A Study of the Local Distinctiveness
of Lymington and Pennington
Introduction
The town of Lymington and its neighbouring village
of Pennington have since 1932 been a single administrative unit in the New
Forest District, but both have long histories. Lymington is well known as an ancient market
town, a small fishing and ferry port and an internationally renowned yachting
centre. Pennington is today somewhat
overshadowed by its better-known neighbour, but it retains a character of
its own which reflects its origins as a small village on the edge of the New
Forest. The character of the whole
is heavily influenced, and will continue to be shaped, by the looming presence
of the latter. It follows that any
assessment of the local distinctiveness of the wider town should acknowledge
the diverse origins from which its two constituent parts emerged, while describing
the merged town as a whole within, and with regard to, its contemporary setting.
The following paragraphs therefore include separate descriptive sections
for Lymington and Pennington.
The town is served by a single main road, the
A337, which follows an indirect path between New Milton to the west and Brockenhurst
to the north and does not from part of any wider trunk route. The only other approaches are along the single-track
railway from Brockenhurst, which exists primarily to serve the ferry terminal,
(itself outside the town boundary) and the minor roads which pass through
the Forest from Sway and Beaulieu. Apart from through traffic heading for the
ferry and the Isle of Wight, the town is therefore a self-contained urban
entity set in an enviable position between forest and sea - a condition in
which its greatest asset is also its greatest enemy. Its perimeter is contiguous throughout its
length with either Green Belt or National Park and so can not be expanded.
No significant green field building land remains
within that perimeter. It is
neither a dormitory town nor an industrial centre, but is large enough to
support good infrastructure and employment for people of all ages while remaining
small enough for its inhabitants (who are drawn from a wider social and occupational
spectrum than is often supposed) to feel that they are all part of the same
community.
Despite its seaside position, Lymington has never
had any pretensions to be a seaside resort. The built-up area centres on a slight rise
on the west bank of the Lymington river a mile inland, and its southern boundary
lies along the northern edge of the National Park's coastal strip rather than
on the foreshore. The town's sole
frontage to the sea lies along the west bank of the river, and so in no way
threatens the important scenery and wildlife habitats along the Solent shore.
The town has two Conservation Areas.
One embraces the historic centre and the other an area of important
18th- and 19th-century buildings on the early foreshore to the south-east; the other, the historic town centre, where
Lymington has an unusually complete framework of burgages, the long
thin strips of land that run behind high street properties. These are classified
as being of high archaeological interest but their real importance to-day
is due to the distinctive character that quaint alleyways and high street
back gardens give the town centre, which has an unusually high residential
population. A single
designated Area of Special Character embraces an area of early buildings beside
the northern approach road. Much of
the town's built environment outside these areas has grown up during the second
half of the 20th century.
The contemporary
distinctiveness of Lymington comes in part from the influence of its coastal,
urban and rural landscapes, and in part from the arbitrary demands of external
and sometimes opposing forces such as population growth, increasing national
affluence and the dwindling supply of building land. The town's local distinctiveness is also influenced
by the nature of the protected areas through which it is approached and by
the appearance of the internal paths, most of them of ancient origin, along
and through which internal access lies. Development
within the urban area, particularly around the edges, could have adverse consequences
for the character of neighbouring areas. Views
matter - both from the town outwards towards its surroundings and vice versa.
(A reminder of the unhappy consequences of such separation lies in
the ugly contrast, not far distant to the east, between the Forest heathland
and the Fawley skyline). It follows that no definition of the town's
local distinctiveness can be confined arbitrarily to the area defined by the
town's boundaries. The following
paragraphs approach the definition of local distinctiveness along those paths,
and suggest where it appears that assessment of the town's distinctiveness
is inextricably linked with the character of neighbouring external areas.
Pervasive features of the town, to which repeated
reference is made in the following paragraphs, are the low height of most
of its buildings outside the centre, and the extent of green growth, particularly
of mature trees such as the historic New Forest oak. Both these characteristics have come under
increasing threat as pressure has grown for ever more dwellings to be fitted
into the town's fixed area. The town
is essentially full, and the demand for ever more buildings can not for much
longer be met without compromise to the its essential character.
Lymington
Southern Southampton Road. The attractive Georgian houses on the west side are in the Conservation
Area and some are listed. On the opposite
side are mostly detached houses of 1930s vintage, some of which have been
redeveloped into two small blocks of 21st
century flats. Thanks to the generous
width of the road the contrasting styles of the houses are unexpectedly complementary
and their balance, threatened by the mass of the flats, would be lost by the
intrusion of more flat developments on the east side. The whole is visually compromised by the presence
of a spider's web of overhead cables which crosses the road at intervals as
far as the junction with Avenue Road.
The unusual configuration of the crossroads at
the northern end of the Conservation area, where the one-way Eastern Road
joins the major arteries of Southampton Road and Avenue Road from the area
of the Six Acres, is controlled by traffic lights and is a key focal point
in the town. Its visual harmony has
been seriously compromised by major redevelopment.
Where until the end of the 20th century stood a well-balance miscellany
of substantial early-and mid-century family houses there now intrudes an unmatched
assortment of flats and town houses in towering 3-storey buildings.
A recent appeal decision has allowed construction of a further block
of warden-assisted accommodation, whose unprecedented scale and uninterrupted
mass stretching around the corner into Avenue Road can not be hidden by the
several varying types of roof to be employed.
The resulting clash between the older buildings in the conservation
area and the more modern buildings a short distance away to the north will
subtly alter the tone of both Southampton Road and Avenue Road, and set a
precedent which is certain to be called up in support of further such challenges
to the town's distinctive character.
