The North Devon Coast AONB is defined by its Special Qualities. These are what make our AONB so special. There are 14 Special Qualities and for each of these we have chosen a place within the AONB where you can see what we mean.
Special Quality 10 – Historic landscape pattern of hedge-banks, farmsteads, hamlets, villages and lanes.
Combe Martin has retained an intricate pattern of hedge-banks and sunken lanes which provide a valuable record of agricultural enclosure and mining activity in more than one period of history. These narrow fields at one time made the area popular for growing fruit and are a “throw back” to enclosure of the old open strip fields system in mediaeval times as well as more recent enclosure of the moorlands above Combe Martin in the mid-19th Century.
