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Events

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These are our forthcoming events. Details of pick up times and locations are on our FAQ and we send out an email during the week before each task on our Mailing List. For any other questions please contact enquiries@ocv.org.uk.

Saturday 23 Mar 2024 – Hedge Planting at Cumnor Church of England Primary School

Another extraordinary OCV Saturday task in collaboration with Wild Oxfordshire to help out with the final stages of their Hedge-Row Heroes campaign for the winter of 2023-4: a new hedge-row at a new site for OCV. We'll start by planting a mixture of native whips, five to the meter, in two staggered lines, then add canes and protective guards to discourage deer and rabbit grazing. If you were with us at Great Haseley and Long Wittenham earlier in the year you'll know what to expect.

  • Leader: Phil Hunter
  • Driver: Tim Bletsoe
Sunday 24 Mar 2024 – Reserve Maintenance at Aston Rowant NNR, South Oxfordshire
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Our regular monthly visit to Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve in the Chilterns. The site is managed by Natural England and, as usual, we’ll be working under the guidance of one of the site wardens. As usual, the details of the planned work will be announced on the mailing list in the week preceding the task. So if you're not already on our mailing list, then now is the time to join it. We’re always looking for new task leaders (OCV depends on some volunteers being willing to lead) and an Aston Rowant task is a great opportunity to try it out under the supervision of one of the wardens. Contact Phil at tasks@ocv.org.uk for more details.

  • Leader: Rachel Hessey
  • Driver: Chris Skepper
Sunday 31 Mar 2024 – Site Maintenance at Matthew Arnold Field, Oxford
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Matthew Arnold Field in Boars Hill is a mixed woodland, grassland, and wetland site, named after the poet, and cultural critic Matthew Arnold. Today we’ll be working for the Oxford Preservation Trust, who own the site, to manage the woods in line with a long-term plan to open up the ground floor to more light, cut back the thicker areas of scrub (the willows especially), keep the paths open, and do some ad hoc DIY plumbing using the materials at hand to enhance the wetland habitat. Some of us may be working near, even in, the woodland ponds, so wellingtons might be useful.

  • Leader: Guy Hudson
  • Driver: Tom Bulford
Tuesday 2 Apr 2024 – Committee Meeting at Oxford Town Hall
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The committee meets once a month to make sure that the group operates smoothly. Meetings are held in the Town Hall from 8 till 9pm, ask for the room at the Town Hall reception desk. You don't need to be a committee member to join us, everyone is welcome. We'll probably grab some food beforehand and may go for a drink after the meeting also. Please email secretary@ocv.org.uk if you'd like more information.

  • Contact: Jenny
Sunday 7 Apr 2024 – Willow Pollarding at Aston's Eyot, Oxford
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Aston's Eyot is a large 30 acre site, literally speaking an island (hence 'Eyot') bordered by the Thames, Cherwell New Cut and Shire Lake Ditch, just downstream from Christ Church Meadow. The land is owned by Christ Church College and is managed by an enthusiastic Friends group with some help from the Oxford City Council. We'll be working for, and with, the Friends to pollard willows on the bank of the Shire Lake Ditch, south of the Kidney's entrance (see the Friend's Path Map via the link on our Reserves Page). We first worked on these trees back in February 2018 and they're now ready for another cut. Regular pollarding keeps the trees in good condition and lets light onto, and into, the water beneath them.

Saturday 13 Apr 2024 – Wildlife walk at

A wildlife walk social to take in springtime in Oxfordshire. Location and times coming soon.

  • Contact: Jenny
Sunday 14 Apr 2024 – Reserve Maintenance at Aston Rowant NNR, South Oxfordshire
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Our April visit to our local National Nature Reserve in the Chilterns. It's a site that includes chalk grassland slopes grazed by flocks of sheep. We're always looking for new task leaders (OCV depends on some volunteers being willing to lead) and an Aston Rowant task is a great opportunity to try it out under the supervision of Steph, one of the Natural England wardens who manage the site. Contact Phil at tasks@ocv.org.uk for more details. At this time of year we might be working on the grass slopes to improve conditions for the flora and, by extension, the insect life special to the site, or maintaining good public access along the various paths. The details of what we'll be doing and where will be in the weekly email as usual.

Sunday 21 Apr 2024 – Site Maintenance at Long Mead, Swinford, Oxfordshire
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Long Mead is a privately owned farm and designated Local Wildlife Site on the banks of the Thames at Swinford. The owners have won several awards for their conservation and restoration of floodplain meadow habitats by the Thames. They are committed to local outreach, education, research and consultancy work. See their website for further details http://www.longmeadwildlifesite.org.uk. We'll be helping out with various tasks on site including the propagation of a large stock of native plants special to a water meadow environment. If conditions suit, we'll also be pulling invasive dock as an ongoing control method to prepare the restoration of a large field previously put out to grass.

