Promoting a wildlife-friendly garden – advice from Greener Great Coxwell:
 
Every domestic garden space has potential to become a resource for the wildlife living in its immediate setting and even those living in its wider landscape. If you want your garden to be more wildlife friendly there are a few simple guidelines to follow.

Focus on the plants that grow well on your soil. Look at the native trees and shrubs in you locality and plant some of these or their near relatives.

Choose bee and insect friendly herbaceous and annual flower plants. Use herbs in borders. Nectar rich garden centre plants and seed packets now show a bee logo on the label.

Transform part of your lawn into a wildlife meadow by letting it grow uncut from February to October. Plant spring bulbs into it in October and wildflower plants in March. When you cut it in October, remove the spoil.

Provide water, including a birdbath regularly cleaned and replenished, daily when fledglings are around and/or a small pond planted with native water plants and with a “beach-end” to allow safe access.

Provide shelter for amphibians, and insects by creating an undisturbed pile of rocks and another of wood and twigs for nests and hedgehogs. Allow weeds to flourish in a chosen area.

Provide insect and bird boxes.

Choose bird feed according to the birds you can see in your area. Do not overfeed Pigeons or Corvids. Clean your feeders weekly when in regular use. Place your feeders near a tree or bush for quick cover. The small birds will be more relaxed.

Compost as much of your vegetative material as possible letting very little go off site. 

Then watch and wait!
 
Anne Hardcastle (Greener Great Coxwell)

Amphibians in and around Great Coxwell
 
Have you seen any frogs or newts in your garden or around the parish recently? 
 
You may remember this recent post in the Parish newsletter:
 
‘Greener Great Coxwell (GGC) is concerned about the apparent decline in the number of these fascinating creatures in our village over recent years. There are likely to be a number of reasons for this including loss of habitat, environmental pollution and predation.  GGC would be pleased to hear from people in the parish with their perception of whether numbers of these animals declined, or even increased, over recent years.
 
Have you seen any newts or frogs in your garden pond or anywhere else in the parish recently?
 
Do you plan to encourage these animals to your garden by establishing a wildlife pond?’
 
Replies received (anonymised where necessary)
 

