Natural History Walk
The Oxford University Natural and Landscape History Walk links many of the University’s most interesting walks, parks and gardens from the Oxford Botanic Gardens to the Natural History Museum. The route includes Mesopotamia Walk, Parsons Pleasure, the Park Farm Site of Special Scientific Interest, the University Parks, the Genetic Garden and the University Herbaria at the new Life and Mind Building (LaMB).
Buildings
The Oxford University Cricket Club Pavilion (Parks Pavilion) was designed in 1880 by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson. It was built by Albert Estcourt of Gloucester in 1880-81. It was founded as the pavilion for the Oxford University Cricket Club and continues to serve this function today. Jackson is also known for designing the University’s Examination Schools and the spire of the University Church, both on High Street. The detailed Conservation Plan for the Pavilion is available to view on the University’s Estates Services website.
Other buildings attached to the Parks include the two lodges. North Lodge was designed by T H Deane, one of the architects of the University Museum, and built in 1866. South Lodge, constructed as a house for the Parks Superintendent, was designed by Mr Drinkwater and completed in 1893 at a cost of £500.
The Tentorium was constructed by Basil Wyatt & Son in 2002 to a design by Grey, Baines and Shew. This building is the administrative and operational centre for the Parks team.
The University Observatory, built in 1874, which originally occupied an isolated position in the centre of the Parks, is now adjoined by buildings of the Science Area.
Bridges
One of the challenges of laying out the Parks was the provision and siting of a bridge across the River Cherwell. James Bateman’s rejected plan for the Parks placed this bridge in the south east corner of the Parks and this was the area chosen as the siting of the first bridge. The rollerway which allows punts to circumnavigate the weir was built nearby in 1887.
Repairs and alterations to both have been recorded over the years. The most notable work carried out was the rebuilding of the bridge to a more slender structure in 1950. This was to a design by Alfred Goldstein. This bridge has been recommended for listing and is thought to be the first pre-stressed fixed arch bridge in the world.
A relief project for the unemployed enabled the construction of High Bridge in 1923-24. Its shape, which has led to it being sometimes referred to as Rainbow Bridge, was a topic of much humour when it was built.
Time has rendered High Bridge into a notable landmark which increased accessibility to the meadows on the east side of the river at a time when the southern part of the Parks was being built on. Earlier, these meadows could only be reached from the west by a foot ferry operating in the summer months. A similar ferry existed about half way along Mesopotamia Walk. This was replaced by a footbridge in 1925-26.
Cherwell Valley in Oxford
The River Cherwell, which flows north-east of Oxford city centre, is a tributary of the River Thames, which it joins south of Christchurch Meadows.
Its character, in Oxford, is a wooded water course through water meadows: a mixed agricultural landscape of small, regular fields divided by hedgerows, noteworthy for the absence of settlement. Most land alongside the river is privately owned, including by the University, and public footpaths provide access to some stretches of the river, which is crossed by a series of bridges. The University Parks, College grounds and sports fields and the University Botanic Gardens are features of the Cherwell floodplain close to the centre of Oxford. The Oxford Natural and Landscape History Walk provides a route to explore this peaceful, semi-rural landscape dominated by meadow and pasture with some playing fields and gardens close to the city centre.
As it flows eastwards past the University Parks to the south and Park Farm to the north, the river passes under Rainbow – formerly High – Bridge, which is and arched bridge made of concrete with metal railings. The bridge was constructed in 1923–24, through a project for the unemployed. It was financed by the University, colleges at the University and private subscribers. It then passes Parson’s Pleasure, once a nude bathing site for (male) members of the University (see below).
Below the Parks, the river splits into up to three streams, with a series of islands. One is Mesopotamia, a long thin island with a scenic, tree-lined footpath, rich in local wildlife. At the northern end are punt rollers next to a weir. St Catherine’s College and the Merton College sportsground are on the largest island formed by the split in the river as it wanders through the floodplain.
At King’s Mill, the path turns north past the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. At this point, walkers need to leave the riverside and walk along Marston Road, past the Council-owned Headington Hill Park, with its beautiful mature trees, and down St Clements, to join the Cherwell again at Magdalen Bridge.
The various streams of the Cherwell flow through the extensive Magdalen College grounds before joining briefly at Magdalen Bridge, after which it divides into two streams, one of which flows past the Oxford Botanic Gardens. The other stream flows past the Magdalen College School and St Hilda’s College. The two join again to flow southwards past Christchurch Meadow. Access to this stretch of the river from the front of Magdalen College is along Rose Lane on the western side the Oxford Botanical Gardens.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia – ‘between the rivers’ – is a narrow island that extends for over 700m between two branches of the River Cherwell.
Approaching Mesopotamia along the Marston cycle route from the University Parks, one crosses two bridges built close together near to where the two streams separate. These are called Lemond and Fignon bridges. Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by eight seconds in the final stage of the 1989 Tour de France. These bridges were originally informally named because it takes about eight seconds to cycle over both. In 2023, the names were formally adopted by the University.
The footpath along the island from Parson’s Pleasure to King’s Mill, known as Mesopotamia Walk, was built by the University and opened to the public, after the University purchased the island in 1865.
The two branches of the Cherwell flow at different levels. There is a sluice gate about half way along the island that is managed by the University Parks team, and opened to allow water from the higher of these streams to join the lower stream when the river is in spate.
