Shotover CTA (Conservation Target Area) This area is Shotover Hill and includes the Country Park and Shotover House Park. It extends off the Hill to include Country Park land near the Oxford eastern bypass and includes Magdalen Wood and Stansfeld Outdoor Education Centre on the west of the Bypass Joint Character Area: Midvale Ridge Landscape Types : Wooded Estatelands, a small area of Lowland Village Farmland and Rolling Farmland off the hill to the west. Geology: A sandstone capped hill with bands of Kimmeridge Clay mudstone, sandstone and siltstone at the edge. There are also some areas of Head deposits which are a mixture of clay, sand, silt and gravel. At the bottom of the Hill, to the north-east and west, there are areas of Amptill Clay, thin bands of alluvium and a small area of Wheatley Limestone in the east. Topography: A hill to the east of Oxford and including flat land beyond the hill slopes to the west. Area of CTA: 554 hectares Biodiversity : • Heathland: There are areas of restored heathland in the Country Park • Lowland Mixed Deciduous Woodland: Extensive areas in Shotover Park and in the woodland to the west. The scrubby edges of Brasenose Wood are important for nightingales. • Lowland Meadow: Some patches on the hill such as at the Local Wildlife Site on the northern slopes. Also found off the Hill to the west in the SSSI. • Acid Grassland: Some areas in the Country Park, including restoration in Horspath Common, and the Local Wildlife Site on the northern slopes. • Fen: Found in flushes on Shotover Hill • Parkland: Shotover House has important parkland/veteran tree habitat. • Eutrophic Standing Water: Includes the BBOWT Henry Stephen/C. S. Lewis reserve and a lake at Shotover Park.

Access: Extensive open access through the Country Park. The BBOWT Henry Stephen/C. S. Lewis reserve is also in this area. Archaeology: Oxfordshire Biodiversity Action Plan Targets associated with this CTA: 1. Lowland dry acid grassland – management 1 and restoration. 2. Lowland heathland – management and restoration. 3. Lowland meadow - management and restoration. 4. Parkland (including veteran trees) - management and restoration. 5. Lowland mixed deciduous woodland - management. 6. Fens (and flushes) – management and restoration. 1 “Management” implies both maintaining the quantity, and maintaining and improving the quality of existing BAP habitat and incorporates the following target definitions: “Maintaining extent” and “Achieving Condition”. Risinghurst

Wheatley Littleworth

Horspath Cowley

Area of BAP habitat present in CTA (from TVERC BAP Habitat GIS layer 5/2010) and 2015 BAP Habitat Targets for this CTA Coastal Lowland Lowland Wood - Lowland Lowland and Eutrophic Shotover Lowland Lowland Lowland Beech Mixed Wet Pasture Traditional Calcareous Dry Acid Floodplain Standing Meadows Fens Heathland and Yew Deciduous Woodland and Orchards CTA Grassland Grassland Grazing Waters Woodland Woodland Parkland Marsh Area of BAP Habitat in 5.0 1.2 3.4 0.3 110.9 0.2 CTA (ha) % of CTA 0.9 0.2 0.6 0.1 20.0 0.0 area

% of county 10.2 0.1 0.4 10.0 2.4 0.1 resource Wood - Coastal 2015 Eutrophic Pasture Lowland Lowland and Lowland Traditional Lowland Standing Lowland and BAP Calcareous Dry Acid Floodplain Heathland Native Woodland Orchards - Meadows Waters – Fens No targets Parkland No targets targets Grassland Grassland Grazing No targets for 2015 Targets not for 2015 Marsh for 2015 divided by (hectares) CTA Maintenance (to be ------determined) Achieving Condition (to be ------determined)

Restoration tbc - - - -

Creation - - - - -