1. We certainly have/had newts – when we downsized the pond we saw a load and moved them to the new pond, also the odd toad and frog.  Not seen anything yet this year but I have not looked either.
2. I have seen a number of frogs in my garden. They are small to medium in size and frequent my back garden.  No sign of anything else. 
3. When we came to the village nearly 22 years ago we had masses of frogs in the garden pond and all over the garden. Since then they have declined and we rarely see any. We do however have newts that breed in the pond and when cleaning it out find baby newts. Also dragon flies lay eggs there too.
4. Just reading the newsletter and saw the bit about amphibians. As you know I raised this last year as I had noticed that there were no tadpoles in the pond near the barn. This was always alive with tadpoles and was the only place I had seen frog and toad spawn. I was so upset last year to see so many fish and no tadpoles. I went back this year and again there were none, but there didn't seem to be so many fish. 
5. We had quite a few frogs and toads but after a visit from a grass snake a few years ago they disappeared.  Our garden is walled and I don’t think it would be easy for frogs and toads to gain access to repopulate our wildlife pond. 
6. A small toad came to visit us yesterday morning, we saw one exploring our hallway. We didn't think he/she was very happy indoors so I picked it up and put it in the pond. At one time we had plenty of frog spawn and frogs, but not for a year or two, but I have seen a grass snake. 
7. We have a fairly large pond in our garden and over the years we have seen changes in the number of tadpoles. In 2020 the pond was teeming with them and they had begun to change into frogs, then one morning we saw 3 grass snakes in the pond and the tadpoles were almost completely gone.  2021 no frog spawn.  This year we had 6 clusters of frog spawn and tadpoles emerged, unfortunately on this occasion the goldfish had most of them. There do seem to be more grass snakes around lately and one theory is that more people have compost heaps.
8. Five or ten years ago I always used to see a toad or two around the large pots I have on the patio and at that time I found one had got into a bag of compost too, I guess to hibernate, but I have not seen a toad for a couple of years now.  I used to see a frog or two in the stream area when I did an annual tidy up of the stream at the bottom of my garden. I have not been able to work on the stream recently but last year saw a good size frog as well as a froglet in an overgrown area further up the garden. I haven't seen any this year yet.  I am planning to create a small, secluded area with water for birds etc, and I hope this may in fact encourage more wildlife of varying types but it hasn't been constructed yet.
9. When we came to Great Coxwell in the late 1960s, in early April for a few days large numbers of frogs made their way out of the fields to deposit their frog spawn in the village pond.  We used to help them cross the road and through the gate without being squashed by cars. Every year there were lots of tadpoles of frogs toads and newts in the village pond.  I walked around the village pond yesterday and there were no tadpoles and scum on the surface. Something appears to have been put in the pond that has killed all life therein.  This has caused me great concern. It needs a test sample to find out what is going on.  In answer to your question there has been a drastic reduction in numbers of frogs and toads in the village. I have a small wildlife pond and do have tadpoles. Due to the dry weather the water level is low.
10. We had one lot of frog spawn this year (we used to have more) and many tadpoles ensued.  We also have at least one frog in our pond (seen today).  We also have seen newts, so the tadpoles will provide them with plenty of nourishment! 
11. I have seen a frog/toad in my garden yesterday – I think it was probably a toad, but will look out for further signs in the pond!
12.  We found 7/8 frogs in the pond here. There is a massive layer of plant material that I was trying to separate and when I did that we kept seeing them come up out of the water- one at a time. 2-3 big ones and 3-4 smaller ones. They seem to come out to sunbathe most days although now everything is really growing so it’s getting harder to spot them.

Thoughts and observations
 
Anecdotally we seem to have fewer of these creatures in our local environment.
 
Without robust rigorous research we can’t be sure as to the reasons for this.  There are grass snakes in the village but there are other predators which feed on frog spawn and tadpoles such as fish and newts.
 
Snakes are protected and it is illegal to kill or harm them.
 
It is inadvisable to put pet goldfish in wildlife ponds as they will eat tadpoles.  Separate ponds for wildlife and ornamental fish are advised.
 
The pond next to the barn is regularly tested (monthly) for water quality and has been sprayed with selective herbicide to kill the pennywort.  This would have had no impact on the fauna in the pond and in fact should improve the viability of the pond.  There are fish in the pond and they may have contributed to the decline of the numbers of amphibians.  Greener Great Coxwell is working with the owner, the National Trust, to improve this important local feature
 
Although it is not illegal to move frogspawn and tadpoles from areas with high populations of amphibians to ponds which lack them, this is discouraged as it may spread disease and other non-native plants.
 
See the following quote from the BBC Countryfile website:
 
‘Don’t move spawn or tadpoles into a different pond, as this can spread non-native plant species and amphibian diseases. Ponds that already contain spawn may not be able to support the increased population, and ponds that don’t have any spawn are unlikely to be suitable for frogs — if they were suitable, the spawn would already be there. There are many reasons why a pond may not contain frogs, and one of the most common explanations is newts.’
 
 
Ian Mason (Greener Great Coxwell)

Help us Bring Affordable Green Heating to Great Coxwell 
The current energy crisis has highlighted the need for the UK to move towards a secure, decarbonised energy system. To achieve this, carbon emissions from buildings need to be reduced to a minimum and the replacement of gas-fired heating systems with low carbon heating is vital.  

What is Greener Great Coxwell Energy Group doing? 
Greener Great Coxwell Energy Group is investigating decarbonising our heating systems by using low carbon technologies and replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. We have contracted Locogen to explore the feasibility of installing a low carbon heating scheme within the village of Great Coxwell, as well as the potential opportunities for renewable energy generation in the surrounding area to produce clean electricity for the village. 

