Aston Rowant NNR
Encyclopedia
Aston Rowant Nature Reserve is located on the western escarpment of the Chiltern Hills
near Stokenchurch
on the Oxfordshire
- Buckinghamshire
border in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
The reserve is in several sections, divided by the M40 motorway
in the Aston Rowant Cutting. Most of the reserve is in the parishes of Aston Rowant
and Lewknor
in Oxfordshire; smaller sections are in the parish of Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire.
assisted by the Oxford Conservation Volunteers It offers a nationally important habitat of Chalk grassland and Juniper
Scrub with significant areas of hanging Beechwood
at Aston Rowant Wood
, Fragrant Orchid
, Pyramidal Orchid
, Bee Orchid
, Frog Orchid
, Early Purple Orchid
and Greater Butterfly Orchid
, the Dark Green Fritillary
and the Chalkhill Blue
Over 30 species of butterfies have been recorded on the reserve
and Roe Deer
are found on the Reserve, as are the Brown Hare
. Aston Rowant is also an important conservation site for the endangered Hazel Dormouse
for the reintroduction to England of the Red Kite, which had become extinct in England and Scotland due to persecution since the early 1900s, and reduced to a residual population of a few dozen pairs in central Wales.
Initially birds were brought in from Spain but the reintroduction programme based in the Chilterns was so successful that the local population has now self-generated to a level of approximately 200 pairs and chicks are now taken from the Chilterns population for reintroduction projects elsewhere in the UK
passes through the middle of the Aston Rowant NNR, where a deep cutting through the Chiltern Hills - the Stokenchurch Gap
- drops the motorway down onto the Oxfordshire plain between Junction 5 Stokenchurch
and junction 6 Watlington
.
This section of the "Midlands Link" motorway opened in 1974 after a protracted and bitter Public Enquiry. In may ways this project helped motivate and activate the conservation groups in the UK against further infrastructure projects that would destroy valuable and protected natural habitats. The rejection of the arguments of the conservation lobby, and the very-visible damage done to the Aston Rowant NNR following the decision to cut the Chiltern escarpment through the middle of a supposedly protected National Nature Reserve was in many ways responsible for the massive and organised subsequent protests and occupations that accompanied the construction of the M3 Motorway
through Twyford Down
near Winchester
in the 1980s, where again a decision was taken to make a deep cutting through a valuable chalk grassland environment which could have been protected by tunnelling.
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
near Stokenchurch
Stokenchurch
Stokenchurch is a village and civil parish within Wycombe district in Buckinghamshire England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about south of Chinnor in Oxfordshire and west of High Wycombe. The village is a popular place to live, due to its rural location and ease of access to London and Birmingham...
on the Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
- Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
border in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
The reserve is in several sections, divided by the M40 motorway
M40 motorway
The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...
in the Aston Rowant Cutting. Most of the reserve is in the parishes of Aston Rowant
Aston Rowant
Aston Rowant is a village and civil parish about south of Thame in South Oxfordshire, England. The parish includes the villages of Aston Rowant and Kingston Blount, and adjoins Buckinghamshire to the southeast....
and Lewknor
Lewknor
Lewknor is a village and civil parish south of Thame in Oxfordshire. The civil parish includes the village of Postcombe.-Iron Age and Roman periods:...
in Oxfordshire; smaller sections are in the parish of Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire.
Diverse Habitat
The Aston Rowant reserve is managed by Natural EnglandNatural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
assisted by the Oxford Conservation Volunteers It offers a nationally important habitat of Chalk grassland and Juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
Scrub with significant areas of hanging Beechwood
at Aston Rowant Wood
Flowers and Orchids
Aston Rowant is especially noted in Spring and Summer for the wildflowers and orchids associated with close-cropped chalk grassland, managed by careful grazing regimes. Orchid species recorded include Common spotted orchidCommon spotted orchid
The Common Spotted-orchid is acommonly occurring species of European orchid. It is widely variable in colour and height, ranging from 15 to 60 cm in height. The flower colour can vary from white to pale purple with purple spots. The lip has three lobes...
, Fragrant Orchid
Fragrant orchid
Fragrant Orchid is an herbaceous plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae.-Etymology:The name of the genus Gymnodenia is formed from Greek words "gymnos" meaning "nude" and "adèn" meaning "gland" and refers to the characteristics of the organs for secreting nectar...
, Pyramidal Orchid
Pyramidal orchid
The Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis, is an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the Genus Anacamptis of the family Orchidaceae...
, Bee Orchid
Bee Orchid
The Bee Orchid is an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae.-Etymology:The name "Ophrys" derives from the Greek word "ophrys", meaning "eyebrow", while the Latin name of the species "apifera" refers to the bee-shaped lip.-Description: The Bee Orchid grows to a height of ....
