Local Green Space – Why Banbury Lane in Nethercote

NETHERCOTE NEEDS YOUR HELP PLEASE!  Our proposal for Nethercote to be designated as a Local Green Space has been rejected due to the area being too vast.  We have therefore put together a revised proposition, proposing Banbury Lane in Nethercote to be afforded the designation.  This is in keeping with the feedback and other designations locally.

COMMENTS CLOSE 3rd NOV

CALL TO ACTION If you use or value Banbury Lane in Nethercote for it’s heritage and biodiversity or enjoy using the Lane for recreational purposes, please respond to the consultation to support the revised designation of Banbury Lane, Nethercote, for Local Green Space Designation. Please include a brief note about why this area matters to you and/or what you enjoy about using the green space.  You can either use Question 26 of the consultation questions or simply email your comments to Planningpolicyconsultation@cherwell-dc.gov.uk

The Local Green Space can only be designated via the Local Plan and an area must show significance in one or more of the following criteria: beauty, historic significance, recreational value, tranquillity and richness of wildlife

Heritage

• Banbury Lane is still often referred to as Blacklocks Hill and this refers to the history of the area and a time when this area saw a main route into Banbury, before the M40 and A422.
• Many of the fields adjacent to Banbury Lane in Nethercote are medieval ridge and furrow landform.
• Banbury Lane runs throughout Nethercote and is just under a mile in total from the A422 to Overthorpe Road.  The small, winding, quaint lane has hedgerow running adjacent on both sides, the whole area is surrounded by hedgerow. Humans have been using hedges since the bronze age and the hedges in Nethercote are thought to date back hundreds of years
• There is a Grade II listed building in Nethercote, adjacent there is a DMV site
• There is an abundance of underground streams within the area and some properties still have Victorian water wells.
• Banbury Lane is cited as the location of international espionage in the early 1940, German spy Klaus Fuchs met fellow Russian military intelligence agent Ursula Beurton, to whom he passed secret atomic research. The two met regularly for secret documents to be passed to the Soviets.  They met on a bench outside the Willows

Significance to District

We all know about Banbury Cakes and Banbury Cross, but once the town was more famous for a now forgotten agricultural industry, the making of Banbury Cheese. Throughout the Middle Ages until the mid-eighteenth century, Nethercote along with the original hamlet of Grimsbury was the centre of Banbury’s cheese making trade, a product that was made from local resources and much prized at the time. 

Nethercote falls to the East of the M40 and borders with Northamptonshire.  The M40 sees a natural end to the urban sprawl of Banbury and land East of the M40 is rural, providing an important green space on the edge of Oxfordshire, before the Northamptonshire border. 

Recreational Value

As well as Banbury Lane, there are numerous public footpaths running through Nethercote, all regularly enjoyed by both residents, dog walkers and hikers alike. It is also in walking distance of nearby residential estates in Banbury, Overthorpe and Middleton Cheney and many people come to enjoy the scenery and quiet.

Wildlife

The area is a natural habitat for wildlife, with an abundance of mammals, birds, insects and pollinators finding food and shelter in the hedgerows