Heyford Meadow, tucked away behind modern houses on the edge of Sandford-on-Thames, has just been awarded a top environmental accolade from the Canal & River Trust.
But only a few years ago this was a rubbish dump full of old boats, engines and scrap metal; not a wild flower in sight.
I’ve come to know Heyford Meadow well in the last few years, starting with a close encounter with some of that heavy metal. I was hauling stuff out of one of the ditches when I hit a large object, and to my surprise pulled out a milk churn, and then another!
The volunteers from BBOWT and the Four Pillars Thames Hotel, with a local contractor to help with the really heavy stuff, hauled out around 250 tons of metal and scrap including boats, engines and lots of milk churns.
All these items had belonged to Mr Tait, who ran a business selling milk in vending machines from this site. He left the land to the Oxford Preservation Trust, which decided to restore the derelict site into a beautiful place filled with wild flowers and butterflies – a place for local people to enjoy a walk to the River Thames and see lots of wildlife. With the help of BBOWT, Pond Conservation, The Four Pillars Thames Hotel and The Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE), the site has undergone an extraordinary makeover.
Heyford Meadow is a wonderful example of how organisations in Oxford work together to achieve great things. This was recognised at the recent Canal & River Trust Renaissance Award when the Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) received the Natural Environment award for the restoration of Heyford Meadow.
The Wildlife Trust worked with OPT to create a wildlife restoration plan that includes three new ponds and a wildlife scrape, created with help from the Pond Conservation’s Million Ponds Project.  These have extended habitats for water voles, frogs, toads and newts, and water-loving insects. Recent surveys conducted by Oxford Brookes University students showed healthy populations of toads and other pond life. Grass snakes are regularly seen on site and lay their eggs in the piles of hay cut last summer.
Hay meadows like these, and the adjacent Iffley Meadows nature reserve, would have traditionally been cut each July, and then animals brought in to graze on the new growth before the winter.
As far as possible we are carrying out these traditional management techniques to encourage the growth of meadow wild flower species such as great burnet and meadow sweet. Both of these have been recorded in surveys, and the meadow is showing signs of good health.
Cutting the meadow for hay is carried out with help from staff at The Four Pillars Thames Hotel and other volunteers. This summer they will have the chance to learn how to scythe, a traditional way of cutting grass to make hay.
The recent Natural Environment award from the Canal & River Trust is a fitting tribute to the many hours of work put in by many volunteers over the last few years, and together we will continue to improve Heyford Meadow to attract more wildlife to the site. This spring BBOWT staff and volunteers carried out bird ringing surveys to monitor breeding birds on the site. So far 36 species have been recorded including cuckoo, whitethroat and warblers.
A lady, who in the 1940s used to play in Heyford Meadow as a child, recently wrote to the Oxford Preservation Trust describing a meadow rich with flowers such as the iconic snake’s-head fritillary, orchids and ragged robin. Although we’re only a few years into the restoration she would recognise the same beautiful place today.