Oxfordshire: Oxford Centre to Iffley: Fritillary Meadows

12 April 2012
Length: All day        A good town centre map is adequate for this walk

We started from the Old Parsonage Hotel in Banbury Road.  This is next to St Giles Church. 

Old entrance to hotel

St Giles Church

The churchyard had plenty of spring beauty Claytonia perfoliata, white comfrey Symphytum orientale (easily picked out at this time of the year before common comfrey begins to flower) and hybrid bluebell Hyacinthoides x massartiana, as well as the usual cultivated daffodils Narcissus spp. 

Spring beauty

White comfrey

On the church walls and stone tombs were yellow corydalis Pseudofumaria lutea, maidenhair and black spleenworts Asplenium trichomanes and A. adiantum-nigrum, and hart’s tongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium. 

Yellow corydalis

Maidenhair spleenwort

 Another churchyard at the end of St Giles street was similarly full of spring beauty, which the feral pigeons were enjoying as a fresh salad.  It seems to be a common weed here.  Jackdaws were also scavenging here.  Some shiny cranesbill Geranium lucidum was flowering at the base of a street wall. 

Shining cranesbill

We continued due south down Cornmarket.  These central streets are prohibited to private cars, but there are continual streams of buses, taxis, delivery vans and bicycles, so we were still aware of traffic.  We turned along Market Street, downTurl Streetand across the High Street down Alfred Street to Blue Boar Street and Bear Lane in search of old walls with interesting vegetation.  Most walls are kept rigorously “clean” these days and it is difficult to find many plants, but in Blue Boar Street we came across buddleia Buddleja davidii, ivy-leaved toadflax Cymbalaria muralis, blue fleabane Erigeron acer (flowering in April – unusual for this late summer flower) and Mexican fleabane E. karvinskianus, yellow corydalis, wall-rue Asplenium ruta-muraria, hart’s tongue fern, and wall lettuce Mycelis muralis. 

Blue fleabane flowering in April

At the end of Bear Lane we turned into Oriel Square and here found ivy Hedera helix and pellitory-of-the-wall Parietaria judaica. 

Pellitory-of-the-wall

At the far end through a gate there was a courtyard with more plants at the base of the walls – white comfrey, garden strawberry Fragaria x ananassa, greater celandine Chelidonium majus, drooping sedge Carex pendula, petty spurge Euphorbia peplus, and creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens. 

Garden strawberry

The comfrey here had the striking yellow and black caterpillars of the scarlet tiger moth Callimorpha dominula, which hibernates as a small caterpillar and feeds up in spring. 

Scarlet tiger moth caterpillars on white comfrey

Along Merton Street (which is still cobbled) the walls of Merton College had more Mexican fleabane, along with thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana (a common pavement weed here), red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum, Adria bellflower Campanula portenschlagiana, shepherd’s purse Capsella bursa-pastoris, prickly sow-thistle Sonchus asper, chickweed Stellaria media, common field speedwell Veronica persica, and box Buxus sempervirens.  We saw no wallflower surprisingly, although this used to grow on these walls.

Cobbled Merton Street

Returning to the end of Magpie Lane, a path opposite led between Christ Church and Merton College to the expanse of grass known as Merton Grove, where we saw a mistle-thrush, while, at the far end, trees with the plant that shares it name, mistletoe Viscum album, were visible. 

Christ Church from Merton Grove

Entering Broad Walk, Christ Church Meadow lay ahead, although fenced off.  There are various old flower records from here, including fritillary and wild tulip, but now it appeared to be a flowerless expanse of rushes grazed by cows and Canada and greylag geese, although there were some cowslips Primula veris out near Broad Walk.  Turning south down New Walk we followed the western boundary of the meadow.  A stream coming across here had flowering lady’s-smock Cardamine pratensis, near which was a large patch of winter aconite Eranthis hyemalis, now in seed, with a single flower-head of bird-in-a-bush Corydalis solida protruding from among them.  The path leads to the Thames and a row of old plane trees Platanus x hispanica, commonly planted in Oxford as in London.  There were many more geese with coots, mallards, moorhens and mute swans. 

