Rostherne Mere: Aspects of a Wetland Nature Reserve

Rostherne Mere, the most northerly of the Cheshire meres, is also the deepest, one of the biggest, the best researched and arguably the most beautiful. This book tells the story of this much-loved but largely secret nature reserve. It does so through a highly informative text liberally illustrated with historic photos, paintings, postcards, poems, drawings and original artwork.

It is a story of people as well as wildlife and science: about those who have trespassed, fished, skated, painted, protested, parachuted, worked, researched and birdwatched on and around its extensive waters. In a text written by leading experts, wardens, observers and researchers, you can read about the mass protest of 1909, the training of parachutists in the 1940s, the bequest of Lord Egerton which led to the National Nature Reserve of 1961, and the wildlife recording and scientific research that has been carried out here over more than a hundred years.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the famous Cheshire naturalists Thomas Coward and Arnold Boyd wrote about their visits to the Mere in their Country Diary columns for The (Manchester) Guardian; this volume brings the story right up to date, in an account which has much to interest and enthral the general reader, student and scientist alike.