Coatham Marsh is a nature reserve near to

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority. It is in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, and is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdiv ...

in the borough of

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Its council has been a unitary authority since 1996. The borough was created in 1974 as Langbaurgh, and was one of four ...

, England. The site is a local nature reserve and part of the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

History

Coatham Marsh has been pinpointed as the site of one of the last strongholds of northern nobles as they held out against the invasion by

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

. A battle is believed to have been fought here, in either 1069, or 1070, with the defensive structures remaining visible until the early 20th century. The site was used in the 12th and 13th centuries as a place to produce salt from seawater. The evidence of these saltings can still be found in the present day marsh. In the early 1840s, as the land remained undeveloped, it was regularly flooded by high tides. The habitat suffered pollution, during the 1960s 70s and 80s, due to waste from local steel and iron plants being dumped onto Coatham Marsh. The building of the Redcar steelworks complex in the late 1970s, necessitated the diversion of the railway line to Redcar and Saltburn through the middle of Coatham Marsh, splitting the site in two. The site was owned by British Steel (later Corus, then

Tata Steel Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with its primary operations based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group. Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel ...

), and since 1982 it has been managed by the

Tees Valley Wildlife Trust The Tees Valley Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the Tees Valley area of England. Its area of operation corresponds to the four unitary authorities of Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, covering pa ...

. Coatham Marsh was designated an SSSI as part of the Teesside and Cleveland Coast in 2018. The site has a small beck called ''The Fleet'' which drains south-westwards from Redcar and feeds into the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

via Dabholm Gut. The Fleet supplies and drains several reedbed-fringed ponds on Coatham Marsh, and drains an area of . Coatham Marsh is bounded by the A1085 to the south, Tod Point Road to the north, Locke Park and Coatham to the east, and the former Redcar Steelworks to the west (now known as the Teesworks site).

Flora and fauna

Otters have been noted on the marsh, having been assumed to be behind the depletion of managed fish stocks in the ponds on the marsh. Over 200 species of bird have been noted at the site, including spoonbill, gadwall, wood sandpiper, white-winged black tern,

Temminck's stint Temminck's stint (''Calidris temminckii'') is a small wader. This bird's common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Dutch naturalist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by ...

, black redstart, curlew sandpiper, stone curlew, pochard, reed warbler, reed bunting, water rail, and tufted duck. Dragon and damselflies noted at the site include the common darter, common blue and large red damselfly. The saline-loving moss bryum marratii (Baltic Byrum), has historically been noted at the site. Other plants that have been noted at the site include the northern marsh orchid, the yellow wort, and the bee orchid.

References

Sources

*{{cite book , editor1-last=Page , editor1-first=William , title=The Victoria history of the county of York, North Riding volume 2 , date=1968 , publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall for the University of London Institute of Historical Research , location=London , isbn=0712903100 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England Redcar