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180-561: Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire , England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres (18 km; 7.0 sq mi). Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake . It is privately owned by the Marquess of Ailesbury and his son the Earl of Cardigan , and is administered by trustees. Since 1939

360-603: A survey of the two rivers and noted that the land between them was level and easy to dig. He proposed a canal to connect them, but following his death in 1630 the plan was dropped. After the English Civil War four bills were presented to parliament, but all failed after opposition from gentry, farmers and traders worried about cheaper water transport reducing the value of fees on turnpike roads they controlled, and cheaper produce from Wales undercutting locally produced food. The main alternative to road transport for

540-588: A 22,000-signature petition to the Queen, brought to London from Bristol by water; parts of the canal had to be traversed by canoe. This campaign led to an inquiry by a Parliamentary Select Committee . The committee supported the suspension of the right of navigation, and the Bill passed through the House of Commons but was amended by the House of Lords to include a clause to enforce "no further deterioration". In July 1958,

720-555: A Berriasian–Barremian warm-dry phase, an Aptian–Santonian warm-wet phase, and a Campanian–Maastrichtian cool-dry phase. As in the Cenozoic, the 400,000 year eccentricity cycle was the dominant orbital cycle governing carbon flux between different reservoirs and influencing global climate. The location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was roughly the same as in the present. The cooling trend of

900-550: A bakehouse, slaughterhouse and shop for provisions for those living and working on the canal. The building was destroyed by fire in 1858 and rebuilt within six months. It was built just within the parish boundary of Stanton St Bernard to "serve the Honey Street wharf in Alton parish, which refused to allow drinking establishments". Jones's Mill is a 29-acre (12 ha) area of fen vegetation, scrub and woodland lying along

1080-404: A boat, is part of a longer series of 29 locks built in three groups: seven at Foxhangers, sixteen at Caen Hill, and six at the town end of the flight. The total rise is 237 feet (72 m) in 2 miles (3.2 km) or a 1 in 30 gradient . The locks were the last part of the 87-mile (140 km) route of the canal to be completed. The steepness of the terrain meant that there was no space to use

1260-490: A collaboration between staff from British Waterways and volunteer labour. In 1966 Sulhamstead Lock was rebuilt and the re-puddling of the dry section at Limpley Stoke was begun. In 1968, restoration work was undertaken on the Bath Locks and Burghfield Lock . In Reading at Bridge Street the navigable headroom had been reduced from 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) to 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) by girders added to

1440-582: A fate hastened by the collapse of Stanley Aqueduct in 1901. In 1977 the Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity Group was formed with the aim of fully restoring the canal to re-connect the Kennet and Avon to the upper reaches of the Thames. Caen Hill Locks , at Devizes , provides an insight into the engineering needed to build and maintain the canal. The main flight of 16 locks, which take 5–6 hours to navigate in

1620-437: A girth of 11 metres (36 ft) and is 1000–1100 years old. In 2001 it was in danger of splitting in two, a fate that had already overtaken the similarly aged Duke's Vaunt. To prevent this, the tree was fitted with a metal corset. The 2011 Radiohead album The King of Limbs is named after the ancient King of Limbs tree in the forest near Tottenham House, where the band recorded part of their previous album, In Rainbows . It

1800-536: A half days. By 1832, 300,000 tons of freight was being carried each year and, between 1825 and 1834, the company had an annual revenue of around £45,000. A link connecting the Kennet & Avon to the Basingstoke Canal at its Basingstoke terminus was proposed three times between 1793 and 1810, and a route was even surveyed by John Rennie the Younger in 1824, but following opposition from landowners

1980-403: A later warden George Frederick was eager to show off his forest. There was much rearranging of copses and vistas and setting aside of grass rides so that visitors could see the woods as a whole and be impressed. He ordered that the entire estate be fenced and palings be placed around individual trees. That way, the deer might roam freely with a minimum of damage. The fifth marquess recognized that

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2160-546: A loss of £18,041 the previous year, the Great Western Railway sought to close the canal by obtaining a Ministry of Transport Order, but the move was resisted and the company charged with improving its maintenance of the canal. Cargo trade continued to decline, but a few pleasure boats started to use the canal. During the Second World War a large number of concrete pillboxes were built as part of

2340-513: A popular heritage tourism destination for boating, canoeing , fishing, walking and cycling, and is also important for wildlife conservation . The idea of an east-to-west waterway link across southern England was first mentioned in Elizabethan times, between 1558 and 1603, to take advantage of the proximity of tributaries of the rivers Avon and Thames , only 3 miles (5 km) apart at their closest. Later, around 1626, Henry Briggs made

2520-447: A public car park and barbecue area. Four tracks head southwards through oak forest, the principal one being Long Harry ( grid reference SU202681 ) . The track descends gradually, crossing White Road ( grid reference SU206677 ) . Tree cover is not dense and ancient oaks are plentiful here, including one named Saddle Oak on account of its near-horizontal boughs. Church Walk ( grid reference SU209675 ) bridle path

2700-576: A rise of 30 feet (9 m) within 12 miles (19 km). Lock number one on the Kennet and Avon Canal is Hanham Lock , first opened as part of the Avon Navigation in 1727. It is the first lock east of Netham , the upstream limit of the Floating Harbour, beyond the suburbs of the city of Bristol. A colliery wharf was sited just west of the lock, but the nearby coal mines closed in the 19th century. The river below Hanham Lock

2880-454: A shallow cutting above the canal tunnel between 1847 and 1862, which closed in 1966, but the trackbed is still in use today . The Crofton Locks flight marks the start of the descent from the summit to the Thames; the nine locks have a total rise/fall of 61 feet (19 m). When the canal was built there were no reliable water sources available to fill the summit by normal gravitational means. A number of usable springs were found adjacent to

3060-526: A shop within the Canal Centre. The Wharf Theatre is in an old warehouse on the same site. Devizes wharf is the starting point for the Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Marathon , which has been held since 1948. Heading east from Devizes the canal passes through the Wiltshire countryside and a series of locks and swing bridges before another flight of locks at Crofton . At Honeystreet

3240-514: A side pound and a pumping station that pumps water "upstream" of the locks, to replace that used each time a boat passes through. The next of the six Bath Locks is Bath Deep Lock, numbered 8/9 as two locks were combined when the canal was restored in 1976. The new chamber has a depth of 19 feet 5 inches (5.92 m), making it the UK's second-deepest canal lock. Just above the Deep Lock

3420-674: A straight shell, flourished in the seas along with reef-building rudist clams. Inoceramids were also particularly notable among Cretaceous bivalves, and they have been used to identify major biotic turnovers such as at the Turonian-Coniacian boundary. Predatory gastropods with drilling habits were widespread. Globotruncanid foraminifera and echinoderms such as sea urchins and starfish (sea stars) thrived. Ostracods were abundant in Cretaceous marine settings; ostracod species characterised by high male sexual investment had

3600-543: A thousand years, and today it is the only ancient forest in Britain still in private hands. One early high point of the estate's fortunes was in Tudor times . The head of the family (Sir John Seymour ) was used to welcoming Henry VIII to the forest, where the king was very keen on deer-hunting. King Henry stayed at Savernake in 1535, where it is believed that his eye was then taken by his host's daughter, Jane Seymour . After

3780-440: A through route. In 1788 a "Western Canal" was proposed to improve trade and communication links to towns such as Hungerford , Marlborough , Calne , Chippenham and Melksham . The following year the engineers Barns, Simcock and Weston submitted a proposed route for this canal, although there were doubts about the adequacy of the water supply. The name was changed from Western Canal to Kennet and Avon Canal to avoid confusion with

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3960-458: A wider forest, creating a distinctive and memorable, 'secret' landscape Capability Brown worked out a strategy for linking coppices with oak plantings, lining forest trails with beech trees, and providing vistas with "proper objects" on which the eye might rest. The forest would be made part of the parkland. The scattered coppices, meadows, scrub, and heath should be united, into "one great whole." As times changed, and social expectations altered,

4140-564: A ~0.6 °C increase in temperature. The latter warming interval, occurring at the very end of the Cretaceous, was triggered by the activity of the Deccan Traps. The LKEPCI lasted into the Late Palaeocene , when it gave way to another supergreenhouse interval. The production of large quantities of magma, variously attributed to mantle plumes or to extensional tectonics , further pushed sea levels up, so that large areas of