Six Acres. Immediately
west of the southern end of Southampton Road is a neighbourhood known as The
Six Acres. It comprises the area contained
by Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Western Road, Eastern Road, Middle Road and Southern
Road. These are not tree-lined avenues,
but the majority of the houses have small gardens at front and rear giving
a typically suburban mix of buildings and small open spaces, the latter providing
space for trees, shrubs and wildlife. Originally donated to the town by a
private individual as a single plot, it remains an area of private, and in
the architectural sense largely unremarkable, residential houses but it is
notable both for its sense of community (it has its own residents' association)
and for the interesting mix of house type and size, the latter a legacy from
the pattern of its original development.
The predominantly semi-detached properties at the Queen Elizabeth Avenue
side of the area were built to house families working in the town's local
fire, police and ambulance services. In
Eastern, Southern and Western Roads, and at the eastern end of Middle Road,
older terrace housing, with some detached houses, was built by the Wellworthy
engineering company in the early part of the 20th century to house
their workers. The older houses are
Victorian and Edwardian, while those further away from what was the Wellworthy
site date from the 1920s and the1930s. The
area, which also suffers visually from the overhead distribution of telephone
cables, is well-maintained but by no means wealthy. A notable feature is the longevity of occupancy
of the majority of the residents, many of whom live in the homes in which
they grew up.
A
major concern has been the recent encroachment of high-density town housing. Several gardens have disappeared under new
houses. At the eastern end of Western
Road a modest villa (complete with garden and mature copper beech) has been
demolished and the entire space, to the boundary edges, built upon. By such small steps does a quiet area of suburban
family housing with its own distinctive nature metamorphose into an overpowering,
built-up urban area of building devoid of greenery, diversity and character.
The
Former Hospital and Kings Road. Immediately north of Six Acres lies the site of
the former Lymington Hospital. Following
demolition of the hospital the site was redeveloped in the first decade of
the 21st century into an estate of featureless, closely-spaced, near-identical
houses with a minimum of intervening green space. The estate is screened from Southampton Road
by a tall hedge but is otherwise largely devoid of trees or smaller softening
growth. Immediately north of it lies
a more distinctive neighbourhood of substantial, mainly two-storey detached
and semi-detached houses in the diverse styles of the mid-to-late 20th century,
set in larger plots and served from Southampton Road by the loop of Kings
Road, Kings Crescent, Park Road, Park Avenue and Filton Road. This small area has a pleasant homogeneity
and maturity emphasised by the presence of some mature trees and hedges along
the pavements.
Northern
Southampton Road. To the north of the Avenue Road junction traffic
lights, Southampton Road has a pleasing and relaxed feel of substantial detached
early-to-mid 20th century houses set back in and mature gardens. One notable exception is Andrews Lodge, an
obtrusive 1990s block of retirement flats which contrasts starkly in colour,
style and mass with the surrounding dwellings and in the absence of any screening
dominates the appearance of the neighbourhood. The construction in 2009 on the opposite side
of the road of a second storey on top of a former bungalow will, by contrast,
sit well in the street scene.
It should set the precedent should any of the substantial houses along
this road need redevelopment.
Tyler's Close on the eastern side of Southampton Road, is a
terrace which shares an access with Andrews Lodge.
It is well screened from the road by an older brick wall and surrounded
by mature greenery which effectively disguises its 1960s style, softening
the contrast with the surrounding townscape.
Cedars, Field Walk, Redwood Close, Marlborough
Place and Woodley Gardens on the west side of Southampton Road were all
developed as estates in the 1980s and 1990s and sit very well in their woodland
surroundings which, unusually for the town, have a substantial coniferous
element dominated by a row of tall Monterey pines. Further west along Alexandra Road, on the Lymington-Pennington
boundary, lies another estate of small houses built at the same time around
Bramble Walk and Howlett Close.
North of Alexandra Road, Southampton Road follows
the historic curved route dating from the 15th century, as shown on the original
16th century Buckland map. The bordering
deciduous trees become larger and more numerous as it approaches the open
ground of the New Forest beyond the town's northern boundary at Ampress.
Screening, by walls or green growth, is a feature of
this section of the road, with some of the screened houses fronting
it and some looking away from it. The
mock-Georgian Grosvenor Mews development on the west side is set back and
screened behind high foliage. Further
examples are Paddock Gardens, Stratford Place and Buckland Place, all of which
give access to single-or two-storey late 20th century houses set in attractive
gardens.
At Hollywood Lane the road becomes almost
rural as it passes the Tollhouse Inn from which it follows the line of the
town boundary to its northern limit at Ampress with the open fields of the
Green Belt and the National Park to the west.
Hollywood Lane straddles the town's only established Area of Special
Character, which is bounded on the north side by Marsh Lane, on the east by
Lower Buckland Road (including Buckland Dene) and on the south by a less distinct
line drawn separating the larger properties to the north from the more compact
dwellings and gardens to the south. The
area has its own distinctly rural character, many of its houses probably predating
the 20th century and set in large plots featuring many mature trees, the whole
a reminder that the New Forest is not far distant to the north.
Any dense redevelopment of this area would be incompatible with its
established character,
Beside the southern approach to the junction with
Marsh Lane a small area immediately southeast of the roundabout is excluded
from the Area of Special Character. It
contains three small houses which bring no special visual character to the
town, but whose replacement at such a prominent spot by an inappropriate development
could bring severe harm.
To the north of the Marsh Lane roundabout
on the east side of the A337 major redevelopment has been under way since
2007 to replace what were hitherto substantial detached houses standing in
generous plots. The result has retained
some of the mature trees and shrubs, which provide some screening from the
busy road, while many of the houses
face away from the road into their own cul-de-sacs.
