The key characteristics of Rockingham Forest are:

92. Rockingham Forest

The key characteristics of Rockingham Forest are:

• Undulating landform rising to prominent scarp along edge of Welland Valley in Rockingham Forest.

• Large woodlands on higher ground enclose the landscape.

• High historic and nature-conservation interest in woodlands.

• Remnants of unimproved grassland throughout, with limestone heaths and fragments of acid bogs in the Soke of Peterborough.

• Foreground views are occupied by large arable fields with low hedges.

• Large mature landscape parks and country houses.

• Dry stone walls around villages, becoming more common in open countryside in Soke of Peterborough.

• Nucleated villages often in sheltered streamside locations.

• Distinctive buildings constructed in local stone: ironstone in west, limestone in east.

• Undisturbed, deeply rural quality despite nearby towns and adjoining trunk roads.

• Prominent, disused ironstone quarries (gullets) and abandoned second world war airfields.

• A sharp transition between the countryside and the main towns of Kettering, Corby and Peterborough (lying just outside the area) which have developed rapidly in recent years.

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.