Polemere Nature Reserve:  (photo Martin Locke showing the car park, hide and lake. Photographed 14 May 2007 in the first summer following major re-profiling of the lake by the Environment Agency in September 2006)

For more information click on the following links

2. The official opening 

3. List of birds at the site.

4. Recent news (not live yet)

This small pool set amongst farmland six miles south west of Shrewsbury has long been known as a site worth visiting to see birds but interest declined as the pool silted up and shoreline became overgrown with trees. 

 In 2007 the owner of the land, Mr Tudor Bebb of Polemere Farm, with the support of John Tucker from the Blue Remembered Hills Project (both pictured below right a few weeks before the opening) and the Environment Agency, arranged for the pool to be re-profiled and some of the shoreline was cleared. In addition a small car park was provided to give access to a newly erected bird watching hide.

The hide was formally opened to the public on Friday 15th June 2007 by Dawn Balmer of the British Trust for Ornitholgy in the presence of invited guests. Dawn had lived in Pontesbury as a child and Polmere had been a site that she regularly visited as a young ornithologist and was responsible for one of the first lists of birds seen at this site (see below).

THE BIRDS OF POLEMERE 1956-1992 by Dawn E Balmer. Click here to open pdf file.

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Acknowledgements: The Blue Remembered Hills project facilitated the conversion of Polemere into a nature reserve, a desire long held by the landowner Tudor Bebb. John Tucker, BRH Wildlife Sites Officer, managed the project. The scheme has received  financial help from: Heritage Lottery Fund through the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Blue Remembered Hills project, Natural England, European Regional Development Fund, Shropshire Ornithological Society, Rural Communities Initiative Grants (via Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council) and Lady Gwen Francis. Help was given in manpower, machinery and materials by the Environment Agency (major lake restoration in 2006), Shropshire Wildlife Trust (education work), International Tree Foundation (tree planting), GO Davies (Westbury) Ltd. (grass seed), Nigel Farr (fencing materials & wood), Chelmarsh Ringing Group (Phragmites reed bed) and Tudor Bebb. Photograph Martin Locke.