Roman River SSSI

Roman River
	Site of Special Scientific Interest
Area of Search	Essex
Grid reference	TM 000210
Interest	Biological
Area	275.6 hectares
Notification	1987
Location map	Magic Map

Last updated February 19, 2019

Roman River is a 275.6-hectare (681-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) south of Colchester in Essex. Two areas, Friday Wood and Donyland Wood, were formerly separate SSSIs.^[1]^[2]

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".

Colchester is a historic market town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in the county of Essex. Colchester was the first founded Roman city in Britain, and Colchester lays claim to be regarded as Britain's oldest recorded town. It was for a time the capital of Roman Britain, and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

Essex is a county in the south-east of England, north-east of London. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and London to the south-west. The county town is Chelmsford, the only city in the county. For government statistical purposes Essex is placed in the East of England region.

The site is in two separate areas. The Roman River, after which the site is named, runs along the southern boundary of both of them. There are areas of woodland, grassland, fen, scrub and heath. The woodland it mainly ancient, and there are more than a thousand species of moths and butterflies, and nearly seventy of breeding birds, including hawfinches, tree pipits and yellow wagtails.^[1]

The Roman River is a river that flows entirely through the English county of Essex. It is a tributary of the River Colne, flowing into its tidal estuary below Colchester. The lower end of the Roman River is also tidal, with tidal water flowing upstream to just above Fingringhoe.

The hawfinch is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Its closest living relatives are the evening grosbeak from North America and the hooded grosbeak from Central America especially Mexico.

The tree pipit is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and temperate western and central Asia. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa and southern Asia. The scientific name is from Latin. Anthus is the name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific trivialis means "common", from trivium, "public street".

Footpaths and tracks runs through the site, including Cherry Tree Lane.

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References

1 2 "Roman River citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
↑ "Map of Roman River". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 August 2016.

Coordinates: 51°50′53″N0°53′46″E / 51.848°N 0.896°E / 51.848; 0.896

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[citation-1] 1 2 "Roman River citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 August 2016.

[map-2] "Map of Roman River". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 August 2016.