Shapwick Heath is a 394.0-hectare (973.6 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and national nature reserve[1] between Shapwick and Westhay in Somerset, notified in 1967. It is part of the Brue Valley Living Landscape conservation project. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore, recreate and reconnect habitat. It aims to ensure that wildlife is enhanced and capable of sustaining itself in the face of climate change[2] while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape scale conservation projects in the UK.[3][4][5]
Shapwick Heath, part of the Avalon Marshes in the Somerset Levels Wetlands, and managed as a national nature reserve by Natural England, is a former raised bog lying in the basin of the River Brue. The site supports a diverse community of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. National rarities are the Greater Silver Diving Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) and the
Lesser Silver Diving Beetle (Hydrochara caraboides) which is now confined nationally to the Brue Basin Peat Moors.[6]
The Sweet Track, an ancient causeway crosses the site. It is one of the oldest engineered roads known and the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe.
The adjoining Shapwick Moor has been purchased by the Hawk and Owl Trust as a reserve. Ham Wall nature reserve is to the east.
^"Shapwick Heath NNR". Natural England. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
^Brue Valley Living Landscape
^A Living Landscape - The Wildlife Trusts
^RSPB landscape conservation
^Natural England Future Landscapes Archived 2009-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
^"SSSI notification" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
ShapwickHeath is a 394.0-hectare (973.6 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and national nature reserve between Shapwick and Westhay...
made on which visitors can walk, on the same line as the original, in ShapwickHeath National Nature Reserve. In the early fourth millennium BC the track...
86,000 acres (348 km2), the Somerset Levels National Nature Reserve, ShapwickHeath National Nature Reserve, Ham Wall National Nature Reserve and numerous...
sources. The Avalon Marshes Centre, run by Natural England, is near the ShapwickHeath reserve. The network of reserves and private land managed for conservation...
village southwards towards Shapwick. The village is close to Westhay Moor, Westhay Heath, RSPB Ham Wall and ShapwickHeath, all of which have been designated...
Sites of Special Scientific Interest including Westhay Moor, ShapwickHeath and Shapwick Moor. Much of the area has been at the centre of peat extraction...
Shapwick Moor is an area of 138 acres (0.56 km2) of farmland on the Somerset levels bordering ShapwickHeath and Cattcot Heath. It is part of the Brue...
great egrets was observed nesting in the UK for the first time at the ShapwickHeath nature reserve in Somerset. The species was a rare visitor to the UK...
in Bridgwater is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) distant. Natural England's ShapwickHeath NNR is to the west on the opposite side of the Meare-Ashcott road. The...
perspective Archived 24 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine "10740: Post Track, ShapwickHeath". South West Heritage Trust. Retrieved 30 September 2016. A. W. R. Whittle...
86,000 acres (348 km2), the Somerset Levels National Nature Reserve, ShapwickHeath National Nature Reserve, and numerous Scheduled Ancient Monuments. In...
Sites of Special Scientific Interest; of these, Street Heath, ShapwickHeath, and Westhay Heath are affected by water levels in the South Drain, while...
(2008). "The importance of birds in the diet of otter Lutra lutra on ShapwickHeath" (PDF). Bioscience Horizons. 1 (2): 143–147. doi:10.1093/biohorizons/hzn018...
course of the enlarged South Drain, a lock raised the level of the canal at Shapwick, while the Drain turned off to run parallel to the canal but to its north...
Bradford on Avon: Ex Libris Press. ISBN 0-948578-38-6. "Post Track, ShapwickHeath". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Archived...
July 2006. "ShapwickHeath NNR". Natural England. Archived from the original on 20 January 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010. "ShapwickHeath" (PDF). English...
was the main commercial extractor of peat, operating initially across ShapwickHeath. Extracting peat at Westhay, September 1905 Peat gatherers Peat stacks...
Estuary" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 October 2012. "ShapwickHeath" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2012. "Sharpham...
around the United Kingdom, including Blackmoor Copse near Salisbury and ShapwickHeath in Somerset. Towards the end of his life, Heslop was a frequent panellist...
Hectares Acres Bratton Downs Wiltshire Y Y 395.8 978.0 ST925522 1971 Map ShapwickHeath Somerset Y 394.0 973.6 ST430403 1967 Map South Gare and Coatham Sands...
The site of Bronze and Iron Age trackways in the peaty soil of the ShapwickHeath area of the Somerset Levels. 1014431 Upload Photo Cairn 500 m north...
888; Benedictine nunnery possibly built on site (see immediately above) Shapwick Grange purported priory order and foundation uncertain; acquired by the...
Horton Long Crichel Moor Crichel Pamphill, Pentridge St Ives, St Leonards, Shapwick, Sixpenny Handley, Sturminster Marshall Verwood West Moors, West Parley...
Trust. Archived from the original on 2016-04-29. Retrieved May 1, 2016. "Shapwick Moor Nature Reserve". Archived from the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved...
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