Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove

For other places with the same name, see Swanpool (disambiguation)

Swanpool Wood and Furnance Grove
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Example: Greater Butterfly Orchid
Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SO541107
Coordinates	51°47′37″N 2°39′58″W / 51.793511°N 2.666208°W / 51.793511; -2.666208Coordinates: 51°47′37″N 2°39′58″W / 51.793511°N 2.666208°W / 51.793511; -2.666208
Interest	Biological
Area	13.59 hectare
Notification	1984
Natural England website

Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove (grid reference SO541107) is a 13.59-hectare (33.6-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom), in Gloucestershire in South West England.^[1]^[2] The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).^[3]

Location

It is in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, an area of some importance in southern Great Britain, and supports many rare species. The woods and groves are important areas of woodland conservation work, coppicing and replanting. The semi-natural woodland is plentiful and continuous along the gorge.^[1] There are two separate SSSI designations for the gorge being Lower Wye Gorge and Upper Wye Gorge.

Wye Valley Woodlands/ Coetiroedd Dyffryn Gwy are recognised as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive.^[4]^[5]

Flora

The site comprises a block of ancient broad-leaved woodland on Carboniferous limestone shales. There is an Old Red Sandstone outcrop to the west. There are various streams and flushes in the north-east of Swanpool Wood. The growth reflects the nature of the soils. The woodland is made up of Ash, Small-leaved Lime and Hazel. The damper areas support Alder.^[1]

Bramble, Dog's Mercury, Bluebell are prevalent in the ground flora together with ferns and ivy, Hart's-tongue and wavy hair-grass. Uncommon species include Herb Paris, Greater Butterfly Orchid and Narrow-leaved Bitter-cress.^[1]

References

External links

Natural England (SSSI information)
Revine Woods guide to the Wye Valley, with an article on Swanpool

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

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.