Granville Country Park is a local nature reserve near

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, England. It is owned by

Telford and Wrekin Council Telford and Wrekin Council is the local authority of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The district of Telford and Wrekin was grant ...

, who work in partnership with the

Shropshire Wildlife Trust The Shropshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the geographic county of Shropshire, England. Nature reserves The trust cares for, or is associated with, 42 nature reserves (plus its headquarters in Shrewsbury – see next section) ...

and Friends of Granville."Granville Country Park"
Telford & Wrekin Council. Retrieved 1 October 2021."General Information"
Friends of Granville Country Park. Retrieved 1 October 2021.

Description

The reserve, area , contains former industrial sites, since reclaimed by nature. There is woodland, meadows, a marsh and open water; former pit mounds are now grasslands and heath. These varied habitats support many species of plant, bird and insect."Granville Country Park"
''Shropshire Wildlife Trust''. Retrieved 1 October 2021.

Muxton Marsh

Muxton Marsh, within the reserve, is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Its area is . The western end is an uncultivated meadow, with plant species including

yellow rattle ''Rhinanthus minor'', known as yellow rattle, is a herbaceous wildflower in the genus '' Rhinanthus'' in the family Orobanchaceae (the broomrapes). It has circumpolar distribution in Europe, Russia, western Asia, and northern North America. An a ...

, meadow vetchling and marsh thistle. The eastern end is wetter, a habitat for rushes,

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

and

marsh arrow-grass ''Triglochin palustris'' or marsh arrowgrass is a species of flowering plant in the arrowgrass family Juncaginaceae. It is found in damp grassland usually on calcareous soils, fens and meadows. The species epithet ''palustris'' is Latin for "of ...

. The eastern part includes the slopes of a former pit mound, where there is now woodland with

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

at its foot by the marsh.

Remains of industry

The remains of blast furnaces, a

tub boat A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They a ...

canal and a

winding engine A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...

house can be seen. The blast furnaces were the Old Lodge Furnaces, built by the

Lilleshall Company The Lilleshall Company was a large engineering company in Oakengates Shropshire founded in 1802. Its operations included mechanical engineering, coal mining, iron and steel making and brickworks. The company was noted for its winding, pumping an ...

, near an old hunting lodge that was demolished in 1820. They were in use from 1824 until 1888; they were demolished in 1905. Part of the brickwork of three of the furnaces remain."Industrial History"
Friends of Granville Country Park. Retrieved 4 October 2021.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Granville Heritage Trail leaflet

Granville Nature Reserve leaflet
Local Nature Reserves in Shropshire Industrial archaeological sites in Shropshire Telford