The mixture of detached, semi-detached and terrace houses of different
designs and materials standing in very small plots provides a good example
of what imaginative dense development can contribute to the town's established
character, while avoiding damage to this important area where Town merges
with Forest. North again, beside the
railway, the two substantial new blocks of affordable housing have settled
well in their surroundings since they were built around the turn of the 20th
century, contained and screened as they are by the bank, the trees and the
railway line.
Ampress Industrial Park. The relatively new development of the Ampress Industrial Park on the former
Wellworthy site, still in progress in 2009, must be rated successful
both visually and functionally. Being
set in its own park and surrounded by trees it poses no visual challenge to
the residential areas of the town to the south or to the Green Belt and the
Forest to the north and west, and is a good example of its type.
Its filling station and 24-hour convenience store provide a valuable
service to the town in general and the growing number of local residents in
particular. Space and scope remain in the site for further
commercial development.
Sway Road and Passford Hill. To the west of the Marsh Lane/Southampton Road junction, in the National
Park (and so outside the limits of the town) is the historic monument of Buckland
Rings. The area around it along Sway
Road and Passford Hill is very much
in the Forest idiom, with a few widely spaced houses set back in generous
grounds among the trees. The transition
from Town to Forest is pleasingly gradual, and development proposals anywhere
close to this sensitive boundary must complement and not contrast the established
characters of both Town and Forest.
Marsh Lane to East Hill. Marsh Lane
was built in the early 1980s to improve access from the north to the eastern
part of the town and to serve the new housing estates of comparatively modest
two-storey houses on either side. Those estates have the uniform style and
appearance of their age and kind but have matured well, and the road has a
wide and pleasant aspect. The road
carries the Isle of Wight traffic to and from the ferry and can become very
busy at peak times in the summer. Further
south, Marsh Lane becomes fringed on its western side by denser estates of
smaller low-rise houses with small gardens separated from the road by allotments
and an area of public open space. As the road approaches East Hill the houses
give way abruptly to industrial units on both sides . This area features few trees, and the small
size of the housing plots limits the extent of natural green growth on and
between them. Some of the houses have
been extended laterally and vertically or feature loft conversions, which
provide some visual variety but also emphasise the greater housing density
of the area. It will be important
to retain the public open space and the allotments in any future development
to offset this trend.
East Hill. Near
the southern end of Marsh Lane, East Hill ascends from the mini-roundabout
to become Avenue Road at the point where it joins New Street and Lower Buckland
Road. To the north of the hill is the area of comparatively
dense low-rise housing described in the previous paragraph. At the junction with Broomfield Lane stands
the listed and newly renovated Master's House and above it the listed former
workhouse, later infirmary, restored in 2009 and converted for use as social
housing. The recovery of these two
important buildings from dilapidation has given them context in an area now
dominated by later housing development. On
the south side of the hill a dense 2008 development of small 2½-storey terrace
houses stands on the corner with Marsh Lane and below North Close.
Above North Close the road is fringed by mid-20th century houses in
small gardens, with rising behind them the gaunt outline of the multiple 3-storey
blocks of Hillcroft flats built as a redevelopment project in the early years
of the 21st century. Though their western frontage on to New Street
is to a small extent broken up by mature trees, the distinctiveness of these
buildings lies in their similarity to military barrack blocks rather than
to buildings typical of the centre of a New Forest market and maritime town.
Between them and the town centre Conservation Area, to the east of
New Street, stand some unmemorable 1960s office blocks and a block of terraced
retirement flats dating from the late 20th century.
Continuing south a short distance from the Marsh
Lane-East Hill roundabout, a second mini-roundabout marks the junction of
Marsh Lane, Gosport Street and Bridge Road.
To the east are more industrial units which back on to the railway
line, while to the west, ascending the hill by way of Cannon Street and North
Close, is a mixture of detached houses, semi-detached houses, attractive Victorian
terrace houses and light commercial and retail units, which appear to have
spread across the area during much of the 20th century. Aside from the Victorian terrace fronting lower
North Close, there is no identifiable common style in the buildings other
than their low height. Reflecting
their position on the edge of the town centre, they stand close together with
little surrounding or intervening greenery.
By contrast, the striking 21st century Public Library building off
North Close, which stands just inside the Conservation Area, retains a substantial
oak tree and grass area which lends character to the area on both sides of
the Conservation Area boundary.
Gosport Street and Bridge Road. For the short distance until it enters the Conservation Area Gosport Street
is fronted by Edwardian and Victorian houses on its west side which contrast
uncomfortably with the light industrial units opposite. The latter more logically belong to a block
defined by Gosport Street itself, Station Street, Bridge Road and the railway
line to the east. The part of this
block which is outside the Conservation Area contains only light industrial
and commercial units. Bridge Road
is fronted on its north side by some modest edge-of-town-centre, closely spaced
two-storey houses as it follows the northern town boundary towards the causeway. The buildings in Waterloo Road to the south
are inside the Conservation area.
The River Frontage. On the eastern side of the railway line there opens up an area to the
south bounded by the railway line to the west and the river to the east. This prime site was until the end of the 20th
century occupied by industrial units, but is at the time of writing has been
levelled in preparation for redevelopment. It therefore carries no historical legacy
or distinctiveness, but instead offers a unique opportunity to define one
ab initio for future generations to enjoy.
Any assessment of its distinctiveness must embrace both the river and
Walhampton on the opposite shore, which although part of the New Forest National
Park is inescapably part of the river scene. A once-only opportunity exists to create a
small area which rivals the equivalent at Beaulieu, and it would be an enduring
tragedy if it were missed.
