Lye Valley - Misplaced Pages

Lye Valley
Site of Special Scientific Interest

Location	Oxfordshire
Grid reference	SP 547 056
Interest	Biological
Area	2.3 hectares (5.7 acres)
Notification	1987
Location map	Magic Map

Lye Valley is a 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Headington, a suburb of Oxford in Oxfordshire. It is part of the 4.5-hectare (11-acre) Lye Valley Local Nature Reserve, which is owned and managed by Oxford City Council.

The site contains a range of habitats including spring-fed lowland fen, dominated by rushes and sedges, a variety of ponds, and wet woodland with small representations of lowland calcareous grassland, wood pasture and parkland. Lye Valley has one of the best examples in the country of a calcareous valley fen, a nationally rare habitat. The plant and animal species of the Lye Valley fen are thought to have lived there since they colonised the spring areas after the retreat of the last ice age between eight and ten thousand years ago.

The site has been studied by botanists since the 17th century and attracted particular interest in the Victorian era. More than 300 species of vascular plants have been recorded in the area, though some of them have not been found in recent years. Rare plants include grass-of-Parnassus and marsh helleborine orchid, which are on the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Bird species found in the valley include reed warbler, reed bunting, water rail and snipe.

References

^ "Designated Sites View: Lye Valley". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
"Map of Lye Valley". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
"Lye Valley". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
"Map of Lye Valley". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
"Lye Valley's SSSI protected sites and plants 'under threat'". BBC News. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
"Lye Valley" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 19 April 2011.

External links

51°44′53″N 1°12′29″W / 51.748°N 1.208°W / 51.748; -1.208

v t e Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire
Biological	Alvescot Meadows Appleton Lower Common Ardley Cutting and Quarry Arncott Bridge Meadows Ashdown Park Aston Rowant Aston Rowant Woods Aston Upthorpe Downs Barrow Farm Fen Bear, Oveys and Great Bottom Woods Berins Hill Bank Berrick Trench Bestmoor Bix Bottom Blenheim Park Bould Wood Brasenose Wood and Shotover Hill Buckland Warren Cassington Meadows Chimney Meadows Chinnor Hill Cothill Fen Culham Brake Dry Sandford Pit Ducklington Mead Fernham Meadows Frilford Heath, Ponds and Fens Glyme Valley Grafton Lock Meadow Hackpen, Warren & Gramp's Hill Downs Harpsden Wood Hartslock Holly Court Bank Holly Wood Holton Wood Hook Meadow and The Trap Grounds Hook Norton Cutting and Banks Hurst Hill Iffley Meadows Knightsbridge Lane Lambridge Wood Langley's Lane Meadow Little Tew Meadows Little Wittenham Lye Valley Middle Barton Fen Moulsford Downs Murcott Meadows New Marston Meadows Otmoor Out Wood Pishill Woods Pixey and Yarnton Meads Port Meadow with Wolvercote Common and Green Reed Hill Rushy Meadows Salt Way, Ditchley Sarsgrove Wood Sheep's Banks Shirburn Hill Sidling's Copse and College Pond Spartum Fen Stanton Great Wood Stonesfield Common, Bottoms and Banks Sturt Copse Swyncombe Downs Tuckmill Meadows Warren Bank Waterperry Wood Watlington and Pyrton Hills Wendlebury Meads and Mansmoor Closes Weston Fen Westwell Gorse Whitecross Green and Oriel Woods Whitehill Wood Whitehorse Hill Wolvercote Meadows Woodeaton Wood Wormsley Chalk Banks Worsham Lane Wychwood Wytham Ditches and Flushes Wytham Woods
Geological	Ardley Cutting and Quarry Ardley Trackways Aston Rowant Cutting Chinnor Chalk Pit Cothill Fen Cumnor Ditchley Road Quarry Dry Sandford Pit Highlands Farm Pit Hook Norton Cutting and Banks Horsehay Quarries Hurst Hill Kirtlington Quarry Lamb and Flag Quarry Littlemore Railway Cutting Littleworth Brick Pit Long Hanborough Gravel Pit Lyehill Quarry Magdalen Grove Magdalen Quarry Neithrop Fields Cutting Priest's Hill Rock Edge Sharp's Hill Quarry Shellingford Crossroads Quarry Shipton-on-Cherwell and Whitehill Farm Quarries Stanton Harcourt Stonesfield Slate Mines Stratton Audley Quarries Sugworth Taynton Quarries Whitehorse Hill Wicklesham and Coxwell Pits Woodeaton Quarry

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire

Biological

Geological

v t e Local Nature Reserves in Oxfordshire
Cherwell	Adderbury Lakes Bure Park Kirtlington Quarry The Slade
Oxford	Lye Valley Magdalen Quarry Rock Edge
South Oxfordshire	Cuttle Brook Ewelme Watercress Beds Mowbray Fields Watlington Chalk Pit
Vale of White Horse	Abbey Fishponds Tuckmill Meadows
West Oxfordshire	Crecy Hill Saltway

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