Marsden Moor Estate

The Marsden Moor Estate is a large expanse of moorland in the South Pennines, between the conurbations of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester in the north of England.

It is named after the adjacent town of Marsden, and is owned and administered by the National Trust to whom it was conveyed in 1955 by the Radcliffe family in lieu of death duties.

Marsden is at the eastern gateway to the important ancient Standedge crossing of the moors and evidence of transport related archaeological remains dating from pre-Roman times have been discovered close to the great engineering structures of the canal and railway ages.

The moors have been a water catchment area since the Victorian era when several reservoirs were built, along with their associated catchwaters in the Wessenden Valley.

[2] The landscape supports large numbers of moorland birds such as the golden plover, red grouse, Eurasian curlew and twite.