4320-520: Is Weston Lock , opened in 1727. Its construction created an island between the cut and the river weir, which became known as Dutch Island after the owner of the brass mill established on the riverside in the early 18th century. The restored Bath Bottom Lock marks the divergence of the River Avon and the canal. It is situated south of Pulteney Bridge . Just upstream of the Bottom Lock are

4500-410: Is 173 feet (53 m) long and runs under Cleveland House, the former headquarters of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company and now a Grade II* listed building. A trap-door in the tunnel roof connects the canal with Cleveland House. It is often stated that was used to pass paperwork between clerks above and bargees below, although it is possible that the hatch was a refuse chute. Many of the bridges over

4680-406: Is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Postern Hill and is 193 metres (633 ft) high. There is a seasonal car park nearby. Three small valleys run northeast from this high point. Postwives Walk ( grid reference SU220647 ) begins with an ancient avenue of oaks and descends gently to cross Charcoal Burners Road ( grid reference SU222654 ) ( charcoal is still made here) and so on to

4860-554: Is a notable tree approximately 1,000 years old. It was once hollow and 30 feet (9.1 m) in girth. In 1760 it had a door and a lock and was capable of sheltering "twenty boys" . The tree is badly split now, but survives. Here the ground is damp and parts of Birch Copse barely see daylight. While some of the tall pines seem senescent, other plantation firs are green and vibrant. Many varieties of fungi can be seen in profusion in October, but dead-wood fungi are common enough throughout

5040-558: Is a wood where broad-leaved trees, typically hazel, grow out of the stumps or "stools" left from previous cuttings. Standards are trees allowed to grow to maturity. If these trees are allowed to grow in close proximity they grow straight and tall. If they have more room to grow then side branches become substantial. In the past standardisation was not at all essential. Craft work and early mechanical industry, such as shipbuilding, wagon making, and furniture making all required "bends" and "knees," as well as other eccentrically shaped pieces which

5220-468: Is another side pound as a reservoir for refilling the lock, followed by Wash House Lock. After a slightly longer pound is Abbey View Lock, beside which there is another pumping station and then, in quick succession, Pulteney Lock and Bath Top Lock. Above the Top Lock the canal passes through Sydney Gardens via two short tunnels and under two cast iron footbridges dating from 1800. Cleveland Tunnel

5400-525: Is considered to be tidal , as high tides often pass over the weir at Netham. Some spring tides pass over the weir at Hanham, making the river tidal up to Keynsham Lock . Heading east, the river passes the Somerdale Factory , on its southern bank, which was a chocolate production factory for Cadbury – originally built by the Fry family in the 1920s and 1930s. On the northern bank is Cleeve Wood ,

5580-695: Is crossed next before reaching Great Lodge Bottom ( grid reference SU215673 ) . The bridle path connects the A4 to Cadley hamlet on the A346 , and is the only public right of way in the main part of the forest. Great Lodge Bottom is an east-running dry valley, fairly open with hawthorn and blackthorn scrub. After crossing the Grand Avenue the valley runs into Red Vein Bottom ( grid reference SU219676 ) with its rough pasture and rabbit warrens. The path

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5760-619: Is found in England, northern France, the low countries , northern Germany , Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea . Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of loose sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites . Among the fossils it contains are sea urchins , belemnites , ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus . In southern Europe,

5940-507: Is found: road, rail, river, canal. The canal passes the remains of a loading dock, once used for Bath Stone from the quarries on Bathampton Down , which was carried down a straight track to the canal over the Dry Arch rock bridge (demolished in 1958 to allow double-decker buses to use the A36 ). Next, the canal passes the waterwheel-powered Claverton Pumping Station , which pumped water from

6120-641: Is joined by a small valley coming down from the pinetum (pine arboretum) at Braydon Hook ( grid reference SU221671 ) adjacent to Braydon Hook House. The path from Red Vein Bottom skirts the Ashdale Firs and passes some huge beeches before arriving at the Amity Oak ( grid reference SU232675 ) , an old tree which serves as a parish boundary marker. The valley continues east to Hungerford via Little Frith. (About 3 miles (4.8 km) west to east) Leigh Hill ( grid reference SU219645 )

6300-525: Is lined with English bond brickwork and has a wide bore to cope with the Newbury barges used on the canal. There is no towpath through the tunnel, so walkers and cyclists must walk across the top of the hill. When canal boats were pulled by horses the boatmen had to haul their barges through the tunnel by hand, pulling on chains that ran along the inside walls. The Berks & Hants Extension Railway subsequently built Savernake Low Level railway station in

6480-437: Is lined with oak in the south, and by limes in the north. Many old oaks and old sweet chestnuts are still standing, and foxgloves populate the forest edges. Forest tracks and bridleways lead southeast, and this is very much assarted countryside. When Stock Common ( grid reference SU262644 ) is reached there are footpaths to Shawgrove Copse ( grid reference SU270643 ) , within sight of Great Bedwyn, or south to

6660-509: Is now used worldwide. In many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. From youngest to oldest, the subdivisions of the Cretaceous period are: The lower boundary of the Cretaceous is currently undefined, and the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary is currently the only system boundary to lack a defined Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP). Placing a GSSP for this boundary has been difficult because of

6840-584: Is the remains of a wharf that was the home of boat builders Robbins, Lane and Pinnegar, which served as the boat building headquarters of the Canal Company. They built many of the boats used on the canals of southern England before closing in about 1950. Next to the wharf is the Barge Inn, a substantial public house once known as the George Inn. It was roughly half-way along the canal and served as

7020-485: Is thought that nowhere else in Europe is there such a concentration of "veteran" trees. Savernake has hundreds of such trees, beeches and oaks, some appearing singly, others in avenues, some amongst younger broad-leaved trees and others within coniferous plantations. Some of the historically important trees are named and their names appear upon local maps, and even upon the modern Ordnance Survey Explorer 157. Since about 2006

7200-457: The Ford tractor in which they were reversing along part of the towpath between Bridge 111 and Bridge 110 toppled into the water. British Waterways was found guilty of failing to adequately assess risk and fined £100,000. A subsequent dispute with their insurers gave rise to legal consideration of the meaning of certain terminology in their insurance policy concerned with liability "arising out of"

7380-617: The GHQ Line - Blue to defend against an expected German invasion; many of these are still visible along the banks of the canal. They were generally built close to road and rail bridges, which would have formed important crossing points for enemy troops and vehicles. After the war the Transport Act 1947 transferred control of the canal to the British Transport Commission , but by the 1950s large sections of

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7560-549: The Grand Western Canal , which was being proposed at the same time. This came in the midst of the Canal Mania period, with shares oversubscribed and reports of riotous crowds gathering outside meetings. In 1793 a further survey was conducted by John Rennie , and the route of the canal was altered to take a more southerly course through Great Bedwyn , Devizes , Trowbridge and Newbury . The proposed route

7740-583: The Heritage Lottery Fund , £25 million towards a £29 million project, to complete the restoration and to make it operational, sustainable and accessible for the enjoyment of future generations. The work funded included complete rebuilding of Foxhangers Lock and bridge at Caen Hill, replacement of lock gates at Seend and Crofton, channel lining at Claverton, embankment repairs at Martinslade, improvements at Claverton pumping station and dredging at various sites. The restoration's completion

7920-713: The Mancos Shale of western North America. These shales are an important source rock for oil and gas , for example in the subsurface of the North Sea. In northwestern Europe, chalk deposits from the Upper Cretaceous are characteristic for the Chalk Group , which forms the white cliffs of Dover on the south coast of England and similar cliffs on the French Normandian coast. The group

8100-711: The North American Cordillera , as the Nevadan orogeny was followed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies . Gondwana had begun to break up during the Jurassic Period, but its fragmentation accelerated during the Cretaceous and was largely complete by the end of the period. South America , Antarctica , and Australia rifted away from Africa (though India and Madagascar remained attached to each other until around 80 million years ago); thus,

8280-553: The Selli Event . Early Aptian tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were 27–32 °C, based on TEX 86 measurements from the equatorial Pacific. During the Aptian, Milankovitch cycles governed the occurrence of anoxic events by modulating the intensity of the hydrological cycle and terrestrial runoff. The early Aptian was also notable for its millennial scale hyperarid events in the mid-latitudes of Asia. The BAWI itself

