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Curry and Hay Moors

Brue catchmentSites of Special Scientific Interest in SomersetSites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1992Somerset LevelsWetland Sites of Special Scientific Interest
Curry Moor Pumping Station
Curry Moor Pumping Station

Curry and Hay Moors (grid reference ST323273) is a 472.8 hectare (1168.1 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset, notified in 1992. Curry and Hay Moors form part of the complex of grazing marshes known as the Somerset Levels and Moors. The low-lying site is situated adjacent to the River Tone which annually overtops, flooding the fields in winter. Soils are predominantly alluvial clays overlying Altcar series peats. The flora and fauna of the ditches and rhynes is of national importance. Over 70 aquatic and bankside vascular plants have been recorded including frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae), flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus), wood club-rush (Scirpus sylvaticus) and lesser water-plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides). Over 100 species of aquatic invertebrates inhabit the ditches including one nationally rare soldier fly, (Odontomyia ornata) and 13 nationally scarce species including the water beetles Agabus uliginosus, Hydaticus transversalis and Helophorus nanus. In winter the flooded fields provide food for large numbers of waterfowl with several thousand northern lapwing, hundreds of common snipe and smaller numbers of golden plover and dunlin regularly present. Over two hundred Bewick's swans have been recorded, making the site an internationally important wintering ground for this species. Raptor species such as short-eared owl, merlin and peregrine regularly hunt over the site in winter. Vertebrate species present include barred grass snake and common frog. Eurasian otters are regularly recorded on the site.The moor was flooded during the winter flooding of 2013–14 on the Somerset Levels.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Curry and Hay Moors (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Curry and Hay Moors
Stoke Drove,

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.04105 ° E -2.96701 °
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Stoke Drove

Stoke Drove
TA3 6HT
England, United Kingdom
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Curry Moor Pumping Station
Curry Moor Pumping Station
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Bridgwater and Taunton Canal
Bridgwater and Taunton Canal

The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is a canal in the south-west of England between Bridgwater and Taunton, opened in 1827 and linking the River Tone to the River Parrett. There were a number of abortive schemes to link the Bristol Channel to the English Channel by waterway in the 18th and early 19th centuries. These schemes followed the approximate route eventually taken by the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, but the canal was instead built as part of a plan to link Bristol to Taunton by waterway. The early years of operation were marred by a series of legal disputes, which were resolved when the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal Company and the Conservators, who managed the River Tone Navigation, agreed that the Canal Company should take over the Tone Navigation. The canal originally terminated at a basin at Huntworth, to the east of Bridgwater, but was later extended to a floating harbour at Bridgwater Docks on its western edge. Financially this was a disaster, as the extension was funded by a mortgage, and the arrival of the railways soon afterwards started the demise of the canal. The canal was rescued from bankruptcy by the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1866. Despite commercial traffic ceasing in 1907, the infrastructure was maintained in good order, and the canal was used for the transport of potable water from 1962. The Countryside Act 1968 provided a framework for Somerset County Council to start the restoration of the canal as a leisure facility, which was completed in 1994, when the canal was reopened throughout. Bridgwater Docks have been restored as a marina, but there is no navigable connection to the River Parrett, as the canal still transports drinking water for the people of Bridgwater.