Lincombe Lane Field, Boars Hill - Saturday, 24th January 2026
Blog by Sally. Photos by Henry, Julio, Michele and Sally
On Saturday, 24 January, we went to a new site for us at Lincombe Lane, Boars Hill, which was bought by Oxford Preservation Trust in three lots between 1937 and 1940 from Abingdon Rural District Council and comprises a field of unimproved grassland, heath and wet flush which slopes to a wooded valley fen - a local wildlife site. On a clear day, it offers views of Didcot and the Berkshire Downs to the south and of Princes Risborough and the Chilterns to the east, so quite a lovely spot to find ourselves on an unexpectedly fine winter's day, as the forecast earlier in the week had promised rain.
The field is grazed by horses, and these had been fenced in so we could work safely. 18 volunteers turned out, including Matt, one of the OPT volunteers and we worked under the direction of Rod d'Ayala, the consultant ecologist to OPT. We had car shared where possible and once we had all assembled, we made our way down the slope of the field and set up base camp near to the fen area, where Rod gave directions for the tasks he wanted us to carry out. These involved digging up hemlock, which is becoming quite a dominant plant in Oxfordshire and is poisonous, raking up leaves in the wooded area, scything clumps of pendulous sedge (another dominant plant) and raking up afterwards, as well as working on the dead hedge and filling in the ditch to divert the flow of water and slow it down to help with the re-wetting of the fen area, which has got drier with the trees taking over. OPT had obtained a grant from the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment (TOE) for this work to be undertaken - the valley fen being a very rare habitat. All-in-all a very interesting site, with so many varied habitats due to the peculiar geology of Boars Hill and Oxfordshire more generally.
Rod explained that by raking up the leaves, and scything and raking off the cut pendulous sedge, it would allow him to see the lie of the land. As we worked further into the wood, it was not just pendulous sedge that we were scything, but also bramble - and it was a bit tricky to negotiate with fallen branches and tree roots getting in the way, but we made good progress despite this.
At break time, we could see that the pile of hemlock had grown as the hemlock slayers had been busy, too. Just as we were returning to work, we were visited by Professor Bob Evans, who was doing a survey ahead of preparing for the Sunningwell Neighbourhood Plan and we found out that the springs from Lincombe Lane Field fed the Sunningwell Reservoir further down the valley, which the villagers used for their water supply before the village was connected to the mains.
It was then all hands on deck to help with the fen restoration work - the hemlock slayers having worked on the slopes of the field near the bramble thicket. We dug up pendulous sedge where possible and otherwise scythed it back as much as possible to slow regrowth. This can form dense clumps and makes it difficult for other plants to flourish.
It was soon time to pack up our tools and make our way to the lane to return to our cars and bicycles. We look forward to returning to the site in the near future to continue assisting Rod with the fen restoration. It will be interesting to see what plants come up in the wooded area now that some light has been let in to the understorey.
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