Friends of Clayfield Copse

Clayfield Copse and Blackhouse Wood are located on the northern outskirts of Reading, on the Berkshire and Oxfordshire border, and consist of open meadows and native woodland. Some of the woodland is actively managed as hazel coppice whilst the meadows include areas of wild flowers and regenerating woodland. In 1991 the site became Reading's first local nature reserve and in part is designated as ancient woodland containing service trees, wild pear, bluebells, common orchids, wood anemones, etc..

Approximately eight hectares in size, the site is the only outcrop of London Clay north of the Thames River in Reading and makes up the southern tip of the Chilterns.

Isolated specimens of cedar and Scots pine date back to the time when the site was part of Caversham Park - the mansion house is now home to the BBC world wide monitoring station. (In the storm of 1990, one of the mature cedars was blown over and shire horses were used to pull out the remains of the once mighty tree so as to minimise disturbance of the woodland floor.)

Originally formed in 1989, the 'Friends' now organise monthly tasks on the 1st Sunday and the 3rd Monday of the month throughout the year, meeting at the Caversham Road car perk. See Programme for further details.

Photographs from Clayfield Copse

Contact: Peter 07748 766 340. Alternatively, please contact us via the Contacts page.

Reading Borough Council Site Description

Natural England - Local Nature Reserve Designation

Where to find us:  Google

Clayfield's Bats
The work of the Berkshire & South Buckinghamshire Bat Group at Clayfield.

Dawn Chorus Walks

For more than fifteen years, a Dawn Chorus walk has been held at Clayfield Copse on the first Sunday in May as part of International Dawn Chorus Day. The following are some of the birds that have been heard or seen on those walks.

Blackbird Blackcap Blue Tit Bullfinch Buzzard Canada Goose Carrion Crow Chaffinch Chiffchaff Coal Tit Dunnock Firecrest Garden Warbler Goldcrest Goldfinch Great Spotted Woodpecker Great Tit Greenfinch Green Woodpecker Herring Gull House Sparrow

Jackdaw Jay Long-tailed Tit Magpie Mallard Mistle Thrush Nuthatch Pheasant Red Kite Robin Skylark Song Thrush Starling Swallow Stock Dove Tawny Owl Treecreeper Whitethroat Wood Pigeon Wren

Meadows Day
and some of the flowers you might see

Meadows Day is the latest of Econet's regular annual events. Held at Clayfield in July, it is a celebration of the hay meadows which were once so much part of our countryside supporting a vast array of plants, insects and other wildlife. The event includes guided walks and activities for children together with stalls from other local environment groups and is great opportunity to enjoy a picnic in a peaceful setting.

Cat's Ear	Common Birdsfoot Trefoil
Common Knapweed	Common Sorrel
Goatsbeard or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon	Lesser Switchwort
Meadow Cranesbill	Oxeye Daisy
Red Clover	Yellow Rattle

Clayfield's meadow - a brief history

Originally part of House Farm, attached to Caversham Park. In 1800's Mr Crawshay kept his black cattle here and some of his iron fencing remains in places. Until the late 1900's the site was leased by Reding Borough Council as farmland.

This particular field was set aside for community use, it was called "The Show Field" and flower shows were held here. In 2015 Reading Borough Council prepared the soil and sowed a wildflower mix. Since then the Friends have added yellow rattle seeds, the yellow rattle plants are semi parasitic on grass roots making the grass weaker so that other flowers can get established more easily. Each year the meadow gets better for flowers, it will not be mown until August by when the flower seeds will have been shed.