Court Hill

Gordano (or the Gordano Valley; ) is an area of North Somerset, in England. It has been designated as a National Nature Reserve.The name Gordano comes from Old English and is descriptive of the triangular shape of the whole valley from Clevedon to Portishead, being the ablative singular of the Latinised form of Gorden meaning muddy valley.The valley runs roughly north-east to south-west, between Carboniferous limestone ridges extending along the coastline between Clevedon and Portishead, and another ridge extending between Clevedon and Easton in Gordano. The area includes the villages of Clapton in Gordano, Weston in Gordano, Easton in Gordano, Walton in Gordano, Portbury and Sheepway. The M5 motorway runs along the south side of the valley, splitting briefly into two levels - the south-west-bound level running above the north-east-bound carriageway. The Gordano motorway service station is at the eastern end of the valley, near the Royal Portbury Dock and the Avonmouth Bridge. There is no river Gordano - much of the valley is reclaimed land barely above sea level, and it is drained by ditches (known in the area as "rhynes"). The rhynes previously managed by the now amalgamated Gordano Valley Internal Drainage Board are now the responsibility of the North Somerset Internal Drainage Board. An area comprising a total of 161.68 hectares (399.5 acres) has been designated as a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, for ornithological, entomological and stratigraphic interest, notification originally having taken place in 1971. Several sites in the valley are managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust as nature reserves. These include; Weston Big Wood, Clapton Moor, Weston Moor and Walton Common. The unimproved wet-meadow communities largely consist of variants of the nationally rare Blunt-flowered Rush–Marsh Thistle (Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre), Soft/Sharp Flowered Rush–Marsh Bedstraw (Juncus effusus/acutiflorus–Galium palustre), Purple Moorgrass–Meadow Thistle (Molinia caerulea–Cirsium dissectum) and Crested Dog’s-tail–Common Knapweed )Cynosurus cristatus–Centaurea nigra) community types In total over 130 species of flowering plant have been recorded including 3 species of orchids, 21 grasses and 14 sedges. The extensive system of rhynes and field ditches contains a rich flora which includes three nationally scarce species: Water Parsnip (Sium latafolium), Whorled Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum verticillatum) and Fen Pondweed (Potamogeton coloratus). The site is now connected to the Severn Estuary by the Portbury Ashlands nature reserve.

Tickenham is a village and civil parish near Clevedon and Nailsea in North Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 910. It has a primary school, a village hall and a garden centre, but no shops, although it formerly had a post office. A typical ribbon development, Tickenham extends for approximately two miles along the B3130 road, which runs along the bottom of a ridge of hills between Clevedon and Failand. There are a few short side-roads, but for most of this distance the village consists of detached houses and farmhouses built along the edge of the main road.

Walton in Gordano railway station served the village of Walton in Gordano, North Somerset, England from 1907 to 1940 on the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway.

Walton in Gordano is a village and civil parish in North Somerset, England. It is situated in a small valley at the side of the south-western end of the Gordano Valley, about a mile from Clevedon. The parish has a population of 273.

The Walton Common banjo enclosure is a banjo enclosure on Walton Common, to the north of Walton in Gordano, Somerset, England. It appears to date to the late Iron Age, and may have been a high-status settlement. The term "banjo" refers to the shape. It is a round enclosure approached by a straight avenue, with the enclosure and avenue bounded by banks and ditches. The banks have been worn down and the ditches filled in over time, so it is scarcely noticeable from the ground. It showed up on photographs from the air taken in 1930 and 1946. Since then the site has become more overgrown and is hard to detect even from the air.

