WWT Martin Mere is starting a campaign celebrating 40 years of the wetland centre.
WWT Martin Mere opened its doors to WWT members in late 1974 and opened to general public on 1 March 1975. Over the next 6 months, WWT Martin Mere will be sharing historical pictures and information with visitors, as well as asking them to tell us about their favourite memory.
Over the last 40 years, WWT Martin Mere has welcomed over 5.5m visitors as well as over 300,000 school educational visits, but how did the journey of Martin Mere begin?
Sir Peter Scott and Ronnie Barker, a local haulage contractor, developed a close friendship in the 1950s and he knew of Peter’s passion for creating a large wild area alongside a collection of captive birds and an education centre in the North West. Ronnie knew that many Pink-footed geese and Bewick swans roosted in the Martin Mere area on land owned by the Slingers, owners of Windmill Animal Farm. In 1968 Ronnie introduced Peter Scott to Matt Slinger and Martin Mere’s incredible journey began. 363 acres were purchased for £52,000 in 1972. The land was derelict and used for intensive agriculture purposes. There wasn’t a tree on site and it took just three years to turn the site around to become a site of international importance, as seen when the Duke of Edinburgh visited in 1978.
The Visitor Centre took only 3 weeks to build, and doesn’t contain a single nail – the weight of the turf roof bearing down on the interlocking logs keeps everything in place. When completed in April 1974, it was the largest log cabin in Britain.
There have been many wildlife changes over the years but the most notable has been the increase in pink-footed geese from 30,000 to 100,000 in Lancashire, avocet increases from just 4 to 110 on the mere in 2014. Numbers of Bewick swans have declined but whooper swans from Iceland have increased from literally none in 1970 to almost 2,000 today. WWT itself has also developed by including wetland mammals as exhibits and in 2007 Martin Mere welcomed a family of beavers and in 2009 a family of otters. Other new developments have included an adventure play area, new Mere Side café, a feature on weird and wonderful waterfowl and a Wild Walk making WWT Martin Mere a fantastic place to visit.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre is open every day (except Christmas Day) from 9.30am to 6pm up to 2 November and parking is free of charge. Situated off the A59, it is signposted from the M61, M58 and M6. The Centre is also accessible via the Southport to Manchester and the Liverpool to Preston line by train from Burscough Rail Stations. Visit the web site http://www.wwt.org.uk/martinmere/ to find out what’s on all year round at Martin Mere and the other eight WWT Wetland Centres.
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