Letcombe Brook is a stream in the

Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically a north-west projection of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway Nat ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England. It rises at the foot of the

Berkshire Downs The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in South east England split between the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. They are part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The western parts of the downs ...

Letcombe Bassett Letcombe Bassett is a village and civil parish about southwest of the market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Cen ...

and flows through

Letcombe Regis Letcombe Regis is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The village is on Letcombe Brook at the foot of the Berkshire ...

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

, Grove and

East Hanney East Hanney is a village, and civil parish on Letcombe Brook about north of Wantage. Historically East and West Hanney were formerly a single ecclesiastical parish of Hanney.Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 285-294 East Hanney was part of Berks ...

to join Childrey Brook, which is a tributary of the

River Ock The River Ock is a small English river which is a tributary of the River Thames. It has as its catchment area the Vale of White Horse, a low-lying and wide valley in south Oxfordshire, and flows into the River Thames, at Abingdon on the reach ