Stour Valley Pasture

The Stour Valley Pasture is a pastoral landscape dominated by the meandering river Stour set within a wide and settled floodplain.

The Stour Valley Pasture is a pastoral landscape dominated by the meandering river Stour set within a wide and settled floodplain. The area also includes the southern edge of the Iwerne Valley which extends into the Cranborne Chase National Landscape. Although it shares many of the same characteristics as the main part of the Stour Valley, it has a more intimate character. The surrounding chalk Downland towards the Cranborne Chase National Landscape to the east and the North Dorset escarpment to the west create a sense of enclosure to the valley floor pastures. Small blocks of wet woodland along the river provide structure and diversity and a sense of intimacy to this otherwise flat and open landscape. Dense hedgerows with trees, small scale fields and occasional grassland meadows and remnant withy beds along the river give way to nucleated villages and larger blocks of deciduous woodland along the valley sides. Land use becomes more intensive towards Blandford and a significant parkland landscape around Bryanston School provides an attractive edge to the Blandford urban fringe.

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