Manchester gets a brand new nature reserve filled with ‘immense’ wildlife

Manchester council formally earmarked a section of Southern Cemetery, the largest municipal graveyard in the UK, as a local nature reserve on Friday (March 14th).  It’s the tenth council reserve to be announced, with the last designation taking place in March 2023.

However, councillors have designated an area which is ‘away from active burial sites’. The 28-hectare plot in Chorlton is already home to bats, owls, birds, bees, and butterflies.

Deputy council leader Joanna Midgeley, who represents the Chorlton Park ward for Labour, said the ‘wildlife is immense’.

“I have seen Tawny Owls myself,” she added at the authority’s executive meeting. “We are looking forward to it dramatically increasing.”

Council leader Bev Craig joked she ‘learned something new every day’ on discovering ‘the owls flying through Chorlton to go with the badgers’ already seen in the neighbourhood.

Other notable species which have made a home in the graveyard include Noctule Bats, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Song Thrushes, Solitary Bees and Holly Blue Butterflies.

Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon, Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods, said: “Southern Cemetery is a flourishing and well-loved green space that rightly deserves its Local Nature Reserve status to go alongside the Green Flag it already has in recognition of how well-managed it is.”

Now it’s been declared a reserve, it means habitats will be protected and visitors can ‘enjoy the natural environment’.

Chorlton is quickly becoming a natural hotspot in the city, with Southern Cemetery being its third after Chorlton Water Park, Kenworthy Woods, and Chorlton Ees & Ivy Green. However, local nature reserves are spread across the city.

In north Manchester there’s Blackley Forest, Boggart Hole Clough, Broadhurst Clough. East Manchester has Clayton Vale.

Where are Manchester’s nature reserves?

Joining the four Chorlton reserves in south Manchester are Levenshulme’s Highfield Country Park, Wythenshawe Park, and Didsbury’s Stenner Woods & Millgate Fields.

Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment, said: “Green spaces across our city have a vital role to play in our wellbeing and we are determined to support and celebrate biodiversity in these special places.

“Local Nature Reserves are selected because of their rich flora and fauna but also their strong Friends group which show how much they mean to the community.”

You can read more about Southern Cemetery being named a nature reserve by clicking here