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At Domesday in 1086, the Royal Forest of Wychwood covered much of what is now West Oxfordshire - including Eynsham at its far eastern boundary.
The Wychwood Project “combines history, conservation and local communities” within this area, while Wychwood v encourages youngsters aged between 16 and 25 to volunteer for conservation work.
This feature and slideshow covers work by the Project and by Wychwood v at Eynsham Abbey Fishponds; they are also much involved beside the Wharf Stream and even on the village Allotments and are based at Signal Court.
THE BIG DIG: uncovering the archaeological secrets of the Fishponds September 2010
Three years ago, when clearing the old Chilbrook, we found the road which was the continuation of Abbey Street leading towards Sutton and Stanton Harcourt. It was closed in 1217 by Abbot Adam and diverted to what is now Station Road so that he could build fishponds for the abbey. We also found a short length of old wall. We had no knowledge of any buildings in this area so it remained a mystery until Wychwood v young volunteers were looking for a summer project.
A group of young volunteers from Wychwood v has spent three days re-excavating the old road and the wall. Sadly we are none the wiser, the wall only extended about 30cm further than we had dug before and then fizzled out. Oxford Blues Metal Detecting Club also sent volunteers to check the area but they were equally disappointed, although we did find a few pottery shards some of which are Roman and some probably earlier.
However 10 or so youngsters had a great time, many people from the village called by and had a brief history lesson and we even had some very young volunteers join in - view slideshow link at the top of this page; and see the video at twitney.co.uk
We have had to re-cover the area to preserve it but the work has been photographed and drawn and will be sent to the county archaeologist who had given his permission for the dig to take place.
COUNTRY ACTION TEAM: levelling a section of path with help from David Cameron
On Saturday 1 May a large group of volunteers from the Wychwood Project arrived to level the path along the Chilbrook near Harvey's House Mound.
This is a stretch of about 30 metres where the path is on a considerable sideways slope, which makes it very difficult to walk along. David Cameron came along to meet the volunteers. He also lent a hand with banging in pegs and clearing nettles - click on the link at the top of this page for the slideshow.
WYCHWOOD v
On 16 and 17 February we were lucky to have a group from Wychwood v, helping reinstate some of the ancient waterways created by the monks to irrigate the fishponds. Very many thanks to them for all their work. Click on the link at the top of this page for the slideshow.
Young volunteers from Wychwood v spent another productive morning at work on Tuesday 13 April, returning the next day to complete the tasks. They cleared the elm saplings in the car park area; spread the willow chippings from the playing field end along the paths; and also removed some silt and weeds from one of the ditches.
FURTHER READING
Uncovering the archaeological secrets of the Eynsham Abbey Fishponds
Three years ago we found the former continuation of Abbey Street towards Sutton and Stanton Harcourt. It was closed in 1217 by Abbot Adam so that he could build fishponds for the abbey.
We also found a short length of old wall. We had no knowledge of any buildings in this area so it remained a mystery until Wychwood v young volunteers were looking for a summer project ...
levelling a section of path with help from David Cameron
We were lucky to have a group from Wychwood V on 16 and 17 February, helping reinstate some of the ancient waterways created by the monks to irrigate the fishponds. Very many thanks to them for all their work.
A finished section. More volunteers are always welcome! Please get in touch.