Oxey Mead is an ancient flood meadow beside the Thames
shortly upstream of Oxford. Oxey Mead and the neighbouring West
Mead and Pixey Mead collectively make up the Yarnton Meadows.
It is mentioned in John Betjeman's verse autobiography,
Summoned by Bells:
The picnic and the orchid
hunt,
On Oxey Mead the rounders played,
The belly-floppers from the punt,
The echoes that our shouting made:
Oxey Mead (or Oxhurst Mead) has been used as a meadow since
before the Domesday Book, and lots of land were traditionally
assigned by drawing thirteen cherry-wood balls from a bag
(
this picture shows the practice occurring in 1917), each ball
representing one lot of land. Nine of the lots belonged to Yarnton
parish, and four to Begbroke. After the construction of Duke's Cut
in 1789, which linked the River Thames with the Oxford Canal, tolls
of a shilling per barge were charged for using the towpath and this
money was used to maintain the meadows at Oxey Mead.
The meadow is very rich in species, perhaps because it has been
used in the same way at least since the thirteenth century, and it
is now owned and managed by the
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and
Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
The cache itself is outside the nature reserve, hidden just off
the public footpath. It is a 150 ml clip-lock box, which is
just about big enough for a travel bug or two, provided they're not
too bulky.