Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve is a national nature reserve (NNR) which straddles the border between England and Wales, near Whixall and Ellesmere in Shropshire, England and Bettisfield in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It comprises three peat bogs, Bettisfield Moss, Fenn's Moss and Whixall Moss. With Wem Moss (also an NNR) and Cadney Moss, they are collectively a Site of Special Scientific Interest called The Fenn's, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem & Cadney Moss Complex and form Britain's third-largest lowland raised bog, covering . The reserve is part of the Midland Meres and Mosses, an Important Plant Area which was declared a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1997. It is also a European Special Area of Conservation.

The mosses form an ombrotrophic raised bog, since the only source of water is from rainfall. Peat is formed when the remains of living plants, particularly Sphagnum, decompose in conditions where there is little oxygen, resulting in layers of peat up to thick in places, although this has been greatly reduced by commercial harvesting of the peat in many areas. In their natural state, such mosses form a dome of peat which can be up to higher than the surrounding surface, but the domes collapsed as a result of the drainage ditches created to allow harvesting to take place. Three major enclosures of the mosses have taken place, the first as a result of a voluntary agreement signed in 1704, and ratified by the High Court of Chancery in 1710 when opposition prevented the original plans from being carried out. Two Parliamentary enclosures, each authorised by an Act of Parliament were implemented in 1775 on Fenn's Moss and in 1823 on Whixall Moss. Both resulted in common rights being removed and gave the landlords powers which paved the way for the subsequent commercial exploitation of the mosses.

In the early 1800s, the Ellesmere Canal Company built a canal across the southern edge of Whixall Moss. The engineers realised that maintenance would be required, to prevent the formation from sinking into the bog, and a gang of navvies, known as the Whixall Moss Gang, were employed continuously from 1804 to the early 1960s, to keep building up the banks of the canal, now renamed the Llangollen Canal. In the 1960s, the engineering issues were solved, when steel piling was used to underpin this section. The Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway also planned to cross the mosses, despite being ridiculed by the Great Western Railway for believing that such a thing was possible. They built their line across the north-western edge of Fenn's Moss in 1862, having cut drains in late 1861, and then put layers of heather, wooden faggots and sand on the formation, to allow it to float on the peat. Trains ran from 1862 until the 1960s, without sinking into the mire.

Commercial cutting of peat began in 1851, and a series of six peat works were built over the years, as companies came and went. In order to extract the peat, a network of gauge tramways were used, with wagons pulled by horses. The first internal combustion locomotive was bought in 1919, to replace the horses, and three more locomotives were purchased in 1967 and 1968 but did not last long, as the tramway ceased to be used in 1970, to be replaced by Dexta tractors pulling trailers. Mechanised peat cutters were also introduced in 1968. By this time, all of the harvested peat was sold through the retail chain Woolworths, for use in horticulture. The Hanmer Estate, owners of Fenn's Moss, quadrupled the rents in 1989, and the existing operation was bought out by Croxden Horticultural Products. They geared up to extract much larger volumes of peat, to meet the increased rents, but opposition to using peat was increasing, and in late December 1990, the leases were bought by the Nature Conservancy Council, bringing an end to commercial peat cutting. Since then, the mosses have been managed by Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, who have blocked up drainage ditches and removed scrub, allowing water levels to rise, and the ombrotrophic bog to re-establish itself. Circular waymarked trails have been created through some areas of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses, and on Bettisfield Moss, to allow the nature reserve to be appreciated by visitors.

Geography

Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses straddle the border between England and Wales. Fenn's Moss is on the Welsh side of the border and is in Wrexham County Borough, while Whixall Moss is in north Shropshire, on the English side of the border, and is only separated from Fenn's Moss by the Border Drain, a ditch similar to many others on the mosses, which was dug in 1826. The former, now dismantled, Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway line crosses the north-western edge of Fenn's Moss. At the southern edge of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses, the former Ellesmere Canal, now rebranded as the Llangollen Canal, crosses the peat, and Bettisfield Moss lies to the south of the canal, partly in England and partly in Wales. A narrow band of peat connects it to Wem and Cadney Mosses, which again are divided by the Border Drain. Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses were declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1953, with Wem Moss being similarly notified ten years later. The sites were combined and extended in 1994, to become a single SSSI covering , of which are in Wrexham and in Shropshire. Together they form the third-largest lowland raised bog in Britain, with only Thorne Moors and Hatfield Moors in South Yorkshire exceeding them in size. Bettisfield Moss covers , and includes the largest areas of uncut peat in the whole of the nature reserve, having been little affected by commercial peat cutting.

Two other mosses are part of the same geological Moss complex, though separated from Bettisfield Moss by a strip of agricultural land. Wem Moss in England is a National Nature Reserve which is owned and managed by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and is a good example of an uncut lowland raised bog. It covers an area of . Cadney Moss is in Wales, and has been largely reclaimed for agriculture and forestry.

