Conder Head back in October 2018
I’ve been worrying about deep peat in the Bowland Fells for weeks. Well, not all the time but off and on.
I asked NE whether the area on which a reader of this blog had seen heather burning a couple of months ago (see above) was in fact blanket bog (as I had been told that it was) but NE said that it wasn’t (see here).
And then over the Christmas break I was reading the RSPB objection to the proposed track over Walshaw Moor on the Pendle Borough Council website. It’s a very fine objection. But what caught my eye, and I could easily have missed it because my eyes tend to glaze over when reading planning documents) was this phrase ‘mapped as deep peat on the NE deep peat layer provided to the RSPB by NE under Request for Information 4259 (May 2018)’.
So I wonder whether this ‘deep peat’ map exists for Bowland too, or whether it is of more limited geographic extent. But if it does relate to Bowland does it show the area of Conder Head as being deep peat?
I’ve asked NE as follows:
I am responding to your response of 27 November to FOI request 4438.
I see on the RSPB’s letter of objection to Pendle and Calder Councils (re the proposed damaging track across Walshaw Moor) that NE has made available to the RSPB a map of deep peat under Request for Information 4259 (May 2018).
My follow up questions are as follows:
Does this deep peat map cover the area of the Bowland Fells known on OS maps as Conder Fell and which was the subject of my previous request?
If so, does it show that area to be deep peat?
If so, why did you not disclose that information in response to my previous enquiry ref 4438?
Yours sincerely
The automatic response to my email was as follows:
Thank you for your email.
The Access to Information Team will be unavailable until Monday 7 January 2019 during the Christmas and New Year Period and will respond to all emails as soon as possible on our return.
Please note – Any formal requests for information received during this time will be acknowledged on our return. The 20 working days deadline will not be affected by this delay.
Well, it’s good to learn they are having a good long break but if the team glance at this blog they will know that they have some work to return to on Monday.
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Hi Mark, despite living relatively locally, I’m unable to visit the area you are worried about (not exactly on a bus route!). However, if you go to http://www.geograph.org.uk and type SD5460 in the search box a nice photo of the spring at Conder Head comes up and the soil looks pretty peaty on that. I’ve only ever viewed the area from a distance in the past when trying to get red grouse for my New Year’s Day list and was always successful but the vegetation looked grassy rather than having heather so I wasn’t sure about what lay underneath. The photo, and NE eventually one hopes, may help.
Jean – many thanks. And I think this is your first comment here.
That is a great website Jean.
The photo of the spring was apparently taken at SD549606
which is pretty much spot on for Mark’s spot on his original post.
There are two photos
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/91305
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/91303
I still think that boggy area might be very localised around the water course and i seem to recall (that photo has jogged my memory) that path to the east is very peaty lower down (SD550609?) presumably where the path gets closer to the burn.
I think it would take an on-site check to see where they have been burning (the original blog photo shows at least 4 small? fires probably 5). Most of that area looks like this.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1355797
Does that look like deep peat habitat?
This is the original post
https://markavery.info/2018/11/02/bowlands-burning/
I can make a visit before March.
My memory of that site, which i visited a few times about 15 years ago, is that it isn’t blanket bog but i wanted to go physically again to be sure.
PS. The gridrefs on those photos need to be used with caution.
I thought they were generated automatically by camera gps but i found a photo from near where i live and the gridref is 500m off (whoever added it gave the gridref for the wrong cattlegrid). Although the photos of the stream at Condor head appear to match.