What can you do? 
We’re asking residents of Great Coxwell to complete this survey and help us collect energy consumption data. This information will allow us to carry out detailed energy modelling and costing exercises to generate financial and carbon assessments of the preferred energy system(s). It’s the first step towards a more secure, cleaner energy future for Great Coxwell. 

Many thanks for those of you who have replied to the survey. We now have over 40 responses if you can please complete the energy survey at :  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX  we need Energy use figures to model demand. 

Thank you
Greener Great Coxwell
web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com
Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. 
Registration number: 8761

Many thanks for those of you who have replied to the survey. We now have over 30 responses but our consultants need more! Can we ask anyone who can to please complete the energy survey at

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX

we need Energy use figures to model demand.

Apologies if you have already replied. Completing the questionnaire implies no commitment and the information will be strictly confidential to the energy team and the consultants. We are arranging for a fact-finding visit by the Consultants there will be a chance for anyone available to meet with them. We will let you know the details.  If you are not already signed up for our Community Energy Bulletin, you are still welcome to complete the survey and you might like to go to the website: greenergreatcoxwell.com to sign up  or e-mail energy@greenergreatcoxwell.com.

Thank you 
Greener Great Coxwell 

mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com

Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. 
Registration number: 8761

Can we ask anyone interested to please complete the energy survey at

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX
 
Apologies if you have already replied. Completing the questionnaire implies no commitment and the information will be strictly confidential to the energy team and the consultants. 
 
We need data from a representative sample of properties to enable a better estimate of our energy requirements to be made. This will allow the consultants to model different heat demand profiles for Phase 2 of the study. Time is limited so we would appreciate a quick response - apart from the information on energy use (from your energy bill) the questions are very simple and wont take more than a few minutes. There is also space to add comments. 
 
Our consultants, Locogen, have completed the Phase 1 Report -  the desktop assessment of benefits and risks of potentially technically feasible energy schemes. We will make the first report available on the website as soon as possible - they concluded "there is potential for a heat network in Great Coxwell - hot network solutions are potentially viable". However, in order to continue this work we now need more detailed information on the energy requirements of the village. 
 
If you are not already signed up for our Community Energy Bulletin, you are still welcome to complete the survey and you might like to go to the website: greenergreatcoxwell.com to sign up  or e-mail energy@greenergreatcoxwell.com.

Thank you 
Greener Great Coxwell 

web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com

Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. 
Registration number: 8761

Have you seen any frogs or newts in your garden or around the parish recently?
 
Greener Great Coxwell (GGC) is concerned about the apparent decline in the number of these fascinating creatures in our village over recent years. There are likely to be a number of reasons for this including loss of habitat, environmental pollution and predation by snakes.  GGC would be pleased to hear from people in the parish with their perception of whether numbers of these animals declined, or even increased, over recent years.
 
Have you seen any newts or frogs in your garden pond or anywhere else in the parish recently?
 
Do you plan to encourage these animals to your garden by establishing a wildlife pond?
 
Please let us know.  Email to: ians.mason@btinternet.com
 
Many thanks
 
Ian Mason (on behalf of Greener Great Coxwell)

1. Great Coxwell Community Energy Project Phase one Successful -  Please Complete our Confidential Household Energy Survey 
 
Our consultants, Locogen, have completed the Phase 1 Report -  the desktop assessment of benefits and risks of potentially technically feasible energy schemes. Locogen concluded "there is potential for a heat network in Great Coxwell - hot network solutions are potentially viable". Next steps for Phase 2 are to model test scenarios comparing those solutions under different heat demand profiles. 
To continue this work we now need more detailed information on the energy requirements of the village. We are therefore asking for as many people as possible to complete our brief survey which collects information on your energy use and some basic household data. Completing the questionnaire implies no commitment and the information will be strictly confidential to the energy team and the consultants.  Please use the following link to access our on-line survey - time is short so we would appreciate a quick response - apart from the information on energy use (from your energy bill) the questions are very simple and shouldn't take more than a few minutes. There is also space to add comments.  Please go to: 
 
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX
 
If you are not already signed up for our Community Energy Bulletin, you are still welcome to complete the survey and you might like to go to the website: greenergreatcoxwell.com to sign up  or e-mail energy@greenergreatcoxwell.com.
 