8460-653: The Somerset Coalfield , which at its peak contained 80 collieries. After the Avoncliff Aqueduct the canal passes through Barton Farm Country Park , past Gripwood Quarry and a 14th-century Grade II* listed tithe barn , 180 feet (55 m) long and 30 feet (9 m) wide, on its way into Bradford-on-Avon. Further east, an aqueduct carries the canal over the River Biss . There are locks at Semington and Seend , where water flows into

8640-630: The Terrain Crétacé , using strata in the Paris Basin and named for the extensive beds of chalk ( calcium carbonate deposited by the shells of marine invertebrates , principally coccoliths ), found in the upper Cretaceous of Western Europe . The name Cretaceous was derived from the Latin creta , meaning chalk . The twofold division of the Cretaceous was implemented by Conybeare and Phillips in 1822. Alcide d'Orbigny in 1840 divided

8820-728: The Turonian Age, based on isotopic evidence. However, this has subsequently been suggested to be the result of inconsistent isotopic proxies, with evidence of polar rainforests during this time interval at 82° S. Rafting by ice of stones into marine environments occurred during much of the Cretaceous, but evidence of deposition directly from glaciers is limited to the Early Cretaceous of the Eromanga Basin in southern Australia . Flowering plants (angiosperms) make up around 90% of living plant species today. Prior to

9000-483: The tuatara ) disappeared from North America and Europe after the Early Cretaceous , and were absent from North Africa and northern South America by the early Late Cretaceous . The cause of the decline of Rhynchocephalia remains unclear, but has often been suggested to be due to competition with advanced lizards and mammals. They appear to have remained diverse in high-latitude southern South America during

9180-415: The 1980s. Berkshire County Council , supported by local councils, estimated that £1,275,000 was needed for works at the eastern end of the canal and commenced work on replacing some of the bridges. In Wiltshire , concerns over the limited water supply to the summit pound indicated that back-pumping would be required, which increased the estimated cost for the county to £761,560. The Wilton Water reservoir

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9360-406: The 502-yard-long (459 m) Bruce Tunnel . The tunnel is named after the local land owner, Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury (1729–1814), who refused to allow a deep cutting through his property and insisted on a tunnel. The tunnel has red brick portals, capped with Bath stone , each with a decorative plaque of Pennant stone . The tunnel was begun in 1806 and finished in 1809. It

9540-570: The Advisory Committee reported that the canal should be redeveloped, and allocated £20,000 for maintenance and £20,000 to begin restoration. The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust was formed in 1962 to restore the canal from Reading to Bristol as a through navigation and as a public amenity. It was originally a voluntary group which had previously been known as the Kennet and Avon Canal Association. The Trust gained charitable status in April and

9720-999: The Albian regularly expanded northward in tandem with expansions of subtropical high pressure belts. The Cedar Mountain Formation's Soap Wash flora indicates a mean annual temperature of between 19 and 26 °C in Utah at the Albian-Cenomanian boundary. Tropical SSTs during the Cenomanian-Turonian Thermal Maximum were at least 30 °C, though one study estimated them as high as between 33 and 42 °C. An intermediate estimate of ~33-34 °C has also been given. Meanwhile, deep ocean temperatures were as much as 15 to 20 °C (27 to 36 °F) warmer than today's; one study estimated that deep ocean temperatures were between 12 and 20 °C during

9900-683: The Bowes Committee published their Inquiry into Inland Waterways which specifically mentioned the Kennet and Avon finding "no justification for restoring the section from Reading to Bath". A government white paper followed the Bowes Report in February 1959, recommending that an Inland Waterways Redevelopment Advisory Committee should assist schemes to regenerate canals that were no longer able to collect enough fees from tolls to pay for their upkeep. Further reports followed, and in 1962

10080-571: The Cenozoic Era   —   the ichthyosaurs , last remaining temnospondyls ( Koolasuchus ), and nonmammalian cynodonts ( Tritylodontidae )   —   were already extinct millions of years before the event occurred. Coccolithophorids and molluscs , including ammonites , rudists , freshwater snails , and mussels , as well as organisms whose food chain included these shell builders, became extinct or suffered heavy losses. For example, ammonites are thought to have been

10260-645: The Coniacian through the Maastrichtian. During the Cretaceous, the late- Paleozoic -to-early-Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangaea completed its tectonic breakup into the present-day continents , although their positions were substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, the convergent-margin mountain building ( orogenies ) that had begun during the Jurassic continued in

10440-626: The Cretaceous is sharply defined, being placed at an iridium -rich layer found worldwide that is believed to be associated with the Chicxulub impact crater , with its boundaries circumscribing parts of the Yucatán Peninsula and extending into the Gulf of Mexico . This layer has been dated at 66.043 Mya. At the end of the Cretaceous, the impact of a large body with the Earth may have been

10620-402: The Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls . Because the Alpine mountain chains did not yet exist in the Cretaceous, these deposits formed on the southern edge of the European continental shelf , at the margin of the Tethys Ocean . During the Cretaceous, the present North American continent was isolated from the other continents. In

10800-425: The Cretaceous seas. Stagnation of deep sea currents in middle Cretaceous times caused anoxic conditions in the sea water leaving the deposited organic matter undecomposed. Half of the world's petroleum reserves were laid down at this time in the anoxic conditions of what would become the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. In many places around the world, dark anoxic shales were formed during this interval, such as

10980-400: The Forestry Commission has been clearing space around well-known venerable trees, and naming them with green plaques. Elsewhere clearings have been created, revealing old ponds, long hidden by coniferous plantings but now opened up to the light. Standing water is essential for bio-diversity. Savernake has areas of damp soil, but no streams. Another best practice is to leave dead wood lying, for

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11160-556: The French Cretaceous into five étages (stages): the Neocomian , Aptian, Albian, Turonian, and Senonian, later adding the Urgonian between Neocomian and Aptian and the Cenomanian between the Albian and Turonian. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs , or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series . In older literature, the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series: Neocomian (lower/early), Gallic (middle) and Senonian (upper/late). A subdivision into 12 stages , all originating from European stratigraphy,

11340-420: The Jurassic, the North Atlantic already opened, leaving a proto-ocean between Europe and North America. From north to south across the continent, the Western Interior Seaway started forming. This inland sea separated the elevated areas of Laramidia in the west and Appalachia in the east. Three dinosaur clades found in Laramidia (troodontids, therizinosaurids and oviraptorosaurs) are absent from Appalachia from

11520-415: The LKEPCI. During this period of relatively cool temperatures, the ITCZ became narrower, while the strength of both summer and winter monsoons in East Asia was directly correlated to atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. Laramidia likewise had a seasonal, monsoonal climate. The Maastrichtian was a time of chaotic, highly variable climate. Two upticks in global temperatures are known to have occurred during

11700-416: The Late Cretaceous, where lizards remained rare, with their remains outnumbering terrestrial lizards 200:1. Choristoderes , a group of freshwater aquatic reptiles that first appeared during the preceding Jurassic, underwent a major evolutionary radiation in Asia during the Early Cretaceous, which represents the high point of choristoderan diversity, including long necked forms such as Hyphalosaurus and

11880-399: The Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeogene Cool Interval (LKEPCI). Tropical SSTs declined from around 35 °C in the early Campanian to around 28 °C in the Maastrichtian. Deep ocean temperatures declined to 9 to 12 °C, though the shallow temperature gradient between tropical and polar seas remained. Regional conditions in the Western Interior Seaway changed little between the MKH and

12060-486: The MKH. Mean annual temperatures at the poles during the MKH exceeded 14 °C. Such hot temperatures during the MKH resulted in a very gentle temperature gradient from the equator to the poles; the latitudinal temperature gradient during the Cenomanian-Turonian Thermal Maximum was 0.54 °C per ° latitude for the Southern Hemisphere and 0.49 °C per ° latitude for the Northern Hemisphere, in contrast to present day values of 1.07 and 0.69 °C per ° latitude for

12240-412: The MKH. The poles were so warm that ectothermic reptiles were able to inhabit them. Beginning in the Santonian, near the end of the MKH, the global climate began to cool, with this cooling trend continuing across the Campanian. This period of cooling, driven by falling levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, caused the end of the MKH and the transition into a cooler climatic interval, known formally as

