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60. Mersey Valley
• A very distinctive river valley landscape focusing on the Mersey, its estuary and associated tributaries and waterways, although the Mersey itself is often obscured.
• A range of landscape types, including salt marshes around the estuary, remnants of semi-natural mosslands and pockets of basin peats towards Manchester, with the broad river valley in between.
• Broad linear valley with large scale, open, predominantly flat farmland supporting substantial bands of mixed agriculture.
• Trees and woodland are scarce and are mainly associated with settlements.
• Field pattern is regular and large scale, often defined by degraded hedgerows.
• Large scale highly visible industrial development, particularly at the river crossings of Runcorn, Widnes and Warrington.
• The valley has a dense communication network with motorways, roads, railways and canals producing a large number of bridge crossings. Power lines are also prominent along this corridor.
• Distinctive cultural landscape with major towns of Runcorn, Warrington and Widnes having much in common in relation to past and existing development pressures.
For further details on this character area and for an introduction to the region, please see the PDF documents in the box at the top right hand side of this page.
