Landscape elements are small, recognisable features in the landscape that are not part of the productive ground but give the landscape its structure and character. Almost all of them are the result of human use: of reclamation, of stock keeping, of water management or of property boundaries.
Examples
- Woody features — hedgebanks, shelterbelts, hedges, pollarded trees, traditional orchards, isolated trees, coppice, pleached limes beside a farmstead.
- Water — ponds, ditches, drainage channels, pools, old meanders.
- Relief — lynchets and terraces on slopes, steep banks, holloways, mounds, dykes and boundary dykes.
- Small structures — field barns, bakehouses, boundary stones, dry stone walls, kissing gates.
Why this matters to builders
Anyone building, altering or reorganising a site in open countryside will encounter these features — often as a hard constraint:
- Development plans. Local authorities record landscape features worth keeping, sometimes with a consent requirement for grubbing out, infilling or levelling them.
- Landscape integration. For new build or a significant extension in the countryside, the authority frequently requires a landscape scheme with locally appropriate planting as a condition of consent.
- Trees and species. Rules on felling and on protecting the species that live in banks, ponds and veteran trees sit in nature conservation law. A hedgebank may also contain breeding or resting places.
- Tree protection. Individual trees are often additionally protected by local orders, requiring separate consent to fell or lop.
Rules of thumb for creating and restoring
- Use locally native species. A hawthorn hedge belongs in one landscape, an alder belt in another. Regional planting lists are published by landscape conservation bodies.
- Follow existing lines. Work along the field boundary, the ditch or the lane. A new planting direction running across the field pattern reads immediately as an alien element.
- Observe boundary distances. Rules on how close trees and shrubs may be planted to a neighbouring boundary vary by country and by local regulation. Check before planting rather than after.
- Management is part of it. A hedgebank that is not periodically cut back grows on into woodland and loses both its function and its appearance.
Related terms
- Hedgebank
- Lynchet
- Boundary dyke
- Bocage landscape
- Boundary treatment
- Pleached lime
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