Coot on Thames

In a hawthorn Crataegus monogyna bush on the south side of Christ Church Meadow a blackcap was singing.  There were also alders Alnus glutinosa along here, and eventually a stream with greater pond sedge Carex riparia. 

Greater pond sedge

A very large tree, a raoul Nothofagus procera, just coming into leaf, stood near a side-stream of the Thames, across from the university boathouses. 

Raoul

On the river banks here were blue anemone Anemone apennina (including the white variety) and garden pansy Viola x wittrockiana.

White "blue" anemones

We returned from here back along the Thameside path to the main road St Aldates at the Head of the River Pub, where we saw Oxford ragwort Senecio squalidus which, like white comfrey, flowers before its commoner relatives.  This Mediterranean native originally escaped from Oxford Botanic Gardens, hence its English name. 

Oxford ragwort

We crossed the Thames by means of Folly Bridge, and then descended to the towpath along the south bank of the Thames, part of the long-distance Thames Path.  (There are two streams under the bridge: we had to be careful not to go down to the boat jetties on the island between the two.) 

The river was busy with boat-crews practising, coaches following by bike along the towpath to shout their instructions, so again one has to watch for cyclists. 

There was little of botanical interest along the banks, apart from occasional clumps of young leaves of goat’s-rue Galega officinalis, so we stretched our legs in earnest along here until we reached Donnington Bridge Road, climbed up to cross the bridge over the Thames and then turned left down Meadow Lane.  At the end of the allotments a path strikes left through grassland and scrub, and we then turned left and south towards the end of a small triangular peninsula between the Thames and a short side-stream where housebots were moored.  It was necessary to push through a rough nettle patch to reach the wet Iffley Meadow, where hundreds of fritillaries Fritilloria meleagris were crowded in full flower, mostly purple, a few per cent the white variety.  Some of the purple ones were very dark, almost black.  It was a lovely sight and protected by its seclusion.  The site is diligently managed by the Oxford Conservation Volunteers.

Fritillaries, Iffley Meadow

We returned to Meadow Lane and followed this south towards Iffley.  Meadow Lane Nature Park on the right had nothing of special interest, at least at this time of the year.  The road bends left and goes up to Church Way, where we turned right and followed this road right up to the church.  Along the way there was much cornsalad beginning to flower at the base of the walls – too early to check the fruits. We would have guessed Valerianella carinata, the one we usually find in this situation, but the Oxfordshire flora (Killick, Perry & Woodell) says that sopecies is rare, although there have been records around Oxford.  It therefore needs checking.  When we reached the old Norman church of St Mary’s we immediately encountered a huge old horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum beside the gateway.  Botanically the churchyard was well-maintained, with large areas cordoned off from the demon-mowers to allow flowers a chance to flourish.  In the mown areas was Good Friday grass flowering, less than a week after Good Friday.  Elsewhere were many primroses Primula vulgaris in prime condition still, and the usual bulb-plants like daffodils. 

Primroses & lesser celandines, Iffley churchyard

The main interest here, however, is the huge yew tree Taxus baccata on the other side of the church, reputed to be 1,600 years old and it certainly looks it, though still in great condition, probably the largest we have ever seen.

Iffley Church, with part of the ancient yew to the right

As there is a path only on one side of the Thames we had to return to Oxford by the same route by which we had come.  Crossing Donnington Bridge again we noticed more crowds of cornsalad flowering in the verge; being in grass here they might have been Valerianella locusta.  There was more Oxford ragwort and also annual wall-rocket Diplotaxis muralis, with its evocative but less complimentary name of “stinkweed”, which provides a quick ID check.  On one of the pollarded willow trunks along the Thames north of the bridge, approaching from this side, was a large batch of sulphur polypore bracket fungi, bright yellow and very attractive. 

Sulphur polypore on pollar willow

The willows that had not been cut were equally attractive with their yellow catkins; they appeared to be crack willow Salix fragilis.

Crack willow flowers

When we regained St Aldates we continued north along the road and then turned right along the High Street.  There are a number of eating-places around here for a quick lunch.  After burritos we continued right along the north side of the High Street.  Outside the University Church of St Mary the Virgin was what we presumed to be an old almond tree Prunus dulcis in flower, its sprawling trunks quite black. 

