Creating a new Gateway to Nature
The Earth Trust landscape at Wittenham Clumps is cherished by many, from our local neighbours, and volunteers, to school children and weekend walkers. It offers the largest freely accessible green space in Oxfordshire, and so it has immense value for all of us.
It’s a place that has been changed by people for thousands of years, as demonstrated so clearly in the Roman and Iron Age archaeological finds in our landscape. It’s also home to abundant wildlife many of you would recognise on your visits – from red kites to otters and slow worms. This wildlife is thriving because of Earth Trust’s long-term conservation and nature-friendly farming, and the support of many.
Nature and people thriving together
I joined Earth Trust just over a year ago. My new association with Earth Trust builds on its remarkable 40-year legacy of connecting communities with nature and pioneering land management. Yet this is only the beginning. Through our plans for a new Gateway to Nature, we have the chance to reach more people, deepen our impact and inspire future generations to care for the natural world.
What’s changing?
Through the Gateway to Nature, we will take significant steps toward connecting more people with the natural world, guided by three key elements.
- A new visitor hub
Earth Trust’s visitor centre will be expanded to provide a visitor hub including a seven-day-a-week café with delicious hot and cold food to keep everyone fuelled up for the outdoors. This will offer a clear starting point for visits into nature, and I hope many will enjoy the new walking routes that will take people to see hidden gems such as the Broad Arboretum.
One of our new paths runs past recent tree planting that demonstrates how the integration of trees into the farming system can support greater biodiversity and climate adaptation. In years to come, we will be able to harvest fruit and nuts from the orchard trees to share with you in our café.
- Improved parking and access
We are creating a new vehicle access track to Earth Trust’s visitor hub, up from Sires Hill, to reduce traffic on the narrow lane that currently runs past the Earth Trust Centre. This track will lead to expanded parking facilities and bike shelters. Our current car park is already overflowing on busy days and these additions will make it easier for visitors – from school groups to weekend walkers – to access our site safely, as well as protect the landscape.
- A new outdoor play experience
We will offer a new paid-access adventure play-scape for families with children to explore, play and begin a lifetime of enjoying time in nature. The adventure play will blend into the wider landscape drawing on the beauty of our natural setting and heritage. Most importantly, it will be a place to have fun, to inspire visitors to explore more widely and to start on their journey connecting with nature.
From 2026, construction of the new track will begin in earnest, and you will start to see more changes happening to the central site through the coming months.
Inspiring a love of nature
The Gateway to Nature is an evolution of what we’ve always aimed for at Earth Trust – inspiring a love of nature. From the thousands of schoolchildren who visit this place every year to those who love to walk in the landscape or join us on busy event days, it’s all about having fun outdoors and developing a connection with nature. On a personal level, I’m excited to bring this vision into reality in 2026 – to connect more people with the natural world at a time when nature needs our help more than ever. We look forward to sharing more updates as work continues over the coming months.
More information about the Gateway to Nature can be found here.