Abstract

Fish, fowl and fen: landscape and econotny on seventeenth-century Martin Mere Audrey Coney One of England's least-known former wetlands lies Hale 1985, pp. 16-17). The logboats, axes and between the rivers Alt and Douglas near Ormskirk spearheads found in and around the lake indicate in Lancashire. Before improvement, these the area's importance from prehistoric times, for 5jJhagnum and Phragmites peats were crossed by these were the means by which this landscape was meandering streams in search of an outfall beyond exploited. Martin Mere's resources continued to be coastal dunes and marshes. Reedy pools and extracted until it was drained. What exactly were shallow lakes, such as Gettern Mere, White Otter these resources, and how useful were they to the Mere and Martin Mere reflected the wide skies of townships around the lake shore? This paper the south -west Lancashire coastal plain. The pre­ attempts to answer these questions by examining drainage landscape history of these meres is rather the topography and economy of the seventeenth­ obscure, lack of suitable documentation being a century lake. major problem. Exceptionally, the sources that exist for the largest of these lakes, Martin Mere, are unusually detailed. They relate mainly to the THE WETLAND