VILLAGERS in Rossendale are helping turn the site of a former cotton mill and reservoir into a nature reserve.

Projects Environment, a small local trust made up of villagers from Turn, near Edenfield, is developing the site at Lodge Mill.

It is hoped the project will lead to a haven for wildlife and walkers.

Organisers also hope the scheme will include craft and heritage workshops, and education and rural skills programmes.

The mill was demolished last year and the reserve is being developed alongside a new residential scheme of 29 houses.

The first steps of the project, likely to last for the next few years, will be producing a newsletter outlining the scheme, and inviting residents to take part in wildlife monitoring. Future newsletters will include articles on the history of the site.

Projects Environment is planning to use willow to stabilise the reservoir, and to create a demonstration area to show the links between Rossendale's natural and industrial past.

Walkways will also be built around the reservoir, and seating introduced.

The plan is to allow open access to the land for residents and naturalists, to keep the natural habitat, and add to it by laying hedges and stone walls. Celia Larner, the director of Lodge Mill Environmental Community Reserve, said: "The three fields earmarked for the reserve form a buffer zone around the village on which a covenant has been placed, preventing commercial development for a minimum of 25 years.

"It will thus, we hope, have an important cohesive effect on the community and help conserve the character of the village."