New Street to Avenue Road. The western side of New Street outside the Conservation Area is fronted
in part by terraced or closely spaced houses which have in recent years been
giving way to larger buildings housing retirement flats, set in modest green
space. From the Lower Buckland Road
junction East Hill becomes Avenue Road as it leads back west to the junction
with Southampton Road. Much of the
south side is dominated by the sombre 20th-century red brick bulk of the Town
Hall and it surrounding open space. The
north side has seen the main advance of tall and dense 21st-century redevelopment
of little aesthetic merit, some of it verging on the grotesque and contrasting
shockingly with the established character of the historic town.
Many of the former spacious, two-storey mid-20th century houses have
been replaced by tall blocks of flats and terrace houses, built in many contrasting
styles, colours and textures, which collectively have altered the former character
of the area irreversibly.
South Lower Buckland Road. Between Avenue Road and the southern edge of the Buckland Area of Special
Character described earlier, Lower Buckland Road brings together an area of
diverse and comparatively dense housing which grew up over most of the 20th
century. Open spaces and greenery
are rare, but the building height is predominantly 2-storey. The area changes incrementally all the time
as houses are modified or extended, and its distinctiveness lies more in its
diversity and scale than in any identifiable visual features.
South of the High Street. To the south of the High Street, modern
Lymington has emerged from several former large estates which dominated much
of the the area until the middle of the twentieth century; Woodside, Fairfield and South Hayes among them.
Many of the avenues connecting the town's central conservation area
to that on its largely nineteenth century south-eastern edge - Church Lane,
Waterford Lane, Broad Lane, Belmore Lane, Rooke's Lane - retain in their names
reminders of their origins and their character.
The houses which grew up along and between them as the original estates
were sold off reflect the architectural styles of their times, but for the
most part share common characteristics of generous spacing and comparatively
low height, set among mature green growth and open spaces.
In recent years these characteristics have been to some extent been
compromised by modern housing estates with greater density and depressingly
uniform appearance. Two of them (Farnley's
Mead and Grove Place, both built around 1985/6) have matured well and merged
into their older surroundings, and others in the Old Orchards area have at
least retained a substantial number of mature trees and open spaces. More recent development has taken a new and
unwelcome direction, with the demolition of perfectly sound houses in favour
of more numerous, larger, taller and more ostentatious buildings on their
former gardens.
The Lanes:
Belmore Lane. Belmore Lane,
not long ago described even by a developer as "semi-rural", was
until recently lined by comparatively modest 1½-storey or 2-storey houses
most of which were semi-hidden by hedges and trees.
Since 2001 it has come under prolonged attack by developers, and three
of its houses have been or are being replaced by 14 flats and 11 other houses,
with concomitant intrusions on both the skyline and the former open space. Several other houses with generous gardens
are known to be of interest to developers, but any further development of
the kind now in progress will inflict irreversible damage on the character
of this lane.
Two offshoots sharing an exit
from Belmore Lane are Fairfield Close and Courtenay Place.
Both feature space, low rise buildings, mature trees and greenery in
generous gardens. Both also benefit
from buried supply cables, which are an unwelcome visual intrusion in many
areas of the wider town. Fairfield
Close is an attractive remnant of the former Fairfield Estate, of which it
formed the kitchen garden, and is lined by walls of what appear to be ancient reclaimed bricks. It has three eighteenth century buildings which
once housed the estate's stables, coach house and fruit house. Adjoining the central Conservation Area, it
deserves serious consideration for inclusion within it to preserve its mature
and pleasant aspect from risk of dense and inappropriate development. Courtenay Place is by some margin the most
attractive of the town's rather too numerous mock-Georgian terrace developments,
being set in mature and spacious grounds and visually discreet. It could not take further development without
losing its essential character.
Further down Belmore Lane away
from the town centre, Farnley's Mead was an estate development of the 1980s
consisting of substantial detached houses set in medium-sized plots.
It attracted criticism at the time on account of its perceived higher-than-normal
density, but it has matured well and the houses and gardens are uniformly
well maintained.
The Lanes:
Church Lane and Daniells Walk. Church
Lane and its southern extension Broad Lane are similar in character to Belmore
Lane. Its northern end in the central
conservation area, which once formed the boundary between the Fairfield and
Grove estates, is is lined by listed buildings and ancient walls, two of which
are of the characteristic serpentine or crinkle-crankle type, which give way
to a more open aspect bordered by houses differing widely in style and size,
again set among mature trees and greenery.
The houses on the eastern side of the lower Church Lane (south of the
Conservation Area), two of them completed quite recently, are all substantial
buildings set in comparatively large gardens and well screened from the road
by dense hedges. The plots are known
to be of interest to developers, but the destruction of such recent substantial
and attractive buildings in pursuit of greater densities would be indefensible
on sustainability grounds alone.
Daniells Walk (with its offshoot
Daniells Close), which links the road to Belmore Lane, was at one time a path
across the Fairfield Estate but was developed as a housing estate following
the sale of the latter in the 1950s. Its
borders feature two massive Monterey pines (a third has recently been felled,
creating a substantial gap in the skyline).
Its houses stand in long narrow gardens featuring mature greenery and
are variations of a uniform style, some being bungalows and some having 1½
storeys or added loft extensions. They
were originally constructed from common materials with little variation of
texture or colour, probably reflecting the economic circumstances in the aftermath
of the Second World War, but many have been extended, re-roofed or otherwise
altered and the appearance of the whole is now pleasingly varied, although
compromised by the visual intrusion of many overhead utility distribution
cables. Extensive redevelopment would seriously threaten
the character of the whole unless it were of similar style, a successful example
of which may be seen on the north side of the road near its western end.