12420-404: The Maastrichtian, bucking the trend of overall cooler temperatures during the LKEPCI. Between 70 and 69 Ma and 66–65 Ma, isotopic ratios indicate elevated atmospheric CO 2 pressures with levels of 1000–1400 ppmV and mean annual temperatures in west Texas between 21 and 23 °C (70 and 73 °F). Atmospheric CO 2 and temperature relations indicate a doubling of pCO 2 was accompanied by

12600-443: The Ordnance Survey Explorer map 157 Marlborough & Savernake Forest , but few are named on the ground. (About 3 miles (4.8 km) west to east) Postern Hill is at ( grid reference SU197679 ) . At 193 metres (633 ft) this is the chalk plateau at its highest, and a north-facing scarp slope overlooks the town of Marlborough. On the hilltop is a small Forestry Commission Camp Site – Postern Hill Campsite – together with

12780-425: The River Avon into the canal. The building was completed in 1810 and the pump was working by 1813. On the eastern bank Warleigh Wood and Inwood are ash-wych elm and ash-maple dry woodland, which comes right down to the canal. The canal then crosses over the river and the Wessex Main Line railway at the Dundas Aqueduct , past Conkwell Wood, before recrossing the river and railway at the Avoncliff Aqueduct . At

12960-777: The Royal Park at one time. The third valley starts near the column at Three Oak Hill Drive ( grid reference SU231662 ) which, despite its name, has fine stands of beech and also of Scots pine . The ground descends into Drury Lane ( grid reference SU229648 ) and passes a young plantation before joining the other two valleys and then, as a fine shallow-sided valley of meadow pasture, passes Savernake Lodge ( grid reference SU233667 ) on its way to Crabtree Cottages ( grid reference SU240670 ) and thence to Little Frith ( grid reference SU246676 ) with its carpets of bluebells in May, and then finally joining

13140-681: The South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were newly formed. Such active rifting lifted great undersea mountain chains along the welts, raising eustatic sea levels worldwide. To the north of Africa the Tethys Sea continued to narrow. During most of the Late Cretaceous, North America would be divided in two by the Western Interior Seaway , a large interior sea, separating Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to

13320-570: The Southern and Northern hemispheres, respectively. This meant weaker global winds, which drive the ocean currents, and resulted in less upwelling and more stagnant oceans than today. This is evidenced by widespread black shale deposition and frequent anoxic events . Tropical SSTs during the late Albian most likely averaged around 30 °C. Despite this high SST, seawater was not hypersaline at this time, as this would have required significantly higher temperatures still. On land, arid zones in

13500-576: The Tethys to the Arctic Ocean and enabling biotic exchange between the two oceans. At the peak of the Cretaceous transgression , one-third of Earth's present land area was submerged. The Cretaceous is justly famous for its chalk ; indeed, more chalk formed in the Cretaceous than in any other period in the Phanerozoic . Mid-ocean ridge activity—or rather, the circulation of seawater through

13680-425: The ancestors of modern-day birds also diversified. They inhabited every continent, and were even found in cold polar latitudes. Pterosaurs were common in the early and middle Cretaceous, but as the Cretaceous proceeded they declined for poorly understood reasons (once thought to be due to competition with early birds , but now it is understood avian adaptive radiation is not consistent with pterosaur decline ). By

13860-400: The ancient oak and beech and their specialist lichen and fungal communities, as well as rare woodland and grassland flora; the exact wildlife features for which Savernake Forest is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest . Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are regularly inspected and their health is monitored. Savernake has SSSI status primarily for rare lichens found on

14040-526: The bark of the older trees. There is also good representation of fungi types and mosses. However, the health of Savernake is not particularly good, partly because of the destruction wrought during World War II, and probably from wind-borne pollutants. The entire site is at condition 88% "unfavourable recovering" . This is not a comment of the beauty of the forest, but a health statement on the lichens and mosses and invertebrates. Savernake Forest has many named drives and other landscape features. These are named on

14220-483: The benefit of invertebrates. In Savernake fallen trees are left to decay and dead standing trees (monoliths) are generally left standing. In 2003 White Park cattle were introduced into Savernake Forest, to forage freely in the Red Vein Bottom area, a semi-open area of relict wood pasture which had not been grazed in more than 60 years. Such controlled grazing should recreate the naturally open glades ideal for

14400-668: The canal are listed buildings. On the eastern outskirts of Bath a toll bridge near the George Inn links Bathampton to Batheaston , on the north bank of the canal. When the A4 Batheaston by-pass was built, the 22-acre (8.9 ha) Bathampton Meadow was created to provide additional flood relief. The resultant wet meadows and oxbow lake have proved attractive to a number of migrants; wading birds such as dunlin , ringed and little ringed plover , and green and common sandpiper are frequent visitors in spring and autumn. Sand martin and kingfisher have been seen regularly by

14580-465: The canal commenced; goods initially had to be unloaded at Foxhangers at the bottom of what is now Caen Hill Locks, transported up the hill by a horse-drawn tramway, and reloaded into barges at the top. When the flight of locks opened in 1810, allowing the same vessel to navigate the entire canal, the rate of carriage per ton from London to Bath was £2 9s 6d. This compared well with carriage by road, which cost £6 3s to £7 per ton , and trade on

14760-570: The canal flourished. In 1812, the Kennet and Avon Canal Company bought the Kennet Navigation, which stretched from Newbury to the junction with the Thames at Kennet Mouth, near Reading. The purchase from Frederick Page cost £100,000, of which £70,000 was paid in cash with the balance paid back gradually. The purchase was authorised by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company and River Kennet Navigation Act 1813 ( 53 Geo. 3 . c. cxix), which enabled

14940-654: The canal from the Summerham Brook, otherwise known as the Seend Feeder. In the village of Semington the Wilts & Berks Canal joined the canal, linking the Kennet and Avon to the River Thames at Abingdon . The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a branch to the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton near Cricklade . The 52-mile (84 km) canal was opened in 1810, but abandoned in 1914 –

15120-564: The canal had been closed because of poor lock maintenance following a breach in the bank west of the Avoncliff Aqueduct . The last through passage was made in 1951 by nb Queen . A group supporting the restoration of the canal had been set up in the early 1950s independently of the Inland Waterways Association , with which it was subsequently merged. In 1955 John Gould, a trader on the eastern section of

15300-467: The canal was open as far west as Great Bedwyn. The summit beyond Great Bedwyn, and subsequent gentle descent to Devizes, remained incomplete as late as 1803. The final engineering task was the completion of the Caen Hill Locks at Devizes. While the lock flight was under construction, a horse-drawn railway provided a link between Foxhangers at the bottom of the flight and Devizes at the top,

15480-528: The carriage of goods between Bristol and London was a hazardous sea route through the English Channel . The small coastal sailing ships of the day were often damaged by Atlantic storms, and risked being attacked by warships of the French Navy and privateers during a succession of conflicts with France. Plans for a waterway were shelved until the early 18th century. However, in 1715, work

15660-438: The commission became more open to the suggestion that recreational uses might be as legitimate as commercial ones and agreed to the special conditions the sixth marquess had stubbornly laid down. As a result, after 800 years of wardenship, the family surrendered control and the public, because of Lord Ailesbury's dedication, gained a handsome amenity. Savernake is a coppice-with-standards forest and an Ancient Woodland . A coppice

15840-558: The company to raise the funds through the sale of 5,500 shares at £24 each. At the same time work was undertaken to improve the Avon Navigation, from Bristol to Bath, with the Kennet and Avon Canal Company purchasing a majority shareholding in the Avon Navigation in 1816. By 1818, seventy 60-ton barges were working on the canal, the majority of the tonnage being coal and stone travelling via the Somerset Coal Canal . The journey from Bath to Newbury took an average of three and

16020-408: The continental crust were covered with shallow seas. The Tethys Sea connecting the tropical oceans east to west also helped to warm the global climate. Warm-adapted plant fossils are known from localities as far north as Alaska and Greenland , while dinosaur fossils have been found within 15 degrees of the Cretaceous south pole . It was suggested that there was Antarctic marine glaciation in

16200-595: The damp, heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech . There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil. First mention of a woodland "Safernoc" was made in AD 934 in the written records of the King Athelstan , but the land passed into Norman ownership soon after the Norman invasion of 1066. The royal forest established in the 12th century covered an area of some 150 square miles (390 km); it extended to

