Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel

Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SO655121 and SO662104
Coordinates	51°48′25″N 2°30′04″W / 51.806919°N 2.50106°W / 51.806919; -2.50106Coordinates: 51°48′25″N 2°30′04″W / 51.806919°N 2.50106°W / 51.806919; -2.50106
Interest	Biological
Area	5.66 hectare
Notification	1998
Natural England website

Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel (SO655121 and SO662104) is a 5.66-hectare (14.0-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1998.^[1] This site comprises two separate locations. One is Buckshraft Mine which is near the village of Ruspidge. The other location is Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel which is near the village of Soudley.^[2]

Location and habitat

The mine and railway tunnel comprise one of a series of Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley (Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire). These sites support (between them) breeding and hibernation roosts for Lesser and Greater horseshoe bats. This is of European importance. Other sites in the group in Gloucestershire (all of which are SSSIs) include the breeding sites of Blaisdon Hall, Caerwood And Ashberry Goose House, Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar and Sylvan House Barn. Hibernation sites include Devil's Chapel Scowles, Old Bow And Old Ham Mines, Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine and Wigpool Ironstone Mine.^[2]

The Buckshraft Mine and Bradley Railway Tunnel sites are mostly used by Greater Horseshoe bats, but a small number of Lesser Horseshoe bats also use the sites.^[2]

Greater horseshoe bats from the breeding roost at Woodchester Park hibernate at Buckshraft Mine which is at least 15 kilometres away.^[2]

The deciduous woodlands and sheltered valleys of the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley provide a good feeding area, and the underground systems provide roosting and breeding sites. A ring of iron-ore bearing Carboniferous Limestone in the Forest of Dean has created a series of ancient and more recent mines which provide hibernation sites.^[2]

The citations for the series of sites provide common information.

Example - Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)

Example - Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)

References

SSSI Source

External links

	Lesser horseshoe bat recorded on a heterodyne bat detector set to 107 kHz
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Natural England (SSSI information)

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Ashleworth Ham Astridge Wood Badgeworth Barnsley Warren Barton Bushes Bigsweir Woods Blaisdon Hall Bourton Down Box Farm Meadows Boxwell Brassey Brooks Head Grove Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Railway Tunnel Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Bushley Muzzard, Brimpsfield Caerwood and Ashberry Goose House Chaceley Meadow Clarke's Pool Meadow Cleeve Common Cockleford Marsh Collinpark Wood Coombe Hill Canal Coombe Hill Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Cotswold Water Park Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Daneway Banks Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar Devil's Chapel Scowles Dingle Wood Dixton Wood Dymock Woods Edge Common Elmlea Meadows Frampton Pools Highbury Wood Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Roughs Hucclecote Meadows Innsworth Meadow Juniper Hill, Edgeworth Kempley Daffodil Meadow Kingscote and Horsley Woods Lark Wood Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Lineover Wood Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge May Hill Midger Minchinhampton Common Nagshead Old Bow and Old Ham Mines Old River Severn, Upper Lode Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury Poor's Allotment Puckham Woods Range Farm Fields River Wye Rodborough Common Rough Bank, Miserden Salmonsbury Meadows Selsley Common Severn Estuary Severn Ham, Tewkesbury Shorn Cliff and Caswell Woods Slade Brook Soudley Ponds Speech House Oaks Stenders Quarry Stinchcombe Hill Strawberry Banks Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove Swift's Hill Sylvan House Barn The Hudnalls The Malvern Hills Tudor Farm Bank Turvey's Piece Upper Severn Estuary Upham Meadow and Summer Leasow Upper Wye Gorge Walmore Common Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine Whelford Meadow Wigpool Ironstone Mine Wildmoorway Meadows Winson Meadows Woodchester Park Workman's Wood Wotton Hill Yarley Meadows

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

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