Thames Basin Heaths

The Thames Basin Heaths are a natural region in southern England in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, a mottled belt of land running from east to west.

Chobham Common looking towards Sunningdale Golf Course

They are recognised as national character area 129 by Natural England, the government's advisor on the natural environment. They cover an area of 118,529 hectares (457.64 sq mi) of countryside surrounding towns Newbury, Camberley and Woking, To the west sit the Berkshire Downs, across similar size, well-drained, and intensively farmed, sports-use or settled Thames floodplains to the north are the Chilterns and Thames Valley, to the east and southeast are the Thames Basin Lowlands and to the near south are the Hampshire Downs.[1]

Environment

The terrain of the heathland is characterized by flat or gently sloping plateaux with numerous watercourses incising broad or sometimes steep-sided valleys. Apart from these, the heaths are lower heading east (before the London Basin) and along the main river valleys to the low-lying areas of the Kennet floodplain and lower reaches of the Loddon and its largest tributary, the Blackwater. At the western edge is the chalk scarp of the Hampshire Downs. The highest elevation is 296 metres.[1]

Drainage

The other main watercourses are the Basingstoke Canal, the Kennet & Avon Canal, the Wey, Whitewater, Pang and Mole.[1]

Protected areas
Track through the forestry plantation in the Broadmoor to Bagshot Woods and Heaths SSI

Just over 20,000 hectares (17%) sits in the North Wessex Downs AONB.

The zone has:

There are many Sites of Special Scientific Interest or SSSIs within – one of the largest is the Broadmoor to Bagshot Woods and Heaths SSSI where rare types of birds and other species are professionally monitored and conserved.

Much of the east of the zone there can be easily traced a Roman Road, the Devil's Highway (Roman Britain). The region has an Iron Age hillfort, one of several so-named, in this case specifically, Caesar's Camp, Bracknell Forest.

See also

References
  1. NCA 129: Thames Basin Heaths Key Facts & Data at www.naturalengland.org.uk. Accessed on 6 Apr 2013.

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