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Ribble Coast and Wetlands

Lancashire Wildlife Trust has secured £8million of Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) investment to build new visitor facilities at their Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve near J31 of the M61 at Preston.

The reserve will be the gateway to Preston and to the tourist attractions of the area. Although long known as one of the premier sites in the Northwest for migrating birds, it has no visitor facilities and is in need of work to make it safe and welcoming for visitors. This new development will become park of the Ribble Coast and Wetlands Regional Park.

Ian Selby, Brockholes Project Manager, said

"We are absolutely delighted that the NWDA has recognized the importance of this project for the people and wildlife of Lancashire and beyond. This iconic development will demonstrate that wildlife can co-exist with people inside such a visitor attraction. We will have educational facilities alongside the usual visitor comforts and are hoping that we will attract day trippers, school parties, stop-offs and dedicated wildlife enthusiasts. We are creating jobs and adding to the appeal of the area for visitors. The centre will eventually be self-funding and will guarantee the future of the reserve for future generations."

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive at the NWDA said:

"The Brockholes development will not only provide an important and distinctive visitor attraction for the region, but will also influence future investment for the area with economic and social impacts felt at both a local and regional level.

"The NWDA recognises that Brockholes is a key site for the region and is pleased to support the development. With an increase in visitor and tourism facilities on site and the provision of well managed green space for local people it will enhance the positive perception of England's Northwest as a whole."

Keith Jones, Regional Director of the Forestry Commission said:

"The Forestry Commission and NWDA are now looking forward to working with Lancashire Wildlife Trust to transform Brockholes. Together we will create a high quality wetland and woodland environment, which will enhance the local economy with jobs and investment, offer a high quality visitor experience and also provide a much needed green space for local communities and nature. As well as becoming an important natural environment attraction in its own right, Brockholes will make a significant contribution to the natural economy of the Northwest region."

Construction will start later in 2009, using the "Floating World" designs by Adam Khan, the winner of the international, RIBA-sponsored design competition which took place in 2008. The reserve is scheduled to open to the public in 2011.

Brockholes will be one of the key attractions in the new Ribble Coast and Wetlands Regional Park, which stretches down the tidal reaches of the River Ribble to the Fylde coast.

The Ribble is one of the most important places in Europe for wildlife. Its designation as a Regional Park, officially launched on Friday 23rd March 2007 - is a positive and exciting step forwards in showing how protecting the Ribble's inter-tidal ecosystem, for now and for future generations, will also boost the local economy.

The Ribble Estuary is the funnel-shaped area to the west of the city of Preston where the River Ribble meets the Irish Sea. The area it covers stretches from Formby Point in Merseyside north to Rossell Point near Fleetwood and upstream to the tidal limit Preston.

This wonderful undiscovered secret lies to the west of Preston where the River Ribble meets the Irish Sea, and between the coastal resorts of Southport, and the Fylde to the north.

The Ribble Coast and Wetlands certainly has a contrasting coastline that each day has something different to offer. It includes vast sun-baked sands, windswept sand dunes on both sides of the estuary that are rich in butterflies, moths and other insects, cattle grazed marshes and flocks of wading birds scurrying along the strandline as the waves ebb and flow. The extensive saltmarsh and mudflats revealed at low tide, give the impression of a desolate wasteland when in reality the mud supports multitudes of small burrowing creatures, which in turn provide food for tens of thousands of birds.

Further inland in the area that previously formed part of the historic martin mere, and which before the 17th century drainage work was the largest lake in England, there are pockets of woodland, wet meadows, heaths, and smaller lakes that provide wildlife havens, nationally important for wildfowl, dragonflies and geology.

If you want to see the birds close-up there are several places where this is possible. Natural England who manages the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve run guided walks into the reserve.

A CCTV camera in the RSPB Ribble Discovery Centre at Granny's Bay provides a "window on the estuary" allowing visitors to see the wonderful wildlife spectacle as the birds feed on the mud exposed at low tide. Visitors can walk along the coastal paths and visiting the hides at Marshside an important winter refuge for pink-footed geese, wigeons, godwits and plovers and in spring provides nesting places for lapwings and redshanks.

At the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Martin Mere Wetland Centre you can come into close contact with wetlands and their wildlife. In the 50 acre landscaped Waterfowl gardens you can feed the world's largest and endangered species straight from your hand. In winter thousands of ducks, geese and swans visit, which you can watch and witness the very noisy, daily feeding sessions.

Close by there is Mere Sands Wood, a wildlife rich haven in the heart of agricultural West Lancashire made up of lakes, mature broadleaved and conifer woodland, sandy, wet meadows and heaths. Closer to Preston there is also Longton Brickcroft a managed wildlife reserve on the site of a former brickworks.

The new proposals for the Ribble Coast & Wetlands (RCW) also include fantastic new access routes for walking, cycling, and horse-riding, which will all become part of an intricate, accessible and dynamic North West Coastal Trail which includes the Lancashire Coastal Way (some of which is already open), North West Coastal Path and the Sefton Coastal Path (some already completed), the Regional Coastal Trail, a foot/cycle/bridle bridge over the River Douglas, the Burscough to Banks Wetland Walk, the RCW Regional Park Cycleway, the Fylde Coast Cycleway, Lancashire Cycleway, the Trans Pennine Trail, and the Preston Guild Wheel (which will also link in to several other walking and cycling routes), all linking in with the Ribble Way, the Douglas Way, existing footpath networks, and the Southport to Preston National cycling route.

With the huge new Wetland Nature Reserve at Brockholes now in the pipeline - Preston itself also has a lot to offer the Ribble Coast & Wetlands Regional Park.

Ribble Coast & Wetlands Regional Park Prospectus / Vision

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Ribble Coast & Wetlands Regional Park Prospectus / Vision

Ribble Coast and Wellands Walking festival Feb 2009

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A series of guided wildlife walks around the region of the Ribble Coast and Wetlands.

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