Bryher ( kw, Breyer "place of hills") is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across .

History

The name of the island is recorded as ''Brayer'' in 1336 and ''Brear'' in 1500.

Geography

The island is a procession of prominent hills all joined to one another by low-lying necks and sandy bars. It would only need sea levels to rise by a few metres for the southern part of Bryher to transform itself into a group of five or six separate islands. As all these hills – Gweal, Timmy's, Watch, Heathy and Samson – are too exposed and windswept to be cultivated and Bryher's ninety residents have to make their lives in a relatively narrow zone between hill and shore. The island has a length of , a maximum width of and an area of , including Shipman Head, which rises to at the northern end of the island. Bryher lies to the west of

Tresco Tresco may refer to: * Tresco, Elizabeth Bay, a historic residence in New South Wales, Australia * Tresco, Isles of Scilly, an island off Cornwall, England, United Kingdom * Tresco, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia * a nickname referring to ...

, and is separated from that island by the Tresco Channel, once the main anchorage for the islands and now an area where sandflats are exposed at low tide. Off the southern end of Bryher is the uninhabited island of

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

. It is possible to walk between the three islands at the lowest

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

tides. The settlement at the Pool / Hell Bay Hotel is the westernmost in England. Without the

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

Gugh Gugh (; kw, Keow, meaning "hedge banks") could be described as the sixth inhabited island of the Isles of Scilly, but is usually included with St Agnes with which it is joined by a sandy tombolo known as "The Bar" when exposed at low tide. The ...

included, St Agnes is marginally smaller than Bryher in either population or area; however if Gugh is included with St Agnes, which is the common interpretation, then Bryher is (again, marginally) the smallest of the populated isles of Scilly in area and population. Ruby Red Devon cattle on Bryher

The centre of Bryher is mainly low-lying with arable fields, pasture and housing and is where most of the population of 84 live. On the west side is the

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

Great Pool overlooked by the Hell Bay Hotel and in the south are sandy beaches, a common feature on the island, Rushy Bay being an example. The island lies within the Isles of Scilly Heritage Coast, is part of the Isles of Scilly

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

and untenanted land is leased by the Duchy of Cornwall to the

Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust, formed in 1985, is a Wildlife Trust covering the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands off the coast of Cornwall. It became the 46th member of The Wildlife Trusts in 2001 and is dedicated to ensuring that the a ...

which is using ponies and red ruby cattle to graze the overgrown areas as part of the ''Waves of Heath'' project.

Hell Bay

The infamous Hell Bay is on the north-west coast of Bryher, immediately to the south of Shipman Head. This

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

-facing cove became a notorious place for

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

in the 18th and 19th centuries, although most ships wrecked on Scilly were wrecked before they could reach Hell Bay.

Civil parish and ward

Bryher Isles of Scilly UK parish locator map

Bryher is one of the five

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

of the Isles of Scilly, which are also wards. The civil parish and ward include several uninhabited islands and rocks, including the Norrard Rocks, Gweal, Zantman's Rock and the Crim Rocks (the westernmost place of England). Bryher returns one councillor to the

Council of the Isles of Scilly The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a ''sui generis'' unitary local government authority covering the Isles of Scilly off the west coast of Cornwall. It is currently made up of 16 seats, with all councillors being independents. The council w ...

, the same as the other "off-island" wards. The civil parish is not functional however, and there is no council or meeting. In the 2021 United Kingdom local elections held on 6 May 2021, no persons were nominated to stand for election in the ward, causing another election to be held in accordance with section 39(1) of the

Representation of the People Act 1983 The Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the British electoral process in the following ways: * Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969. * Stated that a convicted pe ...

Demography

Bryher was most recently recorded as having 84 residents on the 2011 census, a drop of 8 since 2001.

All Saints' Church

All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aust ...

(

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

) is in the centre of the island, close to the east coast, opposite New Grimsby on

. A church was originally built on the site in about 1742, but it was completely rebuilt in 1821-22. The church was renovated in 1860-61, when the tower and porch were added, and the east (

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

) end was further altered in 1897-98. The roof was replaced and raised in 1930. The nave has four modern stained-glass windows by Oriel Hicks (Phoenix Stained Glass).

Bryher Baptist Church

The Baptists arrived in Scilly in the early nineteenth century. The Baptist Itinerant Aid Society established Scilly as their first missionary station, with chapels on all the inhabited islands including Bryher. Augustus Smith, "Lord Proprietor" of the Isles of Scilly, fell out with the Baptists and in 1843 "caused notice to be served at all the chapels", so they were closed. However, a new Baptist chapel was built on Bryher in 1874. It continued to be used for nearly a century, before being converted into a private house in 1972.

Bryher's Quays

Bryher has two

quays A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

: Church Quay, used as the high-water quay, and Bar Quay, used as the low-water quay. The quays are used by Scilly's inter-island boats, for both passengers and freight. Church Quay, as its name suggests, is located close to

, on a small promontory called "The Island", at the north end of Green Bay. There has been a quay on this site since at least the nineteenth century. The quay is shown on the OS Six-inch map published in 1889. Bar Quay, or Anneka's Quay, located to the north of Church Quay, was originally built in 1990 by volunteers, for the television programme ''

Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British Reality television, reality programme that aired on BBC One, BBC1 from 8 September 1989 to 15 October 1995 and was hosted by Anneka Rice. It was announced in 2006 that the series was returning, but this time o ...

