Simon English
England Revisited

On a log seat outside Westhill Farm on the Sandhills Reserve, (wardens house). 4 miles east of Oxford.

On a pathway marker stump near to where the log seat used in 1971 was.

Visually much has changed but this is only the changes of trees growing up and here deliberately so. The little ash and sycamore in my old photographs are now big trees and full of ivy so obscure the view south. The mown grass in the foreground is now overshadowed by hazel that was once a coppiced hedge or boundary hedge of a paddock, maybe between fields that were known as ‘Sandpit’ and ‘Holm Ground’. The coppiced boughs have grown so long and tall that they have grown up and lean out over what was once mown grass. On the other side of the track that has been laid over the grass the whole area is now engulfed by brambles. The small decorative trees (Holly & Sorbus) had been planted in the past, are still there but much overgrown.

Currently Westhill Farm is no longer used as the warden’s cottage. Its fate within the Shotover Country Park is currently being debated. In 1971 there was a rustic home made gate into the maintenance yard. This has been replaced with a standard wooden farm gate. The stone wall along the track is unchanged but within the yard the ivy clad walls of an old farm building have gone but the yard is still used to store fence posts and other maintenance materials.

The view to the valley to the south has changed significantly although the two fields in the foreground are still agricultural all be it with bigger hedges. Beyond that the land and view was dominated by the vast expanse of factory roofs and offices of the Cowley Motor works making the Mini. Since then the fate of the motor industry is part of the country’s history. The same area is now covered in more modern buildings owed by BMW where the modern Mini is assembled. Co-incidentally the mini’s engine is assembled in a factory built on the site of Hamms Hall power station seen in the old picture of point 44.

In the distance beyond the BMW works expansion of Oxford south is seen in the appearance of flats and office blocks that partly obscure the hills beyond.

Shotover Country Park is managed as a public park by Oxford City Council. This was once Royal Hunting Forest. In 1971 I took photos of scrubland. This is now wood land with a full canopy but to let all areas grow unmanaged would let flora and fauna of open areas die in the dark so some areas are now being managed with encroaching scrub thorn cut back. This is now having to be done by humans. In the past the area would be maintained by farming and grazing animals. The mix of grass, heather old and regenerated woodland affords these hills a unique biodiversity.

The access points provide visitors with well informed leaflets and guides to the biology of the area. It seems a very well visited and popular park. Of course the downside would seem to be erosion of the paths. Against this I must bear in mind the scrubby fields that I saw in 1971 were regenerating from the second world war when the area was used to try out tanks made in the nearby Cowley Works.

With all the changes of use that these hills have seen over the centuries makes one realise that although visitors come here for the wilderness it is in fact a 700 year old evolving artefact.
Points 53 & 59