Hatchmere

Hatch Mere Nature Reserve covers 12.6 hectares (31 acres). It lies within a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust.[1]

According to the SSSI citation "Hatch Mere is an example of a mere with moderate fertility and well developed floating and emergent vegetation. It is an unusual mere because of the surrounding vegetation which consists largely of acidic heath and bog communities."[3] The mere is a good example of a kettle hole, of which there are several in the Delamere area. Some are flooded as here whilst others are dry or contain peat mosses. The mere originated as a detached mass of glacial ice melted in situ towards the end of the last ice age.

Notable animal species include the Hairy Dragonfly Brachytron pratense, Variable Damselfly Coenagrion pulchellum[1] and a rare caddisfly, Potomophylax rotundipennis.[3] Rare plants for the area include Tufted Sedge Carex elata and Bog Myrtle Myrica gale.[3]

There were several campaigns to maintain public access to the lake after it was bought by the Wildlife Trust in 1998.[4] Initially the Trust fenced off the only access point to the lake suitable for swimmers. A pressure group, the Friends of Hatchmere, was formed, and eventually the Wildlife Trust backed down and agreed to allow swimming in the lake. The Hatchmere campaign was instrumental in the forming of the River and Lake Swimming Association,[5] a group that promotes open water swimming in the United Kingdom. Angling is also permitted on the lake under the membership of Prince Albert Angling Society and anglers have purpose-built platforms where they have to fish from which each requires a key provided by the society. Fish present in the lake include Bream, Tench, Pike, Roach as well as some breeds of Carp.

Hatch Mere lake is suffering many of the impacts to water quality brought by modern land use and recreation. Naturally, nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates can settle and be stored in the sediment of a lake. However, disturbance can churn up this sediment and release the stored nutrients which then become suspended within the water. Over the coming winter, work will begin to try and address some of these issues. As a result of these unsafe nutrient levels, disturbance and species diversity reduction, wild swimming in Hatchmere has been ceased since November 2019. [6]

In autumn 2020 a pair of Eurasian beavers were released[7] into a fenced 10-acre enclosure at the northwest end of the mere.[8]