Anyone perusing Ordnance Survey maps of the northern parts of
Shropshire will quickly realise that there is an unusual density of
lakes, pools and mosses in the area. Names such as Pikes End Moss,
Whattall Moss, Sweat Mere, Colemere, The Mere and Berrington Pool
litter the map. Further study of neighbouring maps shows that these
features also occur across county borders and into Cheshire,
Staffordshire and Clwyd. Faced with this unusual preponderance of
"wet" landscape features many people will ask themselves why are
there so may of these pools and mosses here?
For the answers as to how Colemere was formed we need to step
back in time about ten to twelve thousand years ago, when the last
ice age retreated from the area. The vast ice sheets had carried
huge amounts of sand, gravel and rocks across the country. This
material had been dumped as the ice sheet retreated, leaving a
loose mix of sands, clays and rocks. Next, there was a small
re-advance, when colder conditions temporarily returned. This
caused the ice sheet to push south again, piling up the glacial
deposits in front of it, rather like a massive bulldozer moving
across the landscape.
As conditions warmed once again, the ice sheet melted and
retreated northwards. As this happened vast quantities of materials
were washed out from the ice sheet and deposited over and around
the previously "bulldozed" up material. The result was a great
deposit of materials we call a glacial moraine and it is this
feature that is responsible for the formation of the Colemere we
see today.
Over the thousands of years since the moraine was formed, it has
weathered to form the hummocky landscape now so familiar in parts
of Shropshire. Good examples of this landscape are around Colemere
and Whitchurch. Ideal for the formation of meres and mosses, the
undulating landscape provided basins in which pools could form. In
places, lenses of clay deposited within the moraine would hold up
the water table, so that pools quickly formed in some hollows in
the landscape. Some pools remain today as the meres we know so
well, whilst others gradually filled with the remains of dead
vegetation to form marshlands, or where acidic conditions
prevailed, they would form peatlands - the mosses.
At the given co-ordinate's you will find an info board from the
board please give me the answer to the following Question.
1 ) What material lines the mere.
2) Upload a picture of you with the Mere/Infoboard in the
background
Any logs with no photo will be deleted