Friends of Lye Valley

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Friends of Lye Valley

We care for this 14,000 year-old internationally rare habitat, a tufa-forming alkaline spring fen, to

The Lye Valley SSSI, Headington, Oxford, is an 8,000 year-old internationally rare habitat, a tufa-forming valley-head alkaline spring fen. It represents 1.5 ha of only 19 ha of this habitat left in all England and supports over 20 species of plant rare in Oxfordshire of which 14 are on the England Red List. It also hosts ten species of rare and 27 species of nationally scarce invertebrates, notably soldier flies and glow worms, as well as thriving populations of reptiles and amphibians.

14/06/2026

Rain and sun, more rain and sun!...we got through the threatening skies and drenchings. Happy to see more different flower species starting to bloom in the valley and help with a student project recording how the fen vegetation had improved since a few years ago. We had help from ODS and a work experience young man had his first taste of scything, tutored by Martin. Hard to see flying invertebrates between raindrops but soldierfly larvae were obviously growing well. More with each photo.

07/06/2026

Hot sunny times followed by a week of drenching rain for our volunteers (but good for soils and the fen). We said goodbye to the last of our lovely yellow flag irises and welcomed a host of pink Common Spotted Orchids. The sun brought out a plethora of insects on flowers. We added water mint and more Marsh Marigolds to nice wet areas. More with each photo..

24/05/2026

Lots of scything going on, plus monitoring our insects and always the bank repairs. Plus it is marsh lousewort and butterwort flowering time in the valley. More with each photo...

18/05/2026

First flowers on our Ragged Robin, first Common Blue butterfly and lots of scything and raking for sunny conditions for our reptiles. As always, quite a bit of digging out problem plants such as Creeping thistle and Great Reedmace. also we have such a lot of some rare sedges, they might be our next problem issue! More with each photo. Also just look at how green and attractive the valley looks, do come and visit us.

09/05/2026

A busy couple of weeks with lovely new flowers out to appreciate, but the problems of Lye Valley fen being surrounded by urban development mean much more work for our volunteers repairing some fire damage. More with each photo.

19/04/2026

The Cowslips on Rock Edge and in the Valley are looking wonderful. Well worth a visit if you're local! Our Cotton-grass are now going to seed, displaying their familiar cotton wool type seed heads. Look out for them on the west side a little way after the bridge. Our volunteers have been busy again, scything (of course), raking (always it seems), translocating Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil, removing Pendulous Sedge seed heads, and making more repairs to our woven barriers. Finally, our carnivorous plants have emerged... More details with each photo.

12/04/2026

A glorious day on Wednesday for our volunteers, and the warm sunshine brought out lots of butterflies including the first Orange-tip butterflies of the year, and our first Lizard. Our Cuckoo flowers are emerging, and we found lots of Shieldbugs basking. We continued scything Rush and Sedge to stop them crowding out other plants, did some more raking, and relocated some of our Scarcer Sedges. Oh, and the faerie folk seem to have visited us again...

05/04/2026

Willow catkins, Cowslips, and Slow Worms. Spring is definitely here! Our scything team were working in the (privately owned) South Fen this week, while in the North Fen, our volunteers transplanted some (no longer common) Common Cotton-grass, moved more Hazel from The Slade entrance, dug out more Pendulous Sedge, and repaired the woven barrier by the ponds. Details with each photo.

29/03/2026

More firsts-of-the-year this week in the Valley, Cowslips, Marsh Marigold, and Green-veined White butterfly. Our volunteers were occupied with a range of jobs, from pollarding our iconic old Willow to re-weaving the barriers protecting the fen near the bridge. More scything and raking of course, and digging out (yet more) Pendulous Sedge. Details with each photo.

22/03/2026

The Valley is slowly waking from its winter slumber. This week we had butterflies galore, lots of caterpillars, and hundreds of tadpoles! Our volunteers were kept busy moving Flag Iris from drier areas at the south of the Valley to wetter places near the head of the Valley. We raked Car Park Fen, lopped some more Willow regrowth, and spent some time increasing water flows in one of the traditionally drier areas of the Valley. Details with each photo.

Address

The Slade
Oxford
OX37HR

Website

http://www.friendsoflyevalley.org.uk/

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