There were once extensive peat bogs in North West England, where I live. They were called 'Mosses' here. This name appears to have little connection with the Sphagnum moss from which they were formed but is rather a contraction of the word 'morass'. There were blanket bogs in the uplands of the Pennines and raised bogs in the lowlands.

In the 19th century the latter were mainly poisoned by the sulphurous smoke from the industrial areas of Lancashire and South and West Yorkshire. The former were drained and converted to farm land (this process often involved dumping sewage from the burgeoning industrial cities on to them).

Raised bogs were, apparently, spectacular landscape features. Ashton Moss lay east of Manchester, between Ashton-under-Lyne and Duckinfield. During wet weather it acted like a giant sponge and swelled up so much that objects on the opposite side from an observer disappeared from view. It also had an interesting and colourful flora and many of the plants that grew on it are now more or less extinct or rare locally.

Peat bogs once occurred in other parts of England e.g. Humberside and the Fens (both in Eastern England). Nearly all are gone now. The destruction of the bogs on Humberside (dug up and sold as garden compost) represents a grievous loss for British biodiversity. The most intact English peat bog that I have seen is Glasson Moss in Cumbria, up near the Solway Firth.