Hinksey Meadow, also known as Osney Mead Meadow,
is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust and is a Local Wildlife Site
is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust and is a Local Wildlife Site
Judy Webb's comment:
I first recorded plants there in 1978. An LWS, it has an important amount of the rarest type of ancient floodplain meadow plant association MG4 with Snake's-head Fritillary - see: The History and Plant Ecology of Hinksey Meadow,
a paper by Dr Tim King, published in Fritillary, the Journal of the ANHSO and BBOWT, Number 7, December 2018
Public inquiry to be held into divisive flood plans'
Oxford Mail, 06 June 2023. See also article in Oxford Times, 16 June 2023
Details of the plans, and the petition against the flood channel, can be found further down this page.
I first recorded plants there in 1978. An LWS, it has an important amount of the rarest type of ancient floodplain meadow plant association MG4 with Snake's-head Fritillary - see: The History and Plant Ecology of Hinksey Meadow,
a paper by Dr Tim King, published in Fritillary, the Journal of the ANHSO and BBOWT, Number 7, December 2018
Public inquiry to be held into divisive flood plans'
Oxford Mail, 06 June 2023. See also article in Oxford Times, 16 June 2023
Details of the plans, and the petition against the flood channel, can be found further down this page.
21 April 2023 - Fritillary count Botanist Dr Tim King visited the meadow in the first half of the month and found the access to be difficult now and much restricted by the closure and flood alleviation works on Willow Walk. The only way to get to the meadow now is to park in Seacourt park and ride, cross Botley Rd and walk south from there. The meadow, like the other floodplan meadows, was very late coming out of floodwater (some meadows are still under water). Tim reported that the Snake's Head Fritillaries were looking distressed, much bedraggled and muddy; for this reason, he did not expect a high count. However, on 21 April with the help of Judy Webb he counted a total of 658 (flowers and vegetative), so more than the 617 last year. The 2021 count of 739 remains the highest so far. More photos and info in Judy's Tweets |
This meadow is under threat from from the concrete channel being built as part of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme
Planning application MW.0027/22 made to Oxfordshire County Council - consultation deadline 17 April 2023
* * * Submission by Judy Webb * * *
Planning application MW.0027/22 made to Oxfordshire County Council - consultation deadline 17 April 2023
* * * Submission by Judy Webb * * *
Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme - Government website and on Twitter
* * * Petition against the 3-mile flood channel * * *
See item 8 July 2022 below
85% of the scheme’s flood-risk reduction comes from maintaining existing defences
and new floodwalls and other earthworks.
'Public inquiry to be held into divisive flood plans' Oxford Mail, 12 June 2023
Related article also published in Oxford Times, 16 June 2023
* * * Petition against the 3-mile flood channel * * *
See item 8 July 2022 below
85% of the scheme’s flood-risk reduction comes from maintaining existing defences
and new floodwalls and other earthworks.
'Public inquiry to be held into divisive flood plans' Oxford Mail, 12 June 2023
Related article also published in Oxford Times, 16 June 2023
Oxfordshire County Council held an online public consultation from 7 April to 9 May 2022. In August 2022 they requested further information in support of the application. All the planning application information submitted to the council is available on their ePlanning system. The planning reference is MW.0027/22.
The Environment Agency submitted an earlier planning application in March 2018, but it was withdrawn when Oxfordshire County Council discovered that the A423 bridge needed replacing. The bridge is in the south of the scheme area and is essential to the scheme as floodwater will need to pass underneath it. When it was discovered the bridge needed replacing the Environment Agency took the opportunity to work with the County Council to coordinate both projects.
The Environment Agency's OFA website has up-to-date information.
The Environment Agency submitted an earlier planning application in March 2018, but it was withdrawn when Oxfordshire County Council discovered that the A423 bridge needed replacing. The bridge is in the south of the scheme area and is essential to the scheme as floodwater will need to pass underneath it. When it was discovered the bridge needed replacing the Environment Agency took the opportunity to work with the County Council to coordinate both projects.
