Gordano (or the Gordano Valley; ) is an area of

North Somerset North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The council is based in Weston-super-Mare, the area's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Clevedon, Nailsea ...

, in England. It has been designated as a National Nature Reserve. The name Gordano comes from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

and is descriptive of the triangular shape of the whole valley from Clevedon to Portishead, being the

ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages. It is used to indicate motion away from something, make comparisons, and serve various o ...

singular of the Latinised form of ''Gorden'' meaning ''muddy valley''. The valley runs roughly north-east to south-west, between Carboniferous limestone ridges extending along the coastline between

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, England. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 in 2019. It lies ...

and Portishead, and another ridge extending between

and Easton in Gordano. The area includes the villages of Clapton in Gordano, Weston in Gordano, Easton in Gordano,

Walton in Gordano Walton in Gordano is a village and civil parish in the North Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is situated in a small valley at the side of the south-western end of the Gordano Valley, about a mile from Clevedo ...

, Portbury and Sheepway. The

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

runs along the south side of the valley, splitting briefly into two levels - the south-west-bound level running above the north-east-bound carriageway. The Gordano motorway service station is at the eastern end of the valley, near the Royal Portbury Dock and the

Avonmouth Bridge The Avonmouth Bridge is a road bridge that carries the M5 motorway over the River Avon into Somerset near Bristol, England. The main span is long, and the bridge is long, with an air draught above mean high water level of . It also has a s ...

. There is no river Gordano - much of the valley is reclaimed land barely above sea level, and it is drained by ditches (known in the area as " rhynes"). The rhynes previously managed by the now amalgamated Gordano Valley Internal Drainage Board are now the responsibility of the North Somerset Internal Drainage Board. An area comprising a total of has been designated as a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, for ornithological, entomological and stratigraphic interest, notification originally having taken place in 1971. Several sites in the valley are managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust as nature reserves. These include; Weston Big Wood, Clapton Moor, Weston Moor and Walton Common. The unimproved wet-meadow communities largely consist of variants of the nationally rare Blunt-flowered Rush–Marsh Thistle ''( Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre)'', Soft/Sharp Flowered Rush–Marsh Bedstraw ''(Juncus effusus/acutiflorus–Galium palustre)'', Purple Moorgrass–Meadow Thistle ''(Molinia caerulea–Cirsium dissectum)'' and Crested Dog’s-tail–Common Knapweed '')Cynosurus cristatus–Centaurea nigra)'' community types. In total over 130 species of flowering plant have been recorded including 3 species of orchids, 21 grasses and 14 sedges. The extensive system of rhynes and field ditches contains a rich flora which includes three nationally scarce species: Water Parsnip ''(Sium latafolium)'', Whorled Water Milfoil ''(Myriophyllum verticillatum)'' and Fen Pondweed ''(Potamogeton coloratus)''. The site is now connected to the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary () is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England (from North Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire) and South Wales (from Cardiff, Newport to Monmouthshire). Its very h ...

by the Portbury Ashlands nature reserve.

References

{{SSSIs Avon geological National nature reserves in Somerset Sites of Special Scientific Interest in North Somerset Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1971 Valleys of Somerset