Corporate report

Greater Manchester's National Nature Reserves

Updated 29 July 2025

Applies to England

Risley, Holcroft and Chat Moss

Risley, Holcroft and Chat Moss is part of the King’s Series of National Nature Reserves which marks the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III.

It’s a network of 11 sites across 529 hectares of the lowland peat landscape of Wigan, Salford and Warrington. It is focused around the 3 sites of Manchester Mosses special area of conservation (Risley, Holcroft, and Astley Moss SAC and SSSI) with an additional 8 sites currently in different stages of restoration to lowland raised bog and associated habitats. Together the 11 sites form a landscape-scale mosaic of biodiverse lowland peat habitats, from lowland raised bogs and fen habitat, through to lowland heath, wet woodland and drier woodland habitats – supporting a wealth of priority species.

The reserve is managed through a collaborative partnership as part of Great Manchester Wetlands to focus on enhancing nature’s recovery across this heavily urbanised environment. It supports the connection to nature for many of the local communities and wider surrounding this network of sites, offering wild spaces within this urban landscape.

The reserve is an active space for national and international research on lowland peat and its management. The research supports the ongoing restoration of this wider landscape, further buffering the protected sites and priority species against climate change and the impacts of other land use in the area.

It is designated not only for the rich lowland peat biodiverse habitats and the species they support, but also its importance for science, research and evidence. This is complemented by strong citizen science and community engagement and access across the sites for local, and the wider, communities.

The managing partners of the reserve are:

• Natural England
• Cheshire Wildlife Trust
• Forestry England
• Lancashire Wildlife Trust
• Warrington Borough Council
• Wigan Borough Council
• Woodland Trust

Main habitats - lowland raised bogs, fen habitat, lowland heath, wet woodland and drier woodland habitats

Area: 529.25 hectares

Moss Side Farm

Moss Side Farm was recently purchased by Natural England as an active farmed business, with a range of cropping from arable to intensive grassland and turf production on very deep peat. It is being restored over time to a mosaic of lowland wetland habitats.

Main habitats: early stage restoration to fen habitat, lowland raised mire, wet grassland.

Area: 154 hectares

Features of interest: the site is in the very early stages of restoration to a mosaic of lowland peat habitats ranging from fen and lowland raised mire to wet grasslands and a willow fringed ditch network across the site, developing Moss Side Farm as a stepping stone site for wider species movement and enhancement across this NNR and wider landscape. It holds a transitional mixture of breeding birds on the site including farmland birds such as yellow wagtail, skylark to wetland waders such as lapwing, oystercatcher and snipe. Marsh harrier regularly use the site for foraging, along with a population of barn owls which nest onsite.

Moss Side Farm sits in the heart of Chat Moss, the largest of the 3 peat masses which underpin the national nature reserve.  It is adjacent to 4 other sites within the NNR – Little Woolden Moss, Caddishead Moss, Rindle Moss and Astley Moss.  Moss Side Farm also provides a demonstration site for paludiculture, or ‘wetland faming’, along with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust-owned Rindle Moss, showcasing cropping and food production whilst managing water levels to sustain the peat soils. This is part of Palus Demos, a 4-year EU Horizon programme to investigate its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while offering new and profitable types of agriculture.

Moss Side Farm will also provide the research and outreach hub for the wider national nature reserve showcasing lowland peat restoration from an intensive agricultural use through to fen and lowland raised bog restoration. It has a propagation hub to support the site wide restoration, where native bog and fen species are being propagated to support onsite restoration.

Volunteering: as part of the regular management of the reserve, volunteers carry out important management and activities such as invasive species control, propagation activity at the farm’s propagation unit and surveys and data collection, as well as maintaining the access infrastructure.

If you are interested in helping, email:  moss_side_farm_nnr@naturalengland.org.uk

Contact: moss_side_farm_nnr@naturalengland.org.uk

Astley Moss

Area: 35.7 hectares

Astley Moss is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and a special area of conservation (SAC) and is part of Astley and Bedford Moss SAC - the last remaining fragments of the once extensive lowland raised mire, Chat Moss.

The site supports species such as common cotton grass and hair’s-tail cotton grass, sphagnum mosses, sundews, lesser bladderwort, the willow tit and the large heath butterfly.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Lancashire Wildlife Trust website.

