Great Breach and Copley Woods is an area of ancient and semi-natural broadleaved woodland. it was largely planted in the 19th Century as an oak plantation but was cleared and large parts of it were replanted with conifers. The site has two woodland types which have a restricted distribution in Britain and the has a locally important invertebrate fauna. The assemblage of fungi in the woods is also interesting. The site occupies a plateau and steep slopes which face west and is it the eastern end of the Polden Hills. The soils are poorly drained and lime rich and the underlying rock strata are Lower Lias and Keuper Marl.