The Friends subscriptions of £5 per person are now due for the year 2024 - 2025. Please preferably make a standing order to 20-65-18 a/c 93057402 to Friends of Raleigh Park with reference your name or send a cheque to Stephen Parkinson (Chairman) 8 Yarnells Hill, Oxford, OX2 9BD. Tel 01865 724525 or contact David Brown (Secretary) [email protected].
If you are interested in taking an active role in the Friends or make a donation, please come forward. The Chair and Secretary will be happy to discuss what is involved.
We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. The data we hold is your email address and subscription; this data has not and will never be shared with anyone.
Wed 11 December - Friends of Raleigh Park AGM
The AGM is to be at 7:30pm on Wednesday 11 December in the Rosary Room at the bottom of Yarnells Hill. The speaker will be Bob Cowley, Vice Chair of the Oxford Mammal Group. His title is "The Mammals of Raleigh Park". All are welcome.
Sat November 30th - Friends of Raleigh Park Volunteers
Next work party is and Sat November 30 2024, we meet at the entrance to Raleigh Park from the footpath off Raleigh Park Road at 9:30 at location what3words melt.rarely.wedge
where we will be doing scrub clearance in the fen.
Please bring gloves and wellies.
Friends of Raleigh Park workparties are normally led by Adam Bows
and are covered by The Freshwater Habitat's Trust insurance. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
Friends of Raleigh Park volunteers normally meet at 09:30 on the last Saturday of the month.
Also, a reminder about ticks. To my knowledge they have not been a problem at Raleigh Park but will certainly be present. To avoid tick bites and the risk of Lyme disease, please wear closed toe footwear, long trousers tucked into socks, and long sleeved shirt tucked into trousers. Some people like to spray their clothes with insect repellent too. Advice on avoiding tick bites and Lyme disease can be found here
Scrub clearance to restore the fen
As part of the ongoing restoration of the fen and enabling the rare plant community to expand to its former extent, beginning of October there was some clearance of scrub and small trees by Freshwater Habitats Trust. This is to expose a nice flush on the northern bank above the main fen, removing the encroaching bramble and reconnect the bridleway fen with an area of fen to the east which has the rare blunt flowered rush. Some alder and willow stumps in the main fen were also winched out, creating more shallow pools and lightening the load on the volunteers.Work also involved clearing a 5m wide margin of trees & scrub on the boundary line of the Tongue with the development plot to the north. This is a prerequisite to the City Council fencing the tongue so that cattle can then graze the area and to ensure no boundary creep from the developers who saw a worthless ditch not a high ecological value fen.
Later in the winter Rod D'Ayala will also install new dams in the causeway fen and block shallow ditches to the north to further rewet the fen.
These works are funded by Natural England Project 5 – The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Freshwater Network, delivered by Freshwater Habitats Trust and include a payment to the City Council to sustain fen management over the next 10 years.
The objectives of the Friends of Raleigh Park are to protect, conserve and enhance the Park, which is a Local Wildlife Site, for the benefit of the community.
Cattle are currently out of Raleigh Park. They graze the Park all summer. They reduce the rank grass and nettles and encourage the development of wild flowers. If left uncut the brambly thorny growth and trees will increase and the park will become entirely scrubby woodland.
When cattle are present give them a wide berth. Cattle have an instinctive fear of wolves and may be agressive to dogs so it is advisable to keep dogs well under control and preferably out of sight of the cattle particularly towards dusk as they become frisky before bedding down for the night. If there are any issues please contact the farmer (07887701011) or the Parks Dept [email protected] or the Friends of Raleigh Park [email protected]. For any urgent enquiries please contact the Parks duty officer 07768238906
The Chairman gave a brief reflection on the contributions of Carol Kramer, who passed away on 18 August in his report.
Clive Smith gave a nest box report. Many of the bird boxes need to be replaced or resited due to damage or wear and tear. The bird feeder was well used.
Barbara Witkowski presented the successful work of the Oxford Badger group doing badger vaccination.
