Horseshoe Bend, Shirehampton () is an 11

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

(4.45

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

)

biological 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 ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, on the north bank of a lower, tidal stretch of the River Avon, 1.9 miles (3 kilometres) downstream from the

Avon Gorge The Avon Gorge () is a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometre) long gorge on the River Avon in Bristol, England. The gorge runs south to north through a limestone ridge west of Bristol city centre, and about 3 miles (5 km) from the mouth of the r ...

, and just east of the village of

Shirehampton Shirehampton is a district of Bristol in England, near Avonmouth, at the northwestern edge of the city. It originated as a separate village, retains a High Street with a parish church and shops, and is still thought of as a village by many of it ...

. It was notified as an SSSI in 1999.

Description

The site consists of a wooded cliff and a narrow

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

. The underlying rocks are Devonian sandstone and

Carboniferous limestone Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 363 and ...

, overlaid with

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dolomiti ...

conglomerate.

Biological interest

Wooded cliff

The site's principal interest and the reason for its designation as an SSSI is the presence of a population of the True Service-tree (''Sorbus domestica'') growing on the cliffs. This tree is nationally rare in Britain, and this site hosts the largest known population in England. Other notable species of ''

Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan ( mountain-ash) and service tree. The exact number of species is disputed depend ...

'' here are the whitebeams '' Sorbus eminens'' and ''

Sorbus anglica ''Sorbus anglica'', the English whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam tree in the family Rosaceae. It is uncommonly found in Ireland and the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the Un ...

'', both of which are also nationally rare in Britain. The nationally scarce

Large-leaved Lime ''Tilia platyphyllos'', the large-leaved lime or large-leaved linden, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae (Tiliaceae). It is a deciduous tree, native to much of Europe, including locally in southwestern Great Britain, growing ...

(''Tilia platyphyllos'') also occurs, and herbs include

Field Garlic Field garlic is a common name for several plants in the garlic genus, ''Allium'': *'' Allium oleraceum'' *''Allium vineale ''Allium vineale'' (wild garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag's garlic) is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild o ...

(''Allium oleraceum'') and Pale St. John's-wort (''Hypericum montanum'').

Saltmarsh plants

The saltmarsh vegetation, which lies at the base of the cliff, is predominantly made up of

Sea Aster ''Tripolium pannonicum'', called sea aster or seashore aster and often known by the synonyms ''Aster tripolium'' or ''Aster pannonicus'', is a flowering plant, native to Eurasia and northern Africa, that is confined in its distribution to salt ma ...

(''Aster tripolium'') and English Scurvygrass (''Cochlearia anglica''). There are however two nationally scarce vascular plant species here as well – Slender Hare's-ear (''Bupleurum tenuissimum'') and Long-stalked Orache (''Atriplex longipes'').

Wreck of the ''Kron Prinz''

On 1 April 1874, the German grain ship was under tow up the Avon, laden with 7,000

quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25. Quarter or quarters may refer to: Places * Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town Placenames * Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland * Le Quartier, a settlement ...

s (28,000 imperial bushels, 1,000 m³) of grain. There was an adequate depth of water, as it was approaching high tide, but on the narrow channel through Horseshoe Bend she grounded on the outer bank. As the tide soon began to ebb, the ship settled onto the steep mud bank and then fell over. The cargo was lost and to avoid blocking the navigation channel, the ship was demasted. Nearly three weeks later, on 20 April, she was refloated and taken to Bristol for repairs, at a cost of £34,000. The grounded ship was photographed and there is a well-known photograph of her on her side, taken from across the Avon. This was later published as a postcard by local photographer Fred Little, although it was not (as sometimes claimed) his photograph, as he had been born in the same year. The ship was later renamed the and was lost in the North Sea in 1899.

References

English Nature citation sheet for the site
(accessed 13 July 2006)

External links

English Nature
(SSSI information)
''English Nature''
{{authority control Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Avon Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1999 Woodland Sites of Special Scientific Interest Protected areas of Bristol River Avon, Bristol