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River Barle
The River Barle runs from the Chains on northern Exmoor, in Somerset, England to join the River Exe at Exebridge, Devon. The river and the Barle Valley are both designated as biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest. On the Chains above Simonsbath is a former reservoir known as Pinkery Pond. It was formed in the 19th century when John Knight and his son dammed the river at that point. Vestiges of a small water channel sometimes referred to as a 'canal' can be seen nearby. Wheal Eliza Mine was an unsuccessful copper and iron mine on the river near Simonsbath. The river passes under a late medieval six-arch stone Landacre Bridge in Withypool, and the Tarr Steps, a prehistoric clapper bridge possibly dating from 1000 BC. The stone slabs weigh up to 5 tons apiece. According to local legend, they were placed by the devil to win a bet. The bridge is long and has 17 spans. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. In Dulverton the river i ...
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Tarr Steps
The Tarr Steps is a clapper bridge across the River Barle in the Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England. They are located in a national nature reserve about south east of Withypool and north west of Dulverton. A typical clapper bridge construction, the bridge's listing assesses it as medieval in origin. The stone slabs weigh up to two tons each. The bridge is long and has 17 spans. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building and scheduled monument. Nature reserve Owned by Exmoor National Park Authority, Tarr Steps Woodland National Nature Reserve covers 33 hectares of the River Barle valley. This is mainly sessile oak (''Quercus petraea'') woodland, with beech (Fagus), ash, sycamore (''Acer pseudoplatanus''), hazel (''Corylus''), blackberry (''Rubus''), bluebells (''Hyacinthoides non-scripta'') and honeysuckle (''Lonicera''). It is internationally significant for the mosses, liverworts and lichens which flourish in the cool damp conditions. ...
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English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage also manages the London Blue Plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings. When originally formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government, officially titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage protection and managed a range of historic properties. It was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a ...
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Rapids
Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. Rapids are characterized by the river becoming shallower with some rocks exposed above the flow surface. As flowing water splashes over and around the rocks, air bubbles become mixed in with it and portions of the surface acquire a white color, forming what is called "whitewater". Rapids occur where the bed material is highly resistant to the erosive power of the stream in comparison with the bed downstream of the rapids. Very young streams flowing across solid rock may be rapids for much of their length. Rapids cause water aeration of the stream or river, resulting in better water quality. Rapids are categorized in classes, generally running from I to VI. A Class 5 rapid may be categorized as Class 5.1-5.9. While Class I rapids are ...
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Two Moors Way
The Two Moors Way is a long-distance trail mostly in Devon, UK, first established in 1976. It links Dartmoor and Exmoor and has been extended to become a Devon Coast-to-Coast trail. History The Two Moors Way was the brainchild of Joe Turner of the Two Moors Way Association and was officially opened on 29 May 1976. The original Two Moors Way route spans 102 miles from Ivybridge on the southern boundary of Dartmoor National Park to Lynmouth on the North Devon Coast in Exmoor National Park. In 2005 the Two Moors Way was linked with the Erme–Plym Trail joining Wembury on the south Devon coast to Ivybridge to create a cross-county coast-to-coast route of just over 116 miles. After Joe Turner's death in 2004, Dartmoor sculptor Peter Randall-Page created a testament to his work: two halves of an inscribed granite boulder now sit on the edge of Dartmoor and Exmoor, facing each other across 30 miles of rolling Mid Devon countryside. In 2016, to mark the 40th anniversary of the orig ...
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Trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmonid fish such as ''Cynoscion nebulosus'', the spotted seatrout or speckled trout. Trout are closely related to salmon and char (or charr): species termed salmon and char occur in the same genera as do fish called trout (''Oncorhynchus'' – Pacific salmon and trout, ''Salmo'' – Atlantic salmon and various trout, ''Salvelinus'' – char and trout). Lake trout and most other trout live in freshwater lakes and rivers exclusively, while there are others, such as the steelhead, a form of the coastal rainbow trout, that can spend two or three years at sea before returning to fresh water to spawn (a habit more typical of salmon). Arctic char and brook trout are part of the char genus. Trout are an important food source for humans and wil ...
