Didcot Wanderings Searching for Wild Orchids in Mowbray Fields
Mowbray Fields Nature Reserve is one of Didcot’s best-kept secrets. It is located on the southern edge of the town, between Didcot and East Hagbourne, but it feels like a million miles away from the busy streets of Didcot once you enter it. It was designated as a nature reserve in 2000 and is managed by the Earth Trust, an environmental charity which also manages other community nature reserves in Oxfordshire, including Wittenham Clumps, Wallingford Castle Meadows and Thrupp Lake. The Mowbray Fields Nature Reserve includes a wildflower meadow, a stream and a fill pond, which was created to prevent East Hagbourne from flooding if the Hagbourne Brook overflowed. The fill pond has developed a variety of ecosystems comprising marsh, grassland, tall herb vegetation and woodland. It is a habitat for many woodland creatures, including muntjac deer, various species of bat, toads and even lizards. A highlight of the fill pond is the wild orchids which thrive in the driest part, in an area of rough grassland and scrub: the common spotted orchid and the southern marsh orchid. Orchids have been growing in the fill pond since its creation in 1983 and they are counted annually by Earth Trust volunteers to monitor any increases or decreases in number. The highest number found was in 1999 when 3000 were counted. By 2019 the number had declined to 1248, which was thought to be in part a result of changes to the habitat (although, interestingly, during this count they also found a small number of other orchid species: bee orchids, pyramidal orchids and common twayblade orchids). Since then, the Earth Trust have begun regularly coppicing the willow in this area, as well as cutting back the willow herb, bulrush and bramble, to give more space for the orchids to grow.
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I set off one morning in early June to look for the orchids, not quite knowing what I was looking for, but hoping I would recognise them as soon as I saw them. June is apparently the best month to see them. The orchids weren’t easy to find, as I had to leave the main path and enter a wooded area. Although the path was well trodden, there was no one else around and when I did finally find the orchids I had them to myself. They were hard to miss, despite being quite short, as their vibrant colours stood out against the grasses around them. The common spotted orchid is the taller of the two, at approximately 60cm, and is the most common wild orchid in the UK. The flowers grow in a cone-shaped cluster and they apparently have a perfume that is very attractive to moths. The petals are white, pink or purple and have a pattern of swirls made up of darker pink lines and dots. But interestingly, it is not the petals that give the orchid its name, but the leaves which have purple spots on them. The southern marsh orchid is slightly shorter, at approximately 40cm, and is very common in the southern half of the UK. Its petals are pink or purple and in the centre of each petal are linear spots. Although there has been a decline in orchid numbers in this area, I was pleased to see that both species were flourishing on the day I visited.
I am not going to reveal the exact location of the orchids, as I suspect that one of the reasons they have survived so well is that there aren’t hordes of people walking through the site. I do feel very honoured to have seen something that appears to be very fragile but is obviously a survivor. I think the success of the orchids in this area is largely due to the great work of the Earth Trust and their volunteers, who are obviously doing a fantastic job at managing the Mowbray Fields site.
