Rixton Clay Pits (also known as Rixton Claypits) is a former clay extraction site in Rixton, near

Hollins Green Hollins Green is a village on the eastern edge of Warrington, in the Warrington district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, close to Glaze Brook, the boundary with Salford, in the civil parish of Rixton-with-Glazebrook; the ecclesi ...

Warrington, England Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. Formerly farmland,

boulder clay Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...

extraction started in the 1920s for brick making in the adjacent

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for ...

, and ceased in 1965 - since then it has been allowed to return to nature. It is now an area of ponds, scrub, woodland and damp grassland. It is owned and managed by Warrington Borough Council as a local amenity. Two large sections of Rixton Clay Pits, in total, are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a designated

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

, on account of its calcareous grassland communities and because it supports the largest breeding population of

Great Crested Newt The northern crested newt, great crested newt or warty newt (''Triturus cristatus'') is a newt species native to Great Britain, northern and central continental Europe and parts of Western Siberia. It is a large newt, with females growing up to ...

s in Cheshire. The whole was established as a local nature reserve in 1996, and has waymarked paths and a visitor centre. Fishing is permitted on the lake between the two sections of SSSI, and is controlled by the Warrington Anglers Association, the main stock being

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also ...

bream Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Acanthopagrus'', ''Argyrops'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', ''Etelis'', '' L ...

and roach. Carp and

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

are also present.

References

External links

Natural England SSSI citation for Rixton Clay PitsNatural England map of the Rixton Clay Pits SSSINatural England map of the Rixton Clay Pits Local Nature ReserveNatural England details of Rixton Clay Pits LNR
{{Commons category, Rixton Clay Pits Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cheshire Lakes and reservoirs of Cheshire Local Nature Reserves in Cheshire Landforms of Cheshire Wetlands of England