Lye Valley News
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Midweek work sessions
These sessions for Members of Friends of Lye Valley are on Wednesdays 9–11am
All tools supplied. Outdoor clothing and sturdy boots needed
Fen cutting and raking, FoLV with the Oxford Conservation Volunteers
Sunday 30 June 2019, 10am–3pm
SOUTH FEN
Come to help with this essential work, especially the raking, which enables the wild flowers to bloom ever better each year and is by kind permission of the private owners of this part of the fen. This is a partial cut of the rank areas and we should be able to see orchids in flower in uncut areas. Wear old clothes and wellies. All tools, tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Come for an hour or stay all day, but if the latter, bring lunch. Meet on site, or if you do not know how to get there meet at the footpath down into the valley off Lye Valley Road at SP54737 05380. Ring 07968395243 for directions if needed.
Sunday 7 July 2019, 10am–3pm
NORTH FEN
Come to help with this essential work, especially the raking, which enables the wild flowers to bloom ever better each year. This is a partial cut of the rank areas and we should be able to see orchids in flower in uncut areas. Wear old clothes and wellies. All tools, tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Come for an hour or stay all day, but if the latter, bring lunch. Meet on site which can be accessed off The Slade by following the footpath south which starts at SP54955 06078. Ring 07968395243 for directions if needed.
Friends of Lye Valley AGM
Monday 5 August 2019 at St Francis's Church Hall, Hollow Way at 7.15pm. Talk to be confirmed.
Walk in the Lye Valley for ANHSO members
Sunday 1 September 2019, 2–4pm
A walk in the Lye Valley for members of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire, led by Judy Webb. This should be in the flowering peak of the Grass of Parnassus. Non-members welcome for a small charge- (£2).
Fen cutting and raking, FoLV with the Oxford Conservation Volunteers
Sunday 13 October 2019, 10am–3pm
SOUTH FEN
Come to help with this essential work, especially the raking, which enables the wild flowers to bloom ever better each year and is by kind permission of the private owners of this part of the fen. This is a partial cut of the rank areas and we should be able to see orchids in flower in uncut areas. Wear old clothes and wellies. All tools, tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Come for an hour or stay all day, but if the latter, bring lunch. Meet on site, or if you do not know how to get there meet at the footpath down into the valley off Lye Valley Road at SP54737 05380. Ring 07968395243 for directions if needed.
Sunday 20 October 2019, 10am–3pm
NORTH FEN
Come to help with this essential work, especially the raking, which enables the wild flowers to bloom ever better each year. This is a partial cut of the rank areas and we should be able to see orchids in flower in uncut areas. Wear old clothes and wellies. All tools, tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Come for an hour or stay all day, but if the latter, bring lunch. Meet on site which can be accessed off The Slade by following the footpath south which starts at SP54955 06078. Ring 07968395243 for directions if needed.
Judy Webb and Heather Armitage speak about the Lye Valley
The Lye Valley was promoted by Oxford City Council during Oxford Volunteer Week in June 2019
1 - 7 June is Volunteers' Week. Find out more about volunteering in Oxford. Visit https://t.co/5rghsqexWh #VolunteersWeek pic.twitter.com/emOWDvYFZb
— Oxford City Council (@OxfordCity) June 1, 2019
Volunteers Week runs from 1 – 7 June. Here Heather talks about volunteering at Lye Valley Nature Reserve. Want to find out about volunteering opportunities in Oxford? Visit https://t.co/5rghsqexWh #volunteersweek pic.twitter.com/OBr9fYmVSD
— Oxford City Council (@OxfordCity) June 3, 2019
Lye Valley article in 'Limited Edition'
The Lye Valley stars in this Oxford Times ‘Limited Edition’ article by Wendy Tobitt of BBOWT in June 2018.
