Kendall Copse

Many local people in the last two years have helped create a community woodland on the fields at the north end of Kennington Road. The woodlands have now been named Kendall Copse.

Click here for details of how to join the Friends of Kendall Copse.

Do take a walk around these fields – they are there for your enjoyment and relaxation.

Contacts:
Chairman: Dave Ward
Secretary: Roger Gelder

Call for Work Party

On Sunday the 6th and 13th of June, we will do a further clean-up and burdock weeding campaign so the trees can get away without being over-shadowed. If you can help, we will be there from 10.30 to about 2.30. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Kendall Copse in Early Summer, 2010

April

A walk around both fields this weekend showed that the primroses in the western field are spreading both along the paths as well as into the wooded areas and those planted in the eastern field have got a toe-hold (5 out of 50 survived the tractors and bulldozers used last August to clear the last obstruction to flood prevention on the Hinksey Stream).

Work by the Oxford city park services has had a solid effect in clearing the Japanese knotweed from the southern edge of the western field, a major invasive species which has caused wide-spread concern where it has taken root – nearly all gone from the field now.

The hedgerows planted in the past year are thriving and all the trees are either in leaf or coming into leaf, with surprisingly little loss over the past 3 years. Some in the western field are over 4 m tall, although the majority of the broad-leaved hardwoods (mainly oak trees) are smaller and slower but getting there.

My hopes were raised this weekend when I saw a pair of Canada geese grazing the grass – would they nest? Alas, no, just passing through, although one person reported seeing a king-fisher along the edge of Hinksey Stream last summer and I watched a wren flitting along the stream edge.

I do wonder just how many moles occupy both fields – I counted a couple of hundred molehills but that could be the work of just half a dozen, I suppose. Rabbits from the Southern Bypass banks are a nuisance and would seriously damage the trees but for the guards fitted around them – one small oak tree got eaten 3 times, until the guard was more firmly fixed, and is now growing away nicely. The damsons have blossomed and may set fruit this year (I hope).

May

The Canada geese are back! Better still they are nesting against the Redbridge pier so walk quietly at the bridge end of the eastern field, PLEASE.

If you have cowslips in your garden, can you save the seed? Scattered along the edge of the woodland, this will create an even finer spring vista.