 Although the landscape features of the site are mainly derived from gravel pits and settling pools alongside the River Avon, the area was originally farmland, and the first pools were created by mining subsidence in the 1940s and 1950s caused by workings at Binley Colliery.The site was of interest to local naturalists for its range of bird life, especially as by 1959 the area of open water was far larger than it is now, although much was lost when Severn Trent Water dredged it in 1963.Shortly afterwards the first official attempts at using the site for conservation purposes came when the West Midlands Trust for Nature Conservation, supported by the West Midland Bird Club began moves to secure the site as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).