Photo Gallery

Pippa enjoys some of the picnic

Inigo pretending to fall in - we're not falling for it!

The less travelled route

Stobbinator® MkII in use

Steve demonstrates the ancient OCV art of leaning

Spot the toad

Yes of course I can keep holding this for another 5 mins....hurry up!

OCV carries out owl maintenance

Digging up brambles is fun!

The poles mark the planned course of the diverted stream

Packing up

The lovely Aston Rowant

Fixing a gate

Path A - During

The return home

Strategically placed stones for stepping across the stream

Tea break

Preparing the ground for the steps

Step creation in progress

Good progress

Brewing-up alongside our previous length of hedge

Proud hole diggers

Animals seem to manage to dig through the chalky soil

Spoil heap

Sheep hunting

Found them!

Sheep foot trimmers at work

Finishing off the bonfire

Bonfire in an Iron Age defensive ditch

Time for tea break

A novel way to transport brush wood

Willows to coppice

The bonfire is growing

Climbing Mount Fog

At the summit

Amazing juncus plantation - surely pedestrians will now not stray off the path!

Going to the pub

Culvert clearing

Continuing upwards

Scrub clearance

Lunch time

Lunch time

The clearing after our coppicing

A tasty treat? (Please don't do this unless you really know what you're doing!)

Last winter's fire site, now colonised by bright green moss

Packing up coppice products and a large number of volunteers

Preparing hedgelaying binders

The woodland in Winter

Laurel and Hardy and Tim

View from the Folly

Just a few larger stems left!

The hedge at the end of the day

One down....

Not a strange country dance - a necessary counterweight to make sawing easier!

The fen looking lovely after we raked it

Finishing the gate and dead-hedge

Ready for work. Now where did those tools go?

Rise and shine (the sun, that is.... not an OCVer in sight)

The panorama from the top of the hill

Happy moonlit campers

Setting up

Well earned lunch break

Sand drawing - which species of tree is this?

We don't just build walls, we also build the ancient treasures of Egypt

Everyone hard at work

Checking the straightness of the post

Fencing posts

Looking down the fenceline to the sea

Inigo in the sunshine

The obligatory 'before' photo

Drag-bagging the cut grass off the site

The Tackley Heath Pond

Starting work

Tea time

The duck decoy

Hide complete with new roof

Re-roofing a hide

Putting in uprights for new platform

Newly extended ponds ready for the wildlife to move in

Pond creation

Hard at work

OCV crack team of pond diggers, not put off by the scorching heat

Starting to extend the main pond, and create smaller ponds

Training from an expert

Recent addition to Aston Rowant livestock

The queue for free pedicures grows as word gets out

Fortunately, we have not been asked to trim this chap's toenails

Entrance to the wood

It was a very sunny day

The important task of drinking tea

How many OCVers does it take to build a stile?

Completed stile

A much needed tea break

Volunteers keen to start

Tools of the trade

Starting a post hole

Post-bashing

Finishing off

Clearing silt from an existing footbridge

The unblocked footbridge

Driving-in posts to support the boardwalk

Steep scramble on our walk

The serious art of Pictionary

Clearing rubble from the path ready for new scalpings

Habitat pile

Some of the rubbish we collected

A fine bonfire

Wetland after clearing

Tea-making

Using a pole saw

Cutting back the smaller dogwood

Warming bonfire

Admiring Tim's good work

At work on the quarry site

Pretty fungus

The two Mikes are perfecting the art of leaning on a slasher and 'supervising' the fire.

Mutual support?

Skating makes your eyes go funny!

The story of Kate and the hanging bramble

Kate is amazed at how ingenious brambles really are!

No scrub left after OCV has been there...

Tools talk

Council van

The council van ready to go with mountains of rubbish

More fire...

Craig, our expert fire builder!

Completed section of hedge

Putting the finishing touches to the hedge

This cord wood is being piled up, dried out and will be used for burning or maybe making charcoal.

The awesome power of Mick's chainsaw

Jim's amazing dogs!

Group photo

The weather was glorious

Starting work

4 men went to mow

Something was already growing in the habitat pile

Packing up behind the completed fence

The joy of Gripples

More happy volunteers

Gentian

Before our work

Volunteers at work on the hillside

New fence completed, allowing hedge to expand.

Ripping out the old fence netting

Monkey strainers in all their glory

The wall at the end of the day

Evening light in Swanage bay.

New post positioned by string line

Straining post complete, ready for wire.

