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	The dispersed, rural nature of this linear settlement is one of the main positive elements of Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area. Set within an undulating landscape in the crux of the valley of Bagthorpe Brook and surrounded by a patchwork quilt of ancient field patterns defined by traditional hedgerows, Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area is quintessentially an ancient pastoral farming settlement.
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Many of the farms, smallholdings and individual dwellings are separated by open meadows which creates a distinctive rural character. This is also reinforced by the roadscape, which has benefited from the retention of grass verges, a lack of kerbs and pavements and, in places, original farm track driveways. Traditional hedgerows border the highway and act as a screen to many properties, which are mostly set back from the road in an elevated position.

Although the majority of the properties add to the character of the Conservation Area, one major positive aspect is the lack of development. However a culmination of architectural features throughout Lower Bagthorpe has helped to retain some key historic elements.

Key architectural features include:

Architectural crests (Earl Cowper)	Original chimney stacks	Timber sash windows
The retention of natural slate and clay pan tiled roofs	Wrought iron gates and railings	Properties which have retained their original facade (red brick).

These factors give a flavour of the key elements which make Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area so special. The appraisal provides a more detailed assessment and helps to identify the positive characteristics which make Lower Bagthorpe worthy of Conservation Area status.

Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area Appraisal

The Conservation Area Appraisal for Lower Bagthorpe was adopted by Ashfield District Council in March 2007. This was in response to the Council’s commitment to preserve and enhance the four conservation areas within Ashfield District, as outlined in the adopted Ashfield Local Plan Review (2002).

Select to download a text only version of the Appraisal

Select to download the full version of the Appraisal (3 mb)

Select to download the maps:-

Figure 1 - Bagthorpe Conservation Area
Figure 2 - Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Figure 3 - Bagthorpe Conservation Aerial Photo
Figure 4 - County Series Map from 1879 - 1881
Figure 5 - Views in and around the Conservation Area
Figure 6 - Positive and Negative Features

Listed Buildings

There are three Grade II listed buildings in Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area, which are Manor Farm, Wansley Hall and Wansley Hall Tithe Barns.

• The Manor Farmhouse. The property is late eighteenth century and was once a working mill with a water wheel, which was powered by Bagthorpe Brook.
• The Old Tithe Barn. The tithe barns were constructed some time in the sixteenth or seventeenth century and were restored and converted to two houses in 1980.
• Wansley Hall The ruins of Wansley Hall are also a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Historic Landscape Character

One of the most distinctive features of Lower Bagthorpe Conservation Area is the surrounding landscape, which contains a section of rare, ancient field patterns above the north east boundary of the Conservation Area. A section of long narrow fields, defined as ‘Fossilised Open Fields’ by Nottinghamshire Historic Landscape Characterisation Project (1998-2000), dominates the North Eastern landscape.

This type of field pattern only accounts for approximately 0.2% of the Nottinghamshire landscape. It is assumed that such field patterns originated in the enclosure of strips in open fields.

The position of the fields, directly adjacent to the ancient settlement of Lower Bagthorpe, also opens the possibility that the fields were former doles allocated to tenants living in the village. It is possible that the fields date back to the Tenth or Eleventh century when closes to the rear of settlement tofts were quite common.

Alternatively the field patterns could have evolved between the Fifteenth and early Eighteenth century as a consequence of early piecemeal enclosures marked as “ancient enclosures” on the Parliamentary Enclosure Award Maps of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.

Some of these fields are also within the Bagthorpe Meadows Sites of Special Scientific Interest