Westhay Moor
Notification 1971 | | |
Natural England website |
Westhay Moor (sometimes, historically, referred to as West Hay Moor
The low-lying swampy area of Westhay Moor has had peat laid down over older rocks for the last 10,000 years. The Neolithic people lived on the areas of slightly higher ground but exploited the reed beds for materials and built wooden trackways to cross the raised bog. Peat extraction on the Somerset Levels has occurred since the area was first drained by the Romans. Measures to improve the drainage were carried out in the Middle Ages largely by Glastonbury Abbey. In the 17th and 18th centuries further drainage work was undertaken including digging a series of rhynes, or ditches and larger drainage canals. Peat extraction peaked in the 1960s but has since declined.
The geology of the moor and prolonged peat extraction has provided a unique environment which provides a habitat for a range of flora and fauna. Much of the nature reserve managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust is based around abandoned peatworkings which have now become flooded. It is particularly noted for the millions of starlings which roost at the site in winter.
Location
Although underlain by much older Triassic age[3][4] formations that protrude to form what would once have been islands—such as Athelney, Brent Knoll, Burrow Mump and Glastonbury Tor, which is composed of Blue Lias,[5] the lowland landscape was formed only during the last 10,000 years, following the end of the last ice age. As the sea level changed following the Pliocene era, vegetation was laid down which was later converted into peat.[6] The peak of the peat formation took place in swamp conditions around 6,000 years ago, although in some areas it continued into medieval times.[7][8]
Westhay Moor forms part of the
History
Westhay Moor originally lay at the centre of the most northerly of the two lowland raised bogs that formed in the lower
The eastern part of the moor was covered by Meare Pool which was formed by water ponding-up behind the raised peat bogs between the Wedmore and the Polden Hills, and coring has shown that it is filled with at least 2 metres (6.6 ft) of detritus mud,[15] mainly dating from the Subatlantic climatic period (1st millennium BC).[16] In prehistoric times there were two Meare Lake Villages situated within the lake, occupied at different times between 300 BCE and 100 CE,[17] similar to the nearby Glastonbury Lake Village.
Early drainage work was carried out in the later years of the 12th century, with the responsibility for maintaining all the watercourses between Glastonbury and the sea being placed on named individuals among whom were Ralph de Sancta Barbara of Brentmarsh.
In the early 17th century plans were made to drain and enclose much of Sedgemoor.[20] Further reclamation was carried out in stages between about 1620 and 1740, with the "new Cutts" (or Decoy Rhyne) being built about 1660.[21][22] The rivers Sheppey and Hartlake were canalised into the River James Wear and Division Rhyne sometime in the late 1730s.[23] In 1795, John Billingsley advocated enclosure and the digging of rhynes (a local name for drainage channels, pronounced "reens" in the east and rhyne to the west) between plots,[24] and wrote in his Agriculture of the County of Somerset that 18 square kilometres (4,400 acres) had been enclosed in the last 20 years in Wedmore and Meare, 1.4 square kilometres (350 acres) at Nyland, 3.64 square kilometres (900 acres) at Blackford, 8 square kilometres (2,000 acres) at Mark, 0.4 square kilometres (100 acres) in Shapwick, and 7 square kilometres (1,700 acres) at Westhay.[25]
In the 1810s
In the early 18th century several duck decoys were built on the moor. These consisted of a pool of water leading from which are from one to eight curving, tapering ditches. Over each ditch is a series of hoops, initially made from wood, later from iron, which diminish in size as the ditch tapers. The hoops are covered in netting. The combination of ditch and net-covered hoops is known as a pipe.[28][29]
Peat extraction
Large areas of peat were laid down on the Somerset Levels, particularly in the River Brue Valley, during the Quaternary period after the ice sheets melted.[3] Peat extraction on the Somerset Levels has occurred since the area was first drained by the Romans.[30] The raised bogs were extensively dug for peat for use as fuel up until the end of World War II after which the primary market was for horticulture. Large parts of Westhay Moor have now been dug back to the underlying clay exposing estuarine deposits dating from about 6000 BP before isolation from the sea and peat formation began. The introduction of plastic packaging in the 1950s allowed the peat to be packed without rotting, which led to the industrialisation of peat extraction during the 1960s as a major market in horticultural peat was developed. However, the resultant reduction in water levels that resulted put local ecosystems at risk; peat wastage in pasture fields was occurring at rates of 0.3–0.9 metres (1–3 ft) over 100 years.[31]
In 1970 the Somerset Wildlife Trust bought the first part of the last 12 hectares (30 acres) of acid raised bog vegetation left on the Somerset Moors undamaged by peat digging or agriculture.[4][32] Since then SWT have bought or been given 100-hectare (250-acre) of former peatworkings. These were sculpted and restored to wetland as the experimental area for the Avalon Marshes. This was the term given in the late 1980s to describe the wetland restored from peat workings in the Brue Valley. The wetland on the clay is dominated by Phragmites reed, catstail and open water. The wetland restoration has been a great success and was declared a National Nature Reserve in 1995. Peat working is now beginning to draw to a close on Westhay Moor and the majority of the remaining peatworkings are now being restored to wetland as they are completed. In 2014 two land owners unsuccessfully appealed against changes in planning permission which removed their rights to dig peat from Westhay Moor.[33][34]
Ecology
Westhay Moor supports a nationally outstanding community of terrestrial and
It is part of the
Part of the moor has been designated as a nature reserve, covering 106 hectares (261 acres), which is managed by the
References
- ^ a b Galton, Erasmus (1845). An Account of Improvement of a Shaking Bog at Meare in Somersetshire. Vol. Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England Volume 6. Royal Agricultural Society. pp. 182–187. Retrieved 27 October 2008.
