May Hill

May Hill
May Hill from Perrystone Hill
Highest point
Elevation	296 m (971 ft)
Prominence	c. 217 m
Parent peak	Worcestershire Beacon
Listing	Marilyn
Geography
Location	Gloucestershire, England
OS grid	SO695213
Topo map	OS Landranger 162

May Hill is a hill between Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye. Its summit is on the western edge of Gloucestershire, though its northern slopes are in Herefordshire. The hill is made distinctive by a clump of trees on its top.^[1]

Toponymy

There is an unverified story that May Hill was named after a certain Captain May who used it as a landmark when navigating the Severn estuary, but documents from a couple of hundred years ago relate that the hill was known as Yartleton Hill and was renamed because of the May Day events held there.^[2] Each May Day, morris dancers dance in the new dawn on the top of May Hill and hundreds of observers join in the celebration.^[3] A ceremony on May Day morning has been carried out for several centuries; originally it included a mock battle between youths.^[2]

Geography

The Severn from May Hill

May Hill forms part of a low range of hills separating the River Severn from the River Wye. The summit is 296 metres (971 ft) above sea level, and located there among the trees are several benches from which one may study the views, which are extensive in all directions. They include views to the Welsh borders, and the lower reaches of the River Severn, bypassed for shipping by the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.^[3]

Geology

May Hill is formed of sandstones and siltstones known as the May Hill sandstone, consisting of the Huntley Hill and Yartleton formations. These rocks date from the Early Silurian period and are formed into a dome, cut through by several faults. The most significant of these is the Blaisdon Fault, which forms the eastern boundary of May Hill and separates it from the younger rocks of the Severn Vale.^[4]

Ecology and SSSI status

May Hill
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Trees on the summit of May Hill
Location within Gloucestershire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire
Grid reference	SO695214
Coordinates	51°53′27″N 2°26′38″W / 51.890765°N 2.443869°W / 51.890765; -2.443869Coordinates: 51°53′27″N 2°26′38″W / 51.890765°N 2.443869°W / 51.890765; -2.443869
Interest	Biological/Geological
Area	32.6 hectare
Notification	1954
Natural England website

The top of May Hill (grid reference SO695214) is a 32.6-hectare (81-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954.^[5]^[6]

The site is listed in the Forest of Dean Local Plan Review as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).^[7]

Much of the Hill is wooded, both coniferous and deciduous, though the summit area is grassland and heath, with a small amount of heather and gorse. The immediate summit is topped with mature Corsican pines, which were planted in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and one very old Scots Pine which is a generation older, but which regrettably suffered badly in an ice storm in early 2012.^[1] For more info see http://notabletrees.blogspot.co.uk/ These trees make May Hill an easily identifiable landmark from many miles away. The younger trees around were planted to mark Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee. Early maps and accounts show a clump of trees on the top before these plantings.^[2] Birds to be seen on the hill include meadow pipit, tree pipit,^[8] redstart and raven, whilst the woods below have a good population of woodcock.

History

An area of 30 ha of the hill is owned by the National Trust,^[1] though the very top is vested with Longhope Parish Council and registered as a Village Green. The site boundary was amended in 1983.^[5] The hill includes a circular trench 100 metres in diameter said to be an Iron Age earthwork, surrounding a mound that is probably a round barrow. The hill was enclosed by an act of parliament in 1873 and passed into the care of the National Trust in 1935.^[2]

There are records of a clump of trees on the summit of May Hill dating back to the later 18th century. The dwindling clump was replenished in time for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887.^[2] There was further replenishment 90 years later. A plaque on the summit commemorating the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977 reads; "This plaque was erected by the parishes of Longhope & Newent as a tribute to a gracious and beloved monarch. God Save the Queen".^[3] The summit is reached by three public footpaths, two of them forming parts of the Gloucestershire Way and Wysis Way.^[8]

May Hill in cultural life

John Masefield describes May Hill in his poem "The Everlasting Mercy".^[9] Ivor Gurney eulogised "May Hill that Gloucester dwellers 'gainst every sunset see". Composer Gerald Finzi's ashes were scattered on the top in 1973^[10] as have been the ashes of other local residents. One of the benches on the summit is dedicated to the Forest of Dean chronicler Winifred Foley and her husband, who moved in the 1970s to the nearby village of Cliffords Mesne.

