Roswell Pits

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Roswell Pits
Roswell Pits.jpg
The northern corner of the flooded pits
TypeNature reserve
LocationEly, Cambridgeshire
OS grid TL 556 806
Area8 hectares
Managed byEnvironment Agency

Roswell Pits is an 8 hectare nature reserve on the eastern outskirts of Ely in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Environment Agency. It is part of the Ely Pits and Meadows Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)) and Geological Conservation Review site. The SSSI designation for both biological and geological interest. [1] [2] [3] The site was formerly managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. [4]

Ely, Cambridgeshire Cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England

Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, about 14 miles (23 km) north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles (129 km) by road from London. Æthelthryth founded an abbey at Ely in 673; the abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish invaders and was rebuilt by Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in 970. Construction of the cathedral was started in 1083 by a Norman abbot, Simeon. Alan of Walsingham's octagon, built over Ely's nave crossing between 1322 and 1328, is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral", according to architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner. Building continued until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 during the Reformation. The cathedral was sympathetically restored between 1845 and 1870 by the architect George Gilbert Scott. As the seat of a diocese, Ely has long been considered a city; in 1974, city status was granted by royal charter.

Cambridgeshire County of England

Cambridgeshire is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. The city of Cambridge is the county town. Modern Cambridgeshire was formed in 1974 as an amalgamation of the counties of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely and Huntingdon and Peterborough, the former covering the historic county of Cambridgeshire and the latter covering the historic county of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough, historically part of Northamptonshire. It contains most of the region known as Silicon Fen.

Ely Pits and Meadows

Ely Pits and Meadows is an 85.8 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the eastern outskirts of Ely in Cambridgeshire. It is the only SSSI in the county which is designated both for its biological and geological interest. It is also a Geological Conservation Review site, and an area of 8 hectares is the Roswell Pits nature reserve, which is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Contents

History

The pits were a source of gault, an impervious clay used to maintain river banks in the low-lying regions of the South Level of the Fens. Following the re-routing of the rivers in the region by Cornelius Vermuyden and his Adventurers in the 1650s, to more effectively drain the Fens, the peaty soils began to dry out and shrink. [5] As the land surface sunk below the levels of the rivers, it became important to maintain the banks with something impervious to water, to prevent seepage into the newly drained agricultural land, and to prevent collapse of the banks and flooding of the land in times of heavy rainfall. Roswell Pits were an ideal source of this material, as they were located adjacent to the River Great Ouse, and boats could take the bulky material directly to the banks being maintained.

Kimmeridge Clay

The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation is the major source rock for North Sea oil. The fossil fauna of the Kimmeridge Clay includes turtles, crocodiles, sauropods, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs, as well as a number of invertebrate species.

Cornelius Vermuyden Dutch engineer

Sir Cornelius Vermuyden was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 for his work and became an English citizen in 1633. In the 1650s, he directed major projects to drain The Fens of East Anglia, introducing the innovation of constructing washes, to allow periodic flooding of the area by excess waters.

River Great Ouse river in the United Kingdom

The River Great Ouse is a river in the United Kingdom, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in central England, the Great Ouse flows into East Anglia before entering the Wash, a bay of the North Sea. With a course of 143 miles (230 km), mostly flowing north and east, it is the one of the longest rivers in the United Kingdom. The Great Ouse has been historically important for commercial navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows; its best-known tributary is the Cam, which runs through Cambridge. Its lower course passes through drained wetlands and fens and has been extensively modified, or channelised, to relieve flooding and provide a better route for barge traffic. Though the unmodified river probably changed course regularly after floods, it now enters the Wash after passing through the port of King's Lynn, south of its earliest-recorded route to the sea.

