Aston Rowant - Saturday, 8 November 2025

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Julio and Sally

On Saturday, 8 November, we visited a new site for Abingdon Green Gym, which is a bit further afield than we would normally go.  Situated off Junction 6 of the M40 is the National Nature Reserve, Aston Rowant, which is famed for its beech woods and chalk grassland and, amongst other cherished plants, is home to Juniper.  This is becoming increasingly rare - so much so that Plantlife has a campaign to save Juniper and more information about this can be found at:  https://www.plantlife.org.uk/our-work/saving-englands-lowland-juniper/.

We car shared where possible given the extra miles we needed to do, but it didn't take us long to get there and we arrived at Natural England's office to meet Steph Wilson, who manages the Reserve.  We collected the tools together and made our way up a short slope to the Juniper nursery area, which has been taken over mainly by dogwood in recent years, but also by hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble and rose.  

Steph explained that Juniper is suffering from a disease called Phytophthora austrocedri which is devasting if it takes hold and kills the plants.  Whilst they could propagate Juniper through taking cuttings, this would over time diminish the gene pool of the plants in the reserve and thereby reduce resistance to this and other pathogens.  We were pleased to hear that, in collaboration with the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, juniper plants from berries from Aston Rowant are being nurtured there and it is hoped that by recreating the nursery area at the Reserve, these young junipers will be planted out when they are ready to ensure that the population remains viable for the future.  Something all gin lovers especially should be very grateful for!  Three cheers to that, I say!

You are here!

We weren't the only ones admiring the view!  One of the many red kites that have made the M40 corridor their home since their reintroduction

We were tasked with continuing to clear the slope that had previously been worked on for a corporate event.  The dogwood forms dense stands and it is difficult for anything else to grow through it.  This is what it looked like before we got to work.

Everything must go ... except for the silver birch, the beech and, of course, the juniper.

Steph briefs the group

Lesley tackling the young dogwood 

Adrian getting down to it

The growing brash pile, creating great habitat for invertebrates to shelter

David saws away

All hands on deck - Steph clears the brash as fast as it gets created

Steph, Julio and Rhian lopping away

Lesley saws as low as she can - we were asked to avoid leaving tall stumps

Good progress being made

Although it was a little murky at the start, the sun tried to come out later and we admired the stunning views over the Oxfordshire countryside as we enjoyed our break.  The autumn colours gave an added glow as we supped our beverages of choice.

After break, we continued to cut the dogwood and the brash pile was ever-growing

The silver birch tree in the foreground marks our "starting post," so we achieved rather a lot

The cleared area

Juniper - without it, there'd be no gin

It was soon time to collect our tools and make our way back down the slop to the NE offices before loading our cars and setting off for home.  It would be lovely to be able to return to this very special site, with all it has to offer in the way of views and wonderful flora and fauna, to continue this work - perhaps as a joint venture with other Green Gyms.