A Proposed National Nature Reserve

From Wigan Flashes to Pennington Flash

Zoom meeting for local people -
Sat 7th Nov, 10am till 11.30am



Free Ticket Link / Facebook

The Carbon Landscape Partnership - Facebook (7th Nov):

Thank you to everyone who attended today. It was encouraging to see …

This five session course is for local people who want to help shape the proposed National Nature Reserve (NNR). Participants will receive a free resource pack for the course and so must provide their postal address details.

Eventbrite: Engaging with the Proposed National Nature Reserve from Wigan to Leigh

Zoom Timetable

• Thu 19th Nov, 6–8pm  
Dr Joanne Tippett and Fraser How
‘Developing the vision - What works? Heritage and where we are starting’

• Sat 21st Nov, 10am-12pm  
Stephen Atkins
‘Surveying and ID Skills’

• Thu 26th Nov, 6–8pm  
Dr Joanne Tippett and Fraser How
‘Visioning and the bigger picture - opportunities and creative ideas’

• Sat 28th Nov, 10am-12pm  
Dr Mark Champion
‘Virtual Visit to Pearson's Flash’

• Thu 3rd Dec, 6–8pm  
Dr Joanne Tippett and Fraser How
‘Planning for the future - ways forward’

Habitat training in grasslands, woodlands and wetlands is also available - FB Events

For more information, please email proposednnr@lancswt.org.uk

Youth Summit
Sat 5th Dec, 1.30pm - 3pm



Book a place here: Eventbrite

Mon, 7th Feb 2022
6pm – 7.30pm

Online event

Towards a Super National Nature Reserve - the Experience of Purbeck Heath Dorset

“We are excited to introduce Peter Robertson, from RSPB Dorset, and Dagmar Junghanns from Natural England, to tell the story as to how seven landowners joined forces to create the largest lowland heath nature reserve in the UK. This is set to inspire the next generation of National Nature Reserves like the Proposed NNR Flashes of Wigan and Leigh.”

Register here: Eventbrite

A photo from today’s celebration of Carbon Landscape as the 5-year National Lottery Heritage Funded project draws to a close:


Credit:@MerseyRivers


@CarbonLands

Fantastic news: www.wigan.gov.uk

Major boost for conservation as 'Flashes of Wigan and Leigh' declared England's newest National Nature Reserve

“A vast new National Nature Reserve (NNR) spanning large parts of Wigan Borough has been formally created today (Monday 3rd October 2022) in recognition of the area’s natural beauty and immense ecological importance.

The formal declaration by Natural England in partnership with Wigan Council, Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Forestry England will protect 738.21 hectares of precious wetland habitats – now known as ‘The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh’.”

Hopefully the locals will show respect and treat the area with care.

Jo Anne

There’s an interesting piece on the reserve in today’s Times including a photo of orchids growing there.

Rio,
I hope you are correct but don’t hold your breath. Read about that idiot pouring all sorts over the statue of Sir Tom Moore. What an idiot.

Can you notice what's wrong with Wigan council's information here?

"In 1742 the River Douglas was canalised from its junction with the Mersey up to Mirey Lane
End in Wigan, following an Act of Parliament of 1720. The canalised river, known as the
Douglas Navigation, had some 13 locks along its length. The river was used to transport coal
from Wigan down to the Mersey and from there upriver to Manchester or downriver to Liverpool. "

It went to the River Wibble.

Yes, a number of times in the past, posters on this forum have displayed their utter ignorance concerning where the River Douglas discharges!

I had not realised that the council also participated in this erroneous assertion.

(almost as bad as some of the council's officers making up 'facts' to promote views of history which they favour.)

Why did they not call them Brinabiks:
Bryn, Ince, Abram Bickershaw wetlands?

At the risk of stepping on tonker's turf, Wigan would suffice if only required to indicate generalised location, being the name of the borough. If this is not what is required, then they are not actually within Wigan or Leigh are they, so why the misleading?

In reality, they are in the 'Mersey Estuary Catchment Basin'.
Or so they have been until recently, apparently. They are now in the newly christened "Makerfield Basin"!

Neeeeeever heard of it!!!

It was on Northwest Tonight, last night

https://youtu.be/31CB2-QENYo

Thanks, TTS, I missed that.

Gaffer, it’s great to know the reserve has been aptly reported nationally.

Press release: www.gov.uk

Industrial wasteland becomes a wildlife haven in Lancashire: www.thetimes.co.uk (paywall)

Other links which mention the orchids:
www.lancswt.org.uk
Facebook: Wigan Flashes LNR / Natural England

Vast nature reserve born of Wigan and Leigh's mining past receives national recognition: Wigan Today

Tonker: "Makerfield Basin"!
Neeeeeever heard of it!!!

I assure you there are Sinks-in-Makerfield, hope you’re not trying to say us Incers never have a wash.

If I spoke on behalf of the Ashtonians though, I’d just be basin it on assumptions so you’ll have to ask them.

Jo anne, this is from Wigan council's "local nature reserve" spiel.
The very same spiel that informs loyal and easily led Wiganers that "the
river (Douglas) was used to transport coal
from Wigan down to the Mersey and from there upriver to Manchester or downriver to Liverpool. "


Description
"Numerous areas of wetland and open water known as ‘Flashes’ occupy a central corridor of
land associated with low-lying areas within the ‘Makerfield Basin’. They tend to be located to
either side of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Hey Brook ......"

NNR Public Launch
Sun 16th Jul ‘23, 11am - 3pm
Pennington Flash



BBC NW (9th Jul ‘23)

Wigan Council: News / Info

The ‘Flashes Festival of Nature’ will be the public launch of The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh - Greater Manchester’s first and only National Nature Reserve (NNR).

There will be a host of nature-themed activities including nature walks and accessible trails, foraging, ecocrafts and activities, nature stalls, photography and wild art. And not forgetting facepainting - in case you were worried there’d be none, Tonker.

Cllr Chris Ready, the portfolio holder for communities and neighbourhoods, said: “The Flashes Festival of Nature is a chance for our whole community to come together and celebrate our precious flashes, which we were proud to see declared as a National Nature Reserve by Natural England last October.”

"foraging"?

And they take kids to scoop up aquatic creatures from the shallows...?

In a nature reserve!

Is it only a nature reserve to grab the cash, and then nowt really matters?

Reminds me of how councils destroy the libraries by having kids singing in them.

It acquired its current status by being wild, so I guess 'organisers' felt the need to get involved and destroy that status.

If you want to entertain kids with activities such as face painting, I would suggest do it somewhere safe, not around these waters.

I posted on here years ago how I found the Wigan Pier museum attractions brilliant, but I suggested that they were totally unsustainable since the council was choosing to use them as just about the most expensive child care imaginable.

I do hope we are not about to witness a repeat performance.

Ena

Do you mean by the use of expensive actors in the 'Way We Wuz' museum

I was referring to the adult to child ratio, it taking between three and five adults to each child catered for, given the particulars of the environment.

I don't know what you mean.

I don't for one moment suggest it is an issue unique to Wigan.

I think local authorities seem to believe that they have found a way of getting something for nothing. So, naturally they go for it in a big way.

It is only a few years down the line, when audit results are available, that it becomes apparent they have just the opposite: something at a cost they can no longer sustain or justify.

Then they end up junking the very asset they were charged with preserving!

Examples abound, I am sure I need not list them. One I recently came across whilst walking Woodhead. There used to be a hostel on the Yorks side. It was run jointly by Barnsley council and YHA. Barnsley took it over 100%. And of course short way down the line, closed it down.

* At Pennington Flash *