The Slade is a Local Nature Reserve on the southwestern edge of Bloxham in Oxfordshire.
Description The site is small but varied, with areas of wet meadow, alder woodland, and a relatively dry disused railway embankment. A small stream joins Bloxham Brook (itself a tributary of the Sor Brook) within the reserve, and there are two ponds formed by disused quarry pits.
Natural history More than 170 plant species have been recorded in the reserve. The wet meadow has hard rush, meadowsweet, sedges and common spotted orchids. In the alder woodland, other wet-loving plants grow including great willowherb, marsh-marigold and wild angelica.
The reserve is home to a variety of butterflies and birds, and is frequented by common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, noctule, brown long-eared and mouse-eared bats. Badgers, hares, and grass snakes have also been recorded at the site.
History The Slade was officially declared a Local Nature Reserve on 26 March 2018, although it had already been an undesignated nature reserve for many years before that point.
The reserve features a small mound, the ruins of a pest house from the early 19th century, serving nearby Bloxham. It was surrounded by a moat and had a special stone where food could be left for the infected without putting the villagers at risk.
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