Saturday 27 Apr 2024 – Reserve Maintenance at Heyford Meadow Nature Reserve
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Another of our occasional Saturday tasks. Heyford Meadow is another of Oxford's former city dumps given a new lease of life as a green space. The Oxford Preservation Trust was bequeathed the land in 2006 by Mr. John Tait, with the support of the Challis family. It took five years to remove 250 tonnes of waste (including tractors, rail wagons, and six boats) and turn the scrap yard into a nature reserve. The site is a mixture of meadow, wet land, and woodland on the east bank of the Thames just north of Sandford. The plan for today is to cut resurgent reed in the wet and marshy areas before it can mature. We'll also look to recreate a wattle fence from freshly cut willow along a section of board-walk on the south side of the site.

Sunday 28 Apr 2024 – Site Maintenance at Milham Ford Nature Park
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The ponds and feeder stream at Milham Ford Nature Park were created in 2008-2009 in an area that had previously been covered by 8 tarmac tennis courts for the use of Milham Ford School. A stream which had been piped underground across the playing field was brought to the surface, meandered, and now feeds a complex of 4 interlinked ponds. This is one of the most heavily used urban green spaces in Oxford, and we'll be working on behalf of the Oxford City Council. Most of the work will be in the ponds under the direction of freelance ecologist Judy Webb to dredge invasive plant growth and re-establish areas of open water necessary not least for the local dragonfly population. We'll also be digging out hard rush tussocks on the banks and margins of the ponds and working to improve the flow of the stream that feeds into them.

  • Leader: Guy Hudson
  • Driver: Tom Bulford
Sunday 5 May 2024 – Reserve Maintenance at Aston Rowant NNR, South Oxfordshire
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We're back at one of our favourite sites this week. We'll be helping the Reserve warden maintain the nationally important calcareous grassland habitat. At this time of year we might actually begin to see some of the plants natural to the chalk grassland and the insect populations that depend on them. We could be helping out with fence and gate repairs, or tackling other maintenance jobs required on site. As usual everyone will be welcome and full details of the work and the meeting place will be given in the weekly email. So make sure you're on the OCV email list.

Tuesday 7 May 2024 – Committee Meeting at Oxford Town Hall
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The committee meets once a month to make sure that the group operates smoothly. Meetings are held in the Town Hall from 8 till 9pm, ask for the room at the Town Hall reception desk. You don't need to be a committee member to join us, everyone is welcome. We'll probably grab some food beforehand and may go for a drink after the meeting also. Please email secretary@ocv.org.uk if you'd like more information.

  • Contact: Jenny
Sunday 12 May 2024 – Toolshed Day at Cutteslowe Park, Oxford
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Once in a while we spend some time at the OCV toolshed in the Council's Cutteslowe Parks Depot working on our tools and various bits of kit. So today we'll be doing some maintenance of our own. We'll be cleaning, oiling and sharpening tools, everything from scythe snaths to bill-hooks, and from loppers to slashers - all done by hand. The van will need a thorough clean, and, thanks largely to Tom, our Fundraising Officer, we've been able to refresh, and significantly augment, our range of tools, which in turn means that we'll need to adapt the internal storage spaces of the "shed" (actually a decommissioned freight container). If you're an OCV volunteer who fancies leading a task or two or doing some driving for us (and we're always more than happy to welcome new leaders and drivers) then today would be a great chance to come and see where everything is, and how things work back at base. Watch out for the weekly task email which will give details of exactly where and when we'll meet.

Sunday 19 May 2024 – Post and Wire Fencing at Wolfson College Water Meadows
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The Wolfson College water meadows lie immediately opposite the college grounds on the east bank of the Cherwell. Both of them are designated sites of special scientific interest (SSSI). They lie in the flood plain of the Cherwell and have been used as pasture and hay meads since medieval times. They're now owned and managed by Wolfson College. The meadows are grazed in winter which mean they need stock proof fencing. Over the last couple of summers we've completely fenced the whole of the north meadow. Today we'll install a new post and wire fence on the eastern border of the south meadow. We'll have to demolish and remove the old fence; dig in the straining posts; drive in the intermediate posts, and then stretch the wire and stock fence. Given that we'll also have to shift the fencing materials across the meadow from the College there should be enough to keep everyone busy -- there's also some resurgent bramble on the wrong side of the fence in the north meadow that we can tackle. For more details look for the task email. For directions to the site check out the reserve web page for Wolfson College Water Meadows on our website.

Sunday 26 May 2024 – Bramble Extraction at The Howe, Wheatley
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The Howe Trust looks after 26 acres of green space in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. The land, which is known collectively as The Howe, includes allotments, a small orchard and memorial tree area as well as grassland, scrub, hedgerows and woodland. Last December we cut back an extensive and mature thicket of bramble to ground level (see the photo record here: https://www.ocv.org.uk/gallery.php?site=250). The law of Bramble is eternal return, unless you can dig out the root nodules. So today we'll be back to pop, pull and dog (i.e., extract with a lazy-dog tool) as much of the residual, below ground root systems that we can manage. We'll be working for the Trust alongside their local volunteers. For more information see the Trust's website: https://howetrust.org.uk.

