Green recovery in Cheshire and Greater Manchester

Benefits for Cheshire’s native wildlife

By working at scale across Cheshire, the National Trust has been able to create bigger, better, and more joined-up habitats for wildlife.

At Quarry Bank, improvements to hedgerows will create much-needed wildlife corridors, providing nesting and foraging habitat for a huge range of wildlife including bats, stoats, polecats and farmland birds. Quarry Bank rangers are hopeful that the conservation project will see the return of brightly coloured yellowhammers to the site.

Egrets make a comeback

And at the newly created wetland areas at Dunham Massey and Alderley Edge, rangers are already seeing wildlife moving in, with egrets now being spotted in areas they’ve never been seen before in Cheshire.

In addition to creating new habitats for wildlife, these wetlands also play a key role in natural flood management, holding water on the land for longer and slowing the flow of flood waters during periods of heavy rain.

Alderley’s ‘ghost ponds’

At Alderley Edge, famous for its mythical tales of wizardry, rangers have been bringing ‘ghost ponds’ back to life and giving wildlife a helping hand too. Using historic maps of the Edge, the team has identified and restored a series of dried-up ponds, originally created by pre-Victorian miners digging for minerals. Now, conservation work is helping these once-wildlife-rich ponds spring back to life, allowing seeds that have laid dormant for over 100 years to grow once again and encouraging dragonflies, beetles and other water-borne invertebrates back to this beauty spot.

Protecting heritage and homes from flooding

At Lyme Park and Quarry Bank, rangers and volunteers have used natural flood management techniques to slow the flow of water across both National Trust estates, helping to mitigate the risk of future floods downstream and protect local communities.

Following a devastating summer flood in 2019 that saw over £250,000-worth of damage caused to Lyme’s estate and Grade II* listed gardens, Green Recovery funding has enabled the team to create a total of 166 ‘leaky dams’ across the site that naturally reduce the risk of flooding.

Natural barriers

Using material sourced on site, including coppiced wood from trees in Lyme’s parkland, dams have been laid across streams and gullies that can quickly fill with water during periods of heavy rain, creating natural barriers to slow fast-moving floods.

As well as improving water quality by filtering out sediment, the leaky dams are contributing to the creation of a wet woodland habitat at Lyme. One of the rarest woodland habitats found in the UK, rangers hope Lyme’s new wet woodlands will attract species like willow tits, frogs, and damselflies.

Planting trees

Green-fingered veterans group Green Task Force has been working alongside The Mersey Forest team and National Trust rangers to plant trees and restore hedges at Dunham Massey. The ex-forces team helped to plant about 5,750 trees and shrubs at Stamford Farm on the National Trust estate, creating woodlands and hedgerows that will help to capture carbon and create thriving, species-rich green corridors that better connect existing wildlife habitats.

‘This partnership is extremely exciting for our veteran community. With more than one in six serving and former service personnel who have seen combat suffering some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it is giving us the opportunity to both socialise and work together once again, in an environment we all feel familiar with. Working outdoors offers an additional sense of belonging and comfort to all, learning new skills to channel our focus and energy to complement our existing drive and strong work ethics along the way.’

- Mark West, Operations Manager at Green Taskforce

Promoting greater accessibility

Alongside the benefits for nature and wildlife, this Defra-funded project has allowed the National Trust to make its places in Cheshire more accessible to people who want to enjoy time in the great outdoors.

Restoring and creating paths

Over 4km of paths have been created or restored at the Trust’s sites that are open to the public, including the historic estate at Quarry Bank in Styal. Once reserved as a place for the wealthy Greg family to enjoy, improvements to access at Quarry Bank will make it easier for everyone to immerse themselves in nature and see more of this 400-acre estate up close.

Dunham Massey’s new picnic space

At Dunham Massey, a new picnic area is giving ramblers a perfect spot to pause and enjoy the views across this much-loved estate on the edge of Greater Manchester and Cheshire. This previously un-used piece of land has been revitalised into a quiet space walkers can retreat to, with a natural bird blind offering views across the estate’s newly improved wetland areas, and native varieties of fruit trees planted for both visitors and wildlife to enjoy.

Elsewhere on the Dunham Massey estate, a new accessible path along the historic parkland’s Middle Avenue parkland will allow visitors to enjoy the outdoors and see the wildlife all year round, without having to dodge too many muddy puddles.