Cotton Dell

The Cotton estate was owned in the 1700s by the politician Thomas Gilbert; he lived here from 1795, and tended the woodlands. In 1868 the woodlands became the property of Cotton College. The college closed in 1987, and the estate was sold by 1999, Cotton Dell then becoming a nature reserve.

Car parking is at the Staffordshire County Council picnic area at Oakamoor, half a mile from the reserve. There is a range of features: the brook, grasslands, ponds, boggy areas and the steep sides of the valley. Particular species of plants can be found in each habitat. It is an ancient woodland, the area being continuously wooded for over 400 years. The wood has been managed in the past: there are few very old trees, and there are areas of conifers in places, which support less wildlife than broadleaf woodland. The Trust plans to ensure that the reserve is beneficial for wildlife: managing it so that there is a range of broadleaf trees in the reserve, such as oak, alder and birch, and…