''. It is known to many islanders as "Anna Quay". The Duchy of Cornwall is responsible for both quays on Bryher.

Quay renovation, 2006–2008

The quays on Bryher (together with quays on St Agnes and St Martins) benefited from a £3.5m Duchy of Cornwall renovation project in 2006–2008 to improve operational safety and reduce maintenance. For all off-island quays, except Anneka's Quay, a common solution was provided: a new quay wall was built from prefabricated concrete block units, which were anchored to the bedrock using post tensioned bars and connected to the existing structure using precast deck planks. Anneka's Quay was originally a timber deck structure support on sand filled caissons. The quay was lengthened by approximately 12m by adding two additional concrete filled caissons; the timber deck was replaced by a concrete slab. On 2 October 2007, BBC News reported that before the renovation project it had been 50 years since any major work was done on the off-islands quays.

Education

Five Islands Academy (previously Five Islands School) has its Tresco and Bryher Base, a primary campus in

. Primary pupils commute daily to Tresco. Secondary pupils board at the St Mary's main campus, staying there on weekdays and coming back and forth to their home islands on weekends. Students at the

sixth-form college A sixth form college is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A Levels, Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) and the International Baccalaureate Di ...

level reside and board elsewhere in mainland Great Britain. Previously the

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...

paid for costs of accommodation for sixth-formers.

Natural history

There are three

Sites 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) on Bryher. The Shipman Head and Shipman Down SSSI was first designated in 1971 and covers over 40 ha of the northern part of the island. Waved maritime

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

grows over shallow

podzolic In soil science, podzols are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of huma ...

soils which are underlain by

Hercynian The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny was a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Nomenclature The name ''Variscan'', come ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. Rare plants include the Red Data Book (RDB) Orange Bird's-foot (''

Ornithopus pinnatus ''Ornithopus pinnatus'', the orange birdsfoot, is a plant in the Fabaceae family. It was first described as ''Scorpiurus pinnata'' in 1768 by Philip Miller in ''The Gardeners Dictionary''. In 1907, George Claridge Druce assigned it to the genu ...

'') and the nationally scarce Hairy Bird's-foot trefoil ('' Lotus subbiflorus''). Lichens include (''

Lobaria pulmonaria ''Lobaria pulmonaria'' is a large epiphyte, epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiosis, symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingd ...

'') and ('' Teleoschistes flavicans''). On the west side of the island is Great Pool which is part of the Pool of Bryher and Popplestone Bank SSSI. It is separated from the sea by a

storm beach A storm beach is a beach affected by particularly fierce waves, usually with a very long fetch. The resultant landform is often a very steep beach (up to 45°) composed of rounded cobbles, shingle and occasionally sand. The stones usually have an ...

and small dune system, and is the only natural

lagoon on Scilly with plants such as Saltmarsh Rush ('' Juncus gerardii'') and Beaked Tasselweed (''

Ruppia maritima ''Ruppia maritima'' is an aquatic plant species commonly known as beaked tasselweed, ditch grass, tassel pondweed and widgeon grass. Despite its scientific name, it is not a marine plant; is perhaps best described as a salt-tolerant freshwa ...

''). Covering of the southern part of the island is the Rushy Bay and Heathy Hill SSSI which has a number of nationally rare plants. An Isles of Scilly speciality is the Dwarf Pansy ('' Viola kitaibeliana'') which grows nowhere else in Great Britain. It is locally abundant on Bryher and thousands can be found in May in short turf and bare sand. Unfortunately a storm in 2008 reduced the numbers of plants seen; there are also small colonies on

and

Teän Teän ( , sometimes written ''Tean'' without the diaeresis; kw, Enys Tian) is an uninhabited island to the north of the Isles of Scilly archipelago between Tresco, to the west, and St Martin's, to the east. Approximately in area, the isl ...

. Orange Bird's-foot, Small Adder's-tongue (''

Ophioglossum azoricum ''Ophioglossum azoricum'', the small adder's-tongue fern or lesser adder's-tongue fern, is a small fern of the family Ophioglossaceae. Distribution ''Ophioglossum azoricum'' is an Atlantic–Mediterranean species native to islands in the nort ...

'') and Autumn's Lady's-tresses ('' Spiranthes spiralis'') grow on Heathy Hill.

Breeding birds

Shipman head has seven species of breeding seabirds: *Kittiwake (''

Rissa tridactyla The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...

'') *Herring Gull ('' Larus argentatus'') *Greater Black-backed Gull ('' L marinus'') *Lesser Black-backed Gull ('' L fuscus'') *Razorbill ('' Alca torda'') *Shag (''

Gulosus aristotelis The European shag or common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Gulosus''. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mai ...

'') *European Storm Petrel ('' Hydrobates pelagicus'') Ringed Plover ('' Charadrius hiaticula'') breed on Shipman Down.

Visiting the island

Varied accommodation is available on the island. There are guesthouses and self-catering cottages scattered across the island. The campsite is located close to the north end of the island overlooking both coasts. The Hell Bay Hotel is located close to the coast on the west side. Two quays are used (depending on tides) by boats which take tourists between Bryher and other islands, including St Mary's and

. On some low tides it is possible to walk between Bryher and Tresco and even

, the uninhabited island to the south. There is also safe anchorage for small yachts in the channel and Green Bay. Local activities include boating, walking and watching wildlife.

Culture and Media

Use in film and television

In 1989, the island was used for some of the scenes in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...