Denchworth
This site is in the Upper Thames Clay Vales National Character Area and supplies units to developments across London & South East. We own it freehold and protect it in perpetuity.
Exact location and grid reference shared on enquiry.
- Planning authority
- Vale of White Horse
- Developments supplied
- 24
- Tenure
- Owned freehold
- Protection
- In perpetuity
About the site
Two fields just south of Denchworth, north-west of Wantage, on either side of the Childrey Brook, with the railway along the southern edge. Land east of Circourt Road was cereal crops with a ruderal fringe, two small woods, hedgerows and bare ground. Land west of Brook Lane was an arable field fringed by plantation woodland and scrub, with floodplain grassland, sedge beds and scattered trees along the brook. This part of the Vale of White Horse was once a mosaic of floodplain wetland, and its wet meadows are now rare.
We are creating species-rich neutral grassland, lowland meadow, traditional orchard and mixed scrub. Along the brook, the sedge beds are being enhanced as fen, wet woodland created on the lower ground, the existing woods brought into better condition, and the river and ditches improved. Water vole is known on the Childrey Brook, and the published Oxfordshire nature recovery strategy covers this stretch, with measures for river habitats, riverside banks for water vole, and woodland.
Managed under a habitat management and monitoring plan for each parcel, with condition surveyed in years one, two and five and then every five years, and reported to the Vale of White Horse District Council.
Habitats at Denchworth
Availability changes as units are allocated, so tell us what you need and we’ll confirm.
- Ditches
- Linear wet features supporting aquatic plants and invertebrates.
- Lowland meadow
- High-distinctiveness meadow, among the most valuable habitats we create.
- Neutral grassland
- Species-rich neutral grassland, the workhorse habitat for area-based units.
- Traditional orchard
- Priority habitat combining fruit trees, grassland and deadwood.
- Mixed scrub
- Structurally diverse scrub providing nesting, shelter and forage.
- Watercourse
- Rivers and streams generating watercourse units.
- Hedgerow
- Species-rich native hedgerow with trees, generating hedgerow units.
- Fen
- Priority fen habitat supporting specialist wetland communities.
- Mixed deciduous woodland
- Lowland mixed deciduous woodland, a priority habitat type.
- Wet woodland
- Priority wet woodland on seasonally waterlogged ground.
Location
Neighbouring areas are in lighter green. The dot shows the general location.
Which developments this site can serve
No multiplier in the home area and a reduced one in adjacent areas.
Home area, no multiplier
- Upper Thames Clay Vales
Adjacent areas served
- Avon Vales
- Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands
- Berkshire and Marlborough Downs
- Chilterns
- Cotswolds
- Midvale Ridge
Local planning authorities
- Vale of White Horse
Neighbouring authorities
- West Berkshire
- South Oxfordshire
- Oxford
- Cherwell
- West Oxfordshire
- Cotswold
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
How this site is secured
What your authority will examine
Who owns the land, what binds it, and who is responsible if the habitat fails.
Here
We own the land freehold and a conservation covenant or planning obligation protects it permanently, with condition independently monitored throughout.
Who stands behind the obligation
- The land
- We own the land freehold, with no lease and no third-party landowner.
- The covenant
- A conservation covenant or planning obligation protecting each site in perpetuity, registered against the title.
- Responsible Body
- An independent Responsible Body or the local authority can step in if we ever fail to deliver.
- The endowment
- Long-term management is funded by an endowment set aside at allocation.
- Financial strength
- We have £56.5m of capital for land and habitat, and are rated Very Low Risk with an international credit score of A. That capital lets us buy land and create habitat before your programme needs it, and fund its management for the long term.
Check availability at Denchworth
Send us your metric and postcode and within a day we’ll confirm what is available here, any multiplier and the price.