Monument record 15501 - Comber Mere

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.135-6, 138-9 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Comber Mere was investigated by the North West Wetlands project, an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire, undertaken between 1993-95. It forms part of a group of wetlands in the south-west of Cheshire, between Cholmondeley and the Shropshire border. The wetland type most common in this region is the mere, and, although many are ringed by extensive areas of peat or other waterlogged deposits, this does not appear to be the case with Comber Mere. These wetlands lie within, or on the fringes of, the belt of glacial deposits known as the Whitchurch moraine, which extends roughly along the county border and marks the southern boundary of the Cheshire plain. This landscape is characterised by the presence of numerous sandy ridges, hummocks and outwash plains and is thought to mark the boundary of the ice sheet during a temporary period of stagnation at the close of the last glaciation.

The mere lies within Combermere Park (CHER 347/2/0), and Combermere House (CHER 347/1) lies on its southern shores. Combermere House, itself, lies on the site of a Cistercian Abbey (CHER 346/1). The mere was enlarged in the nineteenth century and the land surrounding it has been extensively landscaped, although an area of wide ridge and furrow of potential medieval date still survives to the west of the mere. The North West Wetland survey recorded two earthwork features close to the mere, including a mound to the south (CHER 2702), and a group of sunken, linear features to the west (CHER 2703).

<2> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol III, p.94 (Book). SCH3228.

The name means 'welshman's lake' from Cumbre (Cumbra) and mere.