Monument record 15466 - Birch Moss

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.88-9 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Birch Moss is included in the North West Wetlands project, an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire, undertaken between 1993-95. It is one of a series of wetlands in the area extending from Wilmslow in the north to Macclesfield in the east and Sandbach and Congleton in the south. Within this region a variety of wetland types are present from small basin mires west of Macclesfield to large mosses such as Danes Moss and Lindow Moss. The wetlands also display a wide variation in their degree of preservation. The group comprises two contrasting landscapes with the majority of wetlands in a region termed the ‘marginal belt’, with a smaller group centred around Bag Mere, on the fringes of the Cheshire Plain. Small meres, frequently surrounded by peat, are a common feature in this part of Cheshire and place-names evidence show they were once more prolific. The majority of the wetlands have developed in depressions and hollows in the surface of the varied glacial deposits.

Birch Moss is one of five small mosses contained within Smallwood Township, the other mosses are Brookhouse, Spen, Martin's and Rue. By the early nineteenth century very little land, even former common land, remained un-enclosed. However, unusually, in the township of Smallwood, the old tradition of turbary rights seems to have survived until at least the mid-nineteenth century, illustrated by the fact that the Smallwood mosses are shown divided into moss-rooms on the Tithe Award of 1839. The apportionment reveals that virtually every tenant held some moss-rooms, usually spread amongst two or three of the mosses. Smallwood Township is the best and most complete example of moss-rooms and turbary rights so far located in Cheshire. As well as the moss rooms there are numerous moss field names scattered around the township.