Heath Hill Farm () is a 20.73
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 ...
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 ...
near
Stourton in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
,
notified in 1997. Part of the
Stourhead estate, it is also situated within the
Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs
Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in England.
The area was designated as an AONB in 1981 and confirmed i ...
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The site is mainly grass meadows and pasture, with trees and thick hedges separating fields. It is surrounded mostly by woodland, once part of
Selwood Forest
The ancient Selwood Forest ran approximately between Gillingham in Dorset and Chippenham in Wiltshire. It is described by the historian Barbara Yorke as a "formidable natural obstacle" in the Anglo-Saxon period, which was a significant boundar ...
. The underlying ground is made of
Gault Clay
The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in ...
and
Upper Greensand
Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and c ...
. Where these two layers meet a number of springs rise to form a small stream, which passes through the site to become one of the
headwaters of the
River Stour. As a consequence the site contains a rich and unusual variety of grasses and herbs, including
sedges
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
and
rushes.
Sources
Natural England citation sheet for the site(accessed 1 April 2022)
External links
Natural England website(SSSI information)
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire
Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1997
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