Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean. It takes its name from the English city of Bristol, and is over 30 miles across at its widest point.Long stretches of the coastline of the Bristol Channel, on both the South Wales and West Country sides, are designated as Heritage Coast, including Exmoor, Bideford Bay, the Hartland Point peninsula, Lundy Island, Glamorgan, Gower Peninsula, South Pembrokeshire and Caldey Island.Until Tudor times the Bristol Channel was known as the Severn Sea, and it is still known as this in both Môr Hafren and Mor Havren.GeographyThe International Hydrographic Organisation now defines the western limit of the Bristol Channel as "a line joining Hartland Point in Devon to St. Govan's Head in Pembrokeshire". The IHO previously put the western limit at a line from Trevose Head in Cornwall to Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, in an area now considered part of the Celtic Sea.