Tickenham, Nailsea and Yatton SSSI

Tickenham, Nailsea and Yatton SSSI is the name for an area of land covering 129.4 hectares on the North Somerset Levels that extend from Tickenham through the north and west of Nailsea and down to Yatton. The boundaries are mostly defined by waterways.

It was designated on 24 March 1995. The main source for information on the SSSI can be found via Natural England. A map of the extent of the SSSI can be found via DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).

Extent of the SSSI

The Tickenham and Nailsea portion is bounded by the Land Yeo to the north and the Parish Brook to the south. 

Map of the Tickenham and Nailsea portion of the SSSI (Source)

The Yatton portion is bounded by Nailsea Wall to the north, the River Kenn to the east, the Little River and railway line to the south and various rhynes to the west. 

Map of the Yatton portion on the SSSI (Source)

Reasons for Designation

The citation explains that the SSSI was designated due to "exceptionally rich plant communities" in the field ditches, "a rich bank flora" along the ditches and rhynes and a "diverse invertebrate fauna" many of which are nationally scarce or rare including "at least 12 nationally scarce [beetle] species and two nationally rare [beetle] species". One aim of this blog is to try and identify and monitor the noted plant and animal species. 

The "notified features" are:

• Invertebrate assemblage

• Lowland ditch systems

• Nationally rare and scarce dragonfly species - Brachytron pratense, Hairy Dragonfly

• Nationally rare and scarce dragonfly species - Coenagrion pulchellum, Variable Damselfly

SSSI Units

The SSSI is divided into 47 units and this blog will attempt to use them in its monitoring. Summary information on each unit can be found here. Natural England monitors each unit and determines its health which is recorded in its summary. More detailed information can be found here, which shows the most recent assessment was carried out in 2012. A summary of the condition shows that just under two thirds of the area has "favourable" conditions.

Summary of the condition of the SSSI (Source)

When this is plotted over the map it's clear that most of the 'Unfavourable - No change' units are in the north, towards Tickenham while the few 'Unfavourable - Declining' sites are in the south, towards Yatton.

Units coloured according to their monitoring assessment

Other Designations

The site is also designated as part of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and I plan to look more into this in the future.