Whixall Moss and part of Bettisfield Moss sits above bedrock composed of fine red silt and sand, forming an impermeable layer once known as Upper Keuper Marls. To the north-west of these, the bedrock is composed of Upper Keuper Saliferous Beds, which contain rock salt. Both rock types were re-classified in 2008, and are now part of the Mercia Mudstone Group. As the last ice age receded, the area was covered with glacial moraine, consisting of sands, gravels and clays, in places up to thick, and this gives the area its characteristic undulating terrain. The shallower depressions filled with peat, and gave rise to the mosses, whereas some of the deeper depressions have remained as open lakes or meres. The depth of peat varies widely over the mosses, from over in parts of Bettisfield Moss and Fenn's Moss, to around on parts of Whixall and Fenn's Mosses where commercial peat digging was carried out, and there are some areas where such activity has exposed the underlying rocks.

The mosses are ombrotrophic raised bogs, meaning that they only receive water from rainfall. Such bogs form in areas with an annual rainfall of between which are relatively flat, or which sit over a basin in the underlying rocks, which helps to prevent water run-off. In their natural state, they form domes of peat, which can be up to higher than the surrounding surface. On the surface are living plants, particularly Sphagnum, which form a crust through which water can permeate relatively easily. Below that, the compacted plant remains are deprived of oxygen, which prevents the usual decay processes, causing them to become peat. Commercial exploitation of the mosses, and their consequent drainage, have resulted in water table levels dropping, and consequently less peat formation.

Fenn's Moss is the source of the Wych Brook, a tributary of the River Dee, which flows northwards from the Moss. The River Roden, a tributary of the River Tern, also rises in the vicinity of Bettisfield and flows southwards to form part of the border between England and Wales near Wem Moss. Near the south-eastern corner of Whixall Moss the never-completed Prees Branch of the Llangollen Canal branches off, to terminate after nearly at a marina, beyond which a little more of the route has become the Prees Branch Canal Nature Reserve Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Occupation

thumb|270px| Llangollen Canal, passing through the Nature Reserve

There has been human activity on the mosses for millennia, as evidenced by archaeological finds. These include three bog bodies, the first of which was found by peat cutters in c.1867. The body, which was accompanied by a three-legged stool, was that of a young man wearing a leather apron, and was dated to the Iron Age or Romano-British period. The body of a woman from the same period was found in c.1877, and that of a much older Early Bronze Age man was uncovered in 1889. The acidic water and the lack of oxygen resulted in their hair and skin being preserved, while their bones had dissolved. All three were re-buried in local churchyards, the first two at Whitchurch and the third at Whixall, where the remains would have quickly decomposed. In 1927, a Middle Bronze-Age looped palstave, a type of bronze axe, was discovered among remains of a band of pine trees which had crossed the Moss during that period, and can now be seen at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

There is no documentary evidence for the cutting of peat on the mosses prior to 1572, but it is unclear whether this indicates that it was not general practice, or if there was just no need to burn peat when there was plenty of wood available. Subsequently, a right of turbary, to cut peat for burning was granted to individuals by the Lord of the Manor, and those who were found to be cutting peat but were unlicensed were fined, but the fines were quite modest, suggesting that it was a way of generating income for the Lord of the Manor rather than an attempt to stop the activity. From 1630 it is clear that higher fines were levied on those who sold the peat to people living outside of the manor, while by 1702, peat cutting was more closely regulated, and the levels of fine for unlicensed cutting, or for cutting turves in a neighbour's turf pit, were punitive.

Enclosure

The early 18th century saw attempts by the Lord of the Manor to ensure that he had better control of the area and gained some income from the land. In Whixall, Thomas Sandford was the Lord of the Manor, but John, Lord Gower also claimed similar rights for land he held in copyhold. The two men obtained the Statute of Merton and the Statute of Westminster, to allow them to enclose common land in Whixall, including parts of the mosses. The move was supported by around 50 people who held land either as freehold or copyhold, and an agreement was signed on 14 August 1704. The idea was to enclose of common land which were sufficiently dry to be usable for agriculture, while the rest of the common land was boggy, and was to be used as a common turbary. The freeholders and copyholders would be granted rights to around two-thirds of the land, with Thomas Sandford and Lord Gower receiving most of the rest, and being granted to the parson in recognition of his conducting services in Whixall Chapel. In order to lay out the enclosures, six surveyors and mathematicians were employed, but the enterprise was opposed by 23 commoners, who proceeded to destroy existing fencing and prevented new fencing from being erected. The powers contained in the Statute of Merton were totally inadequate for such a situation, and a decree from the High Court of Chancery was obtained on 30 January 1710, to enable further progress to be made. Only were actually enclosed, but this included parts of Whixall Moss.