16380-544: The early and mid-Cretaceous (becoming extinct during the late Cretaceous Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event ), plesiosaurs throughout the entire period, and mosasaurs appearing in the Late Cretaceous. Sea turtles in the form of Cheloniidae and Panchelonioidea lived during the period and survived the extinction event. Panchelonioidea is today represented by a single species; the leatherback sea turtle . The Hesperornithiformes were flightless, marine diving birds that swam like grebes . Baculites , an ammonite genus with

16560-437: The east, then receded late in the period, leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between coal beds. Bivalve palaeobiogeography also indicates that Africa was split in half by a shallow sea during the Coniacian and Santonian, connecting the Tethys with the South Atlantic by way of the central Sahara and Central Africa, which were then underwater. Yet another shallow seaway ran between what is now Norway and Greenland, connecting

16740-747: The end of the AACS, which ended around 111 Ma with the Paquier/Urbino Thermal Maximum, giving way to the Mid-Cretaceous Hothouse (MKH), which lasted from the early Albian until the early Campanian. Faster rates of seafloor spreading and entry of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are believed to have initiated this period of extreme warmth, along with high flood basalt activity. The MKH was punctuated by multiple thermal maxima of extreme warmth. The Leenhardt Thermal Event (LTE) occurred around 110 Ma, followed shortly by

16920-448: The end of the Cretaceous. The high sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant large areas of the continents were covered by warm, shallow seas, providing habitat for many marine organisms. The Cretaceous was named for the extensive chalk deposits of this age in Europe, but in many parts of the world, the deposits from the Cretaceous are of marine limestone , a rock type that is formed under warm, shallow marine conditions. Due to

17100-463: The end of the period only three highly specialized families remained; Pteranodontidae , Nyctosauridae , and Azhdarchidae . The Liaoning lagerstätte ( Yixian Formation ) in China is an important site, full of preserved remains of numerous types of small dinosaurs, birds and mammals, that provides a glimpse of life in the Early Cretaceous. The coelurosaur dinosaurs found there represent types of

17280-407: The enlarged ridges—enriched the oceans in calcium ; this made the oceans more saturated, as well as increased the bioavailability of the element for calcareous nanoplankton . These widespread carbonates and other sedimentary deposits make the Cretaceous rock record especially fine. Famous formations from North America include the rich marine fossils of Kansas 's Smoky Hill Chalk Member and

17460-474: The execution of Anne Boleyn in May 1536, they were subsequently married, and Jane was crowned Queen just months later, causing the head of the family at Savernake to suddenly find himself father-in-law to Henry VIII. Jane died in childbirth and after marrying a further three wives, Henry died ten years later. So it fell to Jane's brother Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset to leave his estate of Savernake Forest in 1547 and to go up to Hampton Court , where for

17640-528: The extinction fed on insects , larvae , worms , and snails, which in turn fed on dead plant and animal matter. Scientists theorise that these organisms survived the collapse of plant-based food chains because they fed on detritus . In stream communities , few groups of animals became extinct. Stream communities rely less on food from living plants and more on detritus that washes in from land. This particular ecological niche buffered them from extinction. Similar, but more complex patterns have been found in

17820-604: The family, made a great success, and had risen at Court to be Governor to the King George IV . The Bruce Tunnel which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal under the estate is named after him. He employed Lancelot 'Capability' Brown to plant great beech avenues in Savernake Forest, which was then some 40,000 acres (160 km), nearly ten times its present size. These included the Grand Avenue, running through

18000-505: The first barge to travel upstream, and chairman Charles Dundas joining the return passage back to Newbury. Construction continued uphill towards Hungerford, where seven houses in the path of the canal were demolished and a new road bridge provided. On 9 October 1798, the first cargo barge arrived in Hungerford, carrying a Portland stone staircase and Russian tallow – about 40 long tons (41 t; 45 short tons) in all. By 2 July 1799,

18180-558: The first records of the gharial-like Neochoristodera , which appear to have evolved in the regional absence of aquatic neosuchian crocodyliformes. During the Late Cretaceous the neochoristodere Champsosaurus was widely distributed across western North America. Due to the extreme climatic warmth in the Arctic, choristoderans were able to colonise it too during the Late Cretaceous. In the seas, rays , modern sharks and teleosts became common. Marine reptiles included ichthyosaurs in

18360-440: The flight, which includes the narrowest lock on the canal, Lock 41, was illuminated by gas lights. At the top of the flight is Devizes Wharf, home to the Kennet & Avon Canal Museum , which has a range of exhibits on the conception, design, usage, and eventual commercial decline of the Kennet and Avon Canal, as well as its subsequent restoration. It is operated by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, which has its headquarters and

18540-503: The genus Berriasella , but its use as a stratigraphic indicator has been questioned, as its first appearance does not correlate with that of C. alpina . The boundary is officially considered by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to be approximately 145 million years ago, but other estimates have been proposed based on U-Pb geochronology, ranging as young as 140 million years ago. The upper boundary of

18720-625: The group Maniraptora , which includes modern birds and their closest non-avian relatives, such as dromaeosaurs , oviraptorosaurs , therizinosaurs , troodontids along with other avialans . Fossils of these dinosaurs from the Liaoning lagerstätte are notable for the presence of hair-like feathers . Insects diversified during the Cretaceous, and the oldest known ants , termites and some lepidopterans , akin to butterflies and moths , appeared. Aphids , grasshoppers and gall wasps appeared. Rhynchocephalians (which today only includes

18900-637: The headwaters of the Salisbury Avon northeast of Pewsey . It has been designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest because it is "the best known example of a calcareous valley mire in Wiltshire". The four locks at Wootton Rivers mark the end of the climb from the Avon. Between Wootton Top Lock and Crofton is the summit pound of the canal at 450 feet (140 m) above sea level, stretching for about 2 miles (3 km) and including

19080-492: The heart of the forest, and which at 3.9 miles (6.3 km) dead straight stands in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest tree-lined avenue in Britain. A stone column some 90 feet (27 m) high was erected by Lord Ailesbury as an impressive viewpoint at the end of a vista from Tottenham House . Large parts of the forest were used as a munitions depot between 1940 and 1949. Re-planting with conifer plantations

19260-578: The heart of the forest, passing both the Queen Oak ( grid reference SU224657 ) and the King Oak ( grid reference SU225659 ) . A second valley, named Cheval Bottom , ( grid reference SU225645 ) starts in an avenue of mature copper beeches and passes beside the Park Pale ( grid reference SU229660 ) which is an ancient bank-and-ditch feature which marked the perimeter of

19440-412: The high sea level, there was extensive space for such sedimentation . Because of the relatively young age and great thickness of the system, Cretaceous rocks are evident in many areas worldwide. Chalk is a rock type characteristic for (but not restricted to) the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths , microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores , a type of algae that prospered in

19620-551: The highest rates of extinction and turnover. Thylacocephala , a class of crustaceans, went extinct in the Late Cretaceous. The first radiation of the diatoms (generally siliceous shelled, rather than calcareous ) in the oceans occurred during the Cretaceous; freshwater diatoms did not appear until the Miocene . Calcareous nannoplankton were important components of the marine microbiota and important as biostratigraphic markers and recorders of environmental change. The Cretaceous

19800-502: The hub to Savernake's eight radial drives. A little further on there is an unexplained Monument ( grid reference SU231662 ) on the western side of the road, rumoured to be a marker (or tomb?) to someone who suffered a fatal fall from a horse. At the Three Oak Hill Drive crossroads, a track north-east points to Birch Copse ( grid reference SU239662 ) . Duke's Vaunt Oak ( grid reference SU238664 )

19980-520: The impact of a large asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary), a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction that lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras . The Cretaceous as a separate period was first defined by Belgian geologist Jean d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1822 as

20160-470: The lake, and other migrants have included yellow wagtail , whinchat and hobby . The canal turns south into a valley between Bathampton Wood and Bathford Hill which includes Brown's Folly , a 99-acre (40 ha) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest . In the Avon Valley to the east of Bath the classic geographical example of a valley with all four forms of ground transport

20340-770: The last epoch of the Jurassic, the Tithonian, continued into the Berriasian, the first age of the Cretaceous. The North Atlantic seaway opened and enabled the flow of cool water from the Boreal Ocean into the Tethys. There is evidence that snowfalls were common in the higher latitudes during this age, and the tropics became wetter than during the Triassic and Jurassic. Glaciation was restricted to high- latitude mountains, though seasonal snow may have existed farther from

