The Lindow Moss area includes a former raised bog which has been severely reduced and damaged from a combination of centuries of peat cutting, the spread of agriculture, development, alterations to drainage, pollution and waste tipping. The wider area includes Lindow Common, Newgate Nature Reserve, Rossmere and extensive areas in agricultural use still supporting an extensive landscape of Moss Rooms formed by peat cutting.
The whole area is known as Lindow Common or Moss, but this project focuses on the remaining cut-over peat bog known as Saltersley Moss where Lindow Man was found in 1984 (he’s now in the British Museum). It has been heavily cut for peat, which ceased several years ago and, in February 2022, the first on site steps were taken to begin to re-establish the bog so that it once again becomes a living sphagnum bog locking up carbon from the atmosphere. My project is to track this restoration of Lindow Moss, the only remaining area of open peat surviving from the original raised bog.
Commencing with the Window on Lindow exhibition running fthroughout January, February and March 2023, my project is supported by AA2A and involves a residency hoster by ArtLab at the University of Central Lancashire. It is working in partnership with a range of local organisations, including Transition Wilmslow and The Guild for Lifelong Learning, to develop a cultural season in the second half of 2024 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Lindow Man’s discovery in 1984 on 1st August 2024.
