Oxfordshire: Evenlode Valley

2 April 2013                                                      OS 164 Landranger

All day (9 miles)

 

The main purpose of this walk was to visit three sites for the rare Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem Gagea lutea on the steep wooded slopes on Jurassic limestone above the River Evenlode.  We had seen it here (in Mill Wood) on 30 March 1974, when this picture was taken.

Yellow star-of-Bethlehem, 30 March 1974, Mill Wood

 Then it had been a sunny warm spring day and we had been able to have a picnic.  This year was quite different with an extended cold winter that had delayed spring; although it was sunny all day the temperature did not arise above 6ºC except in places sheltered from the east wind.  We saw some of our first spring flowers for the year, which we would have expected to have seen in February or early March.  There was, unfortunately, no evidence of our target plant and it may be that this year we were too early for it.  We hope that it is still there, as it does not seem to receive any special protection, although two sites are SSSIs.  The Oxfordshire Flora (1998) gives Whitehill Wood and Sturt Copse (not Mill Wood) as extant sites, but the latest date quoted is 1991.

            Even without our target plant, this walk is a very enjoyable one, with much to see (even more almost certainly in a normal year) and a truly great pub for a lunchtime break.  We used our car, but anyone in reach of Oxford by train could take the Oxford-Worcester line to Combe Halt, starting and finishing the walk there, although we do not know how frequently trains stop there.

            We parked in Millwood End, Long Hanborough, at the eastern end SP416144, and walked down Swan Lane towards Combe Station.  The only plant flowering in the roadside hedge was dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis.  This plant constituted the dominant ground flora in all the woods visited and is visible in the photograph of Gagea lutea above.

            At the bottom, before the river and railway a footpath ran to the left beside a quarry works.  In the first field was a stand of very large thistles, very dead and brown, but from their unwinged stems we guessed they had been woolly thistle Cirsium eriophorum.  We then entered Mill Wood at the bottom of the steep slope, with a very wet marsh area beside the Evenlode River on our right.  Above us were the remains of a quarry into the limestone.

 

Quarry, Mill Wood

 

The ground was largely bare with spring delayed, but the evergreen hart's-tongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium was evident.  Beside the Evenlode was a bulb plant in bud which may have been an introduced spring snowflake Leucojum vernum.  Apart from dog's mercury the other dominant ground plant in evidence was ramsons Allium ursinum, not yet in flower, which was also prevalent throughout the other woods we were to visit.

            Someone had built wooden platforms into the marsh pools, but the paths at this level had been so inundated they were impassable.  We saw a large patch of frozen frogspawn, where some early frogs had been caught out by a brief mild spell.  We walked just above this level, below replanted woodland, and we saw no evidence of yellow star-of-Bethlehem.  The path emerged from the wood and kept to its edge with views of the river below and Combe on the opposite hill-top.

 

View from Mill Wood to Combe across Evenlode (line of pollarded willows)

We continued the path as it went uphill through woodland to the track on the west side of Long Hanborough.  We took this very rutted track westwards past a wood on our right to the road at East End.  Snowdrops Galanthus nivalis were still flowering in the verge.  On garden walls were rue-leaved saxifrage Saxifraga tridactylites and much intermediate polypody Polypodium interjectum.  We saw the latter on various walls and in the woods throughout the day.

 

Intermediate polypody, East End

 

At the west end of the village there was Sturt Copse on our right with stands of flowering spurge laurel Daphne laureola.  We did not see this plant further into the wood, so that although it could be native it seemed more like a garden escape here, reinforced by the existence of winter aconite Eranthus hyemalis and creeping comfrey Symphytum grandiflorum as well at this part of the wood.

 

Spurge laurel

 

Further down the wood, apart from dog's mercury and large patches of ramsons, was occcasional primrose Primula vulgaris, gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa, while intermediate polypody grew on tree boughs and stumps with the moss Brachythecium rutabulum.  Bugle Ajuga reptans and moschatel Adoxa moschatellina leaves were present, but no flowers yet.  The wood was largely hazel Corylus avellana and ash Fraxinus excdelsior coppice with scattered standards of oak Querus robur and beech Fagus sylvatica.

 

Sturt Copse with ramsons

 

Epiphytic intermediate polypody with moss Brachythecium rutabulum

There was an abundance of snails, going by the shells lying around, including the large Roman snail, round-mouthed snail, Cochlodina lamellata, Azeca goodallii  and the rare Ena montana, with a variety of more common species.

