Woodland Conservation Group

Friday, 4th July 2025

Meadows - Hotel Field

No doubt you will be as surprised as I was when I first learned the name of this valuable pocket of meadow sitting proudly above Oxleas wood - Hotel Field? Those who attended our last Members’ Meeting are now aware of its history as the site of a grand house which later became (yes, you’ve guessed it) an hotel.

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Our 16 volunteers at Friday’s Woodland Conservation Group clocked up a very respectable 48 hours in the summer sun, to expose yet more buried pathway beneath the vigorously growing brambles. There is still, however, more pathway to retrieve once the brambles complete their fruit cycle and begin to die back. Perhaps this path could be part of an older, wider access track circling the site? More clearance in the future might tell us more.

Further evidence of this site’s more formal past was the discovery of three ornamental trees - the Firethorn Pyracantha, the Jerusalem Love Tree/Judas Tree (Cercis Siliquastrum) with its heart-shaped leaves and a magnificent Japanese Zelkova. The first two were revealed as volunteers cut back large mounds of brambles, stretching across a corner from one path to another at the top of the meadow. Now walkers will feel both safer when walking (as they can see whatever or whoever is approaching from the other pathway in a timely fashion) and also they can now see these lovely trees in all their glory. The final tree stands at the bottom of the meadow and will also now be easier to spot as a result of our activities.

As this small area of meadow was the first area we worked with alongside Butterfly Trust, we were delighted to spot a variety of butterflies in the area. Our key focus here is in protecting the meadow itself from encroachment from competitive and invasive species so our main activity was removing the 6 Turkey Oaks and the many other saplings which have taken root in the meadow as a result of a lack of mowing. Removing these woody-stemmed saplings should now allow RBG to mow the meadows in early September, helping spread the wildflower and grass seedlings.

Another task, which allowed us to move out of the sun and into the shade as and when we felt the desire, was bracken-pulling. Here, as in Jack Wood, the bracken is spreading and is both swamping out desirable wild flowers, like the Cuckoo Plant, but is also stealthily encroaching into the meadow. The key to preventing too much spread is to pull out small isolated patches as soon as they appear as well as to remove the larger areas where they are preventing woodland floor vegetation to regenerate. There will always, of course, be some remaining within the woodland areas in those areas with little prospect of wild-flower regeneration.

We will be returning to this area to continue to protect this valuable meadow.