Jarn Mound, Boars Hill, Saturday, 19th August 2023

By Margaret - August 21, 2023

This week's blog was written by Sally.

This week, Abingdon Green Gym were at Jarn Mound on Boars Hill, which is owned by the Oxford Preservation Trust. The Mound is a man-made creation - the vision of renowned archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who created Jarn Garden and wanted a view point of the dreaming spires of Oxford over Jarn Heath. In the intervening years, many trees have grown up which now obscure views of the Oxford skyline, but it is still worth the climb!

Evans originally planted the slopes of the Mound with various heathers and it is hoped that it will be possible to recreate this by planting native varieties of heather in the future - it should look quite a sight in full bloom! This is the second year that the slopes have been cleared of bracken and bramble.

Nine Green Gymmers, including new member, Jan, were joined by Peter, one of the OPT volunteers. We were working under the direction of Rod d'Ayala, the consultant ecologist for OPT, and had been tasked with clearing the slopes of bracken and bramble, which now dominate the Mound. Rod had given us a head start so the rakers could grab rakes and pitchforks to move the cut material downhill to fill a gap in the fence along the bridleway at the bottom and duly grabbed rakes and pitchforks. Luckily, gravity was on our side! We had to be careful not to smother the hedge, which Rod had created, but by breaktime the gap had been filled. Rod had warned us of rabbit holes and the like so we had to be careful where we put our feet.

On the other side of the path, Barbara made a start scything the bracken and bramble and also chopped some overhanging branches and ivy growth to make for easy access for the cut vegetation to be piled onto an existing heap, under the hawthorn, while Jan, Peter and Adrian had made for the top of the Mound to clear the cut vegetation from the viewing platform. We had also been asked to clear the vegetation from both sides of the steps leading to the top of the Mound using shears - avoiding cutting down the nettle-leaved bellflowers and also to scythe the pendulous sedge along the sides of the pathway as this can very soon dominate an area, preventing other plants from growing, and to carefully shear around more of the nettle-leaved bellflowers and ferns. In the lovely August sunshine, we soon started to warm up and break time was very welcome.

We were joined at break time by Kate Holland from Cotswold District Council, who is starting up a Green Gym in Cirencester and wanted to find out more about the Green Gym movement.

After break, Peter and Sally worked on clearing the steps and the pendulous sedge from the pathway, while the rest of the group focused their attention on the right hand side slopes with Adrian and Barbara clearing more bracken and bramble as far as the double ash tree, which was the target Rod had set us, making it possible to see the contours of the 'moat' around the bottom of the slope. It was then all hands on deck to clear the arisings onto existing heaps, before packing up our tools and heading off home - and very relieved that no-one fell down a rabbit hole as who knows where they would have ended up! We all left the site feeling a great sense of achievement.

Photographs by Margaret and Sally.