Saturday 1 Jun 2024 – Boardwalk Construction and Site Maintenance I at Larkins Lane, Old Headington

A new site for OCV, and close to home. The Oxford Preservation Trust have recently set about the restoration of one of their sites in Old Headington -- Larkins Lane. Purchased in 2022, the field is an interesting mix of grassland, woodland, and scrub. It contains a small spring-fed stream and an area of valley fen. The principal item for this two-day weekend task is to construct a raised boardwalk across the stream that will provide access to the western side of the site. There's plenty to do besides the boardwalk: landscaping the banks and bed of the stream to incorporate seepage dams that will hold back water and rewet the fen; nettle cutting; rubbish extraction; and bramble bashing. Look for the dedicated task email from the leader sometime in the week preceding for all the details.

Sunday 2 Jun 2024 – Boardwalk Construction and Site Maintenance II at Larkins Lane, Old Headington

Larkins Lane is a relatively new OPT restoration project. Today we'll continue with the construction of a boardwalk to span the stream that bisects the site. Exactly what we do will depend on progress made yesterday, but the final stages will involve fixing, first of all, the boardwalk planks, then a wire netting. There will be plenty of other additional tasks to keep people busy, from landscaping to nettle cutting.

Tuesday 4 Jun 2024 – Committee Meeting at Oxford Town Hall
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The committee meets once a month to make sure that the group operates smoothly. Meetings are held in the Town Hall from 8 till 9pm, ask for the room at the Town Hall reception desk. You don't need to be a committee member to join us, everyone is welcome. We'll probably grab some food beforehand and may go for a drink after the meeting also. Please email secretary@ocv.org.uk if you'd like more information.

  • Contact: Jenny
Friday 7 Jun 2024 -
Sunday 9 Jun 2024 – Peak District Residential Trip 2024 at Peak District National Park, Derbyshire
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Save the dates for a residential trip to the Peak District National Park. We'll be working with the rangers helping to maintain the countryside in that beautiful part of the world. Last year we helped to clear gorse that was blocking footpaths up a hill near Castleton, and saw the gritstone quarries where the stone for the reservoirs came from. On previous trips we've helped install picnic tables, surface paths, build stone culverts and restore peatland. Full information will be sent nearer the time to OCV members first, so make sure your membership is up-to-date, join the mailing list, and watch out for an email with more details.

Sunday 16 Jun 2024 – Reserve Maintenance at Aston Rowant NNR, South Oxfordshire
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We're back at our local national nature reserve in the Chilterns today. It's a site that includes chalk grassland, grazed by flocks of sheep. Over the winter many of the more badly afflicted ash trees have been severely pollarded to make them safe, which has left a lot of timber and brash to be processed and converted into habitat piles. Otherwise, early summer means we may be working to improve public access on the site with work on the reserve's extensive paths and fence lines. Whatever we do it should be worth coming along if only to check out the wild flower habitats. Full details will be in the weekly email as usual. We're always looking for new task leaders (OCV depends on some volunteers being willing to lead) and an Aston Rowant task is a great opportunity to try it out under the supervision of Steph, one of the Natural England wardens who manage the site. Contact Phil at tasks@ocv.org.uk for more details.

Sunday 23 Jun 2024 – Site Maintenance at Longbridges Nature Park, Oxford
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Longbridges Nature Park is a large site located on a backwater of the River Thames, perhaps best known as a popular open air bathing place. The site is actively managed by the Council and a new Friends group of local residents. As well as the bathing pool there's an extensive SSSI meadow on the southern of the site, and an 'island', including a meadow area, on the northern side. We've been involved with the restoration and upkeep of the site since the Friends group took and active hand back in February last year, and we've now been asked to help out with a growing problem of over dominant Himalayan Balsam.

Sunday 30 Jun 2024 – Scrub Control at Grays Lane Bank, Ibstone, Buckinghamshire
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Another scrub bashing task, but today's task is in a special location -- a privately owned chalk grassland bank in a secluded part of the Chilterns, designated as an SSSI. As far as chalk flower meadows go this site is as good as it gets and if the sun shines we'll be there to see it at its best. There is no public access to the site so if you want to see it, come on the task! The landowner has developed a long-term management plan that includes some superb hedge lines, and a significant, flourishing population of relatively rare Chiltern Gentians. We've been asked to help out with the labour-intensive work of removing self-seeded hawthorn and rose when still in the initial stages of growth. So we'll be popping and pulling as much as we can find. We've also made arrangements to enjoy a barbecue after the task, so expect to be back in Oxford much later than usual! Make sure you're on the OCV mailing list to receive all the details.