Ducks, geese and swans congregate on the fringe of Pennington Flash’s lake. They crowd round me, maybe hoping for meals, although I’ve none. Close by is an ice-cream van, with one early morning buyer, however the birds will not be getting a cone from me. I wouldn’t share it.
Quickly, nevertheless, the refreshment choices are going to enhance – although I’d advise in opposition to providing wildlife a flat white and a danish pastry. Past the ice-cream van, work continues on a £2.7m Wigan council challenge as a result of open in January, offering a brand new customer centre and a restaurant with outside decking the place guests will have the ability to sit and savour views of the lake, woodland and wildlife.
The services will, after additional public session, additionally embrace a nature-themed, wheelchair-accessible youngsters’s playground with a central toddler “lake” that will likely be an space of play tools modelled on swans and boats.
This “flash” at Pennington is amongst a number of round Wigan and Leigh, within the west of Larger Manchester, which have not too long ago been designated by Pure England as a part of a brand new nationwide nature reserve (NNR). Now referred to as the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, the eight websites cowl greater than 800 hectares (1,976 acres) and in addition embrace Wigan Flashes, Lightshaw Meadows, Amberswood, Bickershaw nation park, Three Sisters, Viridor Wooden and Low Corridor. They’ve been recognised for his or her pure magnificence and ecological significance, and most are examples of nature reclaiming former coal-mining areas.
“Flashes are created when, over time, land beforehand utilized in business subsides and water fills the house,” says Mark Champion, tasks supervisor at Lancashire Wildlife Belief, which is able to handle the reserve at the side of Wigan council and Forestry England. “Nature and wildlife finally observe. Should you like, it’s a case of from coal tricks to willow tits.”
Throughout the brand new NNR, swamps, reedbeds, herb fens, marshy grasslands and moist woodlands help an array of birds, together with about 2% of England’s willow tit inhabitants. Wintering bitterns, thought of uncommon, are additionally frequent guests.
“This gained’t be your final go to,” says David Molyneux, the chief of Wigan council, turning his face to the surprisingly heat October solar and joking: “It’s all the time like this right here, very Mediterranean.”
I meet Molyneux and Champion earlier than exploring Pennington Flash, keen to absorb an space each inexperienced and simply accessible for locals. “Wigan is among the greenest city boroughs within the UK,” says Champion. “The phrase city is necessary as a result of this space isn’t the identical as someplace like Cornwall. It’s a busy, populated space, but it’s nonetheless 60% inexperienced house – and that’s not together with metropolis or city parks.”
At the moment, the eight websites obtain about 800,000 visits a yr. Molyneux, a significant advocate for the reserve, hopes this can improve, and that guests will achieve a greater understanding of conservation and the atmosphere.
“It was a proud second getting this recognition, and one thing we’d labored exhausting in the direction of for a few years,” he says. “The Flashes have been our borough’s best-kept secret – identified and beloved by locals however not essentially on the radar of individuals additional afield. Now we’re proud to share that secret with the world.”
Molyneux is conscious that NNR standing can be a stepping stone for extra enhancements throughout the websites, every of which has its personal identification and vary of actions: Amberswood is necessary for ornithology; at Wigan Flashes colliery spoil and ash have enabled orchids and night primrose to thrive; and at Viridor Wooden there are biking and horse-riding trails, and a fishing lake.
“NNR standing offers us a platform from which to coach and encourage future generations and inform the story of those landscapes. It additionally places us in pole place for additional funding to deal with the large twin challenges of our time: nature restoration and local weather change,” Molyneux says.
I stroll alongside a path by the lake that was as soon as the route of the Nice Central Railway however which is now laden with timber and dotted with chicken hides. I might detour in the direction of the Leeds-Liverpool canal and its heritage path, however as a substitute I circle the lake, often wanting again to the place I met Champion and Molyneux. Even within the early autumn sunshine I admire it’s not the Mediterranean, however the blue water and the inexperienced, amber and russet of the timber make a blinding vista – and there are nonetheless seven extra of those marvels for me to discover.