Pro-fencing team work on new straining post!

The houseboats

Everyone hard at work at the gathering-up stage

Tea break

Site entrance

Chiselled chestnut fence joint

Errected chestnut fence

Dismantling the old fence

English Stonecrop (close-up!)

Sheep's-Bit

Devil's-bit Scabious

Pyramidal Orchid

Finished steps

Before work on the steps

Preparing a bolster for a crucial straining post

New straining-post hole is completed, with the removal of a stubborn rock!

Salad Burnet - actual size about 6mm!

Strut jointed into straining post

Woodland footpath down to waterfalls on day off

Sgwd yr Eira - A very fine waterfall and a good spot for lunch

Liz & Naomi clearing one of the final culverts.

Working our way down Corn Du for lunch at the obelisk

Our descent from Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du whilst culvert clearing

National Trust training on the essential conservation skill of 'leaning on a spade and chatting'

View south down valley from top of Pen Y Fan

The finished fence, gate and stile from the outside

You don't wanna do it like that...

The finished fence, gate and stile from the inside

Jim hauls cut material to the bonfire

Clearing the fenceline ready for replacement fencing

On a clear day, the view is spectacular...

Michelle sneaks up behind Peter with loppers - fancy a haircut Peter?

All the old headstones are leaning at interesting angles

Bonfire - plus rainbow!

Lunch break

Swarms of scrub bashers

Lovely warming bonfire (one of two)

"Friend of Watlington Hill"

Much tree growth had been cut back to stop the forest taking over the ancient pathway

Pointing stakes

The morning cuppa....

Bonfire "B" was even bigger

Two-woman bow-saw

Finally the bonfire starts to die down

Big bonfire

Loading the bonfire

Volunteers survey their handiwork as the bonfire dies down

Conversation and drinks in the Turf

Mike makes a guest appearance

Hazel stakes harvested for hedgelaying

Cordwood stack

Dead-hedge deer-deterrant

This poor tree didn't stand a chance...

Local flock penned for hoof clipping

A woolly captive

Miranda brandishing stock spray

A nice cup of tea.

Surveying the days work, the last task of 2007.

Looks like someone decided to recycle an old 70's shower curtain.

This treestump was in a dangerous position and needed to be removed using some OCV muscle

Before starting work, we herded the sheep into a different field

A fine specimen

Completed hedge section ready to regrow.

Jamie demonstrates pleaching technique

Britwell Salome hedge starting view

Bonfire building

Tree with twisty vine growing into it

Coppicing

Fen raking in the sunshine

Teamwork

Hook Norton Cutting Crew

Recycling cut scrub into the atmosphere...

Young woodland of the new century

Hedgelaying work half complete

Beating those Brambles

Camp fire

Camp

Camp

Down the wall

Finished stretch of wall

Loading

Site when we arrived

This is a tough jigsaw

Footpath section as we left it.

New talent on the job

Steps built today

Second fence section

Hybrid fence, as we left it.

Third fence section, unfinished due to lack of materials.

Completed gate 2

Boundary Brook bird feeder

Completed gate 1

As featured in the Hanborough Herald!

Broadening the path

Jim carrying a spade incorrectly!

Climbing up the Craig Cerrig - it was actually sunny (for a while)

Out for a walk on our free day

We had great views on our free day.

OCV and the National Trust show their undying loyalty to Queen & Country

What a jovial bunch of people

Dinner at base camp

The badger, of course

Our fearless task programmer

Cowslips & Forget-me-nots

North path before

North path after

Fencing with locally-cut material

Teamwork on the bowsaw

Crecy footpath at the point of completion

Crecy reserve from the top

How many OCVers does it take to build a stile?

Trees

More trees

Is that Jamie behind those twigs? No point in hiding from us. We will ALWAYS find you.

An example Cotswold Pennycress (by Plantlife's consultant Judy Hart)

A vision of a fence. Top dollar.

The best wall I've ever seen. Well, I did build it. Im so modest.

Hello, my name is Shaun. Baaaaaaa!

Sheep graze the coarse grass, leaving the dreaded blackthorn for OCV!

Cathy and a sheep

Collecting the sheep for tagging them

Putting in the stakes

Steve gives Loz a hand

Before we started

Before the gate went in.

The finished product.

Sitting down for lunch

The view towards Oxford

Toasting Marshmallows

Where were we yesterday?

The Sea Buckthorne - a daunting task?

Controlling the reed growth to create some open water

Harry the horse

Domino