Contact: info@lancswt.org.uk

Gorse Covert Mound and Pestfurlong Moss

Area: 22 hectares

This well used site is a rich mosaic of mixed woodland, meadows, peat bog and ponds. It supports a variety of plants and wildlife including blackcap, chiffchaff, tree creeper and willow warbler and a wide variety of dragonflies and butterflies. It includes Pestfurlong Moss, a restored lowland raised bog of sphagnum mosses, cotton grass, heather and bilberry.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Woodland Trust website.

Contact: enquiries@woodlandtrust.org.uk

Highfield Moss

Area: 17.9 hectares

Highfield Moss is the best remaining example of a relict lowland raised mire in Greater Manchester. It comprises a range of mixed valley mire communities derived from the raised mire. These include sphagnum lawn, wet heath, tall fen, fragmentary marginal wetland, and standing water, all over deep peat. There is also an unimproved, acid, marshy grassland community.

As a result of the diversity of habitats, Highfield Moss supports a high diversity of species, including many plant species that are rare in the county, namely petty whin, false fox sedge, cross-leafed heath, lousewort and cranberry.

This site also supports the best population of the nationally rare marsh gentian in Greater Manchester and is also notable for the locally rare black darter dragonfly that inhabits the bog pool.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Wigan Borough Council website.

Holcroft Moss

Area: 19.04 hectares

Holcroft Moss is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and a special area of conservation (SAC).

It’s an isolated remnant of a once extensive area of raised mire. This part of Holcroft Moss peat mass is believed never to have been cut and is the only known unexploited area of raised mire remaining in Cheshire. The vegetation on this site is dominated by purple moor grass with abundant heather, cross-leaved heath and cranberry. The wetter hollows support common cotton grass and deer grass with 5 species of bog moss. Other habitats associated with this site include an area of birch and willow scrub, and an open area of calcareous grassland that supports a large stand of spotted orchid and fragrant orchid.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Cheshire Wildlife Trust website.

Little Woolden Moss and Cadishead Moss

Area: 117 hectares

Little Woolden Moss was industrially milled for its peat up to 2012, and Cadishead was hand cut for peat extraction. This large expanse of peat within Chat Moss now is an active wetland, with a mosaic of habitats in restoration including lowland raised bog, lowland heath, and fen. It supports a wide range of species including bog bush cricket and is a bird watching and dragonfly hotspot.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Lancashire Wildlife Trust website.

Contact: info@lancswt.org.uk

New Moss Wood

Area: 31 hectares

New Moss Wood began life as a bog as part of the wider Chat Moss peat mass. It was drained and became a place for the Victorian night soil of Manchester, a post-war vegetable farm. A woodland was planted over it in 1998 to 1999 and in 2020, a rewetting programme was initiated. Two mini mosses were created with bog pools and a series of ponds and ditches as part of a hydrological management of the site and restoration of the moss. It supports a variety of wildlife including willow tit, willow warbler, and blackcap, dragonflies including southern hawker, black darter, and large red damselfly and over 50 species of moth.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Woodland Trust website.

Contact: enquiries@woodlandtrust.org.uk

Rindle Moss

Area: 12 hectares

This recently acquired land was a mix of local wildlife site which had dried over from excess drainage, and agricultural cropped field. Over a 3-year period it has been zoned into 3 areas: wet grassland buffers, paludiculture trial plots, and lowland raised bog and fen. It’s in the very early stages of restoration but is currently a key location within the landscape for research on lowland peat management and restoration along with Moss Side Farm.

Read the Rindle Field wetter farming trial blog on the Lancashire Wildlife Trust website.

Contact: info@lancswt.org.uk

Risely Moss

Area: 88.29 hectares

Risely Moss is a SSSI and SAC, and is one of the last remaining remnants of the historical ‘Chatmoss’ - a former extensive raised bog system in the Mersey Basin.

It’s one of the only 2 mosses in Cheshire where the water level has been raised and an active mire surface restored. The moss contains large stands of common cotton grass and hare’s-tail cotton grass with cross-leaved heath, cranberry and a range of sphagnum species. Relict bog species also occur including; round-leaved sundew; common butterwort; royal fern and the nationally scarce bog rosemary. The rest of this site forms a mosaic of wet woodland and grassland habitats and an oak-ash woodland with hazel understorey on the higher ground.

