Agricultural Land Classification Survey: Whittonstall/Woodhead, Northumberland

Northumberland's Whittonstall/Woodhead area was surveyed for agricultural land quality between 1989 and 1999 by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. The dataset likely contains scanned original paper maps, survey reports, and unedited soil data, using the grading methodology from the 'Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales' guidelines. It is provided by the Government Digital Service and contains Natural England and Ordnance Survey data.

Use Cases

• Assessing agricultural land quality for planning decisions based on the detailed land classification grades.
• Analyzing soil characteristics for specific sites based on available unedited sample point soils data.
• Mapping land capability for agriculture at varying scales (1:5,000 to 1:50,000) based on the scanned survey maps.
• Evaluating the subdivision of Grade 3 land into subgrades 3a and 3b for more granular analysis.

Strengths

• Survey data uses the current grading methodology as described in the official 'Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales' guidelines.
• Includes subdivision of Grade 3 into subgrades 3a and 3b, providing more detailed classification.
• Original scanned maps and reports are available, preserving the detail of the original survey work.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count, file formats, and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Detailed site surveys conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, with data scanned from original paper maps and reports.

Time Range

1989-1999

Geography

Whittonstall/Woodhead area, Northumberland, England