Old almond tree, High Street

Between All Saints and Queens Colleges there is also an old sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, but one can only see the upper part behind a high wall.  Opposite Magdalen College is Rose Lane, which provided another wall to search for plants.  These included the heavily dark-splotched leaves of Hieracium scotostictum and much rue-leaved saxifrage Saxifraga tridactylites, both on top of the wall and at its base, small white flowers on top of reddening stems and leaves. 

Rue-leaved saxifrage

Returning towards the High Street end, there is a way into the Rose Garden and down to the front entrance of the Botanic Garden.  Outside stood an old lime Tilia x europaea covered with huge green clumps of mistletoe.  There is an entrance fee but it is relatively small, and the garden is well worth a look, as there is plenty of interest.  The upper garden is walled and sheltered, and the beds there are conveniently laid out according to botanical families.  Along the east side, outside the wall, are greenhouses with tropical palms, ferns and cacti.  The walls here, on the outside, have large clumps of maidenhair fern Adiantum capillus-veneris that has escaped. 

Maidenhair fern self-sown on wall

A lizard sunning itself on the wall quickly disappeared into a crevice.  Ladder brake Pteris vittata has also been known to grow here, but there was no sign at our visit, although inside the glasshouse it had escaped all over the walls. 

Ladder brake

Another fern, Cheilanthes eatonii (Eaton’s lip fern) from US to Central America, was possibly another candidate for escaping, having established itself in the cracks around the window. 

Eaton's lip fern

Some bulb plants and others were flowering beautifully inside the first glasshouse, the alpine section of the Lily House, including the brilliant red tulip Tulipa linifolia from Afghanistan, which was also flowering outside in the lily family bed, though not so exuberantly, and, interestingly given the focus of the walk on fritillaries, Fritillaria acmopetala, a greenish fritillary from the east Mediterranean.

Tulipa linifolia

Fritillaria acmopetala

In the walled garden are a number of trees, including a well-known example of service tree Sorbus domestica, although the buds were only just opening to show the rowan-like leaves; an old Pinus nigra; a very old white mulberry Morus alba; and, near the gate into the lower garden, the oldest tree here, planted in 1645, not long after the founding of the garden.  Unfortunately this last was a yew which suffered in comparison with the one we had just seen at Iffley, four times as old! 

The sticky resin exudations of the old black

pine occasion interest among visitors

In the bed along the eastern wall bird-in-a-bush had become a rampant weed, engulfing much else along here.  Pink purslane Claytonia sibirica (white form) had also established itself in these beds.  We could not find any Oxford ragwort, so it seems that they have decided they no longer need to preserve it!

Bird-in-a-bush as a rampant weed

Pink purslane (white form)

Leaving the garden we went across to Magdalen Collage and paid another entrance fee to enter its grounds and walk to the famous Magdalen Meadow.  While passing through the college we stopped at a tree just behind the President’s Lodgings, a plane planted in 1801 (to commemorate the “Peace of Amiens” which is now quite forgotten by most of us) from a scion at the Botanic Garden.  Its vast size shows how quickly this species can grow – it appears much older.  Around its base was an uncut grass area with wood anemones Anemone nemorosa, blue anemone, tulips and other bulb plants. 

Old plane, Magdalen College

Wood anemones under plane tree

Walking due east from here the path crossed a stream and then took us along Addison’s Walk around the Meadow, which is fenced off from access, although we could see great purple clouds of fritillaries, that must number in the hundreds of thousands, an amazing sight.  As at Iffley, there is the occasional white flower.  They are doing so well here (though endangered in many other places) that they are still expanding their range and have crossed the boundary stream to grow on the banks beside the path.  Along the path were also many primroses, sweet violet Viola odorata, goldlilocks buttercup Ranunculus auricomus, common whitlow-grass Erophila verna, and butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus. 

Last year's berry on butcher's broom

At the NE corner of the meadow we crossed a wooden bridge over a stream which had marsh marigolds Caltha palustris flowering, one having blooms nearly three inches across, as against the usual maximum of two inches.  Across here was a wet meadow where hundreds of fritillaries had spread outside the meadow fence and allowed a close view; here they were mixed with wood anemones and hedge garlic attended by newly-emerged orange-tip butterflies. 

