Anyone walking the Ock Valley Walk between Drayton Road and St Helen’s Close this December will be struck by the number of yellow leaves still on the trees.
The path is muddy and despite wearing boots I got splattered.
The Ock Valley walk is between two streams that carry rain water and some sediment down from the Vale of White Horse.
The River Ock flows under the busy Drayton road through two main arches.
There are other arches which allow more water to flow during flooding. In 2007 even they were not enough. The water backed up and flooded the Drayton Road.
The rounded concrete on the far side is where the bridge was widened.
The water can flow from the upper to the lower stream at this mini weir – put in to protect Ock Street from floods.
At the lower end of the walk there are a lot of old tree trunks, left where they fell, or piled in damp heaps and covered in moss – a home for creepy crawlies.