Cothill Wild

(S/E) From Wootton community centre, take the bridleway between shops and community centre. Where a road comes in from the right, turn left. As the path becomes a road, continue straight to pass the ‘Arthur Evans Close’ sign on your right. Turn right onto the footpath to Lashford Lane. When you come to a road (Lashford Lane), cross and take the tarmac lane ‘The Field’. Behind Dry Sandford School, turn left onto a footpath.

(1) Come to a road and turn right. Follow the road through Dry Sandford village to Cothill Road. Turn right and after 100 metres, you will see Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve on your left.

(2) Leave Dry Sandford Pit by the entrance. Turn left and continue into Cothill village. When you come to a pub on your left, turn right onto the footpath opposite. Follow the edge of Cothill House School playing fields for 300 metres to find Parsonage Moor Nature Reserve on your right.

(3) From Parsonage Moor, turn left to retrace your steps for 50 metres with the playing field on your right. Turn left along a footpath to continue to a brook, and follow the path that runs along the left of a fence. Come out of the woods into an area of reeds. Continue through the reeds into another wood (the ground becomes very uneven here). At the end of the log path, fork left and continue to a stile.

(4) Go over the stile and continue along the path, keeping the conifer plantation to your right. Go through an opening in the fence to arrive on the edge of a field. Continue straight onto the track along the field edge.

(5) Just before you come to a small patch of trees to the right of the track (at the point where a path comes in from the left), take a sharp right off the track onto a footpath across a field. Continue straight ahead through a field, walking past the end of a row of trees. Climb over a stile into a wooded area.

(6) Cross a brook and then go over another stile into grassland. Follow the path to a gate. Go through the gate and continue until you come to the end of a driveway, which takes you to Church Lane. Turn left through Dry Sandford.

(1) As the lane bends to the right, take the footpath to the left, around the back of the school.

(7) At the tarmac lane, turn left and then right onto a footpath. Follow the footpath between the houses. Go over a stile and continue in the same direction across the grassland. Go over a stile onto Lashford Lane. Turn left, following the pavement for 150 metres to Lashford Lane Fen Nature Reserve. Leave Lashford Lane Fen and turn right. Continue to Besselsleigh Road and turn right to return to Wootton shops. (S/E)

Start : Wootton community centre. Postcode: OX13 6DN Grid ref: SP 474 012
By bus: there is an hourly service from Oxford (including the train station) and Abingdon to Wootton Monday–Saturday; Traveline: 0870 6082608 or www.traveline.org.uk
By car: there is parking at Wootton shops, and limited parking at Dry Sandford Pit and Lashford Lane Fen Nature Reserves
By bike: the start of the walk is 8 miles from Oxford train station

• Optional extension of 3.2 km/2 miles (about 11/4 hours)
• There are paths around each of the reserves for additional exploration

• More walks on Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust website.
• Read more about nature notes on the leaflet here.

Cothill Fen, the largest area of alkaline fen in central England, is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). As part of this SAC, BBOWT’s nature reserves at Dry Sandford Pit, Parsonage Moor and Lashford Lane are a nationally important collection of wildlife sites.

Cothill Fen supports many species that depend on fen and are consequently very scarce, including over 100 rare or notable species. The southern damselfly, for instance, is nationally and internationally rare and has suffered a 30% decline in its UK distribution since 1960. It has been recorded at both Dry Sandford Pit and Parsonage Moor.
Fenland requires careful management with a specially tailored regime of grazing. Left alone, the fen would soon grow over with scrubby bushes and then trees, which would dry out the pools of water that support the fen wildlife. BBOWT has introduced livestock to keep the vegetation under control, so that the orchids and other special fen plants and animals will continue to thrive here.

Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT)
BBOWT relies on the support of our members to help us look after local wildlife. By joining BBOWT you can help to secure the future of special landscapes like Cothill Fen.