Severn Estuary And Bridgewater Bay
The vast tidal range in the mouth of the River Severn makes it unique in Britain.
The tidal range of the Bristol Channel is the second largest in the world: only the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, has a greater high water - low water range. As a consequence the beach scenery is always changing, with flotsam and jetsam making beachcombing an interesting pastime.
T here are internationally important populations of waterfowl and large populations of migratory fish all depending on the rich mudflats above and below water. Nature Reserves, like those at Slimbridge and Bridgewater Bay, provide access and interpretation to this vast watery wilderness.
The edge of Exmoor on Porlock Hill, near the junction of the B3223 and the A39 roads, looking out over a rather hazy Bristol Channel.
The gorse (Ulex europaeus) bushes with their distictive yellow blossoms are plentiful here.
The fishing villages of Porlock, Lynmouth and Combe Martin grew by the 18th and 19th centuries into busy ports enjoying a flourishing coastal trade with Bristol, Minehead, Ilfracombe and South Wales.
By the 19th century coal, bark for the tanneries, pit-props, limestone and bricks made up the bulk of the cargoes of the numerous schooners, smacks and ketches that regularly plied the waters of the Bristol Channel at a time when road transport was slow and unreliable.
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