The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, England, running south from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills.
The River Huntspill is an artificial river, in the Somerset Levels, in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. It was built in 1940 to supply process water to ROF Bridgwater, and has resulted in reduced flooding of the lower Brue Valley. Huntspill Sluice at the river's western end, also known as West Huntspill Sluice, separates it from the River Parrett.
Puriton is a village and parish at the westerly end of the Polden Hills, in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,968. The local parish church is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. A chapel on Woolavington Road was converted to a private house some 20 years ago. The parish includes the hamlets of Dunball and Down End.
Polden Hills in Somerset, England are a long, low ridge, extending for 10 miles (16 km), and separated from the Mendip Hills, to which they are nearly parallel, by a marshy tract, known as the Somerset Levels. They are now bisected at their western end by the M5 motorway and a railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway, part of the Great Western Main Line.
Edington is a rural village, situated on the north side of the Polden Hills in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England.
Somerset is a rural county in the southwest of England, covering 4,171 square kilometres (1,610 sq mi). It is bounded on the north-west by the Bristol Channel, on the north by Bristol and Gloucestershire, on the north-east by Wiltshire, on the south-east by Dorset, and on the south west and west by Devon. It has broad central plains with several ranges of low hills. The landscape divides into four main geological sections from the Silurian through the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Permian which influence the landscape, together with water-related features.
The River Brue originates in the parish of Brewham in Somerset, England, and reaches the sea some 50 kilometres (31 mi) west at Burnham-on-Sea. It originally took a different route from Glastonbury to the sea, but this was changed by Glastonbury Abbey in the twelfth century. The river provides an important drainage route for water from a low-lying area which is prone to flooding which man has tried to manage through rhynes, canals, artificial rivers and sluices for centuries.
King's Sedgemoor Drain is an artificial drainage channel which diverts the River Cary in Somerset, England along the southern flank of the Polden Hills, to discharge into the River Parrett at Dunball near Bridgwater. As the name suggests, the channel is used to help drain the peat moors of King's Sedgemoor. There was opposition to drainage schemes from the local inhabitants, who feared that they would lose their common grazing rights. However, the main channel was constructed between 1791 and 1795, and despite some defects, brought some relief from flooding to the area.
Westhay Moor is a 513.7-hectare (1,269-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) north-east of Westhay village and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Wedmore in Somerset, England, notified in 1971. Westhay Moor is also notified as part of the Somerset Levels and Moors Special Protection Area under the EU Birds Directive and as a Ramsar site, and a National Nature Reserve.
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.
Catcott is a rural village and civil parish, situated close to Edington 7 miles (11.3 km) to the east of Bridgwater on the Somerset Levels to the north of the Polden Hills in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England.
Bridgwater was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974.
The Somerset Victoria County History is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Somerset in England, forming part of the overall Victoria County History of England founded in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria. With ten volumes published in the series A History of the County of Somerset, the Somerset VCH is among the most substantial of the Victoria County Histories.
From December 2013 onwards the Somerset Levels suffered severe flooding as part of the wider 2013–2014 Atlantic winter storms in Europe and subsequent 2013–2014 United Kingdom winter floods. The Somerset Levels, or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, in South West England, running south from the Mendip Hills to the Blackdown Hills.
The Avalon Marshes Partnership is a group of conservation organisations working together in the Somerset Levels. The members are Natural England,, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Somerset Wildlife Trust the Hawk and Owl Trust, Historic England, South West Heritage Trust and the Environment Agency. Between 2012 and 2016 the scheme was supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £1,772,500 with additional investment of £920,080 from other sources. The Avalon Marshes Centre, run by Natural England, is near the Shapwick Heath reserve. The network of reserves and private land managed for conservation in the Avalon marshes means that wetland management can be carried out on a landscape scale.