The Environment Agency's OFA website has up-to-date information.
8 July 2022
Judy tweeted photos of Hinksey Meadow: 'Here is what a real, ancient, Thames floodplain haymeadow looks like, just before it is mown. Inundated in winter, dry now. Great biodiversity of long-lived perennial plants, on a never-ploughed carbon-rich soil. These could be my good-bye photos because here - EXACTLY here in the meadow - is where the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme channel will go. Rarest of rare MG4 plant community. Just watch a few seconds of this meadow seen today [video in second part of tweet] Consider signing the petition against this loss Dandelions at Hinksey Meadow: Report 18 April 2022, by David Morris, Oxfordshire VC 23 Recorder and FHT Senior Plant Ecologist, prepared following his survey the previous day and sent to Judy Webb for inclusion in her own report for Oxford Preservation Trust.
A note at the end of David's report refers to a 'remarkably frilly, purple-edged dandelion' found by Judy on 9 April 2022 in an area scheduled to be excavated for the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme.. When photos were posted on Twitter, expert botanist Alex Prendergast suggested it could be T. Hesperium var 'cestrense' but he could not be sure without seeing the flower. Judy took away a cutting to root to see what flower it produces - perhaps next year. |
9 April 2022 Snake's-head fritillaries count in Hinksey Meadow by Dr Judith Webb and botanist Dr Tim King. The final count (13 April) was 360 flowering, 257 vegetative (not-flowering). Judy tweeted 'excellent total 617, which looks slightly less than last year, but we were a little early. Photo by Judy Webb 17 April 2021 Fritillary count in Hinksey Meadow carried out by Dr Tim King and Dr Judith Webb - the numbers counted were the highest recorded so far: 376 flowers, plus 363 plants in vegetative state (just leaves) - total 739 plants. For photos click here 2020: because of Covid-19 no fritillary count was carried out |
On 6 April 2019 a fritillary count in Hinksey Meadow was carried out by Dr Tim King with the help of Dr Judith Webb, and Rachel Sanderson (Oxford Preservation Trust), together with five other volunteers from OPT. Because of the chance of adding some late-flowering plants, Dr King returned on 19 April to check on the patches likely to yield more flowers and found another 27, making a total of 289 in flower, plus 134 vegetative (not flowering) plants. As he explained:
'Flowering time seems rather staggered this year. The patches on the western side, nearer the Seacourt Stream, seem to have flowered earlier than those on the eastern side. Speculating wildly, this could be because the dry weather last summer and this spring has created a gradient of soil moisture, higher on the western than the eastern side'.
Fritillaries in Hinksey Meadow, 6 April 2019 - photo by Judy Webb
A letter by Dr Tim King was published in the Oxford Mail on 17 January 2018 in response to an article in that paper on 29 December 2017 about the opposition of Christopher Sugden, Chairman of Ferry Hinksey Charitable Trust, to the proposed Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme.
National Meadows Day, Saturday, 1 July 2017
Judy and Dr King led guided walks in Hinksey Meadow for Oxford Preservation Trust, who bought the meadow in 1997. Members of OPT were there to supply information about the Trust and the possible impact of the Oxford Flood Allevation Scheme on the meadow. There are photos by Marilyn Cox and some lovely close-ups by Tony Gillie.
National Meadows Day, Saturday, 1 July 2017
Judy and Dr King led guided walks in Hinksey Meadow for Oxford Preservation Trust, who bought the meadow in 1997. Members of OPT were there to supply information about the Trust and the possible impact of the Oxford Flood Allevation Scheme on the meadow. There are photos by Marilyn Cox and some lovely close-ups by Tony Gillie.
Photo: Judy in Hinksey Meadow talking to an
Oxford Mail reporter on Saturday, 22 April 2017
Judy spoke to the reporter about concerns regarding the effect of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme on the meadow's wildflowers. The 'official' annual Fritillary count in the meadow had been done some weeks before by Dr Tim King and Dr Janet Keene, as the flowers appeared early this year. Judy was also looking for other species to record.
