Changing Flora on the Moss
Tormentil growing at Myers Allotments, above Leighton Moss.
Back in the eighteenth century Leighton Moss — the North Lancashire wetland now owned by the RSPB — was known as Warton Moss. From the description given by John Lucas, the local historian of the day, it clearly looked very different 300 years ago.
“Almost the whole surface of this Moss is covered with Heather Ling, which in some parts of England is yet used to preserve their beer”, writes Lucas.
“In the places not covered with Ling , the Tormentilla Quadrifolia grows, in great plenty, an herb which our botanists allow is found more plentifully in this county than any other, though I fancy not in such abundance as in the mosses of the northern islands.”
In Lucas’s time some efforts had already been made to drain the Moss for agricultural use. In the nineteenth century (see blogs passim) the landowners went much further, using steam power to push the water off the land turning the peat beds into highly productive farming land. But the Moss re-flooded after the first World War, and today the site boasts the largest reed-beds in northern England. It is managed by the RSPB to provide wetland habitat for a vast range of birdlife — not to mention otters, fish and eels.
Lucas is always ready with an interesting fact about the uses for local plants. He points out that the Scots sometimes used Tormental (or Tormentil) to tan leather when they couldn’t get hold of bark. And there was a veterinary use:”I remember my dear father used to get a quantity of Tormental roots in this Moss early in May or June, when the herb was in flower, of which (to the great advantage of the neighbourhood) he with a small mixture of other ingredients , compounded and gave gratis, a very successful Remedy for the Blend Water in Cattle, till then generally thought incurable.”