Welcome to the Website of The Friends Of The Trap Grounds
Welcome on behalf of the Glow Worms and Water Voles of the Trap Grounds. Here you can discover what makes this patch of wilderness in suburban north Oxford so special, and why we campaigned all the way to the House of Lords to register it as a Town Green.
Click on the relevant pages to find a full list of the threatened and protected species that live on the site …the texts of the legal verdicts in the Public Inquiry, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the House of Lords … and details of how you can join The Friends Of The Trap Grounds and help to preserve six acres of reed bed and scrubland for conservation, recreation, and education.
Alan Allport’s photograph shows the pond in the Trap Grounds reed bed, created in the year 2000 with funds raised by the Friends of the Trap Grounds.
Filed by Catherine Robinson on December 28th, 2007.
Pause of Work
No further large-scale work can be done until the birds have finished raising their young in the late summer, but the Countryside Team will tackle the Giant Hogweed in the next few weeks, and anyone who feels like trimming back emergent bramble shoots along the edges of the paths is welcome to do so. (Cut them down to ground level with loppers or secateurs.)
Filed by Admin on July 14th, 2008.
St Philip and St James
We are talking to staff at the school of St Philip and St James about ways of involving the children in projects on the Trap Grounds. Ideas include the provision of a pond-dipping platform and engaging an artist to work with the children on a creative project.
Filed by Catherine Robinson on July 14th, 2008.
Willow Pollarding
The City Council’s Countryside Team has pollarded the unsafe willows along the eastern and northern edges of the site. The landscape looks rather denuded as a result, but the willow stumps will soon start sprouting again.
Filed by Catherine Robinson on July 14th, 2008.
Litter Blitz
The Litter Blitz on 15th March was a horrible job but a huge success. We filled 22 wheelie bins with broken glass and rusty scrap metal, and assembled a heap of dead bikes and car tyres in addition. The Council’s waste-disposal team removed the whole lot with impressive efficiency.
Filed by Admin on March 15th, 2008.
Bramble Blitzes
The weather was kind for our Bramble Blitzes on three successive Saturdays in February/March, when we waged war on the brambles that had invaded the grassland. We restored the warmer drier habitat of the reptiles and butterflies, and we look forward to seeing the wildflowers that will emerge in the meadow in the summer.
Filed by Catherine Robinson on March 8th, 2008.
Annual General Meeting
About 50 people attended our first-ever formal Annual General Meeting on 4th March. When the business was over, wine was served to celebrate the registration of the Trap Grounds as a Town Green, and then Alan Allport showed his wonderful slides of the wildlife of the site.