The Thames Basin Heaths are a natural region in southern England in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, a slightly mottled east-west belt of ecologically recognised and protected land.
They are recognised as national character area 129 by Natural England, the government's advisor on the natural environment. They cover 118,529 hectares (457.64 sq mi) of countryside. Inset towns include Newbury, Camberley, Ascot and Woking, To the west sit the Berkshire Downs, across similar size, well-drained, and intensively farmed, sports-use or settled Thames floodplains to the north are the similarly protected Chilterns and to the near south are the Hampshire Downs.[1] Not protected as extensively but in significant part adding to the habitats of fauna are the Thames Valley (including Thames Basin lowlands) to the east and as described to the north.
Environment
The terrain of the heathland is characterized by flat or gently sloping plateaux with numerous watercourses incising broad or sometimes steep-sided valleys. Apart from these, the heaths are lower heading east (before the London Basin) and along the main river valleys to the low-lying areas of the Kennet floodplain and lower reaches of the Loddon and its largest tributary, the Blackwater. At the western edge is the chalk scarp of the Hampshire Downs. The highest elevation is 296 metres.[1]
