For today’s session, led by James, we made our way to Marston
in the north of Oxford – a new site for Abingdon Green Gym and one which has
been owned by Oxford Preservation Trust since 1929. We met in the car park of
the Victoria Arms, a delightful pub on the banks of the river Cherwell, and
Rachel Sanderson of OPT led us through a copse, over the Marston Ferry Road and
along the banks of the river to where we’d be working. There were sixteen of
us, plus two members of the OPT and Poppy the dog. Quite a turn out! We set up
base camp and Rachel ran through our tasks of the day.
There are forty crack willows (Salix fragilis) along the banks of the river at this point, and
over the winter they had all been pollarded. Because this was the first time
this had been done since 1978, their 41 years of growth meant that there had
been a huge amount of debris. Most of it had been taken away, including tons of
woodchip used to fuel a boiler which produces electricity for the grid, but
there were still plenty of branches and chip for us to clear and neaten up. Not
that it was to be made too neat – as Rachel said, it is a field edge, not a
park, after all. But people do walk alongside the river there and it would be
nice to make it a little easier underfoot.
In addition to clearing wood, some of us had scythes to cut
back some of the overgrown vegetation. There was even some balsam – but as it
was orange, rather than Himalayan, it’s not nearly so invasive.
We set to work with spades, forks and rakes, clearing the
path and evening out the mounds of chip. It was a warm day, and mostly the sun
stayed behind the clouds but every now and again it came out and we really felt
the heat. There were plenty of insects and butterflies as we worked, and as the
morning wore on, lots of punters passed by, often giving us a cheery hello and
a wave. It was lovely to watch them as they made their way along the river –
but then punting looks like pretty hard work, too!
At our well-earned break time, James passed out menus from
the pub as most of us were staying on for lunch and a walk guided by Rachel
afterwards. Once the orders had been taken and tea drunk it was back to work,
reducing the mounds of chip and filling up drag bags to make a more even pathway.
And hard work it was too.
We finished ten minutes early in order to be back at the pub
in time. Rachel commented that the site was unrecognisable from when we’d first
arrived. It certainly makes for a pleasanter riverside walk now and we were
thankful to learn that the next pollarding won’t take place for another ten to
fifteen years.
-Joanna
Photos by Joanna and Margaret (where indicated):
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| The Victoria Arms. |
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| Meeting up. |
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| Making our way to site. |
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| Rachel giving us instructions. |
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| Some debris on the path. |
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| Ducks on the river! |
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| A pollarded crack willow. |
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| A ladybird. |
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| Kevin path clearing. |
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| Mounds of chip. |
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| Rosie. |
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| Tea break. |
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| A grass snake skin found by Adrian. |
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| A punter. |
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| The pub garden on the banks of the river. |
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| James sorting the lunch orders (photo by Maragaret). |
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| Poppy (photo by Margaret). |
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| Sally (photo by Margaret). |
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| Michele and Joan with a drag bag (photo by Margaret). |
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| Joanna (photo by Margaret). |
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| Sophie (photo by Margaret). |
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| Birds foot trefoil (photo by Margaret). |
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| Common knapweed (photo by Margaret). |
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