 

Ena montana shells

 

Cochlodina lamellata

 

Aegopinella nitidula shell with mosses Atrichum undulatum and Diocranum scoparium

 

At the bottom of the wood is the River Evenlode with an informal path along the bank.

 

River Evenlode, Sturt Copse to left

 

A path leaves the NW corner of the wood straight down to the remains of North Leigh Roman Villa, with the base of the walls of the rooms on the west side of a courtyard excavated to view, including two baths, while a covered hut encloses a well-preserved section of floor mosaic.  The villa was no doubt the source of the Roman snails in the wood above.  There was a pleasant scatter of white-flowers of common whitlow-grass Erophila verna over the remains.  Lapwings were seen in the fields around the site.

 

North Leigh Roman Villa

 

Turning left at the villa took us to a track we followed north over the railway line and through pasture to the River Evenlode.  Here we could take the riverside path back south through Whitehill Wood, another pleasant walk.  Just before passing under the railway we passed a large old oak which measured 478cm in girth.  The wood begins after the bridge and again we found Roman and round-mouthed snails and Ena montana, wood anemone Anemone nemorosa leaves (far yet from flowering), and one plant of toothwort Lathraea squamaria just pushing up from the soil.  There was plenty of hazel coppice where one might expect to find toothwort.

 

Toothwort just emerging

 

The path from Whitehill Wood reaches a crossroads at Ashford Mill Farm, where we took the lane west to Wilcote.  At the corner was a grassy bank with the first sweet violets Viola odorata (purple form) we had seen in flower this year. This quiet lane is bordered partially by a typical Cotswold stone wall, with views again over the Evenlode Valley.

 

Cotswold stone wall, Ashord Mill Farm visible through gap

 

 In the hedge was much Oregon grape Mahonia aquifolium, still in bud, probably a relic of shrubs grown for pheasant cover in the estate of Wilcote House which could be seen just ahead.  Outside the Keeper's Cottage on the road verge was Turkish squill Scilla bithynica in flower, winter aconite and winter heliotrope Petasites fragrans.

 

Turkish squill and leaf of winter heliotrope

At the next crossroads the lane ahead is flanked by two large gateway pillars, looking like a private drive to Wilcote Manor that can be seen ahead, but this is actually a public road, although it obviously was once a drive, as it is bordered by various bulb-plants like Galanthus nivalis 'flore pleno' and winter aconite, box Buxus sempervirens and yew Taxus baccata in flower.  There is little left of the village of Wilcote than a few grand houses, of which the oldest is the Manor House, mentioned in the Domesday Book.  In grandeur it is now overshadowed by Wilcote House built in the early C17th.  The old church of St Peter's also remains, partially late C12th.

 

St Peter's, Wilcote

Along the lane beyond Wilcote was a bank of flowering lesser celandine Ficaria verna and coltsfoot Tussilago farfara, again the first of the latter we had seen in flower yet this year.

 

Coltsfoot

Birds seen around Wilcote included pheasant, long-tailed tit, jay and goldfinch.  The village name derives from Old English for "cottages at the well" and the water table is unusually near the surface here, although we were at over 130m above sea-level.  This became very apparent when we took a footpath off the lane to go to Ramsden, which we soon regretted, so water-logged it had become and sometimes with water so deep one would have to wade it!  We determined we would stick to the lanes on the way back.

            Ramsden is named from OE for "valley of ramsons" and it is easy to imagine that this was always a prevalent plant around here, from the large quantities we kept seeing in the region.  It was presumably used extensively in cooking and salads.  On walls into Ramsden we passed yellow corydalis Pseudofumaria lutea.  By the central crossroads of this pleasant little village is the Royal Oak pub, where we received a very friendly welcome and there was a wide choice of good food, compensating more than a little for the disappointment of not finding any Gagea lutea.

 

Royal Oak, Ramsden

 

Opposite the pub stands the tall spire of the church which was facing us when we arrived.  The churchyard has well-naturalised snowdrops, a row of short clipped yews and the usual intermediate polypody on the walls.

 

Ramsden and its church spire

All that remained then was to walk the lanes back to Long Hanborough.  Just before East End there were large patches of winter aconite on the left-hand side.  We visited Sturt Copse again to gather some fresh ramsons leaves for salad.  A wall in Millwood End, Long Hanborough, had intermediate polypody, maidenhair spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes and wall-rue A. ruta-muraria.