The men who carried the gault away were called "gaulters", and typically worked in gangs of three. The gang was managed by a Head Ganger, and a team of three men worked a train of five boats, each around 36 by 8.5 feet (11.0 by 2.6 m), and capable of holding 8 tons of gault (Kimmeridge) clay. Teams employed by the Burnt Fen Drainage District were provided with the boats, but had to supply a horse for towing the boats, and shovels and barrows for loading and unloading the gault. In 1810, Robert Fletcher and Co were paid £7/3/6 (£7.17) for 246 tons of gault delivered to the Burnt Fen District, a rate of 7 pence (3p) per ton. In 1886, the terms of the men were re-negotiated, because the Commissioners felt that the wages received were excessive. They calculated that each man would receive £1/12/6 (£1.62) per week if the team completed five round trips as expected. Gaulters ceased to be employed by the Burnt Fen District after 1920, when responsibility for the river banks passed to the newly formed Ouse Drainage Board. [5]

Burnt Fen

Burnt Fen is an area of low-lying land crossed by the A1101 road between Littleport in Cambridgeshire and Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. It is surrounded on three sides by rivers, and consists of prime agricultural land, with sparse settlement. It is dependent on pumped drainage to prevent it from flooding.

The pits continued to supply clay, with a new pit being started in 1947. Since extraction stopped, they have become a wetland wildlife habitat. They have also been used by Ely Sailing Club since 1946, when the club was founded. The main yachting area covers around 40 acres (16 ha), and is used for both cruising and racing. The club is recognised by the Royal Yachting Association as a training centre, and can therefore offer training to those interested in learning the skills of yachting. [6]

Royal Yachting Association national governing body for certain water sports in the United Kingdom

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national governing body for dinghy, yacht and motor cruising, all forms of sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft and a leading representative for inland waterways cruising.

The pits were the subject of controversy in 2006 when the larger lake was sold to a new owner. A local group, Ely Wildspace [7] accused the owner of having the intention of providing moorings for boats using the River Great Ouse. The lakes were by then home to a wide range of wildlife, and the two functions were seen as conflicting. The owner responded with their intention to create a wildlife reserve. [8] Parts of the area were declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest in June 2008, in recognition of their geology and wetland habitat, [9] and in the absence of a planning application by the owner, an enforcement notice was issued by East Cambridgeshire District Council, preventing further work being carried out. An appeal against the notice was rejected by the Planning Inspectorate on 14 November 2008, with the outcome that sections where work has been carried out will have to be returned to their previous state. [10] In April 2009, the SSSI was extended to cover an area of 210 acres (85 ha), including nearly all of the former pits. [11]

Site of Special Scientific Interest Conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".

Ecology and geology

These former clay pits have lakes and reedbeds. Birds include common terns, kingfishers and reed warblers, there are flowers such as bee orchids and emperor dragonflies. The site has yielded fossils of dinosaurs, crocodiles and turtles. [4]

<i>Ophrys apifera</i> species of plant

Ophrys apifera, known in Europe as the bee orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae. It is remarkable as an example of sexually-deceptive pollination and floral mimicry as well as of a highly-selective and highly evolved plant-pollinator relationship.

Access

The reserve is in two nearby areas, and access is from Kiln Lane, which passes between them. [4]

Related Research Articles

Redgrave and Lopham Fens Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve

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Ouse Washes nature reserve in the United Kingdom

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Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows is an 11.34 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, which sits on the Upper Greensand and Gault Clay.The site is home to rare fen meadow and neutral grassland communities in an unimproved grassland. Species such as Triglochin palustris, Caltha palustris and Oenanthe pimpinelloides can be found at the location. Three streams, which form headwaters of the River Nadder flow through the site. It was notified in 2002.

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References

  1. ↑ "Designated Sites View: Ely Pits and Meadows". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "Map of Ely Pits and Meadows". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  3. ↑ "Roswell Pits, Ely (Jurassic - Cretaceous Reptilia)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Roswell Pits". Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  5. 1 2 The Urgent Hour, (1983), John Beckett, Ely Local History Publication Board, ISBN   0904463036
  6. ↑ About Ely Sailing Club, accessed 27 June 2009
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2013-07-22.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link) Ely Wildspace
  8. ↑ Roswell Pit Owner Has Set Up Conservation Group
  9. ↑ Ely Wildspace - A Major Threat, accessed 26 June 2009 Archived 3 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ East Cambridgeshire District Council, Roswell Pits Press Release, accessed 26 June 2009 [ dead link ]
  11. ↑ Ely Wildspace - Broader Protection, accessed 26 June 2009 Archived 2 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine

Coordinates: 52°24′04″N0°17′10″E / 52.401°N 0.286°E / 52.401; 0.286

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