Near to this sluice gate is a pedestrian bridge that was built in 1926 to replace the ferry that linked Marston with Oxford.
The higher stream was formerly the mill stream serving King’s Mill at the south-eastern end of Mespotamia. There has been a mill on this site for at least 750 years, as the presence of a watermill was mentioned in the Domesday book. The present structure dates from the late 18th century, and milling operations continued there until 1825. Another sluice gate located at King’s Mill is also operated by the University Parks staff to regulate the flow of the Cherwell and its seasonal flooding of the water meadows along the Cherwell Valley.
Park Farm
Park Farm consists of traditional hay meadows and grazed lowland floodplain pastures. The farm has been managed this way for centuries.
Park Farm comprises 115 acres of permanent pasture just across the River Cherwell from University Parks. It is used for grazing by a tenant farmer and for research projects, taking advantage of its rich habitats and status as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The SSSI is a series of agriculturally unimproved neutral meadows on the flood plain of the River Cherwell. The soils are calcareous clay, which have formed on alluvium overlying terrace gravels. This supports a range of swamp and grassland habitats which are of national importance. The site is still traditionally managed as summer-grazed pasture and fen, or for hay, and the different management practices give rise to variations in plant communities between the fields.
For example, plants indicative of ancient grassland that are found within these meadows include common meadow-rue Thalictrum flavum, pepper-saxifrage Silaum silaus, devil's-bit scabious Succisa pratensis, and the nationally scarce fritillary Fritillaria meleagris.
The SSSI is managed under the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme, which aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high-priority situations. Its main objectives include protection of the historic environment; wildlife conservation; natural resource protection; maintenance and enhancement of landscape quality and character; and promotion of public access and understanding of the countryside.
Further information can be found at the Park Farm website.
When visiting, please keep to the footpaths, keep your dogs under control and take all your litter home with you.
To contact Park Farm, please email: OGE@admin.ox.ac.uk
Parson’s Pleasure and Dame’s Delight
Today Parson’s Pleasure is a pleasant, open area of park, popular with students and local residents wanting somewhere quiet to read or picnic. It is difficult to imagine it as it was before 1992, kitted out with changing cubicles and diving-boards rigged up in the trees, surrounded by screens and carefully planted foliage to screen the naked bathers. Women approaching by boat were required to alight and walk around the perimeter before returning to the water.
All of this was overseen by a professional attendant, who occupied a little brick-built booth or ‘cottage’ beside the gate, taking payment for entry. There was an open area of grass for sunbathing, snoozing and playing games, and, of course, a section of the river for swimming, shallow at one end, with a deep section at the other known as the ‘Devil’s Eye’.
Nude river bathing by men was popular from the 16th century. In the first half of the 1800s, Parson’s Pleasure was socially mixed, popular among men from the town and boys from both private and charity schools, as well as students from the university.
In the 1830s, the area was screened off and commercialised by an enterprising John Cox, who began charging a penny to bathers to use the site. This discouraged poorer swimmers and Parson’s Pleasure became a swimming area used mainly by members of the University. Cox’s son, Charles, succeeded him as Attendant, a role he filled for 75 years, until he was encouraged to retire at 87, because his life-saving skills were not what they had been. The bathing area was expanded substantially in 1933, and the entry fee reduced to enable townspeople to afford to swim there again.
In 1992 Parson’s Pleasure was closed down by the Council as a nude bathing area without notice, and the Parks staff were instructed to demolish the changing cubicles and take fences down. The work was carried out quickly as it was very controversial. The former bathing area was landscaped and opened up to everyone.
Dame's Delight, the ladies' bathing place from 1934 to 1970 on the river bank opposite Mesopotamia Walk, was closed due to high maintenance costs and damage from flooding.
Pond and wildlife
James Bateman’s original design for the Parks (rejected because of costs and other concerns) included a two and a half acre stretch of ornamental water. However, a pond was not constructed in the Parks until 1925. Dug out entirely by manpower it was circular with a diameter of around 50 metres. The pond was later extended in 1996 to a design by Conservator Walter Sawyer and since then more waterfowl have been attracted to the area.
During the original construction of the pond a drain was laid into the Cherwell which enabled baby pike to get into the pond. Unable to later return to the river they grew to a large size. An academic, concerned for the safety of frogs, organised the making of woollen ladders which were hung over the sides of the pond to allow the frogs to escape from the pike. Eventually the pond was trawled and a large number of pike were caught.
Squirrels are frequently seen. In spring they nibble the crocus flowers, while in autumn they forage for acorns, conkers and haws, the fruits of the thorns. Bird life is also abundant, the variety of seeds providing food for winter inhabitants of the Parks.
The Genetic Garden
In 1964, an area immediately north of the Science Area which had previously been the site of hard tennis courts, was allocated for the use of Professor Cyril Darlington, Sherardian Professor of Botany (from 1953 to 1971) as an experimental Genetic Garden.
The purpose of this high maintenance garden was to show the evolutionary processes known to occur in flowering plants. The plants were arranged in formal beds according to the various processes exhibited by them.
In 1995 the garden’s surrounding fences were removed and the area was incorporated into the Parks. Taking into account the necessity for creating an attractive space and ease of maintenance, the borders have been redesigned. The original planting has been consolidated while plants used in more recent genetic studies are also grown in this area.
Planting includes hybrids with their parent species and plants with different types of foliage variegation
