May 29
We have some amazing prizes to be won with our festival raffle. Tickets are £1 each and are available from the White Hart, Wolvercote and at the Community Market from 29th May. The raffle will be drawn in the order below on Friday 24th June in the interval of Music Night. Prize winners will be notified by phone or email if not at the show. Big thanks to all our sponsors and Teresa Hall for organising on behalf of the Festival Committee.
May 29
Your mission is to identify the eighteen numbered locations of these images of inscriptions and memorials, all of which are accessible on foot via public rights of way or common land in Wolvercote and Wytham.
A map can be found here on which you can mark the numbers of the images in the location you have chosen. All the locations can be found on this map
If you would like a further challenge you may answer a question associated with each image, which you can download here. The questions also appear under the photo when you click or tap the image.
The locations of the images and the answers to the questions will be posted on the Festival Website later in the summer.
Good luck and enjoy exploring our villages on foot. Many thanks to Amanda Saville for putting this together on behalf of the Festival Committee.
May 06
This year the Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival will be running another village trail of house displays to be discovered during the festival week and we would love you all to join in. The theme this year is Footprints and we invite you to decorate your front window, garden or gate with a fanciful footprint display.
It could be animal footprints, dinosaur footprints, your own decorated footprint, footprints turned into other creatures, boots filled with flowers, our global footprint – the interpretation is all yours!
Simply email footprints@wolvercote.org to register your entry with your name and street name – we don’t need the number as we are just going to publish the streets that have displays. We will then send you the festival Footprint Trail flag (pdf) which you can cut out and put in your window or on your gate so that the trail wanderers can find your display.
Your display will need to be completed and ready by the beginning of the festival week – Friday 17th June.
Once you have created your display, please take a picture of it and post it to a public Instagram account with the hashtag #WFPTrail. If your account is private, (or you don’t use Instagram), please send your photo to footprints@wolvercote.org and we will post it on Instagram for you. Please include your name if you want a credit.
May 01
We are looking forward to starting rehearsals with Kate Binnie and Jacqui Ibbotson for the Pop Up Choir on Mondays in the Baptist Church Hall in Lower Wolvercote 7.30 – 9.00 pm starting on 9th May, with a view to performing at the Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival at All Saints Church, Wytham on Tuesday 21st June. As always, the repertoire will be wide-ranging and fun, and all are welcome to join (no requirement to read music), so please let your family, friends and neighbours know about it (if you have a street WhatsApp maybe you could also contact them that way). Deep voices are especially welcome! As before there is no joining fee, but we do ask for a donation of £1 per adult per session towards hall hire fees.
Apr 08
We are thinking forward to the summer and the 2022 Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival, to be held 18–25 June, with the Festival theme being Footprints. One of the popular Festival events is the Poetry & Music Evening.
We are looking for local poets. Would you like to contribute one or two poems and join us for a convivial evening of readings, music, and wine in a lovely setting?
This year the Poetry & Music Evening is to be held on Monday 20th June.
Time: 7.30-9.30
Venue: St. Peter’s Church Rooms
We have chosen this venue as it has access to a very pleasant outdoor courtyard, which will work well if the sun shines on us.
Ros Bleach and Phillipa Hardman are planning and hosting the evening. Please let us know straight away if you would like to take part.
Please send by June 1st one or two of your poems on this year’s theme to:
Ros Bleach at bleachfamily@hotmail.com and Phillipa Hardman at phillipa.hardman@virginmedia.com.
Ideally, we would include every poem we receive, but this depends on time constraints. All the poems, including those that are not read on the night, will be posted onto the Wolvercote and Wytham website Poetry Corner, with your agreement, of course. If you’re unable to be there in person, your submitted poems can be read by someone else.
Much looking forward to hearing from you and reading your poems.
Ros and Phillipa
Feb 11
The Wolvercote Tree Group Committee is calling an AGM for Thursday 24 February – scroll down to read the formal notice and agenda. To ensure the meeting is quorate, your attendance would be much appreciated. The main business will be to receive and approve the report from the Chair and Tree Group accounts (below) for the period 1 January to 31 December 2021, and to discuss plans for 2022. To send your apologies, email valtate@btinternet.com, call 01865 559316 or write to 2 Cyprus Terrace, Oxford OX2 8AT. Members are reminded that 2022 membership subscriptions – £6.00 each – are due. Thanks to all who have paid already. We are encouraging members to set up a Standing Order to make collection easier for you and the Tree Group. Many banks allow you to set up standing orders by telephone or online. Our bank details are: account name: Wolvercote Tree Group; sort code 20-65-18; account number 70413941. When completed, please email date of first payment to jon@benjon.co.uk Jon Price (Treasurer) or tel: 07935 033 147. Alternatively, pay electronically using the bank details as above and reference Surname_Subs. Please advise the Treasurer when sent. Or send a cheque, payable to “Wolvercote Tree Group”, to Jon Price, 7 Pennywell Drive, Oxford OX2 8NB.
Many thanks, Val Tate (Secretary)
Litter Picking (while we have your attention!) Every March the Wolvercote Tree Group and the Wolvercote Commoners’ Committee join forces to litter pick as our contribution to the OxClean scheme. We plan to go ahead this year (CV-19 permitting) as in earlier years, meeting in the Bathing Place Car Park on Saturday 19 March at 10:00am. Offers of help to Jo Malden josephine.malden@gmail.com
Notice is hereby given that the committee of the above-named community group has determined that an Annual General Meeting of Members will be held on Thursday 24 February 2022 at 7.30pm. The meeting will be in the Wolvercote Baptist Church Hall. Lower Wolvercote. Attendees are politely requested to wear a face covering unless addressing the meeting.
