Westhay Heath

Shapwick station was a railway station on the Highbridge branch of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Opened by the Somerset Central Railway in 1854, the station consisted of a goods yard, a passing loop with two platforms, and a wooden station building which burned down and was replaced in 1900. The passing-loop and a level crossing were operated from a 17-lever signal box, which was opened in 1901 to replace one destroyed in the 1900 fire. The station was two and a half miles from the village of Shapwick and appeared in some early timetables as "Shapwick Road", though this does not seem to have ever been an official name. The station was closed, with the rest of the branch, on 7 March 1966. The line and station were held in fond regard by John Betjeman who in 1963 featured them in a BBC programme, Let's Imagine: a Branch Line Railway, in which Betjeman travels from Evercreech Junction to Burnham on Sea.

The Sweet Track is an ancient trackway, or causeway, in the Somerset Levels, England, named after its finder, Ray Sweet. It was built in 3807 BC (determined using dendrochronology) and is the second-oldest timber trackway discovered in the British Isles, dating to the Neolithic. It is now known that the Sweet Track was predominantly built along the course of an earlier structure, the Post Track. The track extended across the now largely drained marsh between what was then an island at Westhay and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, a distance close to 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) or around 1.1 mi. The track is one of a network that once crossed the Somerset Levels. Various artifacts and prehistoric finds, including a jadeitite ceremonial axe head, have been found in the peat bogs along its length.Construction was of crossed wooden poles, driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that consisted mainly of planks of oak, laid end-to-end. The track was used for a period of only around ten years and was then abandoned, probably due to rising water levels. Following its discovery in 1970, most of the track has been left in its original location, with active conservation measures taken, including a water pumping and distribution system to maintain the wood in its damp condition. Some of the track is stored at the British Museum and at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton. A reconstruction has been made on which visitors can walk, on the same line as the original, in Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve.

Tealham and Tadham Moors (grid reference ST420450) is a 917.6 hectare (2267.3 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Wedmore in Somerset, notified in 1985. Land south of this site is included in Catcott, Edington and Chilton Moors SSSI. Tealham and Tadham Moors form part of the extensive grazing marsh and ditch systems of the Somerset Levels and Moors. The water table is high throughout the greater part of the year with winter flooding occurring annually, by over-topping of the River Brue. 113 aquatic and bankside vascular plant species have been recorded from the field ditches, rhynes and deep arterial watercourses. A diverse invertebrate fauna is associated in particular with ditches that have a good submerged plant community. The water beetle fauna is exceptionally rich, with the nationally rare species Hydrophilus piceus and Hydrochara caraboides together with the rare soldier flies Stratiomys furcata and Odontomyia ornata. Good numbers of dragonflies and damselflies occur including the Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) and the Variable Damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum).

The Shapwick Hoard is a hoard of 9,262 Roman coins found at Shapwick, Somerset, England in September 1998. The coins dated from as early as 31–30 BC up until 224 AD. The hoard also notably contained two rare coins which had not been discovered in Britain before, and the largest number of silver denarii ever found in Britain.

Westhay is a village in Somerset, England. It is situated in the parish of Meare, 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels, in the Mendip district. The name means 'The west field that is enclosed by hedges' from the Old English west and haga. The 'g' in haga is silent.Westhay is a marshland village on the River Brue in typical Somerset rhyne country, standing on the site of pre-historic lake dwellings. The site of the lake-village is marked by groups of mounds. The nearby Avalon Marshes Centre, where the RSPB, Natural England, Somerset Wildlife Trust and The Hawk and Owl Trust have offices and work bases to manage the local wildlife reserves, has replaced the old Peat Moors Centre which closed down in the autumn of 2009. It also includes a craft centre, cafe, several historic reconstructions and information about the local archeology. The prehistoric Sweet Track and Post Track run from the village southwards towards Shapwick. The village is close to Westhay Moor, Westhay Heath, RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, all of which have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Westhay is well known as the site of the Starling Roost featured on many TV wildlife programmes. The roost is in National wildlife reserves such as Westhay Moor, Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath. The area also contains one third of the UK breeding population of Bitterns and the first known UK breeding populations of Great White Egret, Little Bittern, and Night Heron.