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ignored (help) - ^ a b "Westhay Moor NNR". Natural England. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
- ^ a b "Somerset". Natural England. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ^ a b "Somerset Levels and Moors Natural Area – A nature conservation profile July 1997" (PDF). English Nature. pp. 9–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ISBN 0-948578-42-4.
- ISBN 0-86299-016-5.
- ^ Prudden, Hugh. "Somerset Geology" (PDF). Good Rock Guide. Entry 42. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-946159-28-4.
- ^ a b "Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notification" (PDF). English Nature. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ^ "Avalon Marshes Supplementary Planning Guidance". Somerset County Council. Section 3A & 3.1. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ISBN 0-948578-38-6.
- ISBN 978-0861833801.
- ISBN 9780861833962.
- ^ "Save the Peat Moors Centre". The Heritage Journal. 11 February 2009.
- S2CID 161985196.
- .
- ^ "Meare and Ferran Mere". Sacred Sites around Glastonbury. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
- ^ a b "'Introduction', A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 8: The Poldens and the Levels". A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 8. Victoria County History. pp. 1–7. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
- ^ a b Bulleid, Arthur; Harold St. George Gray (1948). "General Description of the Meare Lake Village". The Meare Lake Village. Taunton. pp. 1–14. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 0-86299-016-5.
- ISBN 978-0521106856.
- ^ Siraut, M. C.; Thacker, T. H.; Williamson, Elizabeth. "'Parishes: Meare', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 9, Glastonbury and Street". British History Online. Victoria County Histories. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ISBN 0-340-20116-9.
- ISBN 0-340-20116-9.
- ISBN 0-948578-38-6.
- ISBN 0-7028-8380-8.
- ^ "North Drain Water Level Management Plan Lower Brue Drainage Board and Upper Brue Drainage Board" (PDF). Somerset Drainage Boards. p. 4. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ Payne-Gallwey, Ralph (1886), The Book of Duck Decoys: Their Construction, Management and History, p. 17, archived from the original on 5 April 2008
- ^ Historic England. "Duck decoy, 950 m south west of junction of Westhay Moor Drove and Lewis's Drove (1014435)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Somerset County Council. September 2009. p. 7. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ^ Brunning, Richard. "Peat Wastage and Wetland Archaeology". The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
- ^ "Permission 013849 for Extraction of Peat from land adjoining the eastern side of Short Drove, Near Mudgley, Westhay moor". Somerset County Council. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Meare land owners have lost the right to dig peat after 45 years". Central Somerset Gazette. 24 June 2014. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Peat extraction rights revoked at Westhay Moor, Glastonbury". Mineral Planning. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor" (PDF). English Nature. Retrieved 22 August 2006.
- ^ "Brue Valley Living Landscape". Somerset Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Natural England Future Landscapes" (PDF). Natural England. pp. 2–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor National Nature reserve". Wildlife Extra. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Somerset's National Nature Reserves". Natural England. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ISBN 9780521214032.
- ^ "Exploring Westhay Moor". BBC. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor Nature Reserve". Somerset Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor". Taunton Local Group. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve". Avalon Marshes. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Westhay Moor". Somerset Ornithological Society. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Somerset Levels and Moors". Ramsar. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands (RIS)" (PDF). Joint Nature Conservancy Council. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Somerset IDB Biodiversity Action Plan April 2010" (PDF). Somerset Drainage Boards. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
External links
"Westhay Moor". Somerset Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 24 April 2015.