The Cheshire Region

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The Cheshire region is a low lying plain between the Pennines and the Welsh uplands

the western and northern boundaries extend out to the Irish Sea . The mid-cheshire

ridge divides the county into an eastern and western lowland. 10,000 years ago the

landsacape was coverd by sheets of ice these ice sheets retreated northward leaving

expanses of clay and sand. After the glaciers retreated vegetation became established

and was collonised by by mosses and liverworts on the mineral rich surface. This

vegetation was followed by a diversity of herbs , grasses and sedges.. By 3000 BC

climate conditions improved and soil became nutrient rich and a full decidious forest

covered the landscape with oak, elm, alder and lime. During this Neolithic period

there is little evidence to suggest human distubance to thie area as man was

predomantly a hunter.

At Lindow moss an area in cheshire which is a SSSI there are records by radiocarbon

dating back to 3,000 BC, of human activity disturbing this landcape this was localised

until 450 BC where at Lindow moss the pollen of wheat and barley is associated with

major forest clearence. Along side human interferences, climatic change also

accounted for the development of the extensive peatlands in the country, during cool

wet periods. Much of the colonisation of open moorland and lowland raised bogs

occurred in the Iron Age when the earlier forests in these locations were encroached

upon by water-holding mosses. Substantial erosion in this period, attributed to both

forest clearence and high rainfall. Reduction in woodland continued throughout the

Roman period 45 BC.

Agriculturally Cheshire is now primarily a dairy farming a...

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...s purchased

in 1934 by public subscription as a memorial to T.A Coward for his contribution to

natural sciences. At the time of purchase the area was under threat of timber

extraction. At the present time the clough has had little modifivation from its natural

state. The are many native fauna and flora including ramsons Allium ursinum,

bluebells dog’s mercury and yellow archangel. On the valley floor the flora is dense

with kingcup Caltha palustris, pendulous sedge Carex pundula and other species

reflecting the high nutrient of the soil.

Alongside Cotterill Clough are numerous marl pits they are unprotected natural

breeding areas for endangered Great crested newt, they have to be deeper than 30

cms. These ponds are at risk of pollution as they are relatively closed bio systems and

pollution is likely to be long lasting.

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