This is a landscape of contrasts, with ridges of higher land separated by the winding wooded valley of the River Tavy. Extensive dark mixed plantation covers its valley sides, creating a sense of isolation and secrecy. Watermeadows on the valley floors and pockets of broadleaved woodland add variations in colour and texture. Streams glide between craggy wooded banks covered in mosses and ferns, tumble over boulders and rocks, and flow under ancient bridges. Sunken lanes twist their way up the valley sides towards an open landscape of pastoral fields, with sudden long views across to Dartmoor or the River Tamar. Buckland Abbey is nestled into the valley side, surrounded by parkland. The rich and diverse landscape has a strong sense of history, with prehistoric hillforts, farms, estates, villages and industrial remains all contributing to its sense of time-depth.

This area is separated from the Tamar valley to the west by a narrow plateau which runs from Bere Alston to Lamerton. Its boundaries with adjacent landscape character areas are all fairly gradual. To the north are the Tamar Upland Fringe and Tavistock Dartmoor Fringes; to the east Central Dartmoor and Southern Dartmoor and Fringes; to the south Plymouth Farmland and the city of Plymouth and to the west the Lower Tamar and Tavy Valleys and the Middle Tamar Valley.

https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/west-devon-area/river-tavy-middle-valley 

https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policies/landscape/devon-character-areas 

 

River Tavy middle valley on DCC Environment Viewer 

Information on Devon's environment has been mapped on Devon County Council's Environment Viewer. These maps give access to geographic data for Devon on a wide range of topics.

 

Planning Strategy

To protect the landscape’s scenic quality, rural character and strong sense of place, and maintain and enhance its role in relation to Dartmoor National Park and the Tamar Valley AONB. The area continues to provide much-needed recreational provision for tourists and the residents of Plymouth, but in a sensitive way with minimal impact on the landscape and biodiversity. The area’s dramatic views and historic features are protected, understood and enhanced, with interpretation and public access where appropriate. Any development is carefully designed and sited to minimise its impact on the area’s rural character. Sustainable agriculture and the maintenance of traditional landscape features are supported. Semi-natural habitats such as heathland, woodland and watermeadows are well-managed to maximise their biodiversity and resilience to climate change.

Protect

  • Protect the area’s long views across Dartmoor and the Tavy and Tamar Valleys.
  • Protect the area’s scenic quality, and enhance its role as a setting for adjacent protected landscapes.
  • Protect the area’s high levels of tranquillity, resisting development which would reduce them.
  • Protect locally-distinctive built features, such as stone-faced hedgebanks and stone bridges.
  • Protect the dispersed settlement pattern, and traditional village form.
  • Protect historic and archaeological features, including those associated with mining, with appropriate interpretation and management if necessary, and survey to assess current condition and management needs where required; implement the World Heritage Site Management Plan.
  • Protect surviving field patterns and the landscape’s network of quiet lanes enclosed by woodland and species-rich hedgebanks, resisting unsympathetic highways improvements or signage.

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