The Lanes:
Broad Lane. Broad Lane
and its several offshoots feature a range of buildings from the large modern
estates off the Orchards through the Edwardian development
of Burrard Close and the substantial modern houses of Tranmere Close
to the low-rise houses of widely varying ages and styles fronting the road
itself, all set in mature greenery. Some
of the offshoot lanes, such as Bingham Drive, Ambleside Road and Goldmead
Close, serve small estate developments all of which probably took shape following
the sale of the Fairfield Estate in 1950.
The buildings are of fairly uniform mid-20th-century style and some
stand in what today are seen as generous plots.
Though perfectly serviceable, they are in no way distinctive within
the character of the wider town and could accept redevelopment as opportunity
arises. A recent attempt to replace
a single house at the junction of Bingham Drive and Church Lane with a terrace
development was rejected as inappropriate and has not been renewed.
Broad Lane has one unnamed, unsurfaced
offshoot lane, immediately north of the Orchards estate, in the manner of
that described earlier off Rooke's Lane.
It has no name, but serves several diverse and attractive houses as
far as its head, which backs on to Pyrford Lodge, off Belmore Lane to the
west. Like its peer lanes elsewhere in the town,
it contribute a pleasant rural feel to the local character which would be
destroyed by dense redevelopment.
The Lanes:
Waterford Lane. Waterford
Lane, with its offshoot Waterford Close, was until recently another pleasant
green corridor between Church Lane and Stanley Road, lined at its northern
end by closely-spaced two-and three-storey houses set in generous gardens
with mature greenery. That character
has however been considerably altered by recent planning approvals, which
have led to the demolition of five serviceable two-storey houses and their
replacement by 22 taller (2 storeys plus attic), tightly packed and in some
cases ostentatious new dwellings (the 11 terrace houses in Abbots Brook, for
example, featuring a bizarre orange brick which has no equivalent anywhere
else in the town) which together form an unwelcome visual assault on the integrity
of the area. Towards its southern
end, the character of the lane changes as it merges with Brook Road, where
the buildings are smaller and more tightly packed in the manner of an unpretentious
seaside town. This group belongs to
the Queen Katherine Road group described later.
The Lanes:
Rooke's Lane. Rooke's Lane,
bordering the northern edge of the extensive Woodside Park, fronts a pleasingly
diverse mixture of entirely appropriate modest houses in the style of the
mid-20th century, set in generous gardens among mature greenery. It also gives access to a discreet unsurfaced
and unnamed lane just west of Newenham Road, one of several which are a feature
of the town, which leads to some attractive houses set in mature and generous
gardens typical of the mid-20th century. Newenham Road and Lockerley Close are more
modern, with detached family houses in contemporary styles set in slightly
smaller gardens. Modest infilling
might be acceptable if carried out in the same architectural idiom, but the
intrusion of brutal dense building blocks such as those imposed on Belmore
Lane would destroy the visual balance of this pleasant neighbourhood.
The Lanes:
Upper Ridgeway Lane. The
northern end of Ridgeway Lane, from its junction with Rooke's Lane to Pennington
Cross roundabout, with its offshoot Court Close, continues the same theme
on its Lymington side. Substantial
mid-twentieth century detached houses stand back in generous gardens under
the shade of mature trees. Court Lodge,
a modern retirement home off Court Close, is built in the same style and has
its own mature garden space edged by assisted living maisonettes. From Pennington Cross along Milford Road and
Stanford Hill back to the Conservation Area the buildings, apart from the
listed White Hart inn of probably 18th-century origin, are mostly late 20th-century
or 21st-century development, but with older trees, mostly oak, retained along
the road verge. The uniform skyline
is broken starkly at Londesborough Place, a 2009 development of 3-storey town
houses which contrast sharply with their neighbours in the surrounding townscape.
Belmore Road continues on its northern side the theme of detached 20th-century
houses in mature gardens, with some older pebble-dashed semi-detached ones
at its eastern end.
Belmore Farm Estate.
Between Rooke's Lane and Belmore Road, within the perimeter formed
by the houses along Belmore Lane, Rooke's Lane, Ridgeway Lane and Milford
Road, lies the Belmore Farm estate,
laid out along the pattern of roads served by Bitterne Way and Old Farm Walk. The houses are of the same designs as those
which line Daniells Walk, suggesting that they were built a tthe same time
and by the same builder in the years after the Second World War. Like those in Daniells Walk, some have since
been modifed and extended, bringing some visual variety to the neighbourhood,
but together they have a noticeably different character and distinctiveness
which comes from the general absence of large mature trees and the conspicuously
neat and high standard of both house and garden maintenance throughout the
estate, giving it a strikingly "factory-fresh" appearance.
Some recent development in Ravenscourt Road and the tall and dense
mass of Londesborough Place (described in the previous paragraph) throw this
neat appearance into greater relief. Apart from those, the estate has experienced
almost no infill. Large-scale dense
redevelopment would impose serious damage on the character of this attractive
homogeneous area.
All Saints Road.
The Lanes so far described all serve to connect the town centre
to All Saints Road and its eastern extension Stanley Road near the southern boundary of the town. All Saints Road is bordered to the north by
the extensive housing estates of Vitre Gardens, Old Orchards and Anchorage
Way, all typical estates of the late 20th and early 21st century featuring
two-storey detached houses of varying sizes.
