Forty years ago, the area known as Mousley Bottom in Derbyshire was a blighted landscape, a place where life struggled to exist amidst the stench and pollution of industry and waste. Today, it stands as a powerful testament to nature's extraordinary capacity for renewal and the impact of dedicated local action.
A Landscape Scarred by Industry
In the early 1980s, visiting Mousley Bottom by the River Goyt would have been an assault on the senses. The location was dominated by a sewage works, a municipal dump, and a historic gasworks. The latter produced town gas from coal tar, saturating the soil with heavy toxins. The river itself, its flow once described as a "rush," served as a conduit for pollutants, leaving the Goyt system almost completely devoid of aquatic life. It was, by all accounts, a place considered degraded beyond any reasonable hope of redemption.
The Vision for a Green Future
The transformation began with a clear vision, notably championed by the late Sir Martin Doughty, who had served on New Mills council from the age of 26. The ambitious project saw the planting of a staggering 22,000 trees in the 1980s, including 500 oaks planted by the town's schoolchildren. This initial act of regeneration was just the beginning.
A council ranger team, though its resources were later drastically reduced from 300 days a year to just five, undertook vital habitat creation work. They helped shape the straight lines of saplings into a complex, layered woodland ecosystem. Over three decades, these concerted efforts converted a literal wasteland into a beautiful town park, a glorious riverside walk, and a genuine tourist attraction.
Nature's Hidden Network Takes Over
Now, standing in the wood, you hear the deep croak of ravens overhead and the spirited song of wrens, undrowned by the river's flow. Redwings feast on holly berries on the hillside. Fungi, like the sheathed woodtuft, colonise the mature trees. Yet, the true architects of this recovery are not immediately visible.
The real heroes are the patient, collaborative whole-system efforts of countless microorganisms. This largely subterranean network—including archaebacteria, actinomycetes, nematodes, annelids, and rotifers—worked tirelessly to detoxify the soil, creating the foundation for the visible life we see today: the plants, insects, birds, and mammals that now call Mousley Bottom home.
The story of Mousley Bottom delivers a potent message: no brownfield site is beyond redemption. It showcases a successful partnership between human vision and nature's relentless, restorative power, offering a blueprint for environmental recovery projects across the UK and beyond.