2. Greener Great Coxwell Featured in Oxfordshire Climate Action Stories Website
 
Our Community Energy Project has been included in the above 'Climate Action Stories' project run jointly by Friends of the Earth and Edinburgh University. We contributed to the Edinburgh research initiative and are featured on the Website under 'Energy Production' - see:   
 
https://www.oxfoe.co.uk/oxfordshire-climate-action-stories

Thank you 
Greener Great Coxwell 
 

web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com
Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. 
Registration number: 8761

Greener Great Coxwell plans to encourage and assist with the planting of 70 trees (one for each year of Her Majesty’s reign) in the parish.
 
We have been contacted by the Deputy Lieutenant Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Neil Sutherland.  He told us that The Queen has asked that a very significant initiative is undertaken to mark her 70th (Platinum) Jubilee.  She has requested that the Queen's Green Canopy project be rolled out to mark this occasion.  (See: queensgreencanopy.org).  The emphasis is on planting healthy trees in the correct location so that they will thrive.  All projects are to be logged on the Queen's Green Canopy website. 
 
Ideally trees should have been planted between October 2021 and March 2022, but for various reasons I’ve only recently been able to start investigating potential sites and sources of trees and other assistance.

I've recently contacted the Great Western Area Forest organisers at Swindon Borough Council and they have agreed to consider providing trees and stakes for the village.  Once we have identified suitable locations they will visit the village and provide us with advice about location, recommended stage of growth of the trees and species to be used.  Over the next few weeks we will finalise the potential sites for the trees and with liaise with them about planting this autumn.  At that point we will enter the trees onto the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee tree initiative map as requested.

If you want to get involved and plant trees:

Please let me know your plans and the future location of the trees.  I can then collate a list of trees and sites and respond to the Great Western Forest team with our intentions.

If you’ve already recently planted trees in the parish:

I'm also aware that last autumn a number of trees were planted by various landowners and householders within the parish.  If that applies to you please follow the following instructions  and register the trees.  (I’ve just done it for three trees we planted here and it seems pretty straightforward.  Let me know if you have any difficulties and I’ll try to help.)

1. Take a photo of your tree, or if you have planted a clump, copse, avenue, orchard, hedgerow, etc , then a general view of as many as you can see.   If you would like to, include people, either yourself or others, in the foreground.
2. Go to the following QGC webpage https://queensgreencanopy.org/map-education-hub/qgc-map/#/
3. Select "Add your tree" and follow the instructions.  The photo of your tree or planting site will need to be uploaded, and some basic information completed.
   
4. Your entry will take a couple of days to appear on the digital map as the registration is checked by the QGC team and the location 'randomised' for data privacy reasons.  You should get a confirmatory email within a few days.  The photo and basic details (including your first name only or the name of your organisation) will then appear on the digital map.   

