Grandpont Nature Park

Short walk from Westgate shopping centre, great for picnics although a lot of bugs (which i’m not surprised!)

Unknown and underrated park in Oxford, recommended if you are a local and have not seen it!

Very good for nature walks and taking a stroll on your way back from town. If your looking for somewhere to have a picnic, there are various spots in this nature park that would, in my opinion, be fantastic for picnics with friends and family.

Riverside park, wildlife present. Too muddy to walk on grounds. It’s a nice place considering it’s in the city centre.

Grandpont Nature reserve is an 8 acre site which can be reached by cycling upstream from Folly Bridge or downstream from Osney Bridge and Osney Lock. There is also easy access to the park for pedestrians and cyclists from the city centre via the Grandpont-Oxpens bridge over the Thames. Grandpont Nature reserve is only a mile or so from the Westgate.

Grandpont’s western boundary is the railway line between London-Oxford-the north. Its northern boundary is the Thames. Oxford city council’s website shows that the eastern boundary follows the course of the Thames, although the noticeboards on site show Grandpont
extending over the bridge to a small area of land on the northern side of the river close to River Gardens and Oxpens Meadows. To the south, the park is bounded by Grandpont park which includes South Oxford Adventure Playground.

There used to be a gasworks on the site. The Grandpont-Oxpens bridge used to carry a railway line that was used to transport coal to the gasworks. I remember its dereliction. When cycling between Osney and Folly bridge, you had to follow the footpath along the Thames you couldn’t taake a short cut over the former gas works. Some years later, I also remember how pleased I was to find that the whole site had been given a green renovation and had become accessible.

As I was cycling away from Grandpont and passing under Black bridge (carrying the London-Oxford-the north railway lines) I noticed someone cycling on the other side of the river which I’d never seen before. It was such a surprise! I had no idea a cycle track had been created in the area. I need to investigate.

The Nature reserve has various clumps of mature trees interspersed with a handful of small grassy areas. It is very picturesque. It’s places like this which make me wish I’d made more of an effort to be an ecologist.

Grandpont is also a steppingstone to other green areas. Firstly, across the bridge to Oxpens Meadows. And secondly, and much more excitingly, just past Black bridge there’s now an entrance to get onto the huge green open spaces south of Bulstake Stream. If you’re a cyclist and can lift your bike over the stile by the Bulstake Stream entrance you can get to the cycle track which now runs across these green spaces from Botley to Devils Backbone in South Hinksey. I only found this entrance a few years ago so I don’t know when it first appeared.

However, I ought to point out that the amount of rubbish by this entrance was surprising - as if a small music festival had just been held there.

Grandpont is on the south side of the Thames opposite Oxpens Meadows. Because of the cycle track over the bridge, it is only about a mile from the Westgate. So, in effect, Grandpont Nature reserve links up with a meadow that reaches almost into the heart of the city.

The transformation of this site from industrial dereliction into a very attractive and pleasant Nature reserve has been a great triumph. It’s also remarkable that Grandpont provides another green route into Oxford city centre. And, equally as remarkable, is that it is now a stepping stone to even more extensive areas of greenery in the city.