Kingsmead Marsh is a local nature reserve near

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

, in Staffordshire, England. Its area is about , and it is designated a Grade 1 Site of Biological Importance."Kingsmead Marsh"
Stafford Borough Council. Retrieved 6 June 2020.

History and description

The marsh is a remaining part of a large area of marshland, to the north and east of the later town; this and the

River Sow The River Sow is a tributary of the River Trent in Staffordshire, England, and is the river that flows through Stafford. Course The river rises to the south of Loggerheads, Staffordshire, Loggerheads, near Broughton Hall, Staffordshire, Brough ...

, to the west, made the location defensible. Stafford is said to have been founded about AD 700 by Beorhthelm (or Bertelin), a

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

n prince, who established a hermitage here. The Burh of Stafford was subsequently established in AD 913."History of Stafford"
Stafford Borough Council. Retrieved 6 June 2020. In the medieval period there was a mill, owned by the king, for which a

mill pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the co ...

, known as King's Pool, was created. The site later returned to marsh, and, known as Kingsmead, was probably used more recently for summer grazing of livestock. The site was designated a local nature reserve (LNR) in December 2003. It supports a variety of flora and fauna, and there are plants not found locally such as

purple loosestrife ''Lythrum salicaria'' or purple loosestrifeFlora of NW Europe''Lythrum salicaria'' is a flowering plant belonging to the family Lythraceae. It should not be confused with other plants sharing the name loosestrife that are members of the family Pr ...

and brown sedge. The site is managed in order to protect and improve it; this includes

coppicing Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

of willow scrub which is encroaching from the edge of the site.

References

{{Reflist Local nature reserves in Staffordshire Marshes of England