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...