See article in The Oxford Mail, 25 April 2017
Oxford Mail reporter on Saturday, 22 April 2017
Judy spoke to the reporter about concerns regarding the effect of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme on the meadow's wildflowers. The 'official' annual Fritillary count in the meadow had been done some weeks before by Dr Tim King and Dr Janet Keene, as the flowers appeared early this year. Judy was also looking for other species to record.
See article in The Oxford Mail, 25 April 2017
Map showing location of the meadow
Grid reference SP 494058 (It's the green area south of Botley Road, marked 'Hinksey Meadows'. Another area, north of Botley Road, is marked 'Botley Meadow Allotments'.) The History of Hinksey Meadow: extract from a document produced by Dr Tim King for Oxford Preservation Trust. Map of major plant communities in Hinksey Meadow produced by Dr Tim King and posted here with his kind permission Plants and invertebrates Palaeochannel plants Dung beetles The meadow has a population of Fritillaries, which Dr Tim King and members of the Oxford Urban Wildlife Group (OUWG) and the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxford (ANHSO) have monitored for many years. Better management of the summer hay cut and aftermath cow grazing has greatly benefited the flora here, including the most valuable of MG4 Great Burnet-meadow foxtail assemblage with Fritillaries. It is the same MG4 community as Oxford Meadows SAC. |
Photos of the meadow by Judy Webb. The first one, taken on 2 July 2016, shows a marked quadrat near the middle of Hinksey Meadow, through which the channel for the Oxford Flood Plain Alleviation Scheme channel was originally going to run. Dr Tim King used this photo to explain to members of The Oxford Preservation Trust the flora that would be lost from 1 sq. metre. Following objections raised by OPT and ANHSO's Floodplain Meadows Study Group, the channel was narrowed somewhat (and deepened) but flora is still likely to be lost.
Illustration of the effects on Hinksey Meadow of the planned Oxford Flood Scheme (scroll down page to see illustrations). As explained above, the channel originally proposed was subsequently narrowed somewhat (and deepened). The responses to the Environment Agency's consultation on the scheme, 19 Jan to 1 Mar 2016 used to be downloadable as a pdf from the EA website but this is no longer available and a search for 'Oxford flood scheme' on the Environment Agency’s online consultation hub on 13 April 2019 produced no result. Among the comments in that pdf were those submitted by Judy (No.22), Dr Tim King (No.19), Oxford Preservation Trust (No.21), The Floodplain Meadows Partnership, Berks Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire, the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the City and County Councils. Comments submitted on the Planning Application (decision not yet made as at 14 April 2019) are available via the Oxfordshire County Council planning website - click the 'View Documents' tab and scroll down to 'Consultation Response' in left-hand column. Judy was among a number of interested parties and stakeholders who attended a meeting at Osney Depot on 9 March 2017 about the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme at the invitation of the Environment Agency. The purpose of this meeting was to give information on work done by the EA over the previous few months and to present their latest plans. The EA stated “We are now in the process of developing the detailed design and your comments and thoughts on the proposals will be very useful to us”. Among others who attended the meeting were Dr Tim King and representatives of Oxford Preservation Trust, Oxford Flood Alliance, Hogacre Common group, Freshwater Habitats Trust and Friends of Kendall Copse (a group that has planted trees on an old landfill site, which is partly in the path of the channel – so some trees will be lost). |
Lady's Bedstaw, Galium verum and Meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria in Hinksey Meadow - photo by Judy Webb
Above: left to right: Lady's Bedstaw, Galium verum and Great Burnet - Burnet Companion moth, Euclidia glyphica - Great Burnet, Sanguisorba officinalis
All photos taken in Hinksey Meadow by Judy Webb
All photos taken in Hinksey Meadow by Judy Webb