Mere Sands Wood

Also within

Lancashire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Quaternary

Landscape processes: Glacial, Periglacial

Description

Area,41.0 hectares 101.3 ac Description Mere Sands Wood is situated approximately one kilmetre west of the village of Rufford and is a planted oak wood now substantially modified by sand extraction. The site is notified solely on the basis of its geological interest. Mere Sands Wood is a key Quaternary site providing the best sections available in the Shirdley Hill Sand of Lancashire, an extensive sequence of periglacial cover sands of Devensian late glacial age. The sands, derived from fluvioglacial sediments, were-deposited under aeolian conditions during the Loch Lomond Stadial. Layers of organic rich sediment interbedded with the sands indicate periods of stability during deposition and have provided pollen and, elsewhere, radio-carbon date which establishes their age. The sands probably became stabilised during the early Flandrian, but subsequent reactivation occurred locally later in the Flandrian after the elm decline as a result of forest clearance. Mere Sands Wood is a critical reference site for studies of the Shirdley Hill Sand and provides important evidence for interpreting geomorphological processes and environmental changes during the Devensian Late glacial and Flandrian in north west England. Sand extraction has created several large pools which attract a number of bird species.