Fritillaries in Magdalen Meadow

Out in the main meadow we saw another large lime with masses of mistletoe.

What the Bird Said Early In the Year - By C.S. Lewis

I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear
‘This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.
‘Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas. 
‘This year time's nature will no more defeat you,
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.
‘This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.
‘This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.
‘Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart’.

The above poem is displayed on a board along the walk beside the meadow.  CS Lewis had once been resident at Magdalen College.  This poem was only published posthumously, but an earlier version with two more lines “Chanson d’Aventure” was published in 1938.  The board is on the west side of the path, in front of The Grove Deer Park where a herd of fallow deer was visible some way off, some of the antlered males sparring.  This herd has been here since at least 1705.

Having feasted our eyes here we left the college and took Longwall Street along the west side of Magdalen, north from the High Street, and into St Cross Road to the end where there is an entrance into University Parks.  We walked along the south edge eastwards to the banks of the Cherwell, where the path turns north to follow the river.  At the corner were several grey poplars Populus x canescens just coming into leaf and conspicuously white.  A patch of Chinese bramble Rubus tricolor with its shiny leaves bordered the path, after which there was a large patch of few-flowered garlic Allium paradoxum at the perfect time to see the flowers, although their sparse floppy heads always look untidy. 

Chinese bramble

Few-flowered garlic

Cowslips Primula veris flowered in the grass.  There are quite a few balsam poplars Populus x jackii along here with sticky buds that smell faintly of balsam.  One of the trees had attracted the dark brown alder fly Sialis lutaria, which breeds in the river and emerges in the spring before the may-flies. 

Alder fly on balsam poplar

There is a bench along here dedicated to JRR Tolkien, who was of course a professor here, and an acquaintance of CS Lewis.  We took this path beside the Cherwell, past the high-arched bridge that crosses it if one wants to continue along the other bank, and to the pond at the NE corner of the park.  We then returned to the bridge and took the path west to the exit in Parks Road, opposite Keble Road, returning to our starting-point.

Oxfordshire: Ewelme to Maidensgrove: Ancient Landscapes of Swyncombe

12 March 2012                          OS Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West

Length: All day.

We parked at the western end of Ewelme (Eyre’s Lane) SU639920 (near the Shepherd’s Hut pub) and walked straight down to the stream after which it was named (Anglo-Saxon ēa “stream”, wielm “bubbling up”).   From here right through the village this stream is the site of former commercial watercress beds that had become derelict after ceasing operation in 1988 and were recently restored as a wildlife habitat by the Chiltern Society.  There is an interpretation board that mentions water voles being seen here.  At this time of the year the stream looked rather desolate, the watercress Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum brown and straggly, new shoots just beginning to emerge.  Moorhens and mallards were active around the shallow water-beds separated by concrete bunds.  The scrub at the side was alive with spring bird-song, and a few lesser celandine Ficaria verna and coltsfoot Tussilago farfara were out in grassland that had obviously been a hive of mole activity.

          We returned to the main road through the village going east just above the stream, with more good views of the cress beds. 

Ewelme water-cress beds

On the corner were many plants of red dead-nettle Lamium purpureum flowering profusely.  Cherry-plum Prunus cerasifera was flowering, very noticeable as always before the rest of the hedgerow shrubs had any colour. 

Cherry-plum

We passed a very old long single-storey building which we guessed was once a smithy, as the house next to it was called Forge Cottage. 

Old smithy?

The Watercress Beds Centre is also along here.  Although the restoration has been purely for historic and environmental purposes to date, there are plans if possible to begin a commercial operation again one day. 

          Many tall trees in the village were occupied by a large and raucous rookery.

Part of rookery

          Where the village street bent to the left we carried straight on, the street signs indicating Swyncombe, passing a large primary school, an imposing rectangular two-storey red-brick building that had originally been built as a grammar school, complete with mullioned windows.  Built in 1437 it is part of a medieval complex including the church and almshouses.  It is reputedly the oldest building in use as a state primary school in Britain.  

