The Wychwood Wild Garden is a beautiful woodland and garden, close to the centre of Shipton-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire. Its 12.5 acres of avenues, woods and ponds much of which was laid out in the 1860's, is home to wild life and many breeds of ducks and birds. It is a private garden, owned and managed by a local charity and offered as a place of peace and tranquillity to local residents, guests and visitors to the area.
10 Highlights of the Garden
The Avenue This was originally planted with limes around 1750 with a number of additional plantings in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Restoration was carried out in 2014 replacing non-lime species with 18 new trees.
The Ha-Ha The field either side of the Avenue were origianlly much lower than now. The Ha-ha wall ensured that livestock could not access the Avenue but those walking down it had an unrestricted view across the fields. There wa sa tunnal under the Avenue (now blocked up) to allow sheep to pass from one side to the other.
Squirrel Look out for the Squirrel gaurding its nut haul in one of the older trees in the Avenue.
Owl Patrol Look out for the Owl, the Wild Garden ‘Eye in the Sky’, surveying what is happening below.
The Round Pond The giant lily pad in the centre of the Pond provides a safe haven for moorhens to nest in the summmer.
The Cedar of Lebanon The Cedar, orginally one of two, was planting in the mid 1700s. The second cedar was destroyed in a storm in the 1980s and this allowed a tenatve ageing to be carried out.
Views across the Upper Pond The willows coming downto the water have made a creative backdrop to many apicture, including lurking luionas by local artist Penny Fulljames.
Pulhamite Look at the stonework below the central dam, it looks like it has gown out of the dam! This is Pulhamite, a special rock material invented by James Pulham around 1860 to provide an aged look to stonework and grottos
The Glade for Reflection The tree in the centre is a Swamp Cypress, originally introduced into Britain in the 1640s. It is deciduous, truning red in the autumn and loosing its leaves over winter. It comes back into left around May.
The Sluice and Dam The end point of the Wild Garden where the water flows over the sluice and down to the Evenlode. the dam was restored in 2022 with a new set of coping stones to stop leaks.
