IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Dunnock Close, BICESTER, OX26 6WZ

The developers of the new housing in Langford Village have wisely left a healthy sized flood corridor all along the Langford Brook which flows through the middle. This has been landscaped into a pleasant linear park. This pond near the north end is one of several.

Someone's set about this poor old tree beside the Langford Brook. New housing in the background just raised up slightly, so any flood water spreads out over the football pitch.

Taken from a footbridge over the Langford Brook.

A short residential street typical of the recent development in this part of town.

This is the stream that caused the Environment Agency to put in the flood warning station shown in Image This is taken after a dry spell. The gauge board is only just in the water. But you can see the kind of flows that the bridge has been constructed to cater for by looking at the size of the main arch and the side channels. And Gavray Drive ? Sounds like one of those forename compound words, like it was built by two guys called Gavin and Raymond, but actually it's named after a town in Normandy.

After heavy rain the Langford Brook, which goes under the road just here, sometimes forgets what its banks are for and spreads out a bit. The Environment Agency have put in an early warning station which is in the green kiosk. This automatically raises an alarm when the water reaches a certain level. And changing the subject, wouldn't it be nice if there were more cycleways like this one.

This pond is in an area of linear parkland between extensive recent housing developments. The park is there mainly because of the Langford Brook which flows the other side of the cycleway in this pic. Normally a small stream, it can be prone to extensive flash flooding so housing has been kept away from a considerable area of flood plain on both sides. There are a number of small ponds around this area. The Environment Agency has done a lot of work on the stream to improve its drainage capabilities while retaining a natural looking course, which is why the cycleway meanders a bit as it follows it along.

See the change from almost a year ago: Image Andrew Bodman, Steve Daniels and others have photographed construction of the new line through Bicester: http://www.geograph.org.uk/browser/#!/q=bicester+railway Chiltern Railways' timetable from 25 October 2015 shows services between London Marylebone and the new Oxford Parkway station, with a shortest journey time of an hour.