Littleworth Nature Reserve

  • Nature Reserve sign
  • The Horspath railway tunnel
  • The crossing over the stream to get to Old Road
  • 1991 looking south-west (towards the tunnel) from north-east of the butterfly glade
  • Proposed planting scheme
  • Letter from Council 7 December 1981. Text is shown in main body of this record
  • Actual letter 20 January 1983
  • Left to right Maureen Stephens, Martin Gibson, Geoff Stephens, July Gray, Bob Gray, Jane Charman, Paul Bailey
  • David Mancey, second left, Doug Lamont, second right. Others per 2588-08
  • Nature Reserve map updated Feb 2022
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Littleworth Nature Reserve summary. The reserve began life in 1978 when its owners, Oxfordshire County Council, landscaped the area and planted saplings following the closure of a short-lived rubbish tip. By 2017 the onetime railway cutting had become completely overgrown and blocked by fallen trees. A group of volunteers was formed and began the work of clearing the lower path. Today, the same group have created a new upper path and will shortly re-connect the reserve to Sandy Lane, thus creating a wonderful circular route to include Horspath Common and Shotover.

(See  the John Watson's notes attachment for more detail). The railway line and tunnel (1580 ft long) were opened in 1864. The tunnel was extensively repaired in 1883. Passenger service ended in 1963. In the first half of the 1970s, the cutting (some 0.9 kilometres in length and comprising about 2 hectares) was infilled, see 1981 letter below. County acquired the land in 1974. In 1975 residents complained about pollution, the Council responded with the introduction of topsoil so that trees could be planted. The Parish Council, alarmed at what was going on, expressed interest in acquiring a long lease in 1981, but this did not progress well as seen in the 1983 correspondence below. Over the years that followed, and due to intense community efforts, the site became a de facto nature reserve. 

Text of 1981 letter (below)

The railway cutting was tipped with pulverised domestic refuse which has been levelled and covered with a layer of clay. This clay layer varies in thickness from 1½  metres to 3 metres. On top of the day is a half metre thick layer of pulverised fuel ash covered with half a metre of sub-soil. Top soil has been deposited in the areas shown on the planting proposals plan.

Two french drains were laid near the foot of the embankments and run eastwards to join at a position shown on the plan by a cross. From this position the drain is piped down the centre of the old track bed to the eastern boundary of the site. The position of these drains should be apparent on the site frost the location of manhole covers.

Text of 20 January 1983 letter (actual letter shown as an image below)

Cllr Audley Hiller opened by stating that the County Council were not prepared to consider a long lease at this time of economic stringency. The Council wished to keep their options open.

Cllr Wilkinson said that the Parish did not consider that they could take on a financial burden of this nature without a lease of at least ten years. There followed a discussion about the various items of management

  1. Due to the nature of the ground it was not possible to make a pond at the site indicated by the Mancey plan. It may be possible to construct a pond at the lower end of the site furthest from the tunnel.
  2. The parapet of the Tunnel wall is crumbling and in need of attention, If the public were to be allowed access protection would have to be supplied. Should an agreement be reached , there would be no objection to this wall being used for activities such as climbing practice by bona fide groups.
  3. The area is currently planted with mainly soft woods if it is to have any value as a nature reserve it needs a percentage of indigenous hard woods and grasses introducing.

Cllr Audley Miller suggested that as there did not seem to be any chance of the County or the Parish being willing to move from their position that the solution may be for an informal committee to be set up to manage the site . Mr Seddon agreed that this would be possible and suggested that this could be reviewed after five years.

Images and text from a talk given to the Wheatley Society on 20 January 2022 show the progression of the site from a Council dump to nature reserve 50 years later.

This end result is a testimony to the efforts and enthusiasm of Wheatley and Littleworth residents.

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