The business to be transacted at the meeting is as follows:
* To confirm the minutes of the last general meeting.
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the report of the Committee for the most recent period.
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the statement of accounts for the most recent year ended 31 December 2021.
* To elect Committee Members* and Officers**
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the committee’s plans for 2022 and associated financial projections.
* No re-elections this year. There are three vacancies for Committee Members. Members of The Committee will be elected for a period of three years Their primary responsibility is to ensure that the Tree Group follows its aims as set out in the Constitution. Each Committee Member contributes as much additional help as their personal responsibilities allow. Meetings are held at least four times a year.
** Chair John Winterbottom and Vice-Chair Jo Malden have completed a three-year term and may stand for re-election.
Please communicate suggestions or nominations, along with notification of any other business to the Chair, John Winterbottom, 59 Rosamund Road, OX2 8NX or email: jwinterbottom8@googlemail.com no later than 12:00 hrs 23 February 2022.
* Apologies
* Minutes of the 2021 AGM
* Report from the Chair – see below
* Treasurer’s report – download financial accounts for FY 2021
* Election of Committee Members
* Election of officers
* Plans for 2022 – download financial forecast for FY 2022
* AOB – date of next committee meeting
Dear Members and Friends A warm welcome to our AGM. Hope you’re keeping safe, well and sane! Well here we are a year on and the pandemic hasn’t abated. There are some encouraging signs though which have meant, in many regards, we can start to work and meet back in the orchard as we used to. This is good for all our spirits. We thank again Jo and Val for the informative newsletters and orchard reports that keep us abreast of seasonal activity in the orchard. Even though there are both busy and quiet periods through the year there is always something that can be done. We would particularly like to thanks Anne McHardy who probably visits most weeks and keeps the twig fall under control and produces a bounty of kindling packs. With the DDA path complete, we had earmarked work to replace the rear boundary fence that sits alongside the track down to the riverside. This was completed last week by Olive Green. It looks fabulous, and will serve to deflect the fight path of the bees entering and leaving the hive up to a higher trajectory so that there is little chance of then flying directly into folk who regularly use the path; this has been a concern for some time. We have increased the size of the bee enclosure and anticipate the addition of another couple of hives when Madelaina gets around to it. The remaining intention is to soften the boundary by planting some selected hedging orchard side of the fence. A task for later in the year. The idea of publishing a calendar celebrating local tress with photographs and poetry came to fruition just before Christmas. Whilst we have a few left, we have made a small profit. It is a wonderful work. As is the recipe book, which not only had recipes for hot cakes, but sold like hot cakes. These activities have help us to swell funds for things such as the new fence. Another initiative that is ongoing is to get a better understanding as to what flora species currently inhabit the orchard alongside our fruit trees. We have a small group of members who have been cataloguing the many species we have, so that we might determine what other varieties we might introduce to support both the bees and the trees. By the time you read this we will have undertaken the planting of some additional and replacement trees on Nixey’s Field – between the back of Rosamund Road and Elmthorpe Road, and the A34 embankment. We thank Richard Tenant-Eyles for his initiative with this and Charlotte Fenton for opening up her house and garden to allow us to access the field. Most of the travail of the committee and membership is reported in the regular newsletters we issue. So it remains for me to thank all the committee for their hard work and passion in maintaining the space we know as Wolvercote Community Orchard, and in particular Jo Malden and Jon Price, for keeping us on a financial even-keel. And also to you, the members, for getting along to as many of the workdays and events that we plan, as you are able. Should you wish to understand about how to get more involved, then please talk to a member of the committee: the pruning still needs doing!
Thank you
John Winterbottom, Chair Wolvercote Tree Group
Feb 01
Dates for the diary! This year’s Midsummer Festival will be from 17th to 26th June. The theme this year is ‘Footprints’. Planning is now in full swing with a welcome return to ‘Fun on the Green’ on Saturday 18th June. Keep the dates free!
Nov 15
Look no further for your perfect Christmas gift with this Wolvercote Tree Group 2022 Calendar. Pictures and poems by local people for only £5.50. Available from the Sunday Market at the White Hart (10am-12noon) or by email from wolvercotetreegroup@gmail.com
Nov 11
From November 7th 2021 the No. 6 bus resumes service from Wolvercote to the city centre and back. This replaces the 35 service which experienced delays recently, so we are hoping for a better service. The 35 now runs from the centre to Abingdon as it did before.
The timetable can be found here and on the Links page of this website.
Nov 02
Wytham Woods Important Update
Temporary closure dates
The Wytham Woods Team would like to inform all permit holders of three upcoming weekends when the Woods will be closed to all visitors:
Friday 5 November 2021 – Monday 8 November 2021 inclusive
Friday 14 January 2022 – Monday 17 January 2022 inclusive
Friday 11 February 2022 – Monday 14 February 2022 inclusive
No access will be possible within these times.
Please note that for each period, the Woods will close on the Thursday evening and reopen on the Tuesday morning.
Thank you for your patience and understanding while we undertake essential woodland management.
If you are still waiting for the arrival of your permit card, we’d like to thank you for your continuing patience as we work our way through a large backlog of applications.
As always we would like to take this opportunity to remind you to respect the rules of your permit card and stick to the paths. Wytham Woods is no ordinary woodland and research projects carried out here have global significance. We have over 100 researchers actively pursuing projects in the Woods and it is vital that their study areas and the flora & fauna which they contain are undisturbed. The map which you receive with your permit card shows the paths which you are permitted to walk. If you have only so far received a temporary e-permit, please click below to download a copy of the map.
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