20520-575: The late Valanginian (~ 134 million years ago) found in Israel and Italy, initially at low abundance. Molecular clock estimates conflict with fossil estimates, suggesting the diversification of crown-group angiosperms during the Late Triassic or the Jurassic, but such estimates are difficult to reconcile with the heavily sampled pollen record and the distinctive tricolpate to tricolporoidate (triple grooved) pollen of eudicot angiosperms. Among

20700-465: The late Cretaceous, and all else that depended on them suffered, as well. Herbivorous animals, which depended on plants and plankton as their food, died out as their food sources became scarce; consequently, the top predators , such as Tyrannosaurus rex , also perished. Yet only three major groups of tetrapods disappeared completely; the nonavian dinosaurs , the plesiosaurs and the pterosaurs . The other Cretaceous groups that did not survive into

20880-574: The latest Albian. Approximately 94 Ma, the Cenomanian-Turonian Thermal Maximum occurred, with this hyperthermal being the most extreme hothouse interval of the Cretaceous and being associated with a sea level highstand. Temperatures cooled down slightly over the next few million years, but then another thermal maximum, the Coniacian Thermal Maximum, happened, with this thermal event being dated to around 87 Ma. Atmospheric CO 2 levels may have varied by thousands of ppm throughout

21060-630: The list. Maintenance agreements were signed with local authorities along the route, while fund-raising activities continued. The National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders sponsored a workshop, which opened in Shrivenham in 1987, to create new lock gates for the Crofton and Devizes flights. In 1988 the restoration of Woolhampton Lock was completed, but obstructions remained on either side. Frouds swing bridge could not be opened and

21240-564: The locks to continue, but the projected timescales for completion were missed. In 1983 the Manpower Services Commission , which had a remit to co-ordinate employment and training services in the United Kingdom, agreed to employ 50 men on work that included restoration of Aldermaston Lock , its adjacent wharf, and Widmead Lock . The restoration of Dundas Aqueduct and several smaller schemes were later added to

21420-711: The l’Arboudeyesse Thermal Event (ATE) a million years later. Following these two hyperthermals was the Amadeus Thermal Maximum around 106 Ma, during the middle Albian. Then, around a million years after that, occurred the Petite Verol Thermal Event (PVTE). Afterwards, around 102.5 Ma, the Event 6 Thermal Event (EV6) took place; this event was itself followed by the Breistroffer Thermal Maximum around 101 Ma, during

21600-517: The middle Cretaceous, becoming the dominant group of land plants by the end of the period, coincident with the decline of previously dominant groups such as conifers. The oldest known fossils of grasses are from the Albian , with the family having diversified into modern groups by the end of the Cretaceous. The oldest large angiosperm trees are known from the Turonian (c. 90 Mya) of New Jersey, with

21780-684: The middle of the Cretaceous. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth by the end of the Cretaceous, coincident with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups. The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event , a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs , and large marine reptiles , died out, widely thought to have been caused by

21960-408: The most promising candidates for fixing the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary. In particular, the first appearance Calpionella alpina , coinciding with the base of the eponymous Alpina subzone, has been proposed as the definition of the base of the Cretaceous. The working definition for the boundary has often been placed as the first appearance of the ammonite Strambergella jacobi , formerly placed in

22140-542: The navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the natural course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury , and from there to Reading on the River Thames . In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks . The two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile (92 km) canal section

22320-413: The next five years with the title ' Lord Protector ' he was King of England in all but name, until his late sister's young child Edward VI grew old enough to reign alone. The mid 17th century to mid 18th century saw variations in the size of the forest. English deer parks were subject to dis-parking whereby sections of forest and parkland were converted to agriculture. On occasions during this period it

22500-446: The normal arrangement of water pounds between the locks. As a result, the 16 locks utilise unusually large side ponds to store the water needed for their operation. Because a large volume of water is needed a back pump was installed at Foxhangers in 1996, capable of returning 7 million imperial gallons (32,000 m ) of water per day to the top of the flight, equivalent to one lockful every 11 minutes. From 1829 until 1843

22680-824: The oceans. Extinction was more severe among animals living in the water column than among animals living on or in the seafloor. Animals in the water column are almost entirely dependent on primary production from living phytoplankton, while animals living on or in the ocean floor feed on detritus or can switch to detritus feeding. The largest air-breathing survivors of the event, crocodilians and champsosaurs , were semiaquatic and had access to detritus. Modern crocodilians can live as scavengers and can survive for months without food and go into hibernation when conditions are unfavorable, and their young are small, grow slowly, and feed largely on invertebrates and dead organisms or fragments of organisms for their first few years. These characteristics have been linked to crocodilian survival at

22860-601: The oldest records of Angiosperm macrofossils are Montsechia from the Barremian aged Las Hoyas beds of Spain and Archaefructus from the Barremian-Aptian boundary Yixian Formation in China. Tricolpate pollen distinctive of eudicots first appears in the Late Barremian, while the earliest remains of monocots are known from the Aptian. Flowering plants underwent a rapid radiation beginning during

23040-475: The operation of a tractor. In 2011 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs designated the canal a national "cruiseway" as defined by the Transport Act 1968 . The listing imposes a legal requirement on British Waterways to maintain the canal to a standard that ensures cruising craft can safely navigate the entire length of the waterway. In November 2011 the navigation between Bath and Bristol

23220-452: The poles. Many of the dominant taxonomic groups present in modern times can be ultimately traced back to origins in the Cretaceous. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared, including the earliest relatives of placentals & marsupials ( Eutheria and Metatheria respectively), and the earliest crown group birds. Acanthomorph fish, the most diverse group of modern vertebrates, appeared in aquatic habitats around

23400-523: The poles. After the end of the first age, however, temperatures began to increase again, with a number of thermal excursions, such as the middle Valanginian Weissert Thermal Excursion (WTX), which was caused by the Paraná-Etendeka Large Igneous Province's activity. It was followed by the middle Hauterivian Faraoni Thermal Excursion (FTX) and the early Barremian Hauptblatterton Thermal Event (HTE). The HTE marked

23580-484: The primary scientific importance of which lies in its particularly large population of Bath asparagus ( Ornithogalum pyrenaicum ). A public house has been built on the island between Keynsham Lock and the weir. The weir side of the island is also the mouth of the River Chew . The river then passes through Avon Valley Country Park and past Stidham Farm , another SSSI that contains Pleistocene terrace-gravels of

23760-412: The principal food of mosasaurs , a group of giant marine lizards related to snakes that became extinct at the boundary. Omnivores , insectivores , and carrion -eaters survived the extinction event, perhaps because of the increased availability of their food sources. At the end of the Cretaceous, there seem to have been no purely herbivorous or carnivorous mammals . Mammals and birds that survived

23940-547: The punctuation mark at the end of a progressive decline in biodiversity during the Maastrichtian age. The result was the extinction of three-quarters of Earth's plant and animal species. The impact created the sharp break known as the K–Pg boundary (formerly known as the K–T boundary). Earth's biodiversity required substantial time to recover from this event, despite the probable existence of an abundance of vacant ecological niches . Despite

24120-551: The railway rather than the canal. In 1861 a new order prohibited any traffic on the canal at night, and, in 1865, boats were forced to pass through locks in pairs to reduce water loss. By 1868 the annual tonnage had fallen from 360,610 in 1848 to 210,567. In the 1870s water abstraction from the canal near Fobney Lock followed the regulations introduced in the Reading Local Board Waterworks, Sewerage, Drainage and Improvements Act of 1870, and contributed to

24300-551: The rear of Tottenham Park by way of Bloxham Lodge ( grid reference SU262637 ). The Victoria County History accounts of the Savernake parishes give a very full account of the settlements, estates, and economic history of the region. For a definitive account of the lineage of the forest wardens see: Other reading on ancient forestry in England: Cretaceous The Cretaceous

24480-555: The remains of which can be seen under the towpath arches in the road bridges over the canal. The canal opened to through-traffic in 1810, after 16 years of construction. As well as Caen Hill Locks, other major structures included the Dundas and Avoncliff aqueducts , the Bruce Tunnel near Savernake Forest, and the pumping stations at Claverton and Crofton , needed to overcome water supply difficulties. In 1801, trade along

