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Founded in 1967, Earth Trust is an environmental charity (not-for-profit organisation) which was originally known as the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation. [1] Earth Trust was initially established by the British engineer Sir Martin Wood to promote environmental conservation through land management, education, and land science. It is a registered charity under English law. [2]
Earth Trust is the owner and manager of the largest freely accessible natural green space landscape in Oxfordshire - Wittenham Clumps: 500 hectares of woodland, farmland, wildflower meadows and wetlands. Earth Trust also care for a growing number of smaller community reserves - special places for both nature and people within urban areas and towns. These places receive 200,000+ visits each year.
As well as managing and promoting accessible natural green spaces, Earth Trust also operate a working farm. Along with their Farm Step tenants, Earth Trust are one of Oxfordshire's mid-sized producers of legumes, grains and wildflowers, beef, Goat's cheese and honey.
Earth Trust have 500 hectares of mixed use farmland, demonstrating the links between environment, wildlife, landscape and growing food. Earth Trust encourages and supports the production, distribution and eating of good quality, local, healthy food. Land management, skills and the means needed to produce and distribute food locally, minimising transport and waste are all important ingredients. Earth Trust continue to explore and develop methods to show that farming practices can be environmentally friendly and economically sustainable.
In 2009, Earth Trust came into a management position of Thrupp Lake, located in Radley. [3]
In 2014 Earth Trust started managing Abbey Fishponds in Abingdon. Tucked away in a residential area of the town, Abbey Fishponds is a small nature reserve with wetland wildlife. The reserve is around 7ha and completely enclosed by housing. [4]
The newest Earth Trust building, Earth Lab is a sustainable building.
The ponds and backwaters were developed in 2021 and provide important habitats for wildlife as well as wetlands which help to alleviate floods and absorb carbon.
Earth Trust hosts a programme of events each year, including countryside management courses, taster workshops and family festivals. They are best known for their Lambing Weekends in spring, which were attended by over 8,000 people in 2016. [5]
Earth Trust host many events throughout the year. The majority are held at their flagship site in Little Wittenham with a small number taking place on the nearby community nature reserves that the charity manages. [8]
One such notable previous event was the Children's Food Festival, held in 2007 and in 2009 in Oxfordshire. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] It was fronted by patrons Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson, who gave hands-on demos, inviting children to help them chop, stir, smell and taste. Other guests have included Annabel Karmel, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall (author of The Good Granny Cookbook), Sam Stern (the Teenage Chef), Nora Sands (Jamie's School Dinner Lady) and children's cookery writer Amanda Grant.
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is one of 46 local Wildlife Trusts around the UK working to promote and protect local wildlife. It covers the whole of Derbyshire and was founded in 1962 in response to environmental threats to the local countryside, since when it has continued to grow. The trust is now based at East Mill on the River Derwent in the town of Belper, Derbyshire. It is a registered charity, supported by more than 14,000 members and over 500 volunteers.
Sir Martin Francis Wood, CBE, FRS, HonFREng was a British engineer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Oxford Instruments, one of the first spin-out companies from the University of Oxford and still one of the most successful. He created this business out of his research into magnets, and went on to build the first commercial MRI scanner, an invention that has saved millions of lives throughout the world.
Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district.
Little Wittenham is a village and civil parish on the south bank of the River Thames, northeast of Didcot in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire.
Northmoor Road is a residential street in North Oxford, England.
London Wildlife Trust (LWT), founded in 1981, is a local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a local nature conservation charity for its area. The Trust aims to protect London's wildlife and wild spaces, and it manages 36 nature reserves in Greater London. The Trust provides education services for schools. Local groups work on reserves and organise walks.
Long Wittenham is a village and small civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) north of Didcot, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.
Warborough is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Wallingford and about 9 miles (14 km) south of Oxford. The parish also includes the hamlet of Shillingford, south of Warborough beside the River Thames.
Earth Trust Centre is the hub of the Earth Trust Farm at Little Wittenham, at the foot of Wittenham Clumps and includes: the main office; Earth Lab, where education activities take place; Innovation Hub, the newly refurbished barn which is available for corporate space hire; Fison Barn and courtyard, a beautiful venue available to hire for weddings, celebrations and corporate events; and Poem Tree Café, which is only open during Earth Trust's larger festivals and events.
Joseph Tubb (1805–1879) was a maltster from Oxfordshire, England who created the Poem Tree at Wittenham Clumps, which died in the 1990s and finally collapsed in July 2012.
The Poem Tree was a beech tree with a poem carved into it by Joseph Tubb, located on Castle Hill at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire, England. The tree was believed to be around 300 years old, with Tubb's poem being carved in the 1840s. The tree died in the 1990s and rotted completely while standing, before collapsing during a period of inclement weather in July 2012.
Paradise Wood is a research woodland established by the Earth Trust between the villages of Little Wittenham and Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire England. It has evolved to become the largest collection of hardwood forestry trials in Britain.
Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust is a charitable non-governmental organisation, covering Sheffield and Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It owns or manages 15 nature reserves with its base in Sheffield.
Fishpond Wood and Beverley Meads is a 5.8 hectare local nature reserve adjacent to Wimbledon Common in the London Borough of Merton. It is owned and managed by Merton Council.
Hosehill Lake is a 23.6-hectare (58-acre) Local Nature Reserve west of Reading in Berkshire. It is owned by West Berkshire Council and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
A tree ring, also once popularly called a "folly", is a decorative feature of 18th and early 19th century planned landscapes in Britain and Ireland, comprising a circular earthen enclosure planted with trees. While several different species of tree were used, beech and Scots pine were especially popular for their tall, straight growth and landscape value. Tree rings are a development of the naturalistic 18th century style of landscape architecture.