Ewelme CE Primary School

After Rectory Cottage on the right a path leaves the lane and proceeds, in much the same direction, through Cow Common, a registered common with certain grazing rights.  Here we passed an old laburnum tree Laburnum anagyroides, a pair of kestrels glided in and out of the thick morning fog, and we noticed the old base of a meadow puffball Vascellum pratense.

Old laburnum, Cow Common

          At the lane at the end of the path we turned left and then followed the track to Ewelme Down Farm.  A small copse along here had numerous self-sown bushes of Lawson’s cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, perhaps form “Tamariscifolia”, which has a spreading form.  Other evergreens have been planted beside this farm-track.  We proceeded rather quickly past the large farm complex itself, as this was distinctly malodorous, and after another copse used for rearing game-birds we crossed Swan’s Way, still continuing directly eastwards.  The hedge on the right here had several plants of spurge-laurel Daphne laureola.  The track continued to the gates of a private drive, where a footpath diverged left to continue as “Ladies Walk” towards Swyncombe House.  There was a little more spurge-laurel in the copse at the beginning of the path.  A pair of buzzards was swooping around high trees.  We were soon walking between a hedgerow and ploughed land on our right, followed by a narrow line of beechwood, many of the old beeches Fagus sylvatica now felled.  On the left here the field boundary is marked by a long line of uniform horse chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum, obviously planted to make a formal avenue approaching the House, probably in 1840 when the C16^th manor house was rebuilt as an uninspiring Victorian edifice.  Some of these trees bore old remains of honey fungus Armillaria mellea, while the base of the old beeches had clusters of lacquered bracket Ganoderma lucidum.  In this belt of trees was also a large patch of snowdrops Galanthus nivalis. 

Snowdrops, Ladies Walk

Soon after we were joined by the Ridgeway path, the right hand side was bordered by a tall wooden fence marking the boundary of Swyncombe Park.  We then reached Swyncombe Church of St. Botolph.

          The Church had its annual open days to celebrate its snowdrops in early February.  They were mostly going over, but as we entered the churchyard they were mixed with a large colony of winter aconites Eranthis hyemalis, supposed to be one of the best colonies in this country.  Dripping with water from the fog, their delicate petals were unfortunately not at their best, but it was still quite a site because of the density of the two colonies of plants. 

Swyncombe Churchyard: snowdrops & aconites

Winter aconites

There were also a few primroses Primula vulgaris (although outnumbered by polyanthus Primula x polyanthus) and sweet violets Viola odora.  Clumps of gladdon Iris foetida, some still showing their bright orange seeds in open pods, were scattered around, a plant associated with aconite and snowdrop also at Drayton Beauchamp churchyard in Bucks (see our entry for 22 March 2011).  There are some large yews Taxus baccata at the boundary of the churchyard, but those close to the church seemed to be quite young and were kept well clipped and decapitated, which to us seemed rather ugly, although they were supposed to be neat and regular. 

Swyncombe Church & its odd yews

While asarabacca Asarum europaeum was regularly seen here in the late 1900s, we could find no evidence of it today.  We met the vicar who told us something of the history of the church.  Although early Norman in its foundation (11^thC) it was extensively rebuilt around 1850.  We determined to take a look inside the church on our return later.

          We continued east from the church along the Chiltern Way, going across part of the old Swyncombe Park, with the 19^thC Rectory overlooking us.  

Swyncombe Park and Rectory

Then it was up a wooded slope, at first a young plantation, with older beechwood at the top, followed by a plantation of western hemlock-spruce Tsuga heterophylla.  There were lots of bluebell plants emerging here which will make a good sight later on.  Eventually the path leads into Church Lane going down into Cookley Green.  Where it ends at another lane the eponymous green lies ahead and we took a path along its northern side, trees bordering the B480 on its south side just visible through the fog, which was very persistent. 

Cookley Green

When we reached this road we crossed to where the Chiltern Way goes along a track, at the beginning of which was a young maple flowering profusely with bright yellow clusters.  The early season and the fact that the flowers were well before the leaves indicated that this was Norway maple Acer platanoides, a tree which is much less attractive later in the year.

