Districts:
Vale of White Horse Parishes
Shrivenham
The following wildlife habitats fall within this parish. They are listed according to their associated landscape type or local character area.
If you want more information about any of the sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) listed below, take a look at English Nature's Nature on the Map website. It may also be possible to find out a bit more about the unnamed wildlife habitats in the parish by contacting the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (owls@oxfordshire.gov.uk) and quoting the site code next to the habitat description.
The majority of these wildlife habitats are on private land and access to them is not possible without permission of the landowner, unless there is a statutory right of way. However, many wildlife habitats in the county are open to the public. More information on these can be obtained from the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum.
Wildlife Habitats
Rolling Farmland
Site Code: 29F01
Area: 6.6 ha
This site consists of four meadows and an area of wet woodland along the Pennyhooks Brook. The fields are within an organic farm and no artificial fertilizer has been applied for at least forty years. The fields have wet areas (known as flushes) where water from numerous springs spreads over the ground surface. These flushes have marshy vegetation with rushes and sedges. The wet woodland has much willow and aspen with reeds dominating open areas. Both these habitats (wet woodland and flushes) are national nature conservation priorities.
A good range of wetland wildflowers can be seen here including marsh orchids, marsh valerian and ragged robin. In some of the drier areas cowslips are abundant. The site supports a good variety of birds including song thrush, reed bunting, bullfinch and grey partridge which are all national nature conservation priorities due to the decline in their populations. White-clawed crayfish is found in Pennyhooks Brook. This species is another national nature conservation priority that is now mainly restricted to the more isolated streams where the introduced signal crayfish has not colonised.