Discover the rich diversity of wildlife on Thame's award-winning nature reserve
 What is Cuttle Brook?
With several different habitats in one easy-to-stroll site, it's a unique piece
of 'semi-wild' countryside free from roads but just a few minutes walk from Thame Town Centre
- a delightful 'green lung' for the area.
Meandering right through the reserve is a tributary of the River Thame called
the 'Cuttle Brook', which springs to life in the Chilterns. The whole area now offers superb open
river-meadow views and a network of paths through about 30 acres of mixed meadows, young
woodland, sedge and reed beds, hedges, trees, riverbanks and scrubland.
What's the history?
Used over centuries for grazing (especially on the way to Thame's traditional
Cattle Market) there are also signs of the mediaeval 'open field' ploughing system, with its 'ridge
and furrow' humps and bumps. The site was purchased by Thame Town Council in 1978. To
protect the nationally scarce flood-plain of wet grasslands, the area became designated as
a Local Nature Reserve in 1995 and is now managed for nature conversation, much of the work
being done by 'Cuttle Brook Conservation Volunteers'.
Always changing
Every visit to Cuttle Brook is an adventure, each season offering its own
mystery and variety - the first flowers of Spring, the meadows in a Summer haze, the colours
in the Autumn, the frosts of Winter.
With regular improvements to increase the richness of the wildlife habitats
for the future, it's fascinating learning environment for children, students and all of us. We hope
you enjoy your visit and come back again.
Can I help?
The Cuttle Brook volunteer group meets twice a month (1st Wednesday and
the 3rd Sunday in the month at the Scout Hut in the Southern Road car park, 10.00am) to share
hands-on tasks such as mowing paths, improving access for all, building or maintaining boardwalks
and bridges, creating seats, laying hedges, protecting reed beds, tree planting, pollarding,
pond digging - whatever needs doing - physical but fun!
 There are plenty of
opportunities for bird-watching, making surveys, keeping records of plants and wildlife, and taking
photographs. But you don't have to be an expert . . . come to be inspired by Cuttle Brook as a resource
for the arts, or just to enjoy its beauty, variety, freedom, peace and quiet.
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