, Frog Orchid
Frog Orchid
The Frog Orchid, or Coeloglossum viride, also known as the Long-Bracted Green Orchid and Dactylorhiza viridis is a monotypic genus of the family Orchidaceae generally found within the palearctic ecozone throughout the mid to northern United States through Canada, and in the British Isles and parts...
, Early Purple Orchid
Early Purple Orchid
Orchis mascula, the Early Purple Orchid, is a species of orchid in the genus Orchis.-Etymology:The specific name is derived from the Latin "masculus", meaning "male" or "virile" and it should refer to the robust aspect of this species or to the shape of the tubers, similar to a pair of...
and Greater Butterfly Orchid
Butterflies
This habitat is particularly attractive to many species of butterflies such as the Silver-spotted SkipperSilver-spotted Skipper
The Silver-spotted Skipper is a butterfly of the Hesperiidae family. It is known as the Common Branded Skipper or Holarctic Grass Skipper in North America, where the butterfly Epargyreus clarus, a spread-winged skipper, also has the common name of "Silver-spotted Skipper".-Appearance, behaviour...
, the Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
The Dark Green Fritillary is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family.The insect has a wide range in the Palearctic ecozone - Europe, Morocco, Iran , Siberia, Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan.-Subspecies:...
and the Chalkhill Blue
Chalkhill Blue
The Chalkhill Blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.Males have pale silvery-blue wings with black and white border . Females are dark brown, also with the black and white borders...
Over 30 species of butterfies have been recorded on the reserve
Mammals
MuntjacMuntjac
Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
and Roe Deer
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
are found on the Reserve, as are the Brown Hare
European Hare
The European hare , also known as the brown hare, Eastern Jackrabbit and Eastern prairie hare, is a species of hare native to northern, central, and western Europe and western Asia. It is a mammal adapted to temperate open country. It is related to the similarly appearing rabbit, which is in the...
. Aston Rowant is also an important conservation site for the endangered Hazel Dormouse
Hazel Dormouse
The Hazel Dormouse or Common Dormouse is a small mammal and the only living species in the genus Muscardinus....
Red Kite Reintroduction
In 1989, the Aston Rowant NNR became one of the initial four sites selected by the RSPB and Natural EnglandNatural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
for the reintroduction to England of the Red Kite, which had become extinct in England and Scotland due to persecution since the early 1900s, and reduced to a residual population of a few dozen pairs in central Wales.
Initially birds were brought in from Spain but the reintroduction programme based in the Chilterns was so successful that the local population has now self-generated to a level of approximately 200 pairs and chicks are now taken from the Chilterns population for reintroduction projects elsewhere in the UK
M40 Controversy
Anyone travelling West from London to Oxford on the M40 motorwayM40 motorway
The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...
passes through the middle of the Aston Rowant NNR, where a deep cutting through the Chiltern Hills - the Stokenchurch Gap
Stokenchurch Gap
The Stokenchurch Gap, also known as the Aston Rowant Cutting or Aston Hill cutting , or locally "The Canyon" is a steep chalk cutting, constructed through the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, England during the early 1970s for the M40 motorway...
- drops the motorway down onto the Oxfordshire plain between Junction 5 Stokenchurch
Stokenchurch
Stokenchurch is a village and civil parish within Wycombe district in Buckinghamshire England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about south of Chinnor in Oxfordshire and west of High Wycombe. The village is a popular place to live, due to its rural location and ease of access to London and Birmingham...
and junction 6 Watlington
Watlington
Watlington could be*Watlington, Norfolk, England*Watlington, Oxfordshire, England*Whatlington, Sussex, England*Watlington, New Zealand...
.
This section of the "Midlands Link" motorway opened in 1974 after a protracted and bitter Public Enquiry. In may ways this project helped motivate and activate the conservation groups in the UK against further infrastructure projects that would destroy valuable and protected natural habitats. The rejection of the arguments of the conservation lobby, and the very-visible damage done to the Aston Rowant NNR following the decision to cut the Chiltern escarpment through the middle of a supposedly protected National Nature Reserve was in many ways responsible for the massive and organised subsequent protests and occupations that accompanied the construction of the M3 Motorway
M3 motorway
The M3 motorway runs in England for approximately from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, to Southampton, Hampshire and forms an unsigned section European route E05. It is dual three lanes as far as Junction 8 near Basingstoke and then dual two lane until Junction 9 near Winchester and then dual three...
through Twyford Down
Twyford Down
Twyford Down is a small area of ancient chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England. The down's summit, known as Deacon Hill, is towards the north-eastern edge of the area which is renowned for its dramatic rolling scenery, ecologically rich grassland and as a...
near Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
in the 1980s, where again a decision was taken to make a deep cutting through a valuable chalk grassland environment which could have been protected by tunnelling.