Loynton Moss

Loynton is a hamlet on the A519 near the villages of Norbury, and Woodseaves in Staffordshire, England. It lies in the civil parish of Norbury. Loynton Hall is believed to have been built around 1671 by the Higgins Burne family. Whilst there are very few houses and farms, the main feature of the hamlet is a nature reserve, Loynton Moss, which attracts ramblers regularly. Through the nature reserve runs the Shropshire Union Canal. In 1947 still owned and lived in by SAMBROOKE ARTHUR HIGGINS BURNE. There is a road bridge over the canal, carrying the A519, under which is reportedly the smallest telegraph pole with the most wires anywhere.

Norbury is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Stafford, in west Staffordshire, England. The population as taken at the 2011 census was 371. It is situated close to the Shropshire border, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Newport, just south of the A519 Newport to Newcastle-under-Lyme road, and two miles south-east of Woodseaves.

Woodseaves is a village in Staffordshire, England. It lies in the civil parish of High Offley and is situated on the A519 (Newport-Newcastle-under-Lyme) road and lies at the south-west end of the B5405 road, which leads to Great Bridgeford. Nearby are the villages of Gnosall and Norbury, the hamlets of Knightley and High Offley, and the small town of Eccleshall. The elevation of the village is between 125 metres (410 ft) and 140 metres (460 ft) above sea level. The centre of the village is the top of a small hill, relative to the adjacent countryside, and the roads into and out of the village are almost all sloping away from the village.

High Offley is a small village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It lies 3 miles southwest of the small town of Eccleshall and about 1 mile west of the village of Woodseaves, both on the A519. Woodseaves is the largest settlement in the parish, which also includes the hamlet of Shebdon to the WSW of High Offley, as well as a number of scattered houses and small farms (such as on Grub Street). The Shropshire Union Canal runs through the parish, to the southwest of the villages of High Offley and Woodseaves, with the Shebdon aqueduct and wharf in the west of the parish, from Shebdon towards Knighton.

Norbury Junction (grid reference SJ793228) is a hamlet and former canal junction which lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south east of Norbury, in Staffordshire, England. The junction is where the Shrewsbury Canal meets the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal. Both canals opened in 1835 but the Shrewsbury Canal closed in 1944. The main line still runs through the former junction.

Gnosall was a rural district in Staffordshire, England from 1894 to 1934. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from that part of the Newport Rural Sanitary District which was in Staffordshire (the rest forming Newport Rural District in Shropshire). It consisted of the parishes of Adbaston, Church Eaton, Forton, Gnosall, High Offley, Norbury and Weston Jones. The district was abolished in 1934 under a County Review Order. Most of it became part of the Stafford Rural District, with part going to Cannock Rural District. In 1940, there was a statue erected to commemorate the district.

Knightley is a hamlet and former manor in Staffordshire, England. It is situated near the villages of Gnosall and Woodseaves, now on the B5405 road. There is a church, an agricultural contractor, a few farms and houses and an old blacksmiths. The hamlet is on the site of a former Roman military station, which was called Mediolanum.

Copmere End is a small settlement in Staffordshire, England. It is 2 kilometres (1 mi) west of Eccleshall where the population taken for the 2011 census can be found. It is named for the lake, Cop Mere. There is a public house there called the Star Inn.

The Back Brook is a minor watercourse in the English counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire, in places forming the boundary between the two, and located generally to the east/southeast of the town of Newport. It flows into Aqualate Mere.

Aqualate Mere, in Staffordshire, is the largest natural lake in the English Midlands and is managed as a national nature reserve (NNR) by Natural England. The Mere lies within the borough of Stafford in Staffordshire, England, some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) east of the market town of Newport, Shropshire. It is within the grounds of Aqualate Hall, a country house, with a landscaped deer park. Although large in extent (1.5 km long and 0.5 km wide), the Mere is remarkably shallow and is nowhere much more than one metre (3.3 ft) deep. Aqualate Mere is an example of an esker system (rare in the Midlands) formed by glacial meltwaters during the late Devensian glaciation. The depression in which the Mere lies, thought to be a kettle hole, and the surrounding higher ground which comprises glacial sand and gravel deposits were all formed at the same time. It is fed by streams coming from the north, south and east (including Back Brook), and its outflow to the west forms the River Meese which joins the River Tern, a tributary of the River Severn. The Mere supports diverse fish and bird populations, including large numbers of wintering and breeding wildfowl and breeding Eurasian curlew and common snipe. Together with the surrounding land, it is also important for its botanical and invertebrate communities. Mammals found on the NNR include polecat, water vole and harvest mouse, together with bats such as pipistrelle, Daubenton's, Natterer's, Brandt's and whiskered. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Āc-gelād, meaning "oak grove", influenced by Latin "aqua" = water, "lata" = wide.

Cop Mere is one of the largest natural bodies of water in Staffordshire, England, covering 42 acres (17 ha). It has been designated a SSSI as an oligotrophic mire rich in Sphagnum moss, and other plant and animal life are present in sufficient numbers and rarities for it to have been designated as a protected area since 1968. Cop Mere was created as a hollow in the Keuper marl of North Staffordshire/South Cheshire (which was laid down approx 200 million years ago, roughly) as a result of the retreat of the last ice age. It differs from other ponds and meres in the region because it sits on the route of the River Sow, the flow of which encourages the growth of algae necessary for the growth of freshwater mosses. The River Sow has been dammed upstream at Jackson's Coppice from around AD 1250, which altered the flow of water and created a unique albeit man-made environment that encourages birdlife and fishlife. There is evidence that fishing in Cop Mere dates back at least to the reign of Henry VIII. Entomologists have recorded the presence of two uncommon species each of beetle and fly. The SSSI also includes a number of plants currently rare in Staffordshire, specifically herb paris (Paris quadrifolia) and the thin-spiked wood sedge, Carex strigosa. Birds commonly found on the mere include the reed warbler and sedge warbler, the great crested grebe and the little grebe, the sparrowhawk, and three woodpecker, species including the lesser spotted woodpecker. Cop Mere is used for coarse fishing and the British record for rod caught common bream has twice been held by fish landed at Cop Mere, although today the main fish angled for is the tench while there are also perch, roach and pike in the mere's waters.

Aqualate Hall, a 20th-century country house, is located in Forton, Staffordshire, England, some 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the market town of Newport, Shropshire and 10 miles (16 km) west of the county town of Stafford. It is a Grade II* listed building.