Lye Valley: News & Events
Friends of Lye Valley AGM
Thursday 6 August 2026, 7–8.30pm in the rear hall of Bullingdon Community Centre, Peat Moors (doors open 6.30pm)
Includes an illustrated talk by Tom Bedford on the Birds of Lye Valley
Lye Valley Boardwalk repaired
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The section of Lye Valley fen boardwalk destroyed by arson in the summer of 2025 is now repaired. Many thanks to Oxford City Council staff from the Parks department for carrying out the work.
Oxford Climate Awards
The Friends of Lye Valley were nominated for an award in the Biodiversity and Ecology section of the Oxford Climate Awards and were one of three finalists in this section.
Below: Certificate awarded to Dr Judith Webb at the award ceremony on 17 September 2025
“Sponge Headington” project
The Friends of Lye Valley and Headington Churches have initiated a “Sponge Headington”' project to help the Lye Valley fens. The churches have printed the following leaflet and are distributing it to houses in the catchment area:
Oxford Local Plan 2040 consultation
Response from the Friends of Lye Valley
"Managing Stormwater in the Lye Valley”
This two-minute film was made as part of the submission to the Flood and Coast Excellence Awards 2024 hosted by the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM). FoLV entered as a community level initiative. We were asked to provide a two- minute video pitch (below), a Headline summary (up to 200 words), and Evidence text (up to 800 words) which was written by Judy Webb, Chair of FoLV.
The judging process is still ongoing, and we have yet to be informed of the outcome. The winners will be announced at the Flood and Coast Excellence Awards on 5 June 2024 at Telford International Centre.
The film was made by a Campbell Road (OX4) resident Zoe Broughton, and the submission was made by Jennie Hopkins, an FoLV committee member with the permission of the FoLV committee.
“Birds of the Lye Valley”
Another fifty copies of Tom Bedford's booklet Birds of the Lye Valley (published by the Oxford Ornithological Society) are now available:
Wildlife Newsletters from Lye Valley
Spring 2026 • Winter 2025 • Summer 2025 • Spring 2025 • Winter 2024 • Summer 2024 • Spring 2024 •
Winter 2023 • Summer 2023 • Winter 2022 • Summer 2022 • Spring 2022 • Winter 2021
Live in Headington?
”Lye Valley and Climate Change”
The presentation given by Dr Judy Webb at the August 2023 AGM is available here in PDF format
The importance of Marsh Lousewort
Marsh Lousewort is an important plan in the FOLV's restoration work in the Lye Valley, as explained in this paper by Judy Webb:“Marsh Lousewort as an Ecosystem Engineer in Oxfordshire Fen Restoration Projects”
An alkaline fen ecosystem restoration project
M/Sc. dissertation by Brookes student Adam Bows on fen restoration in the Lye Valley (and in Chilswell Valley and Raleigh Park) is available here as a PDF
Estimating the Carbon Stock in the Lye Valley’s peat fen
M.Sc. dissertation by Brookes student Darcey Haldar, together with an estimate by Judy Webb of the carbon in the North Fen based on this data, is available here as a PDF
Biodiversity in Oxford City
Land west of 75 Town Furze
The Friends of Lye Valley are objecting to a third planning application for a development on this land:
full details here
The importance of Lye Valley
Document produced by the Friends of Lye Valley describing the importance of the valley and the need for special measures (including Supplementary Planning Guidance) to protect its internationally important wetland habitats and associated species and its ecosystem and other functions:
Dogs
Judy Webb explains here why you should keep your dog out of the ponds in the Lye Valley:
Need to preserve peatlands
Right: Letter from Judy Webb published in the Oxford Times of 25 February 2021 about the need to preserve peatlands such as the Lye Valley within Oxford City
Many congratulations to
Dr Judy Webb,
Chair of Friends of Lye Valley,
who was awarded the
British Empire Medal (BEM)
in the 2021 New Year Honours for
‘Services to Conservation of Wildlife
and Habitats in Oxfordshire’.
