Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

AS I sat down to plan this article the sun was beating down from a clear blue sky and I decided to explore some of the reservoirs which were built to collect water from the Pennine hills and those around Pendle and Longridge.

Last year our reservoirs were so depleted that there was often more mud than water. This year's situation is much better but the more water we have the more danger there is so it is essential to take great care.

The reservoirs around East Lancashire are broadly of two types. Firstly there are those built to provide water to top up the locks on our canals. It is hard to imagine that each time a lock operates it takes 75,000 gallons of water. Reservoirs built for canals include Foulridge at Colne and another by the side of Barrowford Locks.

Other reservoirs were built mainly in the 19th century when the cotton industry was developing. Water was needed for the boilers and for cleaning purposes as well as for domestic purposes. To begin with water was needed mainly for drinking but the demand is now greater than ever. We all have bathrooms, showers, washing machines, flush toilets and hosepipes for gardens. When water first came on tap there was only one tap in each household.

What has changed in the 1990s is the attitude of British Waterways and especially the water companies. Canals and reservoirs are now not fenced off and protected by threatening notices. Footpaths have been created around them and areas suitable for wildlife have been either protected or specially created.

Around Foulridge I found reed mace - often wrongly called the bullrush - and water mint, both of which are worth watching carefully.

As the reed mace flowers fade, a huge black seed head develops and eventually bursts. The seeds contain oil and these are fed upon by birds such as goldfinches and reed buntings.

The reed bunting looks a but like a sparrow but the male has a shiny black head and a pale collar on its neck.

The water mint is an insignificant plant until you get close to it.

The tightly clustered lilac flowers are very pretty and the leaves when crushed smell just like the mint we spread on lamb.

This species, however, has a stronger taste than garden mint.

There is a good way of enjoying the taste and that is to drop whole leaves in a pan of boiling potatoes.

The leaves are removed after cooking but the potatoes smell and taste of mint.

A clump of reed mace and watermint is the perfect place to sit still and watch the blue damselflies and the larger brown dragonflies.

They use the mint, the reed mace and other waterside plants to perch and rest in the heat of the sun and, when it is cold and wet, to conserve their energy.

We who live in what was cotton country have other excellent places to watch natural history.

These are the old mill lodges, once used to store water for the boilers which powered steam engines.

Many are now disused and have become either official or unofficial nature reserves.

Two of the best of these are at Oswaldtwistle Mills and above Berry's chair factory at Chipping.

At Oswaldtwistle Mills the lodge has now been set up as a nature reserve and a neat picnic site provided for visitors.

The exotic collection of wildfowl (including Australian black swans) seems to attract native species of waterfowl to seek sanctuary and even breed around the old lodge, where nesting platforms and boxes have been provided.

Part of Berry's chair factory, at Chipping, is occupied by an old cotton mill and above this is the lodge, still full of water and now a haven for wildlife.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.