Discover Our Mission
About Us
This is your About Page. It's a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are, what you do and what your website has to offer. Double click on the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want to share with site visitors.
The River
The Chelmer is the core of the valley landscape. The river and its tributaries have shaped the land, contribute to its biodiversity and have been vital to human settlement since the earliest times. The river was canalised in the late 18th century, creating the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation whose locks are a prominent feature of the landscape. The Navigation had a profound impact on the areas economic and industrial development and today is used for a variety of leisure activities.
Natural Landscape
The Chelmer is at the heart of the valley’s natural environment water being crucial to biodiversity, the surviving damp grassland pastures are particularly important. The diversity of the valley landscape, the woods, hedges and field edges all provide important habitats. The complex pattern of woods, present and former heathlands on the Danbury/Little Baddow ridge are particularly important. Overall, the valley provides the opportunity for a joined-up approach nature conservation at a landscape scale.
Historic Landscape
The valley landscape is very old farming communities have lived in the valley for 6,000 years. Extensive archaeological cropmark landscapes of prehistoric origin, like the one shown here, exist throughout the valley. Hedges are human creations of great antiquity, locally some field boundaries originate in the Roman period. The valley bottom pasture and the complex of woods, heaths and commons on the Little Baddow/Danbury ridge originated in the Saxon period if not earlier. There is a range of more recent built heritage and the whole length of the Chelmer/Blackwater navigation is a Conservation Area.
Support CVLG
If you support our objectives please leave your email address to receive notifications of news on CVLG activities.