Norway maple flowering by the

Chiltern Way

          The Chiltern Way here descended gently in a valley with a belt of trees on each side.  Embankments in places and the width of the track seem to indicate that this is an ancient way which once joined the Ridgeway itself.  As well as some impressive old trees, especially oak Quercus robur, there are many coppiced hazels Corylus avellana, left uncut now for many decades, so that the last cut made in anticipation of a future harvest of poles had become a waste of effort with changes in the economics of forestry.  After passing the path up to Russell’s Water on the left, and the entry of another path on the right, we saw on the left-hand side one patch of wild primroses near the field edge – surprisingly the only ones we were to see on this walk. 

Primroses by

Chiltern Way

Similarly a small patch of wood anemones Anemone nemorosa by the path a few yards further on was the only evidence of that plant we were to see.  This was surprising, as the habitat looked good.

Wood anemone by

Chiltern Way

          We then came to a path on the left which led straight up the steep slope (meaning steep!).  We left the Chiltern Way to labour slowly up this path on a chalk slope (Little Cookley Hill) that is likely to be botanically interesting in the summer, and we did see the leaves of thyme Thymus sp on our way and remnants of knapweeds. 

Steep path up Little Cookley Hill

At the top of the main slope the path turned right a short way, with masses of sweet violets at the edge, a few purple, mostly white. 

Sweet violets, Little Cookley Hill

Then it turned again straight up the short steepest section with the help of a series of wooden steps, this section presumably marking where the narrow band of hard chalk-rock traverses the hillside between the Middle and Upper Chalk.  Above the steps the rise was more gradual, past more sweet violets, soon emerging into the lane at Upper Maidensgrove.  Just a few yards to the right lies the Five Horseshoes and a well-earned chance of recuperation, eating burgers made from locally-caught muntjac. 

Five Horseshoes

The view from the back of the pub is superb along the valley we had been following, and red kites sailed above, lower than the buzzards that tended to keep high in the sky.

View from Five Horseshoes, fog clearing

          After lunch we returned to Swyncombe the way we had come, but now the fog had finally been burned off, we could enjoy a blue sky and warm sun, and the surroundings came to life in the light and shade.  

Coppiced hazels beside

Chiltern Way

A few lesser celandines and all the dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis were in flower.  Wood mice ran in and out among rotting logs and bankside crevices.  Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta abounded along this walk, but we were still surprised to see one, just one, in flower.  We could see no others that had even thrown up buds as yet, and this seemed an unusually early date. 

Our first bluebell of the year

There were several clusters of gooseberry bushes Ribes uva-crispa, a plant which can be a sign of ancient woodland, or just as easily a garden escape.  In this case it seemed more likely to be the former than the latter.  Old trees carried lichens like the common blue-grey Lepraria incana.

Lepraria incana lichen on old oak

          As we walked back through the woodland between Cookley Green and Swyncombe (Church Wood) we noticed there were large numbers of earthworks consisting of small holes, large enough for a couple of people, with the earth piled up on one side.  They may be relics of wartime training in trench warfare.  On regaining Swyncombe Church we took a brief look inside.  One small window in the west end, so high it is difficult to see, is glazed with small lozenge panes (quarries) with strange figures of birds engraved on them.  This window used to be open and was where the bell hung outside in a small frame (the reason why the church has no tower), but this bell, the vicar had told us, was removed in Victorian times and replaced with this window.  We found we needed binoculars to observe the birds properly, these being highly stylized and in strange attitudes in order to fit the diamond shapes.  Fortunately the church sells cards with copies of each of the six bird designs and we bought a packet of them.  One is reproduced here:

          From the church, after another look at the flowers, this time in the sun, and another fruitless search for asarabacca, we took the track due north, on the Ridgeway Trail, which goes past the Rectory.  The banks outside the Rectory have more snowdrops and winter aconites.  There is also a thick stand of butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus by the gateway and, on the bank beyond, naturalised blue anemone Anemone apennina among sweet violets.

Blue anemone outside Rectory

          The Ridgeway continues across a road and down into a valley from which it rises again from 150m to 215m in the next 300m through beech woodland. 

