They are recognised as national character area 129 by Natural England, the government's advisor on the natural environment. They cover an area of of countryside surrounding towns Newbury, Camberley 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 Chilterns and Thames Valley, to the east and southeast are the Thames Basin Lowlands and to the near south are the Hampshire Downs.