Historic Landscape
Characterisation
The Gwent Levels
19 Trowbridge
19 Trowbridge character area: fairly simple landscape in
the low-lying back-fen.
(Photo: GGAT Gwent Levels 084)
Click here for a character
area map
This landscape was probably created in the medieval period, but after the higher coastal areas were colonised.
There are few documentary references to this area, which was probably used simply for summer pasture and meadow.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Regular field pattern of rectangular fields, green lanes, minor agricultural
settlement, drainage includes major reens and very fine surface ridging
This landscape occupies part of the lower-lying back-fen area of the Wentlooge Level mainly in the parish of St. Mellons. It borders the Roman landscape of Peterstone to the south (area 17), and area 18 to the west.
This is a very remote area of landscape, consisting of small blocks of rectangular fields, within a framework provided by major reens and minor green lanes. There are no major roads and just one farm. Some very fine areas of surface ridging survive.
Hedges are varied, but being characteristic of the lower-lying parts of Wentlooge, they are often absent; reed filled field ditches with an occasional willow are typical, giving a strongly wetland feel. They afford little screening for the housing and light industrial developments to the north and west.
The integrity and coherence as a historic landscape have been damaged,
but this area still has a great value. This was an area of fairly typical
Wentlooge landscape, comprising long narrow fields, the occasional major
reen and an absence of settlement. The surface ridging is particularly
well preserved. Piecemeal development has caused some fragmentation, but
these areas retain an ecological value and could provide recreational
green spaces. They also serve as a "buffer zone" between these
developments and the better preserved landscapes to the south.