3.1 The surrounding landscape

Speen is a predominantly residential village, built on either side of the A4 and about a mile west from Newbury town centre. Geologically, the area is chalk downlands, being part of the Berkshire Downs, with its gently rolling hills crossed by shallow river valleys. The village, lying as it does between the Kennet and Lambourn river valleys, has a lowest altitude of 80 metres at both rivers, with the levels rising gently to about 115 metres at the A4 plateau.

longer views of the village from the west. From the north, long distance views are possible from Donnington Castle and beyond up to Snelsmore Common, with the village edge visible with the golf course in the foreground.

The central core of the village, adjacent to the war memorial at the junction of the A4 and Speen Lane, is at the highest level and the land falls both to the east towards Newbury and to the south towards the meadows of Speen Moor.

3.2 Village Edges

While the north, south and west edges of the village are defined by tree belts and open countryside, the east merges with Newbury and there is no sense of approach to the village.

The built up area is situated on the north slopes of the Kennet River Valley, which rise to the A4, and on the plateau on the north side of the road. The Newbury bypass cuts through the rural landscape just west of the settlement boundary. On the eastern side there is some merging with residential areas of Newbury.

From Newbury along the Old Bath Road, the boundary of Speen is punctuated by the historic Speen Obelisk standing on the corner of Speen Lane. This ancient road provided access to the Village and St Mary’s Church from the Middle Ages onwards. Approaching Speen from the rural west, a red brick cottage gives way to the War Memorial at the other end of Speen Lane, with its historic houses and ancient garden walls.

The northern edge of the settlement is bordered by a golf course, with mature hedgerows and trees and good views north to historic Donnington Castle on a hilltop.

The higher density modern development in Speen north of the A4 merges into a residential area of Newbury to the east. The south east boundary is clearer and more rural, being along the aptly named Hill Road with its mature
hedges. This drops down to the bottom of the Kennet

Valley and the water meadows below. Thames Water, the landowner, has boreholes and a pumping station and depot on site. Further west is Speen Moor, once a peat moor but now water meadow and marshy plantation, with St Mary’s Church and Elmore Abbey nestling in a small dip surrounded by grassland, creating a tranquil haven. This has a very special sense of place and has an unusual and possibly unique situation in relation to the village.

The former railway cutting is an important “green finger” coming into the southern edge of the village. Although now partly built over to the north of Speen Lane it is still a significant, even dramatic, visual feature to the south. It also provides a natural habitat for wildlife and a pleasant wooded area all the way down to Speen Moor.

The edges of the village have very significant areas of trees, including the enclosing belt of limes on the southern edge of the golf course, together with beech on the south west corner. The trees surrounding Speen House form a significant feature from the west and from the south, especially when viewed from the Lambourn Valley Way at Speen Moor. The belt of oak and sycamore on the approaches to Elmore Abbey and the shelterbelt along the edge of the old railway also form important enclosures. The overall effect is to contain the village within trees.

3.3 Wildlife and Habitat Conservation

Within the parish there are a number of wildlife sites.

• Speen Moor – an area of approximately 35 hectares, designated as a Wildlife Heritage Site (WHS, and also a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) for the rare Desmoulin’s Whorl Snail. The area is entered into the Countryside Stewardship Scheme by the landowner. This area is liable to flooding which was a key feature in the past to bring silt from the river to the land to make it more fertile.
  
  
• The River Kennet (and its tributaries) is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a national designation, which recognises its diverse flora and fauna.
  

• The River Lambourn floodplain which is also a SSSI and cSAC at Bagnor
  
  
• Hedgerows – species rich hedges provide a rural edge north and south of the parish. There is an ancient hedgerow forming a boundary between the arable and grasslands on Speen Moor, bordering an historical track, possibly linked to the Roman settlement of Spinae a short distance away. Here there are two very old specimen field maples.
  
  
• Wet Alder Woodlands – These are an increasingly rare habitat, so the alder woods at Speen Moor have now developed into an area of high conservation value, supporting a diversity of bird (notably red kite) and invertebrate communities. The Conservation Group has conducted surveys of the birds that visit this area. It is not uncommon to see deer, fox and other wild animals. Part of this has been designated as an SSSI and cSAC

• Unimproved or natural grasslands – apart from one, all the grass fields on Speen Moor are ‘unimproved’, i.e. they have never been ploughed, re-sown or fertilised, being too wet for tractors. Because of this they still contain a wide range of wildflower and grass species. Such wildflower meadows are now amongst the rarest and most prized wildlife habitats. The majority of all wildflower meadows and pastures in the country have been destroyed since the Second World War.