Goss Moor is a national nature reserve in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, south-west of

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...

in the parishes of St Dennis,

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay ...

Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX S ...

and

St Enoder St Enoder ( kw, Eglosenoder) is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and hamlet in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated five miles (8 km) southeast of Newquay. There is St Enoder (electoral division), an electoral ward bear ...

. It is the largest continuous mire complex in south-west

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and consists of mainly

peatland A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types ...

and

lowland heath Lowland heath is a Biodiversity Action Plan habitat as it is a type of ancient wild landscape. Natural England's Environmental Stewardship scheme describes lowland heath as containing dry heath, wet heath and valley mire communities, usually below ...

. Together with the neighbouring moor to the east, it forms the Goss And Tregoss Moors

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI), as well as the ''

Breney Common Breney Common is a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its biological characteristics, in mid Cornwall, England, UK. It is located mainly in Lanlivery civil parish, with the Saints' Way footpath running through it. ...

and Goss and Tregoss Moors''

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

(SAC).

History

Before 1838,

Davies Gilbert Davies Gilbert (born Davies Giddy, 6 March 1767 – 24 December 1839) was an English engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830. He c ...

wrote that the ''flat country round it'' (St Dennis) ''is destroyed in the most efficacious manner, having been turned over and over again down to the solid rock, in what is termed streaming for tin''. Between 1908 and 1916 steam powered suction and cutter dredges were used for the mining of

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

on the moor. Drilling took place in 1908 and 1909 but the position of the boreholes and what they contained have been lost. Approximately 70 tons of tin concentrate was extracted and the dredges were later moved to

, Molinnis and Red Moor. The area was designated as the Goss and Tregoss Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1988. Matthew Taylor, who had been Member of Parliament for Truro and St Austell from 1987 to 2010, chose the title Baron Taylor of Goss Moor when he was appointed a life peer in the

2010 Dissolution Honours The 2010 Dissolution Honours List was issued on 28 May 2010 at the advice of the outgoing Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The list was gazetted on 15 June. Life Peerages Conservative * Timothy Eric Boswell - former Whip and Parliamentary secreta ...

Geography

Goss Moor is south-west of Bodmin and is overlooked by

Castle an Dinas Castle an Dinas is an Iron Age hillfort at the summit of Castle Downs near St Columb Major in Cornwall, UK () and is considered one of the most important hillforts in the southwest of Britain. It dates from around the 3rd to 2nd century BCE and ...

to the north, and the church of St Dennis in the south. The

River Fal The River Fal ( kw, Dowr Fala) flows through Cornwall, England, rising at Pentevale on Goss Moor (between St. Columb and Roche) and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth. On or near the banks of the Fal are the castles of Pendennis and ...

rises on the moor at Pentivale and flows to the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

Carrick Roads Carrick Roads ( kw, Dowr Carrek, meaning "rock anchorage") is the estuary of the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall in England. It joins the English Channel at its southern end near Falmouth. Geography It is a large flooded valley, or r ...

. The

A30 road The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End. The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Londo ...

once ran through the middle of Goss Moor. This was a major bottleneck for traffic and had been subject to a long running campaign for expansion which was strongly opposed. In late 2004 a decision was finally reached and the dual carriageway running to the north of moor was opened on 25 June 2007. Much of the existing road is now converted to a cycle lane which opened on 11 May 2008. The Atlantic Coast railway line between Par and

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

also crosses Goss Moor.

Scarce or rare species

It is home to a number of scarce and rare species including: ;plants: yellow centaury (''Cicendia filiformis''), marsh clubmoss. ;invertebrates: small red and variable damselfly. ;butterflies:

silver-studded blue The silver-studded blue (''Plebejus argus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it the name of the silver-studded blue. ''P. argus'' can be ...

marsh fritillary The marsh fritillary (''Euphydryas aurinia'') is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Commonly distributed in the Palearctic region, the marsh fritillary's common name derives from one of its several habitats, marshland. The prolonged larval s ...

small pearl-bordered fritillary ''Boloria selene'', known in Europe as the small pearl-bordered fritillary and in North America as the silver-bordered fritillary, is a species of butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found across Europe, Asia and North America, and feeds ...

grizzled skipper ''Pyrgus'' is a genus in the skippers butterfly family, Hesperiidae, known as the grizzled skippers. The name "checkered" or "chequered skipper" may also be applied to some species, but also refers to species in the genera '' Burnsius'' and '' ...

;moths: narrow-bordered bee hawk and double line. A 2003 study found twelve different

poor fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. The ...

sub-communities.

References

External links

National Nature Reserve
(

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

).
Hydrology
(

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

). {{SSSIs Cornwall biological, state=collapsed Cornish Killas Moorlands of Cornwall National nature reserves in Cornwall Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cornwall Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1988 Special Areas of Conservation in Cornwall