In spring 2025, significant work will begin at Manor House Farm to re-wet the currently drained grassland, creating a wet grassland habitat and restoring the important peat beneath the surface.
The National Trust owns 69 acres of farmland on what was previously Manor House Farm, east of Rufford Old Hall, between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Douglas. This area of land was acquired by the National Trust in 2000 to protect the views and settings of the Hall.
Recent surveys show a significant amount of peat across the site, over 5 metres deep in places. Currently water is pumped away from the land via a drainage network, drying out the existing peat causing it to breakdown and stopping new peat from forming.
Peat is vital to the environment as it helps provide multiple ecosystem services:
Re-wetting the area to create a wet grassland habitat will not only help restore the peat, but also help to filter pollution, prevent flooding and store carbon.
Work to create the conditions that will allow a wet grassland habitat to develop and restore vital peat is due to start spring 2025 and take around two months to complete.
A variety of techniques will be used in order to rewet the area.
Re-wetting the site will help restore vital peat, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and preserve potential archaeology (explained further below). Wet grasslands are critical ecosystems within agricultural landscapes and play a multifaceted role in sustainable farming practices.
Creating a wet grassland area will increase biodiversity across the site as it will create a range of wet and drier areas that will appeal to a variety of grassland species. It will also provide a stepping-stone between wetland habitats, from the Lancashire coast through to Mere Sands Wood and Martin Mere.
For locals and visitors to Rufford Old Hall, it will provide a new point of interest and experience with potential for providing further access to the land at Manor House Farm in the future.
In February 2023 a historic environment assessment was carried out on the land at Manor House Farm. The results revealed areas of high and moderate potential for archaeological importance due to pre-historic and medieval remains found nearby. There were also cropmarks found in the southern half of the Manor House Farm site that indicate a possible enclosure.
These results have added to the importance of re-wetting the land as peat has the potential to contain an archaeological record of past local environmental conditions and can also preserve archaeological remains.
In partnership with Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT), the project will be mainly funded through the government’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, with additional funding from Starling Bank’s partnership with the National Trust.
April 2025
Works are now completed, and our next steps are to monitor the land. To do this we are taking dipwell monitoring data to track the changes in ground water levels and volunteers are observing wildlife changes. In particular we have monitoring planned for dragonflies, butterflies, and birds. Understanding how the species and populations of the wildlife change gives us great insight in how nature is responding.
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