The Sutton Mill Dam is a wildlife nature park and area of open water located in

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

in the south of St Helens in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Sandwiched between Clock Face Road, Leach Lane, and Mill Lane, it measures 360 metres in length with a waterfall at its eastern end. The lake is formed from the Sutton Brook, which flows through

from Chester Lane to Jackson Street and ultimately into the

St Helens Canal The Sankey Canal in North West England, initially known as the Sankey Brook Navigation and later the St Helens Canal, is a former industrial canal, which when opened in 1757 was England's first of the Industrial revolution, and the first modern ...

. In 1976, local residents formed the Sutton Mill Dam Action Group to campaign against plans to allow the site to become a dumping ground for

industrial waste Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...

. As a result of the local community's efforts, the site was officially opened as a wildlife park in 1987 with natural recovery encouraged as opposed to artificial landscaping. The success of the project was recognised on 24 May 1988, when

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

visited Sutton Mill Dam with a crowd of 200 onlookers. The Sutton Mill Dam is one of the most popular

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

locations in St Helens containing roach,

bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...

gudgeon A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...

and

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

and the East Sutton Angling Club hosted summer contests for young anglers. Sutton Mill Dam is owned by St Helens Council and a copy of the register of title can be obtained from HM Land Registry under title number MS184549.

References

External links

Sutton Beauty
– A Photographic Appreciation of Sutton in St Helens {{coord, 53.426, -2.7170, type:waterbody_region:GB-SHN, display=title Parks and commons in St Helens, Merseyside