Budworth Mere

by Alec and Val Scaresbrook

Cheshire is renowned for its huge number of meres, ponds and pools. The larger meres formed in hollows left by retreating glaciers or, in this area in particular, in depressions created by subsidence due to salt being pumped out as brine from underground reserves. The hollow beneath Budworth Mere may be due to either process, and now shows clearly the different stages of natural in-filling. Water lilies float on the open water, reedbeds straddle the margin, and marsh gradually becomes woodland where peat has built up sufficiently to support the trees.See the map below