Walton Common (grid reference ST428738) is a 25.5 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near the village of Walton in Gordano, North Somerset, notified in 1991.The common, which is both a Scheduled Ancient Monument and an SSSI, is covered by a Countryside Stewardship agreement with the Countryside Agency. It remains in private ownership, but the Avon Wildlife Trust has a 10-year lease to manage it as a nature reserve. The site has two saucer-shaped round barrows from the Bronze Age, and the Walton Common banjo enclosure, a banjo enclosure from the late Iron Age that may be a univallate hillfort, with associated fields.Wildflowers found on the common include thyme, marjoram, rock-rose, St John's wort, autumn gentian and violets. Butterflies are particularly notable including common blue, brown argus, grizzled and dingy skipper, green and purple hairstreak, and dark green fritillary. Other insects such as grasshoppers, glow-worms and moths are abundant. Birds identified at the site include; blackcap, whitethroat, buzzard, kestrel and sparrowhawk.

Clevedon Court is a manor house on Court Hill in Clevedon, North Somerset, England, dating from the early 14th century. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated as a Grade I listed building.The house was built and added to over many years. The great hall and chapel block are the earliest surviving parts of the structure with the west wing being added around 1570, when the windows and decoration of the rest of the building were changed. Further construction and adaptation was undertaken in the 18th century when it was owned by the Elton baronets. The house was acquired by the nation and was given to the National Trust in part-payment for death duties in 1960. The Elton family is still resident in the house, which is now open to the public. In addition to the main house, the grounds include a selection of walls and outbuildings, some of which date back to the 13th century. The gardens are listed (Grade II*) on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors SSSI (grid reference ST440700) is a 129.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn on the North Somerset Levels, notified in 1995. The soils in the area include both clays of the Allerton and Wentloog Series and peat soils of the Sedgemoor and Godney Series, which are drained by a network of large rhynes and smaller field ditches, which support exceptionally rich plant and invertebrate fauna communities. Exceptional populations of Coleoptera occur with at least 12 nationally scarce species and two nationally rare species, including Britain's largest water beetle the Great Silver Water Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus).

Cadbury Road railway station served the village of Weston in Gordano, Somerset, England from 1907 to 1940 on the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway.

Holly Lane SSSI (grid reference ST419727) is a 0.5 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Walton St. Mary, North Somerset, notified in 1990. This Geological Conservation Review site shows deep subaerial sands and breccias burying a fossil cliff, shoreplatform, wave-cut notch and cave. The sands are of Pleistocene age and thought to be aeolian (windblown) coversands. They contain recycled foraminifera (eroded from older rocks) and open-ground terrestrial mollusca. Fossils of mammalian fauna include horse, bear, wolf, fox and several rodent species.

Walton Park railway station served the village of Walton in Gordano, North Somerset, England from 1907 to 1940 on the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway.

Cadbury Camp is an Iron Age hill fort in Somerset, England, near the village of Tickenham. It is a scheduled monument. Although primarily known as a fort during the Iron Age it is likely, from artefacts, including a bronze spear or axe head, discovered at the site, that it was first used in the Bronze Age and still occupied through the Roman era into the sub-Roman period when the area became part of a Celtic kingdom. The name may mean "Fort of Cador" - Cado(r) being possibly the regional king or warlord controlling Somerset, Bristol, and South Gloucestershire, in the middle to late 5th century. Cador has been associated with Arthurian England, though the only evidence for this is the reference in the Life of St. Carantoc to Arthur and Cador ruling from Dindraithou (perhaps the hillfort at Dundry) and having the power over western Somerset to grant Carantoc's plea to build a church at Carhampton. Geoffrey of Monmouth invented the title 'Duke of Cornwall' for Cador in his misleading History of the Kings of Britain. The 7-acre (2.8 ha) hill fort is well preserved, and is managed by the National Trust through a Higher Level Stewardship agreement with Natural England which involves tree clearing, including non-native Turkey Oaks, and management of the scrub. The name Cadbury is derived from "Cada's byrig"; byrig is the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "fort" or "town", which is frequently, but not exclusively, used to refer to hill-forts. It is one of three sites in Somerset to include the Cadbury name, the others being Cadbury Castle, near South Cadbury and Cadbury Hill which is also known as Cadbury-Congresbury to distinguish it from the other sites.