Wallingford Riverside Meadows
What can I see?
- Wildflowers such as oxeye daisy, common knapweed and bird’s foot trefoil during the summer months.
- Serotine and Daubenton’s bats foraging over the river – if you are out and about at dusk.
What’s special about this place?
- Historical and archaeological investigations have revealed Riverside Meadows to be a significant location for settlement, communication, ritual and strategic activity for at least 3,000 years. The whole site is on the Sites and Monuments Register.
- The restored wildflower habitats at Riverside Meadows and rare lowland floodplain meadows – annual hay cuts in July, followed by cattle grazing until November are an important management activity to encourage wildflower growth and restore a habitat which is now threatened in Oxfordshire.
- A former World War II pillbox has been converted into a bat hibernaculum – the partially blocked gun slots, terracotta roofing tiles and a blanket hung on the walls create perfect cracks and crevices for roosting bats.