Ringinglow Bog, Near Sheffield: Part I. Historical

Abstract

An area of deep blanket peat is desc. about 400 acres (1.6 km.2) in extent, lying about 6 miles (10 km.) south-west of Sheffield, at an altitude of about 1300 ft. (400 m.). It lies on a very gradual slope with much restricted drainage. Wood peat occurs in the lower layers at the better-drained and more sheltered end of the bog. The main mass of peat has been formed predominantly by Sphagnum spp. Eriophorum vaginatum has been a constant component of the bog vegetation, but at no time until the present day has it been a dominant. Pollen analysis shows that peat formation began throughout the area at the time of the Boreal-Atlantic Transition (ca. 6000 B.C.). Evidence is brought forward of widescale destruction of forest in the region, beginning somewhere around A.D. 1100, and continuing to a maximum depletion in the 17th century.