Barnsley Biodiversity Action Plan. Post-15 BAP. Updated to 2023

 Biodiversity

 Action

 Plan

Standing Water Sites

Barnsley has eight lengths of canal, 12 notable ditches, 35 ponds and numerous springs. Garden and farm ponds number in the hundreds.
See sidebar for details.

Ponds & water bodies <2ha

5 Royd Moor Reservoir

6 Scout Dyke Reservoir

7 Small Shaw and

11 Gunthwaite dam

12 Margery wood

15 Black Moor common

16 Silkstone Fall wood

17 Daking Brook

21 Falthwaite and Lowe wood

22 Stainborough Park

23 Rockley Wood

24 Worsbrough reservoir

25 Barnsley Canal (Wilthorpe)

27 Carlton Marsh

29 Wombwell Wood

30 Short Wood …

34 West Haigh Wood

36 Broomhill Flash

37 Gipsy Marsh

38 Old Moor & Wath Ings

39 Bolton-on-Dearne …

40 Forge Rocher …

41 Wharncliffe Chase …

42 West Wood

43 Sowell Pond

47 Hoyland Bank Wood

49 … Canal (Royston)

51 Barrow Colliery

55 Parkhill Nature Reserve

56 Potter Holes Plantation

60 Rabbit Ings

Canal stretches

25 Barnsley Canal (Wilthorpe)

49 Barnsley Canal (Royston)


Reservoirs >2ha

3 Broadstone Reservoir

4 Ingbirchworth Reservoir

5 Royd Moor Reservoir

6 Scout Dyke Reservoir

24 Worsbrough reservoir

46 Elsecar Reservoir


Lakes >2ha

26 Cliffe Wood

48 Bretton Park


Italics = included in SSSI

Local Wildlife Sites

30 Local Wildlife Sites include ponds, two stretches of canal, six reservoirs and two artificial lakes.

Local Wildlife Sites

The criteria for selection as a local wildlife site for standing water is that it regularly supports any of the following:


Most LWSs are designated for their overall habitat rather than these criteria; some due to the populations and assemblages of breeding or over-wintering birds which utilise the standing water.

Athersley Memorial Pond

 Standing Water Sites


The eight reservoirs in Barnsley range from the acidic moorland reservoirs Winscar and Langsett fed by the headwaters of the river Don and Little Don, and lowland reservoirs like Elsecar and Worsbrough built to provide water for local canals.


The Dearne Valley flood plains from Darton to Bolton on Dearne have a significant number of subsidence flashes, scrapes, residual water bodies and seasonally flooded areas. The largest numbers - and area covered - are around Old Moor, Broomhill Flash, Edderthorpe, Houghton, and now Adwick washlands.


Elsewhere, the largest concentration of ponds are found around areas...


Stretches of the Barnsley canal can be found near Royston, Monk Bretton and Wilthorpe Marsh and the Dearne and Dove Canal near Wombwell, with two spurs near Worsbrough and Elsecar.

Map to follow