Dixton Wood

Dixton Wood
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Example - Violet Click Beetle (Limoniscus violaceus)
Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SO979313
Coordinates	51°58′50″N 2°01′53″W / 51.980608°N 2.031257°W / 51.980608; -2.031257Coordinates: 51°58′50″N 2°01′53″W / 51.980608°N 2.031257°W / 51.980608; -2.031257
Interest	Biological
Area	13.14 hectare
Notification	2000
Natural England website

Dixton Wood (grid reference SO979313) is a 13.14-hectare (32.5-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 2000.^[1]^[2] Dixton Wood is recognised as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive.^[3]^[4]

Location

The wood lies in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Winchcombe and north of Cheltenham. It is a steep east facing woodland, which is surrounded by permanent grassland. It is in the foothills of the scarp and may be considered as a similar landscape feature as that of the nearby Bredon Hill which is a National Nature Reserve (NNR).^[1]

Protected Species interest

The site is notified for its population of Violet Click Beetle (Limoniscus violaceus), and for a deadwood (saproxylic) beetle assemblage. The Violet Click Beetle is protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 (as amended) and listed on Annex IIa of the EC Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Its presence indicates the great importance of the wood, and indicates habitat of a high quality for this special invertebrate group (deadwood beetle fauna).^[1]

The beetle is currently only known elsewhere in Britain on Bredon Hill NNR and in Windsor Forest. There are also some fifteen sites in central Europe.^[1]

Woodland structure

There is a well-developed high forest structure and the management of the wood has yielded a number of large, low ash pollards and a range of deadwood. The moist clay soils, the eastern aspect and the ground and scrub maintain a humid microclimate. This is likely to enhance the decay process, which has resulted in a continuity of forest conditions.^[1]

Reports in by Natural England in November 2010 are detailed in the ageing of the trees, and planting needs to maintain the favourability of the site.^[5]

References

SSSI Source

External links

Natural England (SSSI information)

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Ashleworth Ham Astridge Wood Badgeworth Barnsley Warren Barton Bushes Bigsweir Woods Blaisdon Hall Bourton Down Box Farm Meadows Boxwell Brassey Brooks Head Grove Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Railway Tunnel Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Bushley Muzzard, Brimpsfield Caerwood and Ashberry Goose House Chaceley Meadow Clarke's Pool Meadow Cleeve Common Cockleford Marsh Collinpark Wood Coombe Hill Canal Coombe Hill Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Cotswold Water Park Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Daneway Banks Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar Devil's Chapel Scowles Dingle Wood Dixton Wood Dymock Woods Edge Common Elmlea Meadows Frampton Pools Highbury Wood Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Roughs Hucclecote Meadows Innsworth Meadow Juniper Hill, Edgeworth Kempley Daffodil Meadow Kingscote and Horsley Woods Lark Wood Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Lineover Wood Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge May Hill Midger Minchinhampton Common Nagshead Old Bow and Old Ham Mines Old River Severn, Upper Lode Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury Poor's Allotment Puckham Woods Range Farm Fields River Wye Rodborough Common Rough Bank, Miserden Salmonsbury Meadows Selsley Common Severn Estuary Severn Ham, Tewkesbury Shorn Cliff and Caswell Woods Slade Brook Soudley Ponds Speech House Oaks Stenders Quarry Stinchcombe Hill Strawberry Banks Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove Swift's Hill Sylvan House Barn The Hudnalls The Malvern Hills Tudor Farm Bank Turvey's Piece Upper Severn Estuary Upham Meadow and Summer Leasow Upper Wye Gorge Walmore Common Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine Whelford Meadow Wigpool Ironstone Mine Wildmoorway Meadows Winson Meadows Woodchester Park Workman's Wood Wotton Hill Yarley Meadows

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

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