Blaisdon Hall

Blaisdon Hall
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Example - Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)
Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SO698170
Coordinates	51°51′04″N 2°26′21″W / 51.851222°N 2.439124°W / 51.851222; -2.439124Coordinates: 51°51′04″N 2°26′21″W / 51.851222°N 2.439124°W / 51.851222; -2.439124
Interest	Biological
Area	0.07 hectare
Notification	1995
Natural England website

Blaisdon Hall (grid reference SO698170) is a 0.07-hectare (0.17-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1995.^[1]^[2]

Blaisdon Hall supports a breeding roost of Lesser horseshoe bats which consists of one fifth of the known Gloucestershire breeding population, and has been deemed by Natural England to be of national importance. The site comprises part of the roof void, roof tiles, roof timbers, the flanking walls of the Hall and the nearby workshop. Pipistrelle bats and Brown long-eared bats also are recorded using the Hall.^[1]

Location and habitat

The site is one of a series of Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley (Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire). These sites support (between them) breeding and hibernation roosts for Lesser and Greater horseshoe bats. This is of European importance. Other sites in the group in Gloucestershire (all of which are SSSIs) include the breeding sites of Caerwood And Ashberry Goose House, Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar and Sylvan House Barn. Hibernation sites include Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel, Devil's Chapel Scowles, Old Bow And Old Ham Mines and Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine.^[1]

The Wye Valley and Forest of Dean are one of the main locations for Lesser horseshoe bats because of the deciduous woodlands and, sheltered valleys, which provide a good feeding area, and the underground systems which provide roosting and breeding sites.^[1]

The citations for the series of sites provide common information.

Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Bat Sites/ Safleoedd Ystlumod Dyffryn Gwy a Fforest y Ddena are recognised as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive.^[3]^[4]

Conservation

Natural England reports (unit of assessment report 2011) that the numbers of Lesser horseshoe bats remained the same as at citation (by chance). This was 187 (8 August 2011 count). Roof spaces were not accessed and considered to be inaccessible without causing structural damage and damage to the roost.^[5]

References

SSSI Source

External links

	Lesser horseshoe bat recorded on a heterodyne bat detector set to 107 KHz
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Natural England (SSSI information)

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Ashleworth Ham Astridge Wood Badgeworth Barnsley Warren Barton Bushes Bigsweir Woods Blaisdon Hall Bourton Down Box Farm Meadows Boxwell Brassey Brooks Head Grove Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Railway Tunnel Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Bushley Muzzard, Brimpsfield Caerwood and Ashberry Goose House Chaceley Meadow Clarke's Pool Meadow Cleeve Common Cockleford Marsh Collinpark Wood Coombe Hill Canal Coombe Hill Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Cotswold Water Park Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Daneway Banks Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar Devil's Chapel Scowles Dingle Wood Dixton Wood Dymock Woods Edge Common Elmlea Meadows Frampton Pools Highbury Wood Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Roughs Hucclecote Meadows Innsworth Meadow Juniper Hill, Edgeworth Kempley Daffodil Meadow Kingscote and Horsley Woods Lark Wood Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Lineover Wood Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge May Hill Midger Minchinhampton Common Nagshead Old Bow and Old Ham Mines Old River Severn, Upper Lode Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury Poor's Allotment Puckham Woods Range Farm Fields River Wye Rodborough Common Rough Bank, Miserden Salmonsbury Meadows Selsley Common Severn Estuary Severn Ham, Tewkesbury Shorn Cliff and Caswell Woods Slade Brook Soudley Ponds Speech House Oaks Stenders Quarry Stinchcombe Hill Strawberry Banks Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove Swift's Hill Sylvan House Barn The Hudnalls The Malvern Hills Tudor Farm Bank Turvey's Piece Upper Severn Estuary Upham Meadow and Summer Leasow Upper Wye Gorge Walmore Common Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine Whelford Meadow Wigpool Ironstone Mine Wildmoorway Meadows Winson Meadows Woodchester Park Workman's Wood Wotton Hill Yarley Meadows

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

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