I. CCP assessment

The national Character of England Map (CCX 41) has identified seven regional character areas within Nottinghamshire (Map 1). Only Sherwood is fully contained within the County, with other regions continuing into Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire.

2. County Assessment

The County assessment has identified a total of ten regional character areas (See map below). The NATIONAL map has classified most of the eastern portion of the County into a very broad character area termed the Trent and Belvoir Vales. The finer-grained County assessment has revealed that the reality is far more complex than this, and that this area actually sub-divides into five distinct regions: Trent Washlands, Mid Nottinghamshire Farmlands, Vale of Belvoir and East nottinghamshire Sandlands. These regions should be regarded as sub-areas of the national map.

Of the ten regional character areas identified, only Sherwood, the Mid-Nottinghamshire Farmlands and the South Nottinghamshire Farmlands are either wholly, or almost wholly, within the County. The other regions are more fully represented outside of the County, with the exception of the Vale of Belvoir which is split almost equally with Leicestershire.

The regional character areas are as follows:-

• Nottinghamshire Coalfield
  A densely settled, heavily industrialised region characterised by closely spaced mining settlements, pit heaps and small pastoral farms
• Magnesian Limestone Ridge
  A gently rolling, in places urbanised, agricultural landscape with a regular pattern of large fields and distinctive stone villages
• Sherwood
  A well-wooded, and in places industrialised region characterised by semi-natural woodlands and heaths, historic country estates, large pine plantations, mining settlements and a planned layout of roads and fields
• Idle Lowlands
  A varied, low-lying region characterised by sparsely settled carrlands, levels, and rolling sandlands with village settlements
• Mid Nottinghamshire Farmlands
  A rural agricultural region characterised by small nucleated red brick villages, narrow country lanes, ancient woodlands, wooded “dumble” streams and a variable pattern of fields
• Trent Washlands
  A low-lying agricultural region associated with the broad valleys of the Trent and Soar, characterised by productive arable farming, meadowlands, small nucleated villages, market towns and cities, power stations and quarries
• East Nottinghamshire Sandlands
  A remote low-lying agricultural region characterised by a well-ordered layout of fields and roads, small red brick villages, a varied pattern of woodland cover and pockets of remnant heathy vegetation
• South Nottinghamshire Farmlands
  A prosperous lowland agricultural region with a simple rural character of large arable fields, village settlements and broad alluvial levels
• Nottinghamshire Wolds
  A sparsely settled and remote rural region characterised by rolling clay wolds, mixed farming, small red brick villages and narrow country lanes
• Vale of Belvoir
  A low-lying clay vale with a strong tradition of dairying characterised by large hedged fields, small rural villages and wide views to rising ground