West Heath is a suburb to the west of

Congleton Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The town is by the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 26,482. Top ...

, in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It is the site of

Astbury Mere Astbury Mere is a lake and open area in West Heath, a suburb of Congleton, Cheshire, England, in an area formerly quarried for silica sand. Part of the area is accredited by Natural England as a country park, Astbury Mere Country Park. The cou ...

Country Park. The West Heath area has three schools, with one of Congleton's two secondary schools,

Congleton High School Congleton High School (CHS) is an 11–18 mixed secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Congleton, Cheshire, England. It has a specialism in engineering. History The school was formed after the reduction of the area's thre ...

being located there.

Geography and environment

lies at a zone of transition between the Cheshire Plain and

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

( Pennine) Mountains. West Heath lies on the Cheshire plain and consists of rolling farmland, suburbs and small woodlands. The flora of the area is typical of the Cheshire Plain, but is well wooded and with small areas of

heathlands A heath () is a shrubland habitat (ecology), habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great B ...

still surviving in isolated pockets, mainly around

and out towards Somerford.

History

West Heath was formerly an area of large

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. It had an opencast sand quarry, now a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

known as Astbury Mere. Many of the houses and layout were built after the 1960s to the present, although older buildings pocket the area.

Astbury Mere

is a local country park and is popular with walkers, dog walkers, cyclists, fishermen and adventure sports enthusiasts.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Congleton