Slit Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the Wear Valley

Wear Valley

Wear Valley was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in County Durham, England. Its council was based in Crook.The district covered much of the Weardale area. In the west it was parished and rural, whereas in the east it was more urban...

 district of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It occupies the valley of Middlehope Burn, a tributary of the River Wear

River Wear

The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...

, which it joins at Westgate

Westgate, County Durham

Westgate is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated in Weardale between St John's Chapel and Eastgate.Westgate is also the entrance to Slitt wood and an old abandoned lead mine. Other features of the village include a caravan site and a football and basketball court.-External links:...

, just south of the site.

The site has a variety of habitats, including woodland, calcareous

Calcareous

Calcareous is an adjective meaning mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate, in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.-In zoology:...

 grassland, fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

, and revegetated mine workings.

The woodland is characterised by ash, Fraxinus excelsior, and wych elm, Ulmus glabra, over an understorey of hazel, Corylus avellana

Corylus avellana

Corylus avellana, the Common Hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of...

. The ground cover includes great bell-flower, Campanula latifolia, globeflower, Trollius europaeus, wood cranesbill, Geranium sylvaticum, and marsh hawk's-beard, Crepis paludosa

Crepis paludosa

Crepis paludosa, the Marsh Hawksbeard, is found beside shady burns, and in other damp shady places.Flower diameter c 1.5-2.5 cm...

.

The site takes in the disused workings of two former lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 mines, Slit Mine and Middlehope Mine. The waste from these mines supports open grassland within which the metallophyte

Metallophyte

A metallophyte is a plant that can tolerate high levels of heavy metals such as lead. Such plants range between "obligate metallophytes" , and "facultative metallophytes" which can tolerate such conditions but are not confined to them.European examples include Alpine Pennycress, the Zinc Violet ,...

 spring sandwort, Minuartia verna, has established itself.