| Kersal Moor | |
|---|---|
 Kersal Moor, August 2007 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 30 ft (9.1 m) to 75 feet (23 m) |
| Coordinates | 53°30′55″N 2°16′35″W / 53.51528°N 2.27639°W |
| Geography | |
  Kersal Moor Location of Kersal Moor in Greater Manchester | |
| Location | Kersal, Greater Manchester, England |
| OS grid | SD816021 |
Kersal Moor is a recreation area in Kersal, Greater Manchester, England which consists of eight hectares of moorland[1] bounded by Moor Lane, Heathlands Road, St. Paul's Churchyard and Singleton Brook.
Kersal Moor, first called Karsey or Carsall Moor,[2] originally covered a much larger area, running down to the River Irwell.[3] Evidence of activity during the Neolithic period has been discovered and the area was used by the Romans. It was the site of the first Manchester Racecourse and the second golf course to be built outside Scotland. It has been extensively used for other sporting pursuits, military manoeuvres and public gatherings such as the Great Chartist Meeting of 1838, prompting the political theorist Friedrich Engels to dub it "the Mons Sacer of Manchester".
With the increasing industrialisation and urbanisation of Manchester and Salford during the 18th and 19th centuries, the moor became one of the remaining areas of natural landscape of interest to amateur naturalists, one of whom collected the only known specimens of the now extinct moth species Euclemensia woodiella. It is now a Site of Biological Importance[4] and in 2007 was designated as a Local Nature Reserve by English Nature.[5]
- ^ Anon (September 2004). "Kersal Moor — proposed LNR". Natural England — Special sites. Natural England. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- ^ Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (editors) (1911). 'Townships: Broughton', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4, pp. 217–222. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41408. Date accessed: 20 February 2008
- ^ 1848 - LANCASHIRE AND FURNESS 1:10,560. old-maps.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
- ^ "Sites of Biological importance". Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ^ "Salford City Council Supplementary planning Document: Nature Conservation and Biodiversity: Adopted 19 July 2006" (PDF). Salford City Council. 19 July 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2007.