News

Situated along the hydro railings, the temporary exhibition features photographs of some of the marker stones that have been created by local artist Josie Webber as part of our human sundial project. We had hoped to have the sundial installed on site by now, but social distancing rules have made it hard for us to…

Members of the OLH team met recently with artist Josie Webber, and our local sundial technical adviser Greg Birdseye, to work out the final layout of the sundial at the Osney Lock Hydro site.  It was eleven am when we met in case you were wondering, although as no one was standing on the proposed…

By Jenny Figueiredo The stately and solitary grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is one of the UK’s biggest and most unmistakable birds, and is a familiar sight to Osney residents. They are graceful and gangly in equal measure, with long legs, long beak and grey, black and white feathers.   Herons feed mainly on fish, but also…

Osney Lock Hydro is taking part in this year’s Oxford Open Doors on the morning of Saturday 12th September. Tickets are limited and booking is essential – please use the link below to book tickets for a time slot.  Please arrive within in 10 minutes of the start of your booked slot to help us…

We’re delighted to reveal the latest mosaic hour marker that’s been completed by artist Josie Webber for our human sundial.  Featuring a kingfisher and dragonfly, the artwork is part of our celebration of the local flora and fauna.

We are on the hunt for fragments of china that have turned up in local gardens and allotments to incorporate into the artwork.  If you’ve dug up a fragment of an old plate digging up your spuds, or found a chip of patterned pottery weeding the dahlias we’d love them for our project.  Ideally fragments should be flat and…

Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor Craig Simmons popped by on his bicycle to visit us this month – our 800th visitor to the site this year. He had been invited to speak at the Urban Economy Forum 2019 in Toronto, Canada.  In order to reduce his travel footprint, rather than attend in person, he created a video…

The recent rainfall has resulted in an early start to our autumn operating season, with the hydro starting up over the last weekend in September.  Two weeks later and operation remains steady – occasionally approaching maximum output. As usual, the autumn operating season is resulting in hard work for the trash screen clearing team, as…

We were delighted to welcome a Labour Party delegation on site today for a tour of the hydro, and to learn more about the role community energy will be playing in Project LEO. They included local MP Anneliese Dodds MP (Oxford East) and Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change. Unusually for this…

They were literally queuing down the towpath as the clock struck 10am and the start of Osney Lock Hydro’s Open Doors session.  In total we welcomed 176 visitors of all ages on to the site to learn more about our project and see the powerhouse first hand.

We were delighted to welcome Environment Agency staff, usually based in the Wallingford office,  down to the hydro yesterday as part of their corporate volunteer day to help improve Oxford and its waterways. The five-strong team normally focus on supporting the Environment Agency’s Area Leadership Team, but yesterday they got to grips with tackling graffiti, litter-picking,…

What an amazing weekend. A huge thank you to the  many volunteers, artists and meanderers who helped make such a success of our event.