While the enclosure of Whixall Moss was an enclosure by agreement, Fenn's and Bettisfield Mosses were subject to a Parliamentary enclosure, as a result of an Act of Parliament obtained in 1775. Such an act only needed the owners of two-thirds of the land to agree to it and was used by landowners with large holdings to remove the rights of commoners. The major landowner, in this case, was the lawyer and politician Sir Walden Hanmer, and the act added the mosses to the parish of Hanmer. At the time, acts of enclosure were very common in England, but this was only the fourth to be enacted in Wales. Walden Hanmer appears to have been more interested in cultivating the wastes of the parish than in exploiting the peat on the mosses, but the act created 111 strips of land to be used as turbaries, of which Hanmer himself was awarded 56, two were given to the poor in Bronington, one to the school and almshouses in Whitchurch, and the rest shared out between 31 individuals. A similar act was obtained in 1823, which extinguished common rights on Whixall Moss and the English part of Bettisfield Moss. The act defined a number of public drains, which would carry water away from the moss, and as each was named, the act was probably recognising what was already there, rather than creating a new system.

The effects of the enclosures can still be seen, in the pattern of the fields that surround the northern and southern edges of the mosses, in the network of drains that carry water away from the mosses, and in the alignment of roads, tracks and footpaths that still provide access to them. The enclosures resulted in most of Fenn's Moss being under the control of the Hanmer Estate and paved the way for the later commercial exploitation of the peat. On Whixall Moss, the result was that much of the southern part of the Moss was organised into a patchwork of small enclosures, and a much smaller proportion was under the direct control of the Lord of the Manor. Many of these small enclosures have since become pasture or woodland, although some remain as a source of peat turves for their owners.

thumb|right|The extent of the National Nature Reserve, with locations of peat works, tramways, railways and the Llangollen Canal

A decision that would affect the mosses was made in 1797, when the Ellesmere Canal company abandoned plans for a heavily engineered route to join the two halves of their system, which would have linked Trevor Basin to Chester, via Ruabon and Brymbo, and decided instead to build a canal from Frankton Junction to Hurleston Junction, which was completed in 1805. The engineers William Jessop and Thomas Telford decided against building a bypass around the mosses and instead elected to cut straight across the peat, despite the technical difficulties that this posed. They lowered the water table in the moss by building drainage ditches and then constructed a raft, on which the canal floated. They understood that regular maintenance of this section would be a requirement for many years, and a team of navvies, later named the Whixall Moss Gang, were employed to extract clay from a pit on the Prees Branch. The clay was used to build up the banks, and the gang were employed continuously from 1804 until the 1960s on this task. Finally the engineering issues that created the work were solved, and the canal was underpinned with steel piling in the 1960s, to isolate it from the peat. Together with Wem and Cadney Mosses, it is also a European Special Area of Conservation. Among the primary reasons for the designation of the site are the presence of three types of sphagnum, all three British types of sundew, cranberry, bog asphodel, royal fern, white beak-sedge and bog-rosemary. It is one of the few places where the moss Dicranum affine can be found, and provides habitat for over 1,700 species of invertebrates, including 29 which are rare in Britain. Following restoration, the mosses have become wetter, and this has allowed populations of curlews and mallards to expand, while in winter, there are breeding populations of teal and shoveler. The increased numbers of small birds have also resulted in the numbers of predatory peregrine falcons increasing. Raft spiders abound near the peaty pools, and 28 species of dragonfly have been recorded on the mosses.

In October 2016 Natural England obtained £5 million to allow further regeneration work to be undertaken. The grant will be spread over five years and will enable Natural England, working with Natural Resources Wales and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, to buy another of peatland and to raise the water levels over some of the mosses, using new techniques, such as contour bunding, to achieve this. There are also plans to restore other types of habitat around the edges of the mosses, including swamp, fen, and willow and alder carr wet woodland. This will assist populations of willow tit and marsh tit, and encourage the growth of rare bog species such as elongated sedge and several varieties of micro-moths. The money will also fund the diversion of of ditches containing mineral-rich water, and assist in the clean-up of Whixall Moss scrapyard, which was bought by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust as the site for a new visitor centre but was contaminated with engine oil and 100,000 used vehicle tyres.

In 2001 a partnership between English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and British Waterways (since succeeded by Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and the Canal and River Trust respectively), developed circular waymarked trails through some areas of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses.

Wildlife in the nature reserve includes kingfisher, mute swans, watervoles, damselfly and dragonfly species such as the white-faced darter, various species of duck, and even the rare bird of prey the hobby. Plants include cotton sedge, bog moss (Sphagnum), great hairy willowherb, bog myrtle, water figwort, flag iris, cross-leaved heath, bog rosemary, cranberry and sundew; common alder trees, alder buckthorn, grey sallow and crack willow predominate in wooded fringes, along with some introduced scotch pine.

See also

  • List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Clwyd

Bibliography

  • Grant, M.E. (1995). The dating and significance of pinus sylvestris l. macrofossil remains from Whixall Moss, Shropshire: palaeoecological and modern comparative analyses. Ph.D., Keele University (United Kingdom)

<!--*-->

  • Horton, K. (2008). The effects of rehabilitation management on the vegetation of Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses national nature reserve: a cut-over lowland raised mire. Ph.D. University of Wolverhampton (United Kingdom).

References

  • Photographs of Whixall Moss and surrounding area & Fenns Moss from the Geograph project
  • Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses from Natural England's Corporate report, Shropshire's National Nature Reserves.