Appeal dismissed
The appeal against a second planning application (refused on 12 December 2017) to build four houses on land west of 75 Town Furze (which is directly above the Lye Valley South Fen) was dismissed on 21 December 2018:
Local Plan Preferred Options Document
The Friends of Lye Valley response can be seen here
Lye Valley granted new protective status
The Lye Valley's extraordinary hydrological and geomorphological features – its “Living Geology” – has been recognised by its new protective designation as Local Geology Site by the Oxfordshire Geology Trust:
- Oxford Mail, 13 July 2017:
“Oxford's 'living geology' treasure trove Lye Valley granted new protective status”
Local Geology site proposal for Lye Valley
Oxfordshire Geology Trust have proposed the Lye Valley be designated a Local Geology Site in recognition of its extraordinary qualities: see application
Open Day held on 25 June 2017
Information and photographs on website of Judy Webb
Vision for the Lye Valley
The FOLV's Vision is to conserve and/or restore the whole of the Lye Valley as a natural continuous green area of land with a mosaic of different wet and dry habitats
Development of Warren Meadow
The development at Warren Meadow is to go ahead:
see separate page
Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT)
Join the Wild Oxford Project in Lye Valley
Outdoor clothing and sturdy boots needed.
Please contact Andy Gunn on andygunn@bbowt.org.uk
or 01865 775476 Ext. 237 or 07834 975162 for details of location.
All sessions run from 10am–3pm but feel free to come and go as you like on the day. Tasks to suit everyone.
Hot drinks and cake/biscuits are provided at all sessions, but please bring lunch if you plan to stay all day.
- Future sessions to be announced
Left: Article from Oxford Times of 1 September 2016 about green spaces in Headington and the Local Plan
The Grass of Parnassus
The fragile and rare Grass of Parnassus, first named by Matthias de L’Obel in 1570 when he found it growing in Hogley Bog (i.e. the Lye Valley), flowered again at the end of August 2014, hidden amid squelchy pools cloudy with tufa.
Dr Judy Webb has captured the stages of the buds’ unfolding in a series of pictures, from the male stage with anthers folded over stigma and the false nectary staminodes clear, through anthers bending out and opening one at a time stage, to the female stage where the anthers are gone, the ovary turns pink, and the stigmas are now uncovered and receptive to pollen on top of the ovary. Then follows the new seed pod. Characteristically one heart-shaped leaf encircles the stem
It was first noted in this wetland in 1640, but has probably been here since the last Ice Age. The Lye Valley is the most southerly place that the grass is found in England.
Oxford Mail, 30 August 2014:
“Ice Age flower is still quite at home in balmy Headington”
“Flowers ’n’ Bees” stroll round Rock Edge on 17 July 2016
Dr Judy Webb showed us some of the varieties of bee attracted by the wild flower meadow, and a parasitic wasp
Judy Webb's tour of the Lye Valley 6 July 2016: Oxford Mail report
Did You Know?
Proportionately there are more rare plants in the Lye Valley than in any other city site – at 20 species this is a third of the 61 species on the County Rare Plants Register found within all the nature sites in and around Oxford that are managed by Oxford City Council.
See our Chair, Dr Judy Webb’s, detailed report on the state of the Lye Valley for the Wild Oxford Project. It’s the ONLY fen (alkaline bog) to show such fast return to its former glory in Oxfordshire. Formerly there were 10 really good alkaline fens. Of these, 8 are being lost to natural succession to wet woodland through lack of management. Only Cothill fen and the Lye Valley fen are actually improving, due to having management. The Lye Valley fen – thanks to its volunteers, Oxford City Council, BBOWT, Oxford Conservation Volunteers – and not forgetting the Friends of Lye Valley – is getting better and better! But it still needs our help and protection.
Oxford City Council consultation on Draft Corporate Biodiversity Strategy 2015–2020
- Information about this consultation (closed 27 February 2015)
- See Judy Webb's response (PDF)
Annual General Meetings
The Annual General Meetings of the Friends of Lye Valley are held at St Francis Church Hall, Hollow Way in August. The agreed minutes of each AGM can be seen below.
2013 AGM • 2014 AGM • 2015 AGM • 2016 AGM • 2017 AGM