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Martin Mere

Lancashire's Lost Lake

Martin Mere
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US$ 25.00 (+ tax)
A drive through the area of Lancashire inland from the seaside resort of Southport takes you through miles of fertile agricultural land dotted with farms and smallholdings. Road signs pointing to such places as ‘Mereside’, ‘Mere Brow’ and ‘Mere Sands Wood’ suggest the origin of these peaty soils, because in the seventeenth century this was the site of the largest lake in England. Martin Mere began as a depression in the glacial drift which filled with water as the ice from the last Ice Age retreated, and over its long history the land and the lake have contested the area as water levels have risen and fallen. Although it was drained in 1697, the Mere continued to reappear after periods of heavy rainfall until as recently as the early 1950s.

This fascinating book tells the story of Martin Mere both in terms of its geomorphology and natural history and from the standpoint of the people who have made their homes and their living on its banks. Drawing on archive material and published sources, the authors describe the origins and prehistory of the Mere before examining the various efforts to drain it for usable land. The place-names, traditions and inhabitants of the Mere are also considered, and the book closes with speculations on what the future might hold for Lancashire’s lost lake.

Liverpool University Press; June 2005
280 pages; ISBN 9781846313523
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