page_title: Thorne and Hatfield Moors
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Thorne and Hatfield Moors / History / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to Thorne Moors.
context_page_description: Thorne and Hatfield Moors form the largest area of lowland raised peat bog in the United Kingdom. They are situated in South Yorkshire, to the north-east and east of Doncaster near the town of Thorne, and are part of Hatfield Chase. They had been used for small-scale extraction of peat for fuel from medieval times, and probably much earlier, but commercial extraction of the peat for animal bedding began in the 1880s. The peat was cut on the moors and, once it had dried, transported to several works on 3 ft narrow gauge tramways, always called trams locally. The wagons were pulled by horses to works at Creyke's Siding, Moorends, Medge Hall, Swinefleet and Hatfield. There was also a network of canals supplying the Moorends Works.
  The industry suffered a downturn between the two world wars, as working horses were replaced by lorries and peat demand dropped, but after the Second World War peat was used by the horticultural industry in increasing volumes, and harvesting expanded again. From 1947, experiments were made with locomotives on the tramways, and they soon replaced horses. A total of 23 had worked on the system by the time it was closed down.
context_section_description: The first small step towards conservation of the moors occurred in 1971, when an agreement was reached between the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and Fisons on the management of 144 acres (58 ha) on Crowle Moor. In 1985, the Nature Conservancy Council bought 180 acres (73 ha) of Thorne Waste, which had been part of the area worked by a canal network. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust purchased a total of 290 acres (118 ha) in 1987, which included the area they had been managing since 1971. The first large-scale transfer of land occurred in 1994, when Fisons gave 2,340 acres (946 ha) to English Nature, the successor to the Nature Conservancy Council. The agreement allowed Fisons to lease back the active peat fields from English Nature, and to continue to extract peat until 2025. However, they agreed to leave a minimum of 20 inches (50 cm) of peat, so that the moors could recover once extraction ceased. Areas that were not being worked were managed for conservation. At this time, English Nature also took control of parts of Hatfield Moors. The areas they managed were designated as the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve in 1995, and were extended by another 370 acres (150 ha) in the following year.
  Most extraction of peat from the moors had ended by 2004, after the peat extraction rights, then owned by Scotts, had been bought by the government for £17 million. A small-scale operation was still active in 2005.
  Environmentalists continued to campaign for recognition of the ecological value of the moors. In 2002 the government agreed to buy the peat extraction rights from The Scotts Company (now trading as The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company). The agreement was signed in April, before the cutting season began, and no cutting occurred on Thorne Moors after 2001. Stockpiles of cut peat continued to be removed from the moors until 2005. Scotts worked with English Nature to return worked areas to a condition where they could start to regenerate, until their involvement with this contract on Thorne Moors ended in March 2006. Since 2005, 4,020 acres (1,625 ha) of Thorne Moors have been designated as a National Nature Reserve. This includes the area bought by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, which now manage most of Crowle Moor on behalf of Natural England, the successor to English Nature.
  Limbert and Roworth have commented that, unlike other peat areas, such as the Somerset Levels, where recording of the industrial heritage has been systematic, the recording of the industrial archaeology of Thorne and Hatfield Moors has been notably scarce. A guide to the industrial history of South Yorkshire published in 1995 made no mention of peat at all. The canals dug by the Dutch and operated until the 1920s have been mentioned by canal historians such as Charles Hadfield, but have never been investigated systematically. The railways have received a little more attention in the specialist press, and some of the locomotives have been preserved. The history of the workers has been partially recorded through the Thorne and Hatfield Moors Oral History Project. In contrast, the ecology of the moors has been better documented, through the publication of the Thorne and Hatfield Moors Papers, first published by the Doncaster Naturalists Society in 1987. Since 1989, the Thorne and Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum have taken over this responsibility. These papers now run to nine volumes, and the forum has also published technical papers on many aspects of the moors.
  In late 2016, construction work commenced at the Swinefleet Drain end of the nature reserve. The construction works include the installation and commissioning of a permanent Archimedes Screw type pumping station to ensure the water level in the peat bog is kept at an optimum level for peat regeneration. The work was commissioned by the Doncaster East Internal Drainage Board, and the principal contractor for the works was North Midland Construction PLC. The installation includes a tilting weir, which controls water levels for much of the time, but when the pump is required, it is powered by 
caption: The entrance onto Thorne Moors National Nature Reserve from Moorends
exif: {}