Quoisley Meres
Encyclopedia
Quoisley Meres refers to two mere
s, Quoisley Big Mere and Quoisley Little Mere, near the village of Marbury, in Cheshire
, England.
Glacial in origin, the meres have nutrient-rich water. The meres, fringing reed bed
s and surrounding damp grassland
are a Site of Special Scientific Interest
, and have also been designated Wetlands of International Importance, as part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar
site. The meres form an important habitat for invertebrate
s and birds, and the site contains over a hundred plant species, including tufted-sedge, marsh fern and meadow thistle
, which are all rare in Cheshire. Natural England
considered the site's condition to be unfavourable in 2009.
, near the boundary with Shropshire
, at an average elevation of around 75 metres. In common with the majority of meres in the Meres and Mosses natural area, they probably represent glacial kettle holes, formed at the end of the last ice age, some ten or fifteen thousand years ago. The meres are located immediately south of the track from Wirswall Road to Mere Farm, around ¾ mile west of the village of Marbury; the nearest town is Whitchurch
, around 2½ miles to the south. There are two meres; the larger, Quoisley Big Mere, is at , and the smaller, Quoisley Little Mere, at . A narrow strip of woodland, Holly Rough, lines the farm track immediately to the north of Little Mere. The catchment area
of the meres is 136 hectares (336.1 acre).
The Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) of Quoisley Meres was designated in 1963 and occupies 28.25 hectares (69.8 acre). The SSSI encompasses both meres, their margins and some of the surrounding pasture; Holly Rough is excluded. The meres were designated Wetlands of International Importance in 1994, as part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar
site. They also lie within the Wirswall
/Marbury/Combermere
Area of Special County Value.
s being water lilies
; Big Mere has both white
and yellow
water lilies, while Little Mere has predominantly white. Both meres are surrounded by well-developed reed bed
s, with Big Mere having a particularly large variety of species including common club-rush
, greater pond-sedge
, lesser reedmace
and tufted-sedge, which is rare in Cheshire. Big Mere has a narrow fringe of predominantly alder woodland. The SSSI also encompasses damp grassland
between and around the two meres, which contains a wide variety of plant species including brown sedge
and purple small-reed, as well as marsh fern and meadow thistle
, which are rarely found in Cheshire. A total of 108 plant species has been recorded at the site.
The meres support abundant aquatic invertebrate
species, especially beetle
s and bug
s, with some rare species on record. There is a low density of fish, particularly in Little Mere; the predominant species is roach
, with some eel
, pike
, tench
and trout
. The meres form an important habitat for birds, with gadwall
, garganey
and ruddy duck
s among the species that have been observed here.
The site was assessed by Natural England
as in an unfavourable condition in 2009; 92.5% of the area, including both meres, was declining, with only 7.6% of the site in a stable condition. This was due to a combination of factors including drainage, inappropriate water levels, poor ditch management, lack of pest and weed control, and water pollution
and sedimentation
due to discharge and agricultural runoff; undergrazing was also a problem for one of the grassland areas.
Mere (lake)
Mere in English refers to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, e.g. Martin Mere. A significant effect of its shallow depth is that for all or most of the time, it has no thermocline.- Etymology :...
s, Quoisley Big Mere and Quoisley Little Mere, near the village of Marbury, in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England.
Glacial in origin, the meres have nutrient-rich water. The meres, fringing reed bed
Reed bed
Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...
s and surrounding damp grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
are a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
, and have also been designated Wetlands of International Importance, as part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
site. The meres form an important habitat for invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s and birds, and the site contains over a hundred plant species, including tufted-sedge, marsh fern and meadow thistle
Cirsium dissectum
Cirsium dissectum, also known as Meadow Thistle, is an erect perennial herb. It is found in England, Wales, Ireland, from western France to the Netherlands, and Germany. It is found in fens and less acidic peat bogs i.e. it prefers damp boggy areas....
, which are all rare in Cheshire. Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
considered the site's condition to be unfavourable in 2009.
Geography
Quoisley Meres lie on the Cheshire PlainCheshire Plain
The Cheshire Plain is a relatively flat expanse of lowland situated almost entirely within the county of Cheshire in northwest England. It is bounded by the hills of North Wales to the west, and the Peak District of Derbyshire and North Staffordshire to the east and southeast...
, near the boundary with Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, at an average elevation of around 75 metres. In common with the majority of meres in the Meres and Mosses natural area, they probably represent glacial kettle holes, formed at the end of the last ice age, some ten or fifteen thousand years ago. The meres are located immediately south of the track from Wirswall Road to Mere Farm, around ¾ mile west of the village of Marbury; the nearest town is Whitchurch
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Whitchurch is a market town in Shropshire, England on the border between England and Wales. It is the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire. According to the 2001 Census, the population of the town is 8,673, with a more recent estimate putting the population of the town at 8,934...
, around 2½ miles to the south. There are two meres; the larger, Quoisley Big Mere, is at , and the smaller, Quoisley Little Mere, at . A narrow strip of woodland, Holly Rough, lines the farm track immediately to the north of Little Mere. The catchment area
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
of the meres is 136 hectares (336.1 acre).
The Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI) of Quoisley Meres was designated in 1963 and occupies 28.25 hectares (69.8 acre). The SSSI encompasses both meres, their margins and some of the surrounding pasture; Holly Rough is excluded. The meres were designated Wetlands of International Importance in 1994, as part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
site. They also lie within the Wirswall
Wirswall
Wirswall is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, located at SJ544441 near the Shropshire border, around 1½ miles north of Whitchurch. The historical township had an area of...
/Marbury/Combermere
Dodcott cum Wilkesley
Dodcott cum Wilkesley is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The hamlet of Wilkesley lies 2½ miles to the west of Audlem and 7 miles to the south west of Nantwich. The parish also includes the small settlements of Butterley...
Area of Special County Value.
Habitats, flora and fauna
The two meres have nutrient-rich or eutrophic open water with the dominant aquatic plantAquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...
s being water lilies
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus...
; Big Mere has both white
Nymphaea alba
Nymphaea alba, also known as the European White Waterlily, White Lotus, or Nenuphar, is an aquatic flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae....
and yellow
Nuphar lutea
Nuphar lutea is an aquatic plant of the family Nymphaeaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia.-Growth:...
water lilies, while Little Mere has predominantly white. Both meres are surrounded by well-developed reed bed
Reed bed
Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...
s, with Big Mere having a particularly large variety of species including common club-rush
Schoenoplectus
Schoenoplectus is a genus of about 80 species of sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. Note that the name bulrush is also applied to species in the unrelated genus Typha...
, greater pond-sedge
Carex riparia
Carex riparia, the greater pond sedge, is a species of sedge found across Europe and Asia. It grows in a variety of wet habitats, and can be a dominant species in some swamps. It is Britain's largest Carex, growing up to tall, with glaucous leaves up to long...
, lesser reedmace
Typha angustifolia
Typha angustifolia L., , is a perennial herbaceous plant of genus Typha. This cattail is an "obligate wetland" species that is commonly found in the northern hemisphere in brackish locations...
and tufted-sedge, which is rare in Cheshire. Big Mere has a narrow fringe of predominantly alder woodland. The SSSI also encompasses damp grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
between and around the two meres, which contains a wide variety of plant species including brown sedge
Carex disticha
Carex disticha is a species of sedge, whose common name is Two-ranked Sedge. It is native to parts of Northern and Western Europe, where it grows in moist spots in a number of habitat types, and it has been introduced to the Great Lakes region of southern Canada...
and purple small-reed, as well as marsh fern and meadow thistle
Cirsium dissectum
Cirsium dissectum, also known as Meadow Thistle, is an erect perennial herb. It is found in England, Wales, Ireland, from western France to the Netherlands, and Germany. It is found in fens and less acidic peat bogs i.e. it prefers damp boggy areas....
, which are rarely found in Cheshire. A total of 108 plant species has been recorded at the site.
The meres support abundant aquatic invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
species, especially beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s and bug
Hemiptera
Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...
s, with some rare species on record. There is a low density of fish, particularly in Little Mere; the predominant species is roach
Rutilus
Rutilus is a genus of fishes in the family Cyprinidae, commonly called roaches. Locally, the name "roach" without any further qualifiers is also used for particular species, particularly the Common Roach Rutilus (Latin for "shining, red, golden, auburn") is a genus of fishes in the family...
, with some eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
, pike
Northern Pike
The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...
, tench
Tench
The tench or doctor fish is a freshwater and brackish water fish of the cyprinid family found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also found in Lake Baikal...
and trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
. The meres form an important habitat for birds, with gadwall
Gadwall
The Gadwall is a common and widespread duck of the family Anatidae.- Description :The Gadwall is 46–56 cm long with a 78–90 cm wingspan. The male is slightly larger than the female, weighing on average 990 g against her 850 g...
, garganey
Garganey
The Garganey is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and western Asia, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa, India Santragachi and Australasia in winter, where large flocks can occur. This species was first described by Linnaeus in 1758...
and ruddy duck
Ruddy Duck
The Ruddy Duck is a small stiff-tailed duck.Their breeding habitat is marshy lakes and ponds throughout much of North America, and in South America in the Andes. They nest in dense marsh vegetation near water. The female builds her nest out of grass, locating it in tall vegetation to hide it from...
s among the species that have been observed here.
Management and current status
The meres are on private land; public access to the site is limited to a public footpath from Wirswall Road which crosses the field to the east of Quoisley Little Mere. The Big Mere can be viewed from the track from Wirswall Road to Mere Farm. Fishing (except by the owner) is not permitted.The site was assessed by Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
as in an unfavourable condition in 2009; 92.5% of the area, including both meres, was declining, with only 7.6% of the site in a stable condition. This was due to a combination of factors including drainage, inappropriate water levels, poor ditch management, lack of pest and weed control, and water pollution
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
and sedimentation
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained, and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration...
due to discharge and agricultural runoff; undergrazing was also a problem for one of the grassland areas.