Lye Valley Slideshow
Flowers and insects in the Lye Valley
Woman's Hour Power List: Our Planet
Huge congratulations to our Chair and inspirational ecologist, Dr Judy Webb, on her inclusion as No. 25 on the Radio 4
Woman’s Hour Power List 2020
Oxford Mail, 24 November 2020: “Ecologist from Oxford wins place on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power list”
Sustainability strategy for Lye Valley
This letter from Judy Webb (right), published in the Oxford Mail of 4 November 2020, expresses concern that there is no Sustainability strategy for the Lye Valley between now and April 2021:
Local Plan Preferred Options Document
The Friends of Lye Valley response is here
Oxford City Council consultation on Draft Corporate Biodiversity Strategy 2015–2020
- Information about this consultation (closed 27 February 2015)
- See Judy Webb's response (PDF)
Local Geology site proposal for Lye Valley
In 2017 the Oxfordshire Geology Trust proposed the Lye Valley be designated a Local Geology Site in recognition of its extraordinary qualities: see application
Midweek work sessions
These sessions for members of the Friends of Lye Valley group are on Wednesdays 9–11am
All tools supplied. Outdoor clothing and sturdy boots needed
Ponds at the head of the valley
The interception ponds that collect the run-off from Headington's roads after rain have become silted up, and they are being cleared in October 2020
- Work on the Interception Ponds (PDF)
- Oxford Mail, 31 July 2020: “Activist calls for Headington's Lye Valley to be protected from concrete”
Lye Valley free online jigsaws
Why not have a go at online jigsaw depicting the Lye Valley and its flora and fauna (warning: very addictive)? Below are easy ones with 42 pieces and harder ones up to 169 pieces.
Lye Valley article in 'Limited Edition'
The Lye Valley stars in this Oxford Times ‘Limited Edition’ article by Wendy Tobitt of BBOWT in June 2018.
Judy Webb and Heather Armitage speak about the Lye Valley
The Lye Valley was promoted by Oxford City Council during Oxford Volunteer Week in June 2019
Find out more about volunteering in Oxford.
Here on Twitter Heather talks about volunteering at Lye Valley Nature Reserve.
Lye Valley granted new protective status
The Lye Valley's extraordinary hydrological and geomorphological features – its “Living Geology” – has been recognised by its new protective designation as Local Geology Site by the Oxfordshire Geology Trust:
- Oxford Mail, 13 July 2017:
“Oxford's 'living geology' treasure trove Lye Valley granted new protective status”
Vision for the Lye Valley
The FOLV's Vision is to conserve and/or restore the whole of the Lye Valley as a natural continuous green area of land with a mosaic of different wet and dry habitats
To see the outcome of the BBOWT Wild Oxford Project in the Valley,
please see the reports by Dr Judy Webb on the BBOWT website-access in ‘Links’
Left: Article from Oxford Times of 1 September 2016 about green spaces in Headington and the Local Plan
The Grass of Parnassus
The fragile and rare Grass of Parnassus, first named by Matthias de L’Obel in 1570 when he found it growing in Hogley Bog (i.e. the Lye Valley), flowered again at the end of August 2014, hidden amid squelchy pools cloudy with tufa.
Dr Judy Webb has captured the stages of the buds’ unfolding in a series of pictures, from the male stage with anthers folded over stigma and the false nectary staminodes clear, through anthers bending out and opening one at a time stage, to the female stage where the anthers are gone, the ovary turns pink, and the stigmas are now uncovered and receptive to pollen on top of the ovary. Then follows the new seed pod. Characteristically one heart-shaped leaf encircles the stem
It was first noted in this wetland in 1640, but has probably been here since the last Ice Age. The Lye Valley is the most southerly place that the grass is found in England.
Oxford Mail, 30 August 2014:
“Ice Age flower is still quite at home in balmy Headington”
“Flowers ’n’ Bees” stroll round Rock Edge on 17 July 2016
Dr Judy Webb showed us some of the varieties of bee attracted by the wild flower meadow, and a parasitic wasp
Judy Webb's tour of the Lye Valley 6 July 2016: Oxford Mail report
Did You Know?
Proportionately there are more rare plants in the Lye Valley than in any other city site – at 20 species this is a third of the 61 species on the County Rare Plants Register found within all the nature sites in and around Oxford that are managed by Oxford City Council.
See our Chair, Dr Judy Webb’s, detailed report on the state of the Lye Valley for the Wild Oxford Project. It’s the ONLY fen (alkaline bog) to show such fast return to its former glory in Oxfordshire. Formerly there were 10 really good alkaline fens. Of these, 8 are being lost to natural succession to wet woodland through lack of management. Only Cothill fen and the Lye Valley fen are actually improving, due to having management. The Lye Valley fen – thanks to its volunteers, Oxford City Council, BBOWT, Oxford Conservation Volunteers – and not forgetting the Friends of Lye Valley – is getting better and better! But it still needs our help and protection.
Annual General Meetings and Chairman's Reports
The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Lye Valley is usually held at St Francis Church Hall, Hollow Way in August, but no AGM was held in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic. The agreed minutes of the AGMs held from 2013 to 2024 can be seen below
2013 AGM • 2014 AGM • 2015 AGM • 2016 AGM • 2017 AGM • 2018 AGM • 2019 AGM
Chair's Reports: