Matthew Arnold Field, Boars Hill - Saturday, 5 April 2025

Blog by Sally, photos by Julio and Sally 

On another glorious spring day, we returned to Boars Hill, but this time to another site owned by Oxford Preservation Trust, Matthew Arnold Field, on Saturday, 5 April.  17 Green Gymmers were joined by consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala and another two volunteers from OPT.  It is always good to be joined by local residents.  Rod gave instructions to the group, led by Eleanor, to dig out Alexanders, a rather invasive plant which crowds out other native species, remove barbed wire from the fence which is due to be replaced and to scythe nettles, brambles and bracken to prevent them from encroaching on the grassland.  Any small trees we found could then be 'popped' by pulling them out, root and all, with the aid of a tree popper.  The cut material would then be used to form a dead hedge along the fence line.

Rod giving instructions to the group as to what tasks needed to be done

The area of bramble, nettles and Alexanders that needed to be cut and raked

Work in progress - Rosie, Rhian and Roger clearing nettles, bramble and Alexanders from the fence line

Although it was a bit chilly to start, we soon warmed up in the sunshine and started divesting layers of clothing!  A couple of scythers were asked to clear low growing bramble, avoiding the hedge so as not to disturb any nesting birds, and work down the field where bracken had started to encroach.  Both of these plants can quickly dominate if left unchecked and the priority for this field is to keep them cut back to allow the grassland flowers to thrive.

The barbed wire that needed to be cut from the fence posts and carefully rolled up ready for collection and disposal

Philip and Rebecca 'on a roll' tackling the barbed wire fence

Alexanders

Although looking rather innocuous at present Alexanders can rather take over, so it is important to keep it at bay to allow native plants to flourish.  The leaves are edible so Eleanor took some home to try.

A welcome break!

Roger not on a soapbox, but taking advantage of a stepping stool to remove two lower branches to enable the tractor to get to the fence line

Kevin taking another load of cut bramble to the dead hedge

The dead hedge - this will be valuable habitat for invertebrates and small mammals

Rhian and Rebecca raking up cut bracken and bramble from the bottom of the field, whilst Barbara and Sally scythe

Whilst working in the lower corner, we took the opportunity to remove encroaching bramble and blackthorn from around the kissing gate in the corner of the field.  

The rolled up barbed wire, which will be collected and disposed of.  We were asked to keep it in an obvious neat pile to avoid the risk of accident.

The end result!

It was a joy to see our first orange tip butterflies flitting about and hear the buzzing of bees as the blackthorn blossoms.  Our morning's work seemed to be over before it had begun but we left the site feeling as though we had accomplished much.