NATURE BY NUMBERS
Poking into the south-east corner of Bicester like a 1km-long index finger, Gavray Meadows are an oasis of wildlife in one of the fastest-growing towns in Oxfordshire, or even the UK. Langford Brook, which splits the site in two, is foraging territory for nomadic otters and the blousy hedgerows and furrowed grasslands are home to all five of the UK’s hairstreak butterflies – one of only a few locations in the country that can make that claim.
Local wildlife expert Pat Clissold comes here daily and posts photos of everything she sees, from long-tailed tits to red kites, on her Gavray Meadows Facebook page. In the springtime, she says, there are warbling whitethroats along the top of every bramble bush and hobbies hawking for insects as they refuel on their long migration from Africa to their northern breeding grounds.
In short, you’d think that Gavray Meadows were irreplaceable, their value immeasurable. Another Bicester resident, Pam Roberts, has unearthed records of the site that date back to 1607.
Nature and history are closely entwined here because these fields have never been turned over to intensive agriculture, giving us a glimpse of what farmland looked like
