Branston Water Park is a local nature reserve near

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a ...

, in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England, adjacent to the village of Branston.

History

The lake is a former

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...

, one of several along the

Trent Valley The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

. There was gravel extraction here from the 1930s to the 1950s, after which wildlife habitats developed naturally. In the mid 1980s the land was leased by

East Staffordshire East Staffordshire is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire in England. It has two main towns: Burton upon Trent and Uttoxeter. Villages in the area include Abbots Bromley, Stretton, Tutbury, Barton-under-Needwood, ...

Borough Council; public access was introduced, and the site was developed as a country park, with pathways, signage and a visitor centre."Branston Water Park: Management Plan 2018–2021"
East Staffordshire Borough Council. Retrieved 10 July 2020. The reserve was designated a local nature reserve (LNR) in 2010. , it has held the

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

since 2005."Branston Water Park"
East Staffordshire Borough Council. Retrieved 9 July 2020.

Description

The

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middle ...

passes alongside the site to the north-west; to the south- east is the

A38 road The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, Bristol, Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England. The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is long, mak ...

. Its area is ."Branston Water Park LNR"
''

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

''. Retrieved 10 July 2020. It is a notable

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

site, and around the lake is woodland, predominantly of willow and birch, and wildflower meadow. There is a large

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

, which is a Grade 1 Staffordshire

Site of Biological Importance A Site of Biological Importance (or SBI) is one of the non-statutory designations used locally by the Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire County Councils in England to protect locally valued sites of biological diversity which are describ ...

. There is a flat circular path around the lake, and there are picnic areas and a children's play area. The Burton Mutual Angling Association and the Burton Model Boating Club use the park by agreement with

East Staffordshire Borough Council East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Branston Water Park leaflet
Local nature reserves in Staffordshire Lakes of Staffordshire Parks and open spaces in Staffordshire