Ridgeway path

Near the top there is a particularly impressive formerly pollarded beech tree just off to the left.  Roe deer galloped across in front and quickly disappeared.  After descending a little way on the other side of the hill we reached embankments enclosing a ditch and immediately after this we turned left along what was again the Chiltern Way, leading along the Swyncombe Downs.  This an SSSI for its botanically-rich chalk grassland, which would no doubt reward a summer visit.  Even at this time of the year we could appreciate the bushes of juniper Juniperus communis, which has become so rare in the south of England.  Some of the bushes seemed quite young, so that it may unusually still be capable of regeneration here.  They had obviously been used over winter as shelter by seven-spot ladybirds, which were sunning themselves among the shoots and berries.  

Juniper bushes, Swyncombe Downs

Juniper berries & 7-spot ladybird

The track follows the north side of the ditch with embankments, which has gained the name of the “Danish Entrenchment” on the basis of the belief that it marked the limit of the Viking insurgence from the north against the southern Saxons, but it seems much more likely, given its huge length (about a kilometre) and size, that it could not be a hurriedly erected fortification, but more likely a Bronze Age boundary.  Its similarity to Grim’s Ditch, generally agreed to be such a tribal boundary, is striking.  Its antiquity means that some of the beech trees that have grown along the embankments are an impressive size and were once pollarded. 

Pollard beech by “Danish Entrenchment”

The ditch itself would make a suitable trackway if it were not for the fact that much of it is scrubbed over.  One has a real sense here of standing in the midst of an ancient landscape, although this is dispelled by the view north over North Farm across the plain beyond the Chilterns, where most of the fields are of huge extent to suit modern machinery, the old field hedges having been extirpated long ago.

View from Swyncombe Downs over North Farm

          At a fork in the path we took the left path, still following the Chiltern Way
and the “entrenchment” through an area, a little further on, rife with anthills and more junipers. 

Anthills, Swyncombe Downs

From here the path descended through almost pure yew woodland, not at all common in the Chilterns. 

Yew flowers

Below is more recent deciduous plantation, probably on the site of ancient woodland, as we saw a clump of Borrer’s male-fern Dryopteris borreri (characteristic of ancient woodland) surviving from last year.

Borrer’s male-fern

At the bottom of the wood the Chiltern Way crosses a track and continues west through agricultural land (some of those huge fields).  The Chiltern Way soon turns left towards east Ewelme, but we continued westwards along what is termed in newspeak a “restricted byway”.  On the right, approaching Huntingland farm, is a recent plantation which was alive with birds – yellowhammers, chaffinch, goldfinches and great tits.  We then passed along the north side of a very large piggery extending into the far distance, part of Down Farm to the south that we passed early in the day (and explaining its smell).  The earth here was totally bare with Tamworth pigs grubbing, the landscape dotted with metal shelters.  Coincidentally, this echoes the origin of Swyncombe in Anglo-Saxon swīn “pigs”, cumb “valley” – so some things do not change.

Down Farm piggery

The track continued past agricultural land.  Although the hedgerows on each side were largely grubbed out they have recently been replanted with new shrubs.  Two older trees have survived, noticeable for their disordered shape, pale bark and glossy twigs, the buds dark grey-brown and occasional longer catkin buds of the same colour.  The leaf scars were similar to horse chestnut.  We eventually worked out that they were walnut Juglans regia, a surprising find in this otherwise bare landscape. 

Walnut tree

We discovered some fallen brown leaves that had the typical walnut leaf-galls, large pouches, hollow and filled with hairs on the underside, made by the mite Aceria erinea.  There were many broken twigs below these trees, probably a result of people trying to collect the fruit.  One of the trees was smooth-barked and covered in lichens including Xanthoria parietina, Lecanora chlorotera and Amandinea punctata.

Lichens on walnut tree

Eventually the track reaches the lane of Firebrass Hill, where we turned left and then quickly right along another footpath (patch of lesser periwinkle Vinca minor at the corner) to the little copse of Hyde Shaw.  Turning to pass along its northern side we soon reached Eyre’s Lane, a little way above where we were parked.