Further information about the wildlife and how to visit can be found on the Warrington Borough Council website.

Contact: risleymossrangers@warrington.gov.uk

Windy Bank Wood

Area: 39 hectares

This is a flat, open woodland site on the edge of Chat Moss peat mass, along with tributaries of the Glazebrook River running through providing wetter areas and diverse understory vegetation.

Contact: info@forestryengland.uk

The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh

The Flashes were originally formed through the flooding of land which had subsided due to deep coal mining activities.

Now this cluster of 738 hectares of post-industrial shallow open water bodies and associated habitats have gradually developed into a mosaic of wetland habitats on the doorsteps of 325,000 residents of Wigan and Leigh and 2.8 million people in the vicinity.

Main habitat: open water, swamp, reedbed, tall herb fen, wet marshy grassland and wet woodland.

Features of interest

Over 52 pairs of willow tits have been recorded on this cluster of sites, approximately 2% of England’s population. The reedbeds are home to bittern, snipe, water rail and water vole. Great crested newts are also a key species. The sites are locally important for wintering waterfowl and passage migrants gadwall, smew and green sandpiper.

The reserves have a network of footpaths and cycle ways which you can view on this interactive map.

The Leeds-Liverpool Canal (Leigh Branch) forms a footpath and cycle access point to the Wigan Flashes, Lightshaw Meadows and Pennington Flash. Amberswood, Low Hall, Viridor Woods, Three Sisters Recreation Area and Bickershaw Country park are within walking distance of other sites.

Wigan Flashes - 10km of paths

Amberswood - 6km of paths

Low Hall - arts trails

Three Sisters Recreation Area - 5km of paths with a particular focus on wheelchair accessibility. Takeaway café in school term time only run by The Hamlet with young people with additional needs.

Lightshaw Meadows

Bickershaw Country Park - 15km of paths

Viridor Woods

Pennington Flash - café and toilets

Locations

Wigan Flashes parking - if arriving from Worsley Mesnes - Poolstock Lane (B5238), Wigan. Nearest postcode WN3 5EA..

Wigan Flashes if arriving by Wellen Road – parking for up to 4 vehicles near to Hawkley Hall High School, Wellham Rd off Carr Lane, Wigan WN3 5PA.

Amberswood north access if arriving from Wigan Road, Hindley - small car park opposite Le Cava Restaurant 174 Wigan Rd, Hindley, Wigan WN2 3BU.

Low Hall car park, including south access to Amberswood - Liverpool Road (A58), opposite Crompton Street, Platt Bridge, Wigan nearest postcode WN2 3UF.

Three Sisters recreation area (large parking areas) off Lockett Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan WN4 8DD.

Viridor Wood car parking - Bolton Road (A58), Bamfurlong, Wigan, WN4 8TL.

Lightshaw Meadows if arriving from Liverpool Leeds Canal (Leigh Branch) - parking on canal opposite Dover Bridge, Ayebridge Lane (A573) Abram, Wigan WN2 5XX.

Bickershaw Country Park (north) Smiths Lane (B5237), Bickershaw, Leigh, WN2 4XR.

Bickershaw Country Park (south) Fir Tree Flash – track at junction of Edna Road and Ena Crescent, Westleigh, Leigh WN7 5ET.

Pennington Flash Country Park entrance opposite the Robin Hood, 257 St Helens Road (A572), Aspull Common, Leigh, WN7 3PA. There are parking fees at Pennington Flash by card payment only.

Safety

The Flashes cover a large area, some parts of which are relatively remote, and you can become disorientated.

Look out for uneven surfaces, land holes and depressions, soft wet ground, boggy land, soft banks giving way, open water with risk of immersion and drowning. You should use boardwalks where these are available.

During dry weather conditions there is also a high risk of fire on site. Do not discard empty bottles or cigarettes, or light barbecues.

The reserve adjoins a large urban area but it can still be very quiet and isolated. For your personal safety, if you are visiting on your own, you’re advised to ensure someone else knows where you’ve gone and roughly what time you’ll be back.

Contact

Email: Martin Purcell - m.purcell@wigan.gov.uk