An updated version of this profile is online at nationalcharacterareas.co.uk. This pdf is retained for historical and completeness purposes.
Hensbarrow is an interesting and varied landscape. The National Character Area (NCA) is named after Hensbarrow Downs, the granite hills which are the focus of the china clay industry. The world-famous Eden Project is located in an old china clay pit in the Hensbarrow Downs area. To the north, Goss Moor forms an open and wild landscape that is not untouched by human infrastructure such as roads and electricity pylons and historical tin extraction. The eastern side of the NCA is an area of contrast between the wild and open granite tors, the biodiverse heath and willow carr and an idyllic pattern of fields bounded by Cornish hedges and woodlands. Settlements are fairly small and the local vernacular is of granite or cob and granite buildings, roofed with slate and sometimes with hanging slate; the locally produced concrete blocks are also a distinctive feature.
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