Get That Grade

Ordnance Survey maps give us a certain amount of detail about rural land use, but not much. They show types of rural land use that are likely to stay unchanged for many years. There would be no point spending time and money showing what is grown in every field , because farmers may well plough their fields up and grow something quite different in them next year. So what do they show? Look in the key on any Ordnance Survey map and you will see that it has:

• coniferous wood
• non-coniferous wood
• mixed wood
• orchard
• park or ornamental grounds
• quarry
• spoil heap, refuse or dump
• rock outcrop, cliff or scree
• marsh or salting (salting is wet land that is very close to the sea, so can be flooded by salt water)

Older OS maps show moorland as well, but that feature is now no longer shown.

Land used for grass or crops is not shown. However, good geographers can make sensible suggestions about how the land is likely to be used - or not used. For example:

• very steep land is unlikely to be used for crops - it is more likely to be left as rough grazing;
• in upland areas, even moderately steep land on the lower valley slopes will probably not be used for crops, so it is likely to be improved pasture;
• very flat land, on a flood plain, with obviously artificial drainage networks, is often too soft for the use of tractors with ploughs, combine harvesters, etc., so it will be left as cattle pasture.

These examples show how important it is to look carefully at contour patterns to see the shape of the land. Then it is possible to make reasoned judgements about how the land is used. Even when land use is shown, it may well be possible to use the contour pattern to suggest why the land is used in that particular way.

Use the map extract of the Reading area, in your Get That Grade! book, to answer the following questions.

1	What is the land use at the following points?
	(a)	686760
	(b)	690790
	(c)	668795
	(d)	733800
	(e)	741765	(5)

2	Study that part of grid square 6776 between the minor road and the Thames. Which of the following types of agricultural land use would you be most likely to find there? • rough grazing for sheep • pasture for dairy cattle • arable land growing wheat, barley and sugar beet
	Explain your answer.	(4)

An area of woodland runs south from grid square 6475 to 6572. Suggest why this land has been left as woodland and not cleared to be used for farming.

(4)

4	In the area north of Northing 77 there are many small and medium-sized areas of woodland. There are also several areas of parkland.
	(a)	Why might this suggest that the land is not very good for agriculture?	(2)
	(b)	Suggest what features of geology and soil might have meant that the land was not good agricultural land.	(6)