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Salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhynchus'') basin. Other closely related fish in the same family include trout, char, grayling, whitefish, lenok and taimen. Salmon are typically anadromous: they hatch in the gravel beds of shallow fresh water streams, migrate to the ocean as adults and live like sea fish, then return to fresh water to reproduce. However, populations of several species are restricted to fresh water throughout their lives. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they hatched to spawn, and tracking studies have shown this to be mostly true. A portion of a returning salmon run may stray and spawn in different freshwater systems; the percent of straying depends on the species of salmon. Homing behavior has been shown to depend on ...
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River Barle At Simonsbath
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague. Rivers are part of the water cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, a ...
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Eurasian Otter
The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia. The most widely distributed member of the otter subfamily (Lutrinae) of the weasel family (Mustelidae), it is found in the waterways and coasts of Europe, many parts of Asia, and parts of northern Africa. The Eurasian otter has a diet mainly of fish, and is strongly territorial. It is endangered in some parts of its range, but is recovering in others. Description The Eurasian otter is a typical species of the otter subfamily. Brown above and cream below, these long, slender creatures are well-equipped for their aquatic habits. Their bones show osteosclerosis, increasing their density to reduce buoyancy. This otter differs from the North American river otter by its shorter neck, broader visage, the greater space between the ears and its longer tail. However, the Eurasian otter is the only otter in much of its ...
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Sanguisorba Officinalis
''Sanguisorba officinalis'', commonly known as great burnet, is a plant in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. It is native throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, northern Asia, and northern North America. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1 m tall, which occurs in grasslands, growing well on grassy banks. It flowers June or July. ''Sanguisorba officinalis'' is an important food plant for the European large blue butterflies '' Phengaris nausithous'' and '' P. teleius''.World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1996. . Downloaded on 6 October 2010 Commercial uses Use is made of its extensive root system for erosion control, as well as a bioremediator, used to reclaim derelict sites such as landfills. Ornamental ''Sanguisorba officinalis'' is one of several ''Sanguisorba'' species cultivated as ornamental plants. The cultivar 'Tanna' is widely available, and has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The synonym ' ...
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Common Kingfisher
The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter. This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank. Taxonomy The common kingfisher was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' in 1758 as ''Gracula atthis''. The modern binomial name derives from the Latin ', 'kingfisher' (from Greek , '), and ''Atthis'', a beautiful young woman of Lesbos, and favourite of Sappho. The genus '' Alcedo'' comprises ...
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Exmoor National Park
Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath. Exmoor is more precisely defined as the area of the former ancient royal hunting forest, also called Exmoor, which was officially surveyed 1815–1818 as in extent. The moor has given its name to a National Park, which includes the Brendon Hills, the East Lyn Valley, the Vale of Porlock and of the Bristol Channel coast. The total area of the Exmoor National Park is , of which 71% is in Somerset and 29% in Devon. The upland area is underlain by sedimentary rocks dating from the Devonian and early Carboniferous periods with Triassic and Jurassic age rocks on lower slopes. Where these reach the coast, cliffs are formed which are cut with ravines and waterfalls. It was recognised as a heritage coast in 1991. The highest point on Exmoor is ...
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Somerset Wildlife Trust
Somerset Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the county of Somerset, England. The trust, which was established in 1964, aims to safeguard the county's wildlife and wild places for this and future generations and manages almost 80 nature reserves. Examples include Westhay Moor, Long Wood and Langford Heathfield. It has over 20,500 members and 500 volunteers. The Somerset Wildlife Trust is part of the Wildlife Trusts partnership of 46 wildlife trusts in the United Kingdom. In 2010 the organisation won a Biffa Award for their "Restoring Habitat for Dormice in Somerset" scheme. In 2011 the Trust appealed for £100,000 from local residents and businesses to restore former peat diggings on the Somerset Levels. Nature reserves The Nature reserves include: (* = Reserves designated as Sites of Scientific Interest) See also *List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset __NOTOC__ This is a list of the Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Somerset, ...
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