HEATON MERSEY COMMON

Heaton Mersey Common is a local nature reserve (LNR) owned and managed by Stockport Council.  It is located on the north side of Didsbury Road. See google map at bottom of page.

The image (left) shows the main features: a large pond and a stream, woodland, a wildflower meadow and grassland all connected by footpaths.  The footpath that runs between Burnage Lane and Mersey Road was known locally as ‘the monkey path’. No one as yet can say why!

To the north of the Common is a recreation space; this was once the site of a large house and estate called ‘Priestnall Hey’, formerly ‘Heaton Villa’.

Heaton Mersey Common has a wide range of habitats providing shelter and food for wildlife.   Woodlands  support birds (e.g. great spotted woodpeckers), insects and plants (e.g. red campion).  Deadwood provides shelter for insects and other invertebrates, which are eaten by woodland birds, and fungi grows here, in the canopy and on the woodland floor.  Ponds support a range of plants, insects, birds, mammals and amphbians.  Click here for more information about the different UK wildlife habitats.

Visitors are encouraged to help protect the natural environment by following the countryside code.

HISTORY

The majority of the land that is now Heaton Mersey Common was once part of the brickworks which had deep clay pits, reservoirs and train tracks to move the excavated clay to the brick kiln located off Harwood Road.

The Bailey family owned the brickworks from the mid 1800s to 1932 when J&A Jackson Ltd bought it to add to the many sites they owned across the North of England.  The site remained in their hands until the late 1960s.

1930s-HM-Brickworksweb

Photo Credit: Stockport Image Archive

This image (left) is from the early 1930s and shows clay and sand pits at the brickworks. The backs of the Hawthorn Rd houses can be seen in the background. You can see this and other related images at theStockport Library Image Archive.

Between the 1950s and early 1970s areas of the brickworks land was infilled.

Heaton Mersey Common was created in the mid 1970s and designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2008.

 

 

 

(Tip: click anywhere on the map to remove legend)