The key characteristics of the Potteries and Churnet Valley are:

64. Potteries and Churnet Valley

The key characteristics of the Potteries and Churnet Valley are:

• Strongly dissected hills and small plateaux, rising up to the Pennines and cut by major river valleys.

• Strong contrast between remote uplands, urban areas, sheltered wooded valleys and hillside pastures.

• Prominent Millstone Grit and Coal Measures ridges.

• Sprawling industrial towns of the Potteries forming a major conurbation.

• Extensive former industrial and extractive sites, many now reclaimed, intermixed with settlements and open land.

• Open moorland and rough grazing on higher ground.

• Rural settlement pattern of sheltered villages on low ground with hamlets, scattered farmsteads and cottages elsewhere.

• Brick and sandstone older buildings with tile and slate roofs.

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.