Project

River Bollin Project at Quarry Bank

A view of the weir at Quarry Bank, with a huge volume of water cascading over — The weir in the River Bollin at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire | © Ian Shaw

As part of a national programme to improve the health of rivers across England and Wales, we've launched the River Bollin Riverlands Project. The project will include Quarry Bank, Dunham Massey, Lyme, Alderley Edge and Hare Hill.

What's happening at Quarry Bank?

The river Bollin sits at the heart of Quarry Bank, powering the wheel of the mill that played an integral part in the Manchester Industrial Revolution. To improve riverland habitat here we are restoring 11 ponds, creating one new pond, improving 1,300m of the Bollin and restoring around 1,400m of tributaries to the watercourse.

Where is the River Bollin?

The River Bollin and its catchment meander through Cheshire and the southern fringes of Manchester, flowing by many places along the way, including Quarry Bank, Dunham Massey, Alderley Edge, Hare Hill and Lyme. The largely rural and agricultural nature of the catchment gives way to the city of Greater Manchester to the north.

What is the Riverlands project?

The River Bollin is part of our national Riverlands Programme which has the following three key aims:

Rivers and catchments that are healthy, clean and rich in wildlife.
Rivers and catchments that are easily accessed, valued and loved for their heritage and beauty.
Sustainable long-term care for rivers and catchments.

We’ll also be working with local communities to help them rediscover and reconnect with their rivers – as spaces for leisure and activity, to socialise, or simply take a walk beside the water and clear their minds.

A new investment of almost £1m from the Government's Species Survival Fund will support these projects, protect fragile ecosystems and create nature-rich landscapes. The fund was developed by Defra and its Arm's-Length Bodies. It is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Riverlands Bollin is a part of the Freshwater Community Grant Fund. This fund supports community initiatives to restore freshwater habitats in England. In partnership with Defra's Species Survival Fund, the scheme aims to award a total of £75,000 to local initiatives. Applications are now open for community groups to submit bids for this funding. You can find out more about the Freshwater Community Grant Fund by clicking here.

On this timeline, we'll be posting regular updates of the work we're doing on the project, so keep checking back in to stay up to date.

Latest updates

31 August 2023

The need for pondscape recovery

We’re continuing our work to identify and locate ponds that have been lost over the last 100+ years.

These ponds sometimes show up on historic maps, although many do not. We’ve been working with The Environmental Partnership to map current and historic ponds. They’re putting together a dataset showing where ponds are currently present in the landscape, what their current condition is, and how they can be improved.

Where the conditions are right, we want to restore these ‘ghost’ ponds and put them back into our landscape. To do this, we’ll need to dig down to the original pond bed and watch as it springs back into life. Where this has happened before it has allowed for plants that have not been seen for hundreds of years to come back to life.

We’re close to completing our mapping, and you can find out more about our work with The Environmental Partnership here.

Glossary of key terms

Catchment – the geographical area that supplies water to a main river or lake.

Culvert – a pipe or tunnel that moves water underground. Often this water would have naturally flown overground.

De culverting – removing the pipe or tunnel to allow the watercourse to return to a more natural state.

Ghost pond – an old pond that no longer exists because it has been filled in either naturally or by people.

Landslip – material that falls down a slope, usually smaller than a landslide. At Lyme, this material is man-made litter.

Tributaries – a river or stream that flows into a larger river or lake.

Watercourse – a stream of water (e.g. a river or a brook).

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