Black Down, Dorset
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Black Down, Dorset
Black Down is a hill on the South Dorset Ridgeway about north-northeast of the village of Portesham in the county of Dorset, England and around from the coast. The treeless summit of Black Down is a popular viewing point, crowned by the high Hardy Monument built in 1844 in memory of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy who was Admiral Nelson's Flag Captain at the Battle of Trafalgar. From the top there are views of the Fleet and Chesil Beach as well as the South Dorset Downs. On a fine day The Needles may be visible, some 50 miles away.''Hardy's Monument''
at www.worldheritagecoast.net. Accessed on 26 Mar 2013. The site is owned by the

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Lewesdon Hill
Lewesdon Hill is a hill near Broadwindsor in west Dorset, England. With a maximum elevation of , it is the highest point in Dorset. The hill is owned and managed by the National Trust and is part of the Dorset National Landscape. Geography Lewesdon Hill stands about west of Beaminster, south of Broadwindsor, and east of another hillfort-topped eminence, Pilsdon Pen. To the south of the hill is the Marshwood Vale and to the north is the valley of the River Axe (Lyme Bay), River Axe. Lewesdon is the county top of Dorset.Muir, Johnny, ''The UK's County Tops'', Milnthorpe: Cicerone, 2011, p. 26. Its summit is an elongated ridge surrounded by beech woods. The actual summit is a low grassy mound at the east end of the ridge.''Lewesdon Hill''
at www.hill-bagging.co.uk. Retrieved 18 Jun 2017.
For many years, nearby Pilsdo ...
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Chesil Beach
Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England, is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associated Area" ''Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers'', No. 58 (March 1973) pp. 99-111. Its name is derived from the word '' chessil'' (Old English or ), meaning "gravel" or "shingle". It runs for a length of from West Bay to the Isle of Portland and in places is up to high and wide. Behind the beach is the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon. Both are part of the Jurassic Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and together form a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Ramsar Site. Owners of the land designated as ''Chesil & The Fleet'' SSSI include the Crown Estate, the Ministry of Defence and the National Trust. The beach is almost entirely made of stone shingle, and the typical size of stones reduces steadi ...
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Swallow Hole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ''ponor'', swallow hole or swallet. A ''cenote'' is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. ''Sink'', and ''stream sink'' are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock. Most sinkholes are caused by karst processes – the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite (different crystal forms of CaCO3), and Dolomite (rock), dolomite rock (also kn ..., collapse or suffosion processes. Sinkholes are usually circular and vary in size from tens to hundreds o ...
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Bagshot Formation
In geology, the Bagshot Beds are a series of sands and clays of shallow-water origin, some being fresh-water, some marine. They belong to the upper Eocene formation of the London and Hampshire basins, in England and derive their name from Bagshot Heath in Surrey. They are also well developed in Hampshire, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight. The following divisions are generally accepted: *Upper Bagshot Beds — Barton sand and Barton clay. *Middle Bagshot Beds — Bracklesham Beds. *Lower Bagshot Beds — Bournemouth Beds and Alum Bay Beds. The lower division consists of pale-yellow, current-bedded sand and loam, with layers of pipeclay and occasional beds of flint pebbles. In the London basin, wherever the junction of the Bagshot beds with the London clay is exposed, it is clear that no sharp line can be drawn between these formations. The Lower Bagshot Beds may be observed at Brentwood, Billericay and High Beach in Essex; outliers, capping hills of London clay, occur at Ha ...
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Nature Conservancy Council
The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Northern Ireland). Origin and Leadership The NCC was established by the Nature Conservancy Council Act 1973 and replaced the Nature Conservancy, established by Royal Charter in 1949. NCC's duties included: * Managing national nature reserves; * Providing advice on nature conservation to national and local government; * Notifying Sites of Special Scientific Interest; * Undertaking certain scientific research. Robert Edward Boote the former director of Nature Conservancy, having worked on revising its organisation was appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment as the first Director General of the new NCC. He held this post until retiring in 1980 when Richard Charles Steele became Director General Structure The organisation was divi ...
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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 Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserve (United Kingdom), national nature reserves, Ramsar Convention, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Area of Conservation, Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I". Selection and conservation Sites notified for their Biology, biological interest are known as Biological SSSIs (or ASSIs), and those notified for geological or Physical geography, physiographic interest are Geological SSSIs (or ASSIs). Sites may be divided into management units, with some a ...
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Heathland
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler and damper climate. Heaths are widespread worldwide but are rapidly disappearing and considered a rare habitat in Europe. They form extensive and highly diverse communities across Australia in humid and sub-humid areas where fire regimes with recurring burning are required for the maintenance of the heathlands.Specht, R.L. 'Heathlands' in 'Australian Vegetation' R.H. Groves ed. Cambridge University Press 1988 Even more diverse though less widespread heath communities occur in Southern Africa. Extensive heath communities can also be found in the Texas chaparral, New Caledonia, central Chile, and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to these extensive heath areas, the vegetation type is also found in scattered locations a ...
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National Trust For Places Of Historic Interest Or Natural Beauty
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the permanent preservation for the benefit of the Nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest". It has since been given statutory powers, starting with the National Trust Act 1907. Historically, the Trust acquired land by gift and sometimes by public subscription and appeal, but after World War II the loss of country houses resulted in many such properties being acquired either by gift from the former owners or through the National Land Fund. One of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, the Trust owns almost of land and of coast. Its properties include more than 500 historic houses, castles, archaeological and industrial monuments, gardens, parks, and nature reserves. Most properties are open ...
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The Needles
The Needles are a row of three stacks of chalk that rise about out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, United Kingdom, close to Alum Bay and Scratchell's Bay, and part of Totland, the westernmost civil parish of the Isle of Wight. The Needles Lighthouse stands at the outer, western end of the formation. Built in 1859, it has been automated since 1994. The waters and adjoining seabed form part of the Needles Marine Conservation Zone and the Needles along with the shore and heath above are part of the Headon Warren and West High Down Site of Special Scientific Interest. The formation takes its name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's wife, which collapsed in a storm in 1764. The remaining rocks are not at all needle-like, but the name has stuck. The Needles were featured on the BBC Two TV programme '' Seven Natural Wonders'' (2005) as one of the wonders of Southern England. During Storm Eunice on 18 February ...
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Battle Of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, the French and Spanish fleets combined to take control of the English Channel and provide the Grande Armée safe passage. The allied fleet, under the command of French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805. They encountered a British fleet under Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson was outnumbered, with 27 British ships of the line to 33 Franco-Spanish ships, including the largest warship in either fleet, the Spanish ''Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, ...
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Tump (hill)
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the summits on a given list, the oldest being the 282 Munros in Scotland, created in 1891. A height above 2,000 ft, or more latterly 610 m, is considered necessary to be classified as a mountain – as opposed to a hill – in the British Isles. With the exception of Munros, all the lists require a prominence above . A prominence of between (e.g. some Nuttalls and Vandeleur-Lynams), does not meet the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) definition of an "independent peak", which is a threshold over . Most lists consider a prominence between as a "top" (e.g. many Hewitts and Simms). Marilyns, meanwhile, have a prominence above , with no additional height threshold. They range from small hills t ...
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