The Peat Moors Centre lay on the road between Shapwick and Westhay in Somerset, England. The centre was run by the Somerset Historic Environment Service, but Somerset County Council closed it in October 2009 in the course of budget cuts. The museum was dedicated to the archaeology, history and geology of the Somerset Levels. It also included reconstructions of some of the archaeological discoveries, including a number of Iron Age round houses from Glastonbury Lake Village, and the world's oldest engineered highway, the Sweet Track. From time to time the centre offered courses in a number of ancient technologies in subjects including textiles, clothing and basket making, as well as staging various open days, displays and demonstrations. Somerset County Council, the owners of the Peat Moors Centre, closed the centre for budgetary reasons on 31 October 2009. The former staff hoped to launch a successor to the centre, run by a community interest company, to be known as the 'Somerset Lake Village Project' and involving the reconstruction of an Iron Age lake village.

Shapwick Heath is a 394.0-hectare (973.6 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and national nature reserve between Shapwick and Westhay in Somerset, notified in 1967. It is part of the Brue Valley Living Landscape conservation project. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore, recreate and reconnect habitat. It aims to ensure that wildlife is enhanced and capable of sustaining itself in the face of climate change while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape scale conservation projects in the UK.Shapwick Heath, part of the Avalon Marshes in the Somerset Levels Wetlands, and managed as a national nature reserve by Natural England, is a former raised bog lying in the basin of the River Brue. The site supports a diverse community of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. National rarities are the Greater Silver Diving Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) and the Lesser Silver Diving Beetle (Hydrochara caraboides) which is now confined nationally to the Brue Basin Peat Moors.The Sweet Track, an ancient causeway crosses the site. It is one of the oldest engineered roads known and the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe. The adjoining Shapwick Moor has been purchased by the Hawk and Owl Trust as a reserve. Ham Wall nature reserve is to the east.

Burtle is a village and civil parish on the Somerset Levels in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England.

The North Drain flows westerly from Hurn Sluice on the River Sheppey to the North Drain Pumping Station at the River Brue, in Somerset, England.

Edington Burtle railway station was a station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, and served the village of Edington, Somerset, UK. Originally named Edington Road, with the village two miles away, it became in 1890 the junction for the Bridgwater branch off the Highbridge line and for the next period in its life was known as Edington Junction. After the Bridgwater line closed to passengers in 1952, the station was renamed as Edington Burtle – Burtle is a village to the north of the station, and somewhat closer than Edington. In February 1956 the down platform and signal box was closed. Goods Yard closed on 13 July 1964. It closed in March 1966 when the line was shut as part of the Beeching axe.

Shapwick Manor at Shapwick in the English county of Somerset is a medieval manor house which was largely remodelled in the 19th century by Henry Strangways on his return from South Australia in 1871. It is a Grade II* listed building.It is not to be confused with Shapwick House, formerly an hotel, and more recently a rental property, which lies to the north of the village.

Shapwick School was a specialist school at Shapwick Manor in Shapwick, a village on the Somerset Levels in Somerset, England. In March 2020, it was announced that the school would close at the end of term in March due to financial difficulties.The fee-paying school specialised in the holistic education of pupils with dyslexia and its related learning disabilities such as dyscalculia, Developmental coordination disorder, pragmatic language impairment, and specific language impairment. It had pupils aged 8 to 18, most of whom were boarders, while the rest were day pupils. The therapy department offered speech and language and occupational therapy within the timetable according to assessed need. Pupils in the 6th form received direct support from the school but studied at Bridgwater College.The school was accredited by the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils (CReSTeD), and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.In November 2010, the school gained national attention when it briefly featured in a BBC Three documentary Kara Tointon: Don't Call Me Stupid about actress Kara Tointon who has dyslexia. Tointon visited the school to see how it approaches the teaching of pupils with dyslexia. She sat in a class, learning new techniques for addressing her own dyslexia, and talked to some of the pupils about their experiences.