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
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.
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.
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