Interested in private hire?
Withymead is a peaceful and restful place to hire for individuals and/or corporate organisations looking for something low-key and simple, which ties in with our ethos of being a place for wildlife. Perhaps you are looking for a staff away-day venue, need a temporary place to work for a couple of days, bring your painting group, host an outdoor yoga session, or have an outdoor birthday gathering.
You can hire the whole or part of the Withymead site. The whole site includes the reserve, study centre, and forest school site (comprising forest school/orchard, oak grove). A short introductory talk from our warden or one of our trustees about the reserve comes as part of the booking. 2024 hire rates are reserve £15ph, study centre £10ph, forest school £10ph. Click on ‘how to book’, select ‘private hire’ from the drop-down menu in the send us a message contact form, with a brief outline and date(s) you’d like to come, and we will get back to you. You are welcome to download our hire booking form and site hire agreement in advance. All hire fees support our conservation work.
How to book
About our spaces
Withymead is a protected nature reserve, run by volunteers for the benefit of native wildlife and the local community. Reserve side you will find meandering paths through dry and wet woodland, glimpses of our hidden boatbuilding past, a reed fen boardwalk and small waterfront deck overlooking the Thames, our kingfisher and boathouse hides, and a lookout platform which gives views over South Stoke marsh. Study centre side you will find our recently renovated orchard and forest school site with mud kitchen and bird hide, and our oak grove with outdoor seating. Our 5m x 6m study centre’s capacity is 18 seated and 25 standing and can be laid out theatre, meeting or afternoon tea style. We have vintage crockery and cutlery for 30 covers, a fridge freezer, kettle, 8-litre urn, cafetieres, thermos jugs, and washing up facilities as well as a TV monitor and WiFi. Our accessible unisex W.C. is next to the Study Centre.
See our site hire agreement
Parking
Access to Withymead is along Bridle Way, which is a tarmac road that turns into a gravelled track. Used by walkers, runners, cyclists and horse-riders as well as car users, it has 5mph speed limit. Our small car park is on the opposite side of the reserve entrance, on Bridle Way. Although there is room for 18 carefully parked vehicles, we encourage visitors arriving this way to car-share where possible as there is no over-flow capacity. Please note that whilst minibuses can be accommodated, Bridle Way and the car park is not suitable for coaches.
Find us
Goring-on-Thames and South Stoke
Withymead is in the Chilterns National Landscape (previously known as Areas of Outstanding Beauty) and situated between the two beautiful and historic south Oxfordshire villages of Goring-on-Thames and South Stoke. Both are an easy walk from the reserve: a short 5/10-minute walk north brings you to South Stoke, which has a pub and a village shop.
A longer 20-minute walk south brings you to Goring-on-Thames, which has two pubs, cafes, shops and Goring and Streatley railway station. With Streatley across the river in the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, you are in an area known as the Goring Gap, criss-crossed with public footpaths, giving fabulous walks in all directions. Nearby attractions include three National Trust properties Basildon Park, Grey’s Court and Nuffield Place. Find out more about our local area.
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