24660-440: The restoration of Midgham Lock had not been finished; both were completed the following year. Re-puddling of the Crofton pounds was carried out in 1989, along with the reconstruction of Midgham Bridge. Restoration of the turf-sided Monkey Marsh Lock proved difficult because of its status as a scheduled monument , and the consequent need to protect the historic site while improving safety. The stretch between Reading and Newbury

24840-744: The rise of angiosperms, during the Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous, the higher flora was dominated by gymnosperm groups, including cycads , conifers , ginkgophytes , gnetophytes and close relatives, as well as the extinct Bennettitales . Other groups of plants included pteridosperms or "seed ferns", a collective term that refers to disparate groups of extinct seed plants with fern-like foliage, including groups such as Corystospermaceae and Caytoniales . The exact origins of angiosperms are uncertain, although molecular evidence suggests that they are not closely related to any living group of gymnosperms. The earliest widely accepted evidence of flowering plants are monosulcate (single-grooved) pollen grains from

25020-477: The river in the early years of the 13th century had forced its closure. In 1727, navigation was restored, with the construction of six locks, again under the supervision of John Hore. The first cargo of "Deal boards, Pig-Lead and Meal" reached Bath in December. The two river navigations were built independently of one another, in order to meet local needs, but they eventually led to plans to connect them and form

25200-476: The river. A depth of at least 7 feet (2 m) of sandy gravels are recorded, consisting mainly of limestone clasts , but also with Millstone Grit , Pennant Sandstone , flint, and chert clasts. The river passes under the old railway line that now forms the Avon Valley Railway , a three-mile-long (5 km) heritage railway , before reaching Swineford Lock . Here, between 1709 and 1859, there

25380-451: The severity of the K-Pg extinction event, there were significant variations in the rate of extinction between and within different clades . Species that depended on photosynthesis declined or became extinct as atmospheric particles blocked solar energy . As is the case today, photosynthesizing organisms, such as phytoplankton and land plants , formed the primary part of the food chain in

25560-539: The side boughs become too heavy and are broken in stormy weather. In other cases the bough weight (an outward force) begins to tear the lower trunk apart creating a cavity which can over decades become cavernous in size. The oldest of these pollarded trees is the Big Belly Oak beside the A346 road. Big Belly is one of Fifty Great British Trees named and honoured as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. It has

25740-409: The side branches would provide. Trees such as beech and oak can be pollarded, a process whereby a standard is cut two-thirds up its trunk. Multiple boughs grow from the cut point and the life of the tree is extended and curved pieces of bough or trunk are often produced. Such trees become magnificent specimens and they live through generations of forest workers. Their base trunk attains great girth. Often

25920-402: The silting up of locks and stretches of the canal. Several wharves and stretches of towpath were closed. In 1877 the canal recorded a deficit of £1,920 and never subsequently made any profit. The Somerset Coal Canal and Wilts & Berks Canal , which each supplied some of the trade from the Somerset Coalfield to the Kennet and Avon, closed in 1904 and 1906 respectively. In 1926, following

26100-630: The sixth marquess, did everything possible to carry on with this combination of systematic management and concern for amenity and symbolic representation. Eventually, however, he found the burden too heavy due to increasing costs, Lloyd George's taxes on inherited wealth, and the impossibility of hiring enough labour during and after the First World War. In 1930 he approached the government Forestry Commission but drew back when he recognised that surrendering control would probably bring on an invasion by ranks of straight-backed conifers. Eight years later

26280-416: The start of the canal. Beyond Pulteney Weir the Avon is still navigable as far as the weir and site of the old "flash lock" at Bathampton but the lock at Pulteney has been replaced only with a small boat slide for dinghies and canoes. The stretch from Bristol to Bath is made navigable by the use of locks and weirs at Hanham , Keynsham , Swineford , Saltford , Kelston and Weston , which together overcome

26460-422: The strong regionality of most biostratigraphic markers, and the lack of any chemostratigraphic events, such as isotope excursions (large sudden changes in ratios of isotopes ) that could be used to define or correlate a boundary. Calpionellids , an enigmatic group of planktonic protists with urn-shaped calcitic tests briefly abundant during the latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous, have been suggested as

26640-615: The suburb of Newbridge on the outskirts of Bath. Here the A4 crosses close to the Newton St Loe SSSI , which is designated an SSSI because it represents the only remaining known exposure of fossiliferous Pleistocene gravels containing the remains of mammoths ( Mammuthus ) and horses ( Equus ) along the river, and has aided the development of a scientific understanding of the history of early glaciation in South West England . The final lock before entering Bath

26820-633: The terrestrial fauna of the late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation . Other important Cretaceous exposures occur in Europe (e.g., the Weald ) and China (the Yixian Formation ). In the area that is now India, massive lava beds called the Deccan Traps were erupted in the very late Cretaceous and early Paleocene. Palynological evidence indicates the Cretaceous climate had three broad phases:

27000-414: The timber of the forest has been managed by Forestry England on a 999-year lease. The private status of Savernake Forest is maintained by shutting the forest to the public one day per year. Savernake's landform is rolling downland, dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints creates

27180-483: The trunk having a preserved diameter of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) and an estimated height of 50 metres (160 ft). During the Cretaceous, ferns in the order Polypodiales , which make up 80% of living fern species, would also begin to diversify. On land, mammals were generally small sized, but a very relevant component of the fauna , with cimolodont multituberculates outnumbering dinosaurs in some sites. Neither true marsupials nor placentals existed until

27360-789: The ultimate end of the Tithonian-early Barremian Cool Interval (TEBCI). During this interval, precession was the dominant orbital driver of environmental changes in the Vocontian Basin. For much of the TEBCI, northern Gondwana experienced a monsoonal climate. A shallow thermocline existed in the mid-latitude Tethys. The TEBCI was followed by the Barremian-Aptian Warm Interval (BAWI). This hot climatic interval coincides with Manihiki and Ontong Java Plateau volcanism and with

27540-423: The underside of the bridge. This was replaced with a new bridge, enabling craft to pass more easily. The canal was reopened from the Thames to Hungerford Wharf in July 1974. Re-puddling was a long process, so experiments with the use of heavy gauge polythene to line the canal were undertaken. The Avoncliff Aqueduct was lined with a concrete "cradle" and made water-tight in 1980. Further works continued during

27720-630: The valley to Hungerford. (About 5 + 3 ⁄ 4 miles (9.3 km) north to south.) The Grand Avenue ( grid reference SU210683 ) is a straight but narrow tarmaced road connecting the A4 to the Durley Road near Tottenham House. It is lined with beech trees, but few of them are survivors from the original plantings. The A4 was once a toll road through the forest, taking the Marlborough to Hungerford traffic. The Toll Road House ( grid reference SU209684 ) still stands today. The Grand Avenue continues southeast to Eight Walks ( grid reference SU225668 ) where Capability Brown laid out

27900-628: The very end, but a variety of non-marsupial metatherians and non-placental eutherians had already begun to diversify greatly, ranging as carnivores ( Deltatheroida ), aquatic foragers ( Stagodontidae ) and herbivores ( Schowalteria , Zhelestidae ). Various "archaic" groups like eutriconodonts were common in the Early Cretaceous, but by the Late Cretaceous northern mammalian faunas were dominated by multituberculates and therians , with dryolestoids dominating South America . The apex predators were archosaurian reptiles , especially dinosaurs , which were at their most diverse stage. Avians such as

28080-580: The villages of East Kennett , Inkpen and the Collingbournes (west, east and south) while the River Kennet formed its northern limit. Savernake Forest was not continuously wooded: Royal forests were a mixture of woodland, copses , common land and rough pasture. This was the area of land put into the care of Richard Esturmy after the Norman Conquest. Since then Savernake estate and forest has passed down from father to son (or daughter, on four occasions) in an unbroken line of hereditary "forest wardens". In 31 generations, it has never once been bought or sold in

28260-409: The waterway, successfully petitioned against the commission's failure to maintain the waterway and obtained damages for loss of business. In March 1956 a clause in the British Transport Commission (no 2) Act was presented to Parliament that would have removed the right of navigation between Reading and Bath. The Act was opposed by Gould and by the local authorities along the canal. They were supported by