References

1 2 3 "May Hill – Visitor Information – National Trust". National Trust. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
1 2 3 4 5 "May Hill". www.longhopevillage.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2012. External link in |publisher= (help)
1 2 3 "May Hill". www.wyenot.com. Retrieved 22 June 2012. External link in |publisher= (help)
↑ "Gloucestershire Geology Trust". Gloucestershire Geology Trust. Retrieved 22 June 2012. External link in |publisher= (help)
1 2 Natural England SSSI information on citation, map and unit details.
↑ Forest of Dean District Local Plan Review, adopted November 2005, Appendix D 'Nature Conservation Site Designations Within the Forest of Dean District', Sites of Special Scientific Interest
↑ Forest of Dean District Local Plan Review, adopted November 2005, Appendix D 'Nature Conservation Site Designations Within the Forest of Dean District', Key Wildlife Sites
1 2 "May Hill countryside walk" (PDF). National Trust. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
↑ "May Hill Forest of Dean website". Forest of Dean Tourist Information Official Site. Retrieved 18 December 2011. External link in |publisher= (help)
↑ Diana M. McVeagh: Gerald Finzi: his life and music (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2005), p. 251.

External links

Photos of May Hill on www.geograph.org.uk
Photos of May Hill on www.wyenot.com
Panoramic view of May Hill
Video of May Day sunrise celebration on May Hill (2010)
Natural England (SSSI information)

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Ashleworth Ham Astridge Wood Badgeworth Barnsley Warren Barton Bushes Bigsweir Woods Blaisdon Hall Bourton Down Box Farm Meadows Boxwell Brassey Brooks Head Grove Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Railway Tunnel Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Bushley Muzzard, Brimpsfield Caerwood and Ashberry Goose House Chaceley Meadow Clarke's Pool Meadow Cleeve Common Cockleford Marsh Collinpark Wood Coombe Hill Canal Coombe Hill Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Cotswold Water Park Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Daneway Banks Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar Devil's Chapel Scowles Dingle Wood Dixton Wood Dymock Woods Edge Common Elmlea Meadows Frampton Pools Highbury Wood Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Roughs Hucclecote Meadows Innsworth Meadow Juniper Hill, Edgeworth Kempley Daffodil Meadow Kingscote and Horsley Woods Lark Wood Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Lineover Wood Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge May Hill Midger Minchinhampton Common Nagshead Old Bow and Old Ham Mines Old River Severn, Upper Lode Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury Poor's Allotment Puckham Woods Range Farm Fields River Wye Rodborough Common Rough Bank, Miserden Salmonsbury Meadows Selsley Common Severn Estuary Severn Ham, Tewkesbury Shorn Cliff and Caswell Woods Slade Brook Soudley Ponds Speech House Oaks Stenders Quarry Stinchcombe Hill Strawberry Banks Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove Swift's Hill Sylvan House Barn The Hudnalls The Malvern Hills Tudor Farm Bank Turvey's Piece Upper Severn Estuary Upham Meadow and Summer Leasow Upper Wye Gorge Walmore Common Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine Whelford Meadow Wigpool Ironstone Mine Wildmoorway Meadows Winson Meadows Woodchester Park Workman's Wood Wotton Hill Yarley Meadows

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

Geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Alderton Hill Quarry Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Campden Tunnel Gravel Pit Cleeve Common Coaley Wood Quarries Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Easter Park Farm Quarry Edgehills Quarry Foss Cross Quarry Garden Cliff Hampen Railway Cutting Haresfield Beacon Harford Railway Cutting Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Quarry Huntsman's Quarry Jackdaw Quarry Kemble Railway Cuttings Knap House Quarry, Birdlip Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Longhope Hill Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge Lydney Cliff May Hill Meezy Hurst Minchinhampton Common New Park Quarry Nibley Knoll Notgrove Railway Cutting Oakenhill Railway Cutting Puddlebrook Quarry River Wye Robin's Wood Hill Quarry Rodborough Common Salmonsbury Meadows Scully Grove Quarry Severn Estuary Slade Brook Stenders Quarry Stony Furlong Railway Cutting Swift's Hill Upper Severn Estuary The Malvern Hills Purton Passage Selsley Common Upper Wye Gorge Veizey's Quarry Wainlode Cliff Wellacre Quarry Wood Green Quarry & Railway Cutting Wotton Hill

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

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