About
NEWS
28 November 2022
Winter Appeal 2022
What a lot we have achieved in 2022! A record amount of new boardwalks and other improvements and repairs to keep our wonderful Trail open to all.
To all those lovely people in our community who have supported our work with personal donations: thank you!
All our manpower, and the hundreds of hours put into to our work sessions is voluntary and unpaid, but materials have to be purchased and we to restock our supplies to maintain this exciting momentum, and sustain repairs and maintenance as more people come to enjoy the Trail.
Please make a donation to our Winter 2022Appeal if you can.
Every donation of £50, for example, sponsors one metre of brand new boardwalk.
To make a donation, please visit this link:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/HinkseyTrailVolunteers
With a fully skilled-up team and proven methods now in place, we are really motoring. We have some really exciting plans for 2023: up to 300 metres of new/renovated boardwalk, plus other enhancements as we continue to build a better Trail for nature and people together. Watch this space!
Thank you!
24 April 2022
You can view and download our new illustrated Trail Map, completed by Mark Clay, artist, Trail volunteer and one of our CIC directors over at our “Using The Trail” page.
24 April 2022
After several months of hard work and persistence through terrible weather, our intrepid volunteers have completed a major renovation and improvement programme around the fallen tree just below the “Upper Lake”, informally known as “Henry’s Constriction”.
This means we can now close the temporary path that operated as a diversion while we undertook this work.
Click here to see a video tour on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcveyXAoRsP/
26 October 2021
Oxford Accountants support Hinksey Heights Nature Trail
After a recent public appeal, we are delighted to have the generous pro bono support of Botley-based accountants Ridgefield Consulting.
Volunteer co-ordinator Nick Thorn said, “As a small not-for-profit we try and pour every penny that we receive from grants and donations into the materials and equipment needed to keep this amazing local nature site open to visitors throughout the year. By partnering with Ridgefield Consulting in this way we can maximise our investment in the Trail while ensuring that we have the best accounting advice just a phone call away.”
5 September 2021
The Trail volunteer group have been working hard on numerous projects over the summer months, principally a major task repair and improve the walking surface in a number of spots that tend to become muddy and hazardous in wet and wintry weather.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of TOE, the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, who have made a generous grant to make this possible.
We have already completed major work in the approach to the lower lake from the golf club gate, and expect to finish a further section in the area of OPT meadow gate by the end of September.
We also extend our grateful thanks to North Hinksey Parish Council for their additional support for equipment, which is greatly appreciated.
7 April 2021
The Cuckoo is back! Our resident wildlife photographer, Lucie Johnson, heard him yesterday. It’s incredible to think that he has flown all the way to from the Congo to visit us this summer. He only sings for about six weeks, so be sure to get on the trail soon if you want to hear him. Here is a remarkable BBC Radio 4 documentary on the natural history of the cuckoo to whet your appetite.
5 April 2021
Now that the national lockdown has been eased, the trail volunteers are back out in force. You will see us out and about on Thursdays and Saturdays, working to improve the path so that it can be enjoyed year-round. However, there is still quite a backlog of repairs to be made to the boardwalk, so please continue to take extra care on those sections.
We have been fortunate in securing funding from our friends at the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment to enable us to lay drainage and create limestone surfaces on the boggier sections of the path. We are grateful to Oxfordshire County Council and local councillor Judy Roberts for their support in enabling us to buy specialist barrows which will enable us to move large amounts of material as we rebuild the path. Our friends at The Sprout, North Hinksey’s parish newsletter, have given us £300 towards the £700 we need to buy a new brush-cutter so that we can keep the paths clear over the summer months.
For all our latest news and fantastic photographs posted by our visitors go to our Facebook page.
OUR STORY
The Hinksey Heights Nature Trail is a privately-owned permissive path connecting with Chilswell Valley and Harcourt Hill and leading to other famous local walks. The Nature Reserve, covering more than 12 hectares, is home to diverse wildlife, including robins, magpies, cuckoos, green woodpeckers, bullfinches, deer and red kites. The park has been designated an Oxfordshire County Wildlife Site since 2000. A stroll along the nature trail offers stunning views down onto the city of Oxford and winds through woodland, reedland and fen.
The project to build a boardwalk through the reserve began in 2003, carried out by students from Peers School (now Oxford Academy), which improved access through marshy areas of the reserve. The nature trail is a place for people from the local area to come to enjoy a walk or a picnic by the pond. Teachers and students from local schools are also welcome to come and use the trail for outdoor education.
Recent conservation projects at the Nature Park have seen degraded areas of the alkaline valley fen restored by clearing out overgrown willows and reeds which were drying out the land. The alkaline fen is among the most bio-diverse habitats, supporting a rich variety of invertebrates and plants. The alkaline fen at Hinksey Heights is one of the few existing examples of this rare habitat in Oxfordshire.
As of summer 2020, there is a volunteer-led effort at the nature trail to repair parts of the boardwalk which have become damaged due to age and heavy usage. The trail was facing closure earlier in the summer due to increased damage to the boardwalk and litter that was being left behind at the two former forest school sites. Volunteers from the local community are giving up their time and putting in a lot of hard work to ensure that the trail can continue to be accessible to all who use the trail responsibly.
In 2020 the volunteers formed a not-for-profit company, Hinksey Trail Regeneration CIC, to source the funding needed to realise our long-term goals for the trail.
Photos courtesy of Jenny Atkinson, Ruth Stavris and Nick Thorn.
Profile: John Brimble, Co-Owner
John’s history with the land up at Hinksey Heights goes back to 1954. He was thirteen when he first visited his school friend Addy, whose father Percy Gresswell was a tenant farmer at Hinksey Hill Farm. John and Addy helped on the farm during school holidays, earning six old pence an hour. Addy and John became life-long friends, and John later married Addy’s sister Judy.
In 1985 Percy bought 310 acres overlooking the ‘Dreaming Spires of Oxford’ from the Harcourt Estate. After Percy passed away, the family began plans to use the land as a golf course and nature park. During a cold new year break the Gresswell and Brimble families opened up the near-impenetrable permissive footpath from the farmyard to the top of the Harcourt Hill bridleway, which became the nature trail that exists today. The families’ hard work was realised when the golf course was opened in 1996, and the nature trail opened to the public.
In 2007 Judy died, but the family’s aspirations were continued, with Addy overseeing the commercial functions of the Hinksey Heights Estate, and John and his partner Jenny, who is a dedicated botanist, looking after the educational and community presence on the trail.
With Thanks for Support from
Hinksey Heights Nature Trail 