28440-438: The west, and Newbury in the east, in October 1794. The first sod for the Kennet and Avon Canal was turned in Bradford-on-Avon, and soon there were wharves above and below Bradford Lock . The canal was complete from Bath to Foxhangers (a farm at the western foot of Caen Hill, below Devizes) 6.5 years after construction started, in May 1801. In 1796, completion of the eastern end of the new canal from Newbury to Great Bedwyn

28620-468: The western end of the Dundas Aqueduct it is joined by the remains of the Somerset Coal Canal , a short stretch of which has been restored to create the Brassknocker Basin. Excavations of the old stop lock showed that it was originally a broad 14-foot (4.3 m) lock that at some point was narrowed to 7 feet (2.1 m) by moving the lock wall. The Somerset Coal Canal was built around 1800 from basins at Paulton and Timsbury , giving access to London from

28800-418: The woodlands needed to be made commercially viable. Included among the 778,000 trees he planted were a high proportion of softwoods, placed outside the forest's core (e.g.: Birch Copse in the SE). This warden was too deeply imbued with tradition to contemplate industrialized forestry but he was the first of his family to introduce a measure of systematic management of larch and spruce plantations. Chandos Bruce,

28980-497: The year. At the southeast edge of the forest are good examples of Sweet Chestnut and Yew . At Holt Pound ( grid reference SU248657 ) an avenue of oaks joins Birch Copse to Bedwyn Common ( grid reference SU255652 ) . This section of Savernake has its own avenue, London Ride , which at 1 + 1 ⁄ 3 miles (2.1 km) runs from St Katherine's Church ( grid reference SU252649 ) to Upper Horsehall Hill Farm ( grid reference SU261667 ) . The ride

29160-432: Was a period with a relatively warm climate , resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas . These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles , ammonites , and rudists , while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was largely ice-free, although there is some evidence of brief periods of glaciation during the cooler first half, and forests extended to

29340-453: Was accepted by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company, chaired by Charles Dundas , and the company started to take subscriptions from prospective shareholders. In July 1793 Rennie suggested further alterations to the route, including the construction of a tunnel in the Savernake Forest . On 17 April 1794 the Kennet and Avon Canal Act 1794 ( 34 Geo. 3 . c. 90) received royal assent and construction began. Responsibility for construction

29520-404: Was addressed in 1996 by the installation of new back pumps at the flight of 29 locks at Caen Hill in Devizes, at a cost of £1 million. The pumps raise water 235 feet (72 m) at a rate of 300,000 imperial gallons (1,400 m ) per hour (380 litres per second). In October 1996, the Kennet & Avon Canal Partnership attracted the largest single National Lottery grant awarded by

29700-406: Was also an important interval in the evolution of bioerosion , the production of borings and scrapings in rocks, hardgrounds and shells. Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles (140 km), made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal . The name is used to refer to the entire length of

29880-432: Was an active brass and copper industry served by the river, which also provided water power for the cloth industry. The remains of Kelston Brass Mill , which was working until 1925, are next to Saltford Lock . The lock was opened in 1727 but destroyed by rival coal dealers in 1738, to prevent the river being used for transportation. The Bristol and Bath Railway Path crosses the navigation several times before reaching

30060-437: Was anticipated within 12 months; but by July of that year, inflationary effects of the French Revolutionary Wars led labourers to take up more lucrative harvest work, and 23% of shareholders had fallen into arrears. Water springs encountered between Newbury and Crofton also caused delays. On 12 June 1797, the first section from Newbury to Kintbury was opened, with a band from the 15th Regiment of Dragoons playing aboard

30240-480: Was authorised to make the River Kennet navigable from Reading to Newbury. Work commenced in 1718, under the supervision of surveyor and engineer John Hore of Newbury. In 1723, despite considerable local opposition, the Kennet Navigation opened, comprising stretches of natural riverbed alternating with 11 miles (18 km) of artificially created lock cuts. The River Avon had historically been navigable from Bristol to Bath , but construction of watermills on

30420-454: Was celebrated in May 2003 by a visit from Prince Charles , but upgrading and maintenance continues. Between 2002 and 2004, Dundas Aqueduct – which had been relined with polythene and concrete in 1984 without disturbing a colony of bats living under the aqueduct – was further restored by the replacement of engineering bricks used by the Great Western Railway with Bath stone to match the original work. On 1 December 2004, two men died when

30600-414: Was closed for several months because of safety concerns about Victoria Bridge . The River Avon was navigable from Bristol to Bath during the early years of the 13th century, until the construction of mills on the river forced its closure. The modern Avon is navigable from its mouth at Avonmouth , through the Floating Harbour in Bristol, as far as Pulteney Weir in the centre of Bath and just beyond

30780-444: Was completed on 17 July 1990; at a ceremony held at Monkey Marsh Lock several boats competed to be the first craft through. Concerns about the adequacy of the water supply still remained when Elizabeth II formally reopened the canal on 8 August 1990. The Queen was able to travel on the Trust's boat, The Rose of Hungerford , through locks 44 and 43 on the Caen Hill flight, breaking a ceremonial tape between them. The shortage of water

30960-399: Was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal gradually fell into disuse after the opening of the Great Western Railway . In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, largely by volunteers. After decades of dereliction and much restoration work, it was fully reopened in 1990. The Kennet and Avon Canal has been developed as

31140-524: Was divided across three committees: the Western District, the central Wiltshire District (which was later absorbed into the Western in 1802), and the Eastern District. These awarded contracts and had delegated financial powers. Problems with contractors occurred on multiple occasions, sometimes being overenthusiastic about tendering for multiple sections of work, failing to survey ground conditions thoroughly and encountering difficulties such as rock or natural springs. Construction began at Bradford-on-Avon in

31320-460: Was estimated to produce less than 750,000 imperial gallons (3,400 m ) per day, and the Seend feeder only 250,000 imp gal (1,100 m ). Wessex Water Authority agreed to the extraction of 1,000,000 imp gal (4,500 m ) per day from the Avon at Claverton to be pumped east; the costs of the pumps was £175,000. Various fund-raising schemes, along with some financial support from local authorities, allowed small-scale work on

31500-441: Was eventually rejected by Parliament in 1824 and 1826. The opening of the Great Western Railway in 1841 removed much of the canal's traffic, even though the canal company lowered tariffs. In 1852 the railway company took over the canal's operation, levying high tolls at every toll point and reducing the amount spent on maintenance. Ice-breaking was stopped in 1857, and traders were further encouraged by preferential tolls to use

31680-450: Was followed by the Aptian-Albian Cold Snap (AACS) that began about 118 Ma. A short, relatively minor ice age may have occurred during this so-called "cold snap", as evidenced by glacial dropstones in the western parts of the Tethys Ocean and the expansion of calcareous nannofossils that dwelt in cold water into lower latitudes. The AACS is associated with an arid period in the Iberian Peninsula . Temperatures increased drastically after

31860-400: Was incorporated under the Companies Act on 6 June 1962. In 1963 the newly formed British Waterways , which was created by the Transport Act of the previous year, and replaced the British Transport Commission as the statutory body for inland waterways, took over the canal and, in partnership with the Trust and riparian local authorities, restoration work began. Restoration work involved

32040-408: Was modest by 1950s' standards, and today the Forestry Commission has engaged in a programme more sympathetic to the restoration and preservation of the ancient trees. David Brudenell-Bruce, 9th Marquess of Ailesbury is the current and thirty-first warden of Savernake Forest, having been handed the wardenship by his father in 1987. Tottenham House, which was designated as Grade I listed in 1966,

32220-456: Was reported that the King's naval officers were far from happy with the state of the forest, finding "but 3 or 4 trees fit for his [the king's] use" . The open spaces were found to be "infested with heath, furze, fern [bracken]" and had "coarse turfe" . A second high point for the forest was under the wardenship of Charles Bruce and his nephew Thomas Bruce-Brudenell (wardens from 1741 to 1814). Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury , as head of

32400-414: Was sold in 2014. The areas of broad-leaved woodland which dominate the Savernake Plateau are accompanied by a farmland mosaic. The plateau is within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . The mosaic is emphasised by the assarted character of the area east of the Savernake (coppices of Little Frith, Cobham Frith, Chisbury Wood, Haw Wood, etc. ), where farmland occurs as clearings in

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