Valentia Park

Basic park, could do with more things for the local kids. Dogs are allowed in this park.

Nice and clean and not busy

Valentia Road Park (VRP) is an elongated, green, open space with a few facilities for young children including a diddy football pitch with the smallest goalposts I’ve ever seen off a Subbuteo pitch.

The park follows the curvature of Valentia road which, presumably, once upon a time, followed the course of Boundary Brook. This stream apparently starts by the White Horse pub on the corner of the London Road and Headley Way before weaving its way down to the Thames by Donnington Bridge. In effect, people sitting outside the pub have a direct link to the Thames.

The first couple of hundred yards of the brook have been buried in an underground pipe. There is no evidence of it either by the London road or from the park.

The accompanying Google map is useful because it highlights a couple of segments of this stream close to its source even though these parts of the brook are not visible.

In the past, before the construction of the Finch Close housing estate on the eastern side of the brook, there was an indoor sports facility which included two outbuildings for playing table tennis. It is possible the brook was open at this time - although I can’t remember if it was. It is possible this part of the brook was buried in a pipe only when the housing estate was built.

Today, the first time Boundary Brook becomes visible is when it emerges on the southern side of Old Road. The only indication of the presence of the brook on the northern side of Old Road is a tiny stone wall which looks quaintly at odds with the more modern walls on either side of it. The brook runs diagonally across the road to what was formerly pastureland.

As the housing estate around Valentia Road becomes dominated increasingly by students the need for a park with facilities for young children diminishes. But there is so much “development” in the pipeline for this part of Old Road such as on Oxford University’s Old Road campus and in the grounds of the Warneford Hospital that it is impossible to believe there is any consideration for the environment.

Oxford city emits 10 times more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs. Given what is going on around Old road the city’s profligate carbon debts are spinning even further out of control and heading for disastrous proportions. If you didn’t know about the city’s appalling carbon debts who should be blamed for this?

A nice little park. We stayed in the area for the night and had some food nearby. We took the kids for a run around at the park. The climbing frame was fenced off, looked new but grass seed had been planted. The zip wire was good but the seat had seen better days. But generally a nice little park to blow off some steam. There was no one else there.