Safer Roads Unit Q1 Report

We would now like to share our next Quarterly reports of road safety statistics with you. This is Quarter 1, Jan – March 2025 We prioritise enforcement and education for drink and drug driving, the non wearing of seatbelts, excessive speed and driving whilst...

Hosepipe ban – 22 July onwards

This year, the UK experienced one of its warmest and driest springs in over a century. June was also England’s warmest on record. The Environment Agency has put our area into the prolonged dry weather category. To help protect our rivers and to make sure there’s...

North Leigh Roman Villa Open Days

Enjoy the beautiful weather at one of North Leigh Roman Villa’s FREE Open Days this summer. The volunteers have already welcomed approaching a thousand visitors to the site this year. There are new decorative panels to see in the Mosaic House, which will be open...

WODC collecting in recycling bin – update

This an official update from WODC (dated 15 July 2025 and reference number 0211880) for what you can put in your blue lidded recycling bin. This now includes flexible plastics i.e. plastic bags etc. Please read below for the details.  PLEASE NOTE...

Woodstock open air pool

It wouldn’t be summer in West Oxfordshire without Woodstock open air pool. This year we’ll be offering all the usual fun-filled activities like swimming, dive sessions, cool water swims and pool parties. Over the summer holidays, Yellow Submarine Charity...

Two more firsts

At a time when so much news on insects is poor, we have more good news; another couple of ‘fantastic firsts’ for the village. The first ‘first’ is a nationally scarce hoverfly – Parasyrphus nigritarsis (Zetterstedt, 1843) – a beneficial stripy yellow and black...

Bagg’s Bottom: Integrated blackthorn management

Bagg’s Bottom, part of the Stonesfield Common, Bottoms and Banks SSSI in West Oxfordshire, is a rare chalk grassland ecosystem. With its complex topography, spring-fed slopes, ancient pollards, and upright brome-dominated grassland, it represents a landscape shaped by...

A new butterfly species for Stonesfield

The Brown Hairstreak butterfly (Thecla betulae) has not been observed in our parish so far this century. Late in the evening on 16 May 2025, several larvae of this species were observed and photographed along Bagg’s Bottom, detected using an ultra violet light on the...