The following photos were taken at a private site in St Helens.
Heath Speedwell. This is the only site I know of in St Helens for this species.
Marsh orchids are notoriously difficult to identify, and it's not helped by their habit of hybridising. I think that this is Early Marsh Orchid. Look at the shape of the flower and compare it to the deeper purple Northern Marsh Orchid below.
However, now look at the leaves and you will see that they are spotted, which apparently makes it sub species cruenta, which is a very rare sub species in the UK. So perhaps it's actually Common Spotted Orchid, though the flowe shape doesn't look right, and the spots look too small and numerous to me.
Northern Marsh Orchid
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