 
Ian Mason, Greener Great Coxwell (ians.mason@btinternet.com)
​

1. Greener Great Coxwell featured in the Oxford Low Carbon Hub Community Newsletter - 'Groups in the News'
 
Greener Great Coxwell Awarded £33k for Community Heat and Hot Water Feasibility Study

It’s fantastic to report that one of our more recent Low Carbon Hub community groups, Greener Great Coxwell, has been successful in its application to the Rural Community Energy Fund for the Phase 1 Community Heat and Hot Water Project feasibility study. With the help of similar projects, especially Heating Upper Heyford and the Greater SouthEast Energy Hub, and the support of a large number of their residents, an ambitious project to make sustainable and reliable heat available to the whole village has taken a significant step forward. The grant will enable their selected energy consultants, Locogen, to carry out the initial study and recommend the next steps. They commented: 

"It is early days yet but we are very excited to receive this grant award for our village. The government has identified Heat Networks as an important option for decarbonising heat and hot water and we are keen to see if we could be early adopters with our community-based proposal. The project would deliver low-carbon, reliable and reduced-cost heat to the village and potentially provide a revenue stream to help us fight fuel poverty and support a range of green projects locally."

2. Village Pump/Well update

GGC have spoken to both the Parish Council and Oxfordshire County Council about the ownership of our well and pump. Neither have ownership of the well or pump and both have given their approval for us to explore the possibility of restoring it to working order.
GGC has emailed two well restorers. One got back to them. Well Masters are a family run business from Liss, Hampshire. They are coming to look at the well on Wednesday 23 March. It will cost £82.60 for the visit and an initial assessment of it. If you have any comments, suggestions or historic information please be in contact with us via our email address below.
 
3. Progress on Great Coxwell Community Energy Project

Work on phase 1 of the project, the desktop feasibility study, is now underway. Locogen will be updating us bi-weekly and we will keep everyone informed of progress. If this phase is successful we will be working with them and will involve as many people in the village as we can.

4. Visit to North Aston.

Greener Great Coxwell energy group were invited to visit a fully operational ground source heat pump installation in North Aston about 12 miles north of Oxford. See photographs of the field containing buried loops, the Energy Centre, and the Heat Transfer unit each house needs to transfer heat to the existing central heating fluid.
Properties in NA are stone estate properties having no cavity walls, poor insulation (EPC F-G) and generally no double glazing. The NA estate is experimenting to see how well the system performs with various amounts of extra insulation - or none. They report good results, even with a low temperature network. The system went live last year.
Further technical details and more photographs can be seen on the Energy Project Web Site under Bulletins.
https://greenergreatcoxwell.com/great-coxwell-community-energy-bulletins/
 
Thank you,
Greener Great Coxwell
web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com
 
Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co‑operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.
Registration number: 8761
​

Greener Great Coxwell Awarded £33k for Community Heat and Hot Water Feasibility Study 
We are really excited to report that Greener Great Coxwell has been successful in our application to the Rural Community Energy Fund for the Phase 1 Community Heat and Hot Water Project feasibility study.  With the help of similar projects, especially Heating Upper Heyford and the Greater SouthEast Energy Hub, and the fantastic support of a large number of our residents, we proposed an ambitious project to make sustainable and reliable heat available to the whole village. This grant will enable our energy consultants, Locogen, to carry out the initial study and recommend the way forward. We will update the village as the study progresses over the next few months.

Find out more about the project at: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
Contact us for more information at: energy@greenergreatcoxwell.com
You can find more detailed Energy Project Bulletins on the website at : https://greenergreatcoxwell.com/great-coxwell-community-energy-bulletins/
 
Great Coxwell Well and Pump. 
Greener Great Coxwell are looking into the possibility of restoring the well on the triangle of land at the bottom the cobbled path from the Church. After all, our name comes from the fact the village had plenty of water. We have contacted the Parish Council and Oxfordshire County Council and both are happy for us to explore more and say they do not think the well has a registered title owner. If anyone has any interesting information on the well and it’s pump we would love to hear. 
Please email:  info@greenergreatcoxwell.com

Can the individual really affect climate change? 
Yes. You can, and here’s how…. If you think you want to do more yourself to help 'Just have a Think' have made an excellent short video talking through the different things you could do and the impact that would make.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRTic6mjCFk

Thank you, 
Greener Great Coxwell
 
web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com
mail: info@greenergreatcoxwell.com

Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. 

Registration number: 8761