths pack so much into one Landscape Character Area that choosing just one spot to represent its diversity appears at first a daunting challenge. But if there is to be a first amongst equals, try Studland Heath: some of the finest heather sits between plantations and reclaimed fields and the wilder environments of marshes and beaches, whilst great views of the conurbation can be enjoyed from afar with a quaint, thatched village close to hand.