Rotherham The Unofficial Website

Potteric Carr

Potteric Carr Nature Reserve is only two miles to the south-east of the centre of Doncaster. It is an area of woodlands, open water, reed and pasture where a wide variety of wildlife thrives. The entrance is off the A6182.

Potteric Carr

"The Potteric Carr basin is an area of low lying land to the south east of Doncaster. It was formerly largely bog and fen until it was drained in the mid 18th Century to turn it to agriculture. During the 19th Century the coal and railway industries developed on part of the Carr and the numerous railway lines fragmented the land and made farming difficult and uneconomic. In the mid 20th Century subsidence due to mining occurred under part of the Carr and within 20 years this area had returned to its former fen and bog conditions. As a result, the associated plant, bird and insect communities returned, the plant probably having survived in the drains which criss-cross the area.

During the 1960s a number of the mineral railway lines became disused, whilst ironically in 1975 new lines were constructed in connection with the introduction of high speed trains on the East Coast Main Line in 1978. In 1968, a small area of the Carr was designated as a nature reserve by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. the reserve was expanded to its current size by the mid 70s and there are plans to increase it still further in the next few years. The Reserve has been designated by English Nature as an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) for its reed fen communities."

Information

Open seven days per week from 9am, last entry 5pm. Admission 2006 Adults £2.50, concessions £2, children £1.50, family £6.50. There is a café open at Low Ellers Junction Tues, Weds, Thurs, Sats 11am - 2pm, Suns 11am 150; 3pm but these are subject to change. There is no mention on my leaflet that dogs are banned but you'd better phone up and find out before turning up with the pooch in tow.

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