OCC led the Oxford Volunteers installing a gravel path down a muddy incline. They have not yet installed a proposed bench at a viewpoint.
Two signboards funded by the Friends are to be installed by the OCC at entrances to the site. A further one is planned.
The Chairman presented the accounts for 2022-2023. The balance of £626.94 includes a generous gift of £150.
A memorial birch tree has been planted but because of the problem it would cause by seeding the fen it will be replaced by a disease resistant elm.
Butterfly egg hunts and walks should resume in 2024.
Cag Oxfordshire was suggested as a source of volunteers.
Raleigh Park is located in the village of North Hinksey near Oxford ( Location map ) It contains lightly managed fields with three ponds linked by a stream, very unusual alkaline bog areas, trees, grasses, marestail, stately marsh thistle and wild flowers.
Be aware of health and safety if pond-dipping; we are expecting to install a platform in due course.
Buzzards, red kites, roe deer, muntjac deer and foxes are frequent visitors while badgers, moles, song birds, rabbits and other rodents and bats are resident. Song birds like to visit the bird feeder; watch the feeding birds scatter as a sparrowhawk arrives:
Tree Planting
Disease resistant elm trees have been planted with help from Butterfly Conservation. Small leafed lime is the other species currently allowed to be planted in the park with agreement of the landowners (Oxford City Council) and the Friends of Raleigh Park.
Butterfly surveys normally start in the spring when the butterflies start emerging from their chrysalises, they need the warmth to fly. We hope to resume our leisurely walk noting the butterfly species we encounter.
We also would look at the flora and insects. Thanks to Ian Marriott for the wonderful flora and insect photos.
Oxford City Councils Countryside Team are working in partnership with the Friends of Raleigh Park and BBOWT to carry out works to improve the habitat and open up the views of the City from areas of the Park. We have received a Letter of Commendation from the Oxford Preservation Trust in recognition of these works which are the subject of a scientific study proposal resulting in a dissertation by Adam Bows discussing the outcomes of the Wild Oxford initiative of 2021.
Judy Webb has completed excellent reports with a list of recommendations for future workparties in the Park.
The Freshwater Habitats Trust funded an invertebrate survey . They also funded the work done in rewetting the fen involving constructing leaky dams, filling in the ditch, digging ponds and clearing scrub.Willows overgrowing the pond have been thinned, vegetation overgrowing the stream removed, a waterfall rebuilt and removal of Himalayan Balsam and Greater Reed Mace from boggy areas, parrot's feather from the pond and new bramble growth on the fen areas by the stream is ongoing. Yellow Rattle wild flower seeds have been collected and sown in late autumn to weaken the coarse grasses.
There is what is believed to be the remains of the Roman road towards the ford which gives Oxford its name from the direction of Besselsleigh running parallel to the current road up Harcourt Hill. The outline of the raised metalled section with a ditch each side is clearly evident under the turf in winter or when the grass has been cut. A Lidar map of Raleigh Park 2024 also shows ridges from medieval strip farming visible parallel to Westminster Way.
There is a small oblelisk near the pond. The sun is shining revealing the date 1753 in the picture (click on the picture to enlarge it) and placing plasticine in the depressions reveals more of the inscription, probably "the Conduit". Conduit House (marked Well House) had been constructed over a spring to supply Oxford with water in 1615-17 and is within a kilometer of the obelisk (marked Stones on the OS map). The obelisk presumably marked the location of a chamber holding water for an extension to a channel or vaulted gully diverting a spring to Conduit House.
A cutting and embankment constructed to smooth the slope of a track linking Harcourt Hill to the track between North Hinksey and Yarnells Hill is shown on the map and the of the land handed over to the City of Oxford in 1926 and its construction has covered this channel on the obelisk side or the embankment.
A curved depression leading towards Conduit House visible on the other side of the embankment from the obelisk and on the Lidar map of Raleigh Park supports this interpretation of the writing on the obelisk.
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