Thorpe Marsh Nature Reserve

Thorpe Marsh Nature Reserve is a 77-hectare wetland beside the River Don in South Yorkshire, once part of a coal-fired power station’s floodplain. The land was shaped by centuries of farming, drainage acts and railway embankments, leaving ridges, drains and old field names still visible today. Reedholme, Cockshaw and Smallholme were recorded by the 19th century, each name marking a stretch of water-meadow or a small farm. The reserve’s history appears in letters from the 1730s about the River Dun Navigation and in the ruins of Reedholme House, abandoned by the 1840s. A drainage act of 1835 turned marsh into managed pasture, while a 1932 flood led to the Norwood Barrier Bank. A disused railway embankment now divides the site, offering dry paths for wildlife watchers. Visitors walk grassy banks above reedy pools where otters once hunted near the old house site. Reedholme’s ridge-and-furrow patterns show underfoot, and Cockshaw Dyke carries water between fields. From the Main Embankment there are wide views across the flat marshland, a quiet place where the past shows in names, banks and the slow flow of the Don.