Benfleet and Southend Marshes

(Redirected from Leigh National Nature Reserve) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Essex

Benfleet and Southend Marshes
Site of Special Scientific Interest

Location	Essex
Grid reference	TQ854847
Interest	Biological
Area	2099.7 hectares
Notification	1987
Location map	Magic Map

Designations
Ramsar Wetland
Official name	Benfleet & Southend Marshes
Designated	14 February 1994
Reference no.	648

Benfleet and Southend Marshes is an 8.1-square-mile (21 km) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Essex. It consists of mudflats, salt marshes, scrub and wild grassland, and includes the Southend-on-Sea foreshore. It has been so recognised for its biological (including ecological) value, rather than geological. A definition five percent larger forms the Benfleet and Southend Marshes Ramsar site and Special Protection Area. In the centre-west, more than ten percent of the Site is the Leigh National Nature Reserve (NNR), which has been appraised in detail in A Nature Conservation Review as a site of national importance. The SSSI and NNR include the eastern half of Two Tree Island, in Leigh on Sea which is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. A narrow majority of the Site is the Southend on Sea Foreshore Local Nature Reserve.

The marshes and mudflats have internationally important numbers of wildfowl and wading birds, including the dark-bellied brent goose, grey plover, redshank and red knot. Scarce invertebrates, such as the white-letter hairstreak and marbled white butterfly, have adapted to specific habitats in the marshes.

Major landowners within Benfleet and Southend Marshes SSSI include the Ministry of Defence, Network Rail and Crown Estate.

Notes and References

Notes

257.5 hectares
1083.9 hectares

References

"Benfleet & Southend Marshes". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
"SSSI detail". designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
^ "Benfleet and Southend Marshes citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Map of Benfleet and Southend Marshes". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands: Benfleet and Southend Marshes" (PDF). Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
^ "Magic map". Natural England. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Benfleet and Southend Marshes" (PDF). Special Protection Areas under the EC Birds Directive. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
^ "Essex's National Nature Reserves". Natural England.
"Two Tree Island". Essex Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Southend on Sea Foreshore". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 27 February 2013. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Map of Southend on Sea Foreshore". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"Mapping the habitats of England's ten largest institutional landowners". Who owns England?. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2024.

v t e Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex
Biological	Abberton Reservoir Ashdon Meadows Basildon Meadows Belcher's and Broadfield Woods Benfleet and Southend Marshes Blackwater Estuary Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common Bovingdon Hall Woods Bullock Wood Canvey Wick Cattawade Marshes Chalkney Wood Colne Estuary The Coppice, Kelvedon Hatch Cornmill Stream and Old River Lea Crouch and Roach Estuaries Curtismill Green Danbury Common Debden Water Dengie Elsenham Woods Epping Forest Foulness Garnetts Wood and Barnston Lays Garrold's Meadow Glemsford Pits Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit Great Wood and Dodd's Grove Hainault Forest Hales and Shadwell Woods Hamford Water Hangman's Wood and Deneholes Hanningfield Reservoir Harlow Woods Hatfield Forest High Wood, Dunmow Hockley Woods Holehaven Creek Holland Haven Marshes Hunsdon Mead Inner Thames Marshes Little Hallingbury Marsh Mill Meadows Mucking Flats and Marshes Norsey Wood Nunn Wood Pitsea Marsh Quendon Wood Riddles Wood Roding Valley Meadows Roman River Sandbeach Meadows Stour and Copperas Woods, Ramsey Stour Estuary Thorndon Park Thrift Wood, Woodham Ferrers Thundersley Great Common Tiptree Heath Turnford and Cheshunt Pits Upper Colne Marshes Vange and Fobbing Marshes Waltham Abbey Weeleyhall Wood West Thurrock Lagoon and Marshes West Wood, Little Sampford Woodham Walter Common
Geological	Ardleigh Gravel Pit Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore The Cliff, Burnham-on-Crouch Colne Estuary Dengie Globe Pit Goldsands Road Pit Hall's Quarry Harwich Foreshore Holland-on-Sea Cliff Lion Pit Little Oakley Channel Deposit Lofts Farm Pit Maldon Cutting Marks Tey Brickpit The Naze Newney Green Pit Purfleet Chalk Pits Purfleet Road, Aveley River Ter St Osyth Pit Stour Estuary Wivenhoe Gravel Pit

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex

Biological

Geological

v t e Local nature reserves in Essex
Basildon	Mill Meadows, Billericay Norsey Wood Vange Hill
Braintree	Bocking Blackwater Brickfield and Long Meadow Brockwell Meadows Cuckoo Wood Gosfield Sandpits Hoppit Mead Whet Mead
Brentwood	Hutton Country Park
Castle Point	Canvey Lake
Chelmsford	Chelmer Valley Riverside Fenn Washland Galleywood Common
Colchester	Bull Meadow Colne Colne Valley Hilly Fields Lexden Park Salary Brook Spring Lane Meadows Tiptree Parish Field Welsh Wood
Epping Forest	Chigwell Row Wood Church Lane Flood Meadow Home Mead Linder's Field Nazeing Triangle Roding Valley Meadows Roughtalley's Wood Thornwood Common Flood Meadow Weald Common Flood Meadows
Harlow	Harlow Marsh Hawkenbury Meadow Parndon Woods and Common
Rochford	Hockley Woods Kendal Park Magnolia Fields Marylands
Southend-on-Sea	Belfairs Belton Hills Gunners Park Shoeburyness Old Ranges Southend on Sea Foreshore
Tendring	Holland Haven Pickers Ditch Meadow Wrabness
Thurrock	Grove House Wood Linford Wood

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