Heath Hill Farm is a 20.73 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Stourton

Stourton, Wiltshire

Stourton is a village in Wiltshire, England, at . The village is close to the county boundary with Somerset and about south of the Somerset market town of Frome.Stourton is part of the Stourhead estate, now in the ownership of the National Trust....

 in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, notified in 1997. Part of the Stourhead estate

Stourhead

Stourhead is a 2,650 acre estate at the source of the River Stour near Mere, Wiltshire, England. The estate includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland, and woodland...

, it is also situated within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs

Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs

The Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in the country....

 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

Selwood Forest

Selwood Forest is an area of woodland on the borders between Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire in south west England. In Anglo-Saxon times it was far more substantial and covered a much greater area forming a natural barrier between the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex and the Britons of Dumnonia and the Severn...

. The underlying ground is made of Gault Clay

Gault Clay

Gault is a clay formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period...

 and Upper Greensand. 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

River Stour, Dorset

The River Stour is a 60.5 mile long river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. It is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from rivers of the same name...

. As a consequence the site contains a rich and unusual variety of grasses and herbs, including sedges

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

 and rushes

Juncaceae

Juncaceae, the rush family, are a monocotyledonous family of flowering plants. There are eight genera and about 400 species. Members of the Juncaceae are slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous plants, and they may superficially resemble grasses. They often grow on infertile soils in a wide range...

.

Source

• English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 14 August 2006)

External links

• English Nature website (SSSI information)