No doubt they are all practical and efficient buildings, but their
visual uniformity and dense spacing are saved from anonymity only by the retention
of some mature trees and hedges, and a good measure of open space, which do
provide a visual link to the nearby New Forest. The houses are likely to undergo incremental
change year by year as owners adapt and extend them. Such changes should be welcomed so long as
they are in scale, as they add detail and variation to the dull uniformity
of such large-scale developments.
The Woodside Triangle.
To the south of All Saints Road lies the "Woodside Triangle",
the southernmost neighbourhood of the town bounded by Viney Road, Woodside
Lane and All Saints Road itself, which abuts the open fields of the New Forest
to the south and west. The triangle's
buildings, set in generous plots among mature trees and shrubs, range from
modest 19th-century or older cottages through inconspicuous 1½-storey homes
to the substantial modern mid-20th-century 2-storey houses bordering the unadopted Woodside Avenue.
One attractive aspect of their collective character is that no two
are alike but together they are complementary.
The parish church of All Saints stands at the north-eastern corner
of the area and the listed Woodside Manor at the southern apex of the triangle.
Several of the houses fronting All Saints Road have in recent years
been imaginatively modernised and restored, adding distinctive features such
as crinkle-crankle walls and a thatched annex to the thatched De La Warr House.
The area embodies features which successfully reflect both the historic
town to the north and the National Park to the south.
Inappropriate redevelopment here would impose serious injury on the
character of the town and its relationship with the Forest.
Grove Road and South Grove. Skirting the southern boundary of the Conservation
Area eastwards from Church lane, Grove Road leads to the 1980s development
of South Grove which features a group
of substantial houses set in comparatively small plots among mature trees
and greenery. The houses have matured
well and merged with the character of the Conservation Area to the north.
A case can be made for their inclusion in that Area.
The contiguous commercial site immediately to the east, currently occupied
by Travis Perkins but earmarked for housing should it become vacant, will
need cautious development if the result is not to contrast uncomfortably with
its neighbours.
Queen Katherine Road and
Bath Road. Queen Katherine Road and its close parallel
neighbour Bath Road both serve to connect the town centre Conservation Area
to the Kings Saltern Conservation Area, along the line of the river's west
bank. Their character is markedly
different to that of the lanes further to the west. The substantial bulk of the Berthon boatyard
and the smaller Sanders sail loft are prominent immediately south of the central
Conservation Area, with some substantial detached houses with modest gardens
fronting the eastern side of the northern end of Queen Katherine Road where
it joins Nelson Place. The domestic
architecture immediately south of these is dominated by buildings which are
instantly recognisable as being of the uniform, nationwide semi-detached red
brick council house style of the 1930s and 1940s. Most of these houses are now privately owned
and some have undergone extension and alteration, thereby introducing some
welcome visual variety. A few, however,
appear to have been neglected, detracting from the appearance of the whole. Most have comparatively long but narrow gardens
which could accept redevelopment on an appropriate scale.
Further south, the character
of the Bath Road/Queen Katherine Road corridor becomes tree-lined and is bordered
by mainly detached houses of varying designs in larger gardens.
Solent Avenue, connecting Queen Katherine Road to Bath Road at the
Recreation Ground, on the north-western corner of the Kings Saltern Conservation
Area , has a character of its own, being densely tree-lined from end to end.
Its buildings, mostly detached houses in generous gardens but with
some small three-storey blocks of flats almost hidden behind trees on the
northern side, all stand well back from the road.
Westfield.
Brook Road, Spring Road, Westfield Road north of the Conservation
Area and Stanley Road all feature closely-spaced houses, some of them substantial,
built in many styles over a long period starting probably in the mid-19th
century and continuing with replacements and infills to the present day. Gardens are generally small and only Stanley
Road is tree-lined. The area has a
character of its own, distinct from that of the rest of the town and not unlike
that of a working west country port town, most of the houses having the air
of having been built for those who earned their living from the sea or sought
rest beside it. Exceptions are Springfield
Close and Mayflower Close, both of which have substanntial modern detached
houses in generous plots similar to those found nearer the town centre, though
with less generous surrounding green growth.
The area as a whole provides an orderly transition between the leafier
lanes to the north and west and the more maritime character of the contiguous
Conservation Area to the south. Sympathetic
redevelopment would be possible so long as it preserved the subtly varying
styles which make the area distinct.
Pennington
Pennington retains enough evidence
of its origins, in its layout and many
of its surviving older buildings, to merit its own separate description. The shared boundary with Lymington is more
obvious on the ground than it is on a map, being a line (partly marked by
a small brook) running roughly north-south between Samber Close and Kings
Road in the north, around the eastern edge of the Pennington school grounds,
along Milford Road to Pennington Cross and thence along Ridgeway Lane (whose
east side has been described in the section on Lymington). To the north and south Pennington is bounded
by Green Belt, to the west by the New Forest National Park (which drives the
substantial wedge of Pennington Common almost to the centre of the village)
and to the east by Lymington itself. The
village's historic parish boundaries define a substantially larger area than
that of today's village, some of which now lies in the Green Belt and some
in the New Forest National Park, but much of the built environment in these
areas (such as the hamlet served by Upper Common Road) shows clear affinities
with the buildings of the earlier village and with the surrounding Forest
and makes a substantial contribution to the distinctiveness of the whole.
The Village Centre and The Common. The village's older buildings suggest that
it was once spread out along the roads
linking Pennington Cross to Everton and Sway, and so lay astride the approaches
to Lymington from the north-west and west. It retains its own characteristic village centre
around The Square, at whose heart is a listed former school built in 1852,
several small shops including an unsympathetic modern post office/general
store, two pubs and a small parade of further shops in a relatively recent
terrace. The listed Victorian church,
dating from 1858, lies beside Ramley
Road a few yards to the north-west, at the apex of the substantial wedge of
the Common, itself now a part of the National Park . Wainsford Road itself is fringed on its south
side by modest, mainly detached two-storey houses, a few of 19th-century or
early 20th-century origin, in diverse but
complementary styles which look across the road to the Common in the
National Park. The seamless transition
from Town to Park is particularly successful here and along much of the southern
side of Ramley Road, with many older houses well reflecting the presence nearby
pf the ancient forest. (The name "Upper
Pennington", once applied to this section of the historic Parish, remains
equally applicable on both sides of the boundary).
There are some attractive thatched cottages near the Square which are
somewhat overshadowed by more modern houses set in small garden plots along
the old main thoroughfares of North Street, South Street, Wainsford Road and
Ramley Road. However, some attractive small cottages, probably
of Victorian or earlier date and typical of many such dwellings scattered
around the nearby New Forest, have survived on the fringes of the village
centre.
Ramley Road.
Ramley Road is one of Lymington's two minor approach roads, linking
it to Sway and the wider forest to the north and west.
Its north side, skirting Pennington Common, is bordered by a mixture
of houses, detached, semi-detached and in small terraces, predominantly of
two storeys and varying in age over a century or more.
The imposing Ramley House, dating from 1805, stands beside the road
at the northen limit of the village. The
extensive glasshouses of Pinetops Nursery (part of which lies in the Green
Belt) and a small used car market are the only non-residential buildings. Beyond the Common the "forest edge"
theme continues along both sides of Ramley Road, and in the adjoining Hazel
Road and Northover Road, of predominantly modest, low-rise, detached and semi-detached
houses of varied age and design, set in green spaces with a background
of trees, the whole achieving a satisfactory relationship to the adjacent
National Park. The single departure from this theme is a cream-rendered
terrace of recent construction set back from the road in a new Close which
is well screened by its bordering trees.
A few substantial older houses have also survived and add their own
distinctiveness to the local idiom where Forest and Town meet. Outside the town boundary to the north-west,
on the edge of the Green Belt, lies the small industrial estate of Gordleton,
which is well screened from the road but whose presence encourages a commercial
traffic load for which the rural road is
unsuited.
Priestlands.
Much of the area to the north of North Street, bounded in the north
by Priestlands Road and Priestlands Lane and to the east by Stanford Hill
and Milford Road, is occupied by the modern buildings of the combined town's
non-denominational schools and their associated playing fields, some of whose
facilities are shared with the Town's Health and Leisure Centre. Between the schools and the estate of Rowans
Park, which lies in a substantial tree-lined green space on the Lymington
side of the boundary brook, lies a small area of dense woodland intersected
by a public footpath which connects Stanford Hill to Priestlands Lane. Several mature oak trees in the school grounds
add to the generally wooded appearance of the area.
Old Pennington Southeast of The
Square. The triangle defined by North Street, South
Street and Milford Road, including Holme Close, Forward Drive and North Greenlands
features a considerable variety of mostly detached low houses set in small
mature gardens. A few are thatched
and probably date from the 19th century or earlier, as do some of the small
cottages fronting North Street and South street. Others appear to be of dates spread across
the 20th century, some in the ordered layouts of small estate developments
and others with no clear origins or common features other than that none exceeds
two storeys in height. The overall
visual impression is of a pleasingly disparate mature neighbourhood which
grew over many years, with many green gardens and some trees. By contrast, the buildings spread along the
tree-lined north side of Milford Road between North Street and South Street
include a substantial recently built 3-storey Italianate care home, and the
Milford Road end of nearby North Greenlands awaits denser revelopment into
two terraces of small chalet-style dwellings.
Ridgeway Lane.
To the west of Lymington's Woodside Triangle lies the extensive
Public Open Space of Woodside Park, bordered to the south by Poles Lane (which
marks the boundary with the New Forest National Park) and to the west by Ridgeway
Lane. This area is actually outside the town boundary
in the Green Belt, but both visually and socially it is an integral part of
both Lymington and Pennington, whose common border lies along it. The tree-lined southern end, as far as the
junction with Poles Lane, continues the theme of modest mid-20th century detached
houses set in generous gardens whose scale and scope successfully reflect
the area's position at the junction of town, National Park and Green Belt.
Further north, inside the town boundary, the housing estates of Clarendon
Park and Forest Gate Gardens feature late 20th-century housing estates of
"cloned" buildings which are well screened by trees.
Lower Pennington Lane.
Further west again the Lanes theme continues with Lower Pennington
Lane, whose length from its junction with Ridgeway Lane to the boundary of
the Green Belt at Northfield is also bordered by substantial, mostly mid-20th
century houses in generous gardens set among many large oaks and other mature
trees. There has been some infilling
and redevelopment near the northern end, notably Curzon Place, Leelands and
the neo-Georgian Kingston Park off its subsidiary Fox Pond Lane, and the area
is known to be of interest to developers, suggesting that determination may
be needed to preserve the delightful rural character of this ancient lane
leading down to the National Park and the Solent littoral. A narrow strip oif Green Belt separates the
town boundary from the coastal strip of the National Park, but the visual
transition is seamless as the denser housing of the town thins out into the
fields, woods and finally coastal marshland of the latter. A holiday caravan site near the end of the
lane imposes a visual contrast which would benefit from better screening.
South of Milford Road.
South of Milford Road are two distinct built neighbourhoods. Between Lower Pennington Lane and Fox Pond
Lane, Milford Road is fronted by a substantial modern filling station (one
of only two remaining in the town), the small and rather gloomy 1980s estate
development of Billington Place which is now well screened by mature growth
and several surviving attractive houses of mid-twentieth century origin ste
in generous gardens. Immediately south
of them are the two faux-Georgian-style estates of Kingston Park and Leelands,
both consisting of two-storey terrace houses set in small squares and culs-de-sac
amid well landscaped grounds with mature trees. Between those and Lower Pennington Lane lies
the taller and more cramped three-storey Curzon Place development of the 1970s[?].
Further three-storey development is in prospect by way of an additional
terrace and semi-detached houses in the small space between Curzon Place and
Lower Pennington Lane. These developments contrast unhappily with
the older houses fronting Lower Pennington Lane immediately south, which are
set among mature and comparatively dense woodland in generally spacious gardens,
and which achieve an effective visual transition between the town, the Green
Belt and the National Park to the south-west.. Fox Pond Lane itself (the name witness to the
changes which have occurred in the area during the last century) is lined
by detached houses in styles reflecting the long span of time over which they
have been built. They include two listed
cottages which have become somewhat overshadowed by later development. The northernmost building, standing on the
western edge at the junction with Milford Road, is an attractive converted
former coaching inn which well reflects the origins of the village. To the west of Fox Pond Lane as far as the
town boundary, along Elm Avenue and its extensions Newbridge Way and Clausen
Way, lies a much more recent estate development consisting almost entirely
of bungalows standing in small gardens. The
repetitive appearance of the single-storey houses, coupled with the absence
of mature trees, is typical of estates created from farmland in the second
half of the twentieth century. A few
loft conversions and other alterations have added some visual variety and
no doubt will continue to do so, and the neighbourhood has a well-tended appearance.
Nearby Grafton Gardens and its offshoot Closes add some more visual
variety, being of mainly of denser two-storey design, and set among some semi-mature
trees.
Milford Road to the Town
Boundary. From Elm Avenue to the town's western boundary
Milford Road has an important character role as the modern western approach
to the town. It is predominantly,
distinctively and appropriately bordered by substantial detached houses standing
back from the road in mature and generous gardens typical of the mid-20th
century, with some more recent additions of similar scale and spaciousness
on the northern side at the point where the road crosses briefly into the
Green Belt before skirting the National Park for a short distance.
These generous plots are particularly attractive to developers, but
any high density redevelopment would substantially and irreversibly alter
the attractive semi-rural character of the neighbourhood in particular, and
the town in general, by imposing a jarring visual contrast at the boundary
with the National Park.
Fox Pond and The Copses. Opposite the Elm Avenue junction with Milford
Road stands the small and busy Fox Pond shopping parade, an ugly 1960s cube
partly of two and partly of three storeys, flanked to its west by a car showroom.
Car parking space near the shops is limited, and congestion correspondingly
common at peak times. The west side of South Street is bordered by
housing of mixed style and age, with several attractive remnants of the older
village remaining among generally modern housing of two-storey height and
medium density. To the west of South
Street, and to the south of Meadow Road and its western extension Efford Way,
lies an extensive area of modern estates set in neat green gardens and with
many retained trees to give it a distinctive feel. The houses are predominantly detached chalet
bungalows, some of them of similar design to those found elsewhere in the
town such as Daniells Walk and Belmore Farm, denoting their common ancestry,
while others are of later 20th century origin.
The whole area has a spacious, well-tended appearance, with many mature
trees. As elsewhere, a trickle of
alterations is gradually adding some variation to the otherwise rather uniform
appearance of the houses.
Efford Way, Pennington Oval
and Howards Mead. Further north, from Efford Way to the southern
fringe of the old Wainsford Road, bounded on the west by the National Park,
lies an extensive area of mainly municipal housing of mid-to late-twentieth
century origin. The western edge of
this area is marked by a line of trees which screen it from the National Park
and so disguise what would otherwise be an abrupt and unwelcome visual contrast.
The buildings, some of which are semi-detached houses, some terraces
and some three storey blocks of flats, have the instantly recognisable utilitarian
style of their kind. Their intervening open spaces generally are
limited to grass, and in the absence of off-street parking space the roads
serve a double purpose as a car park. While
some small gardens do add a hint of colour, litter and semi-dereliction also
provide intermittent evidence of a neighbourhood which would benefit from
imaginative redevelopment..
North Pennington.
The remaining area of Pennington, defined by Yaldhurst Lane in
the east, Priestlands Road in the south, Samber Close and Leigh Park in the
south and the Green Belt in the north is distinctive only for the style variations
of its extensive housing estates. The part-listed Yaldhurst farmhouse, at the head
of the eponymous tree-lined lane, is a small enclave of ancient origin.
The lane is bordered by substantial houses, several of which back on
to the farmland of the Green Belt to the north.
Bunglaows predominate to the north and east of the area, with chalet
style houses to the south and full two-storey detached and semi-detached houses
in the south and west of the area. The
buildings date almost without exception from the second half of the twentieth
century and conform to the estate styles of their times.
As elsewhere in the town, local variations have gradually appeared
as loft extensions and some more ambitious extensions have been added, but
the area remains visually dominated by the bungalow form. The houses and gardens are in general neat
and well-maintained, but (probably reflecting the land's earlier use for agriculture)
the area contains very few trees, in marked contrast to most of the rest of
the town, which makes the tangle of overhead telephone and electricity distribution
cables more intrusive. The widespread absence of off-street parking
coupled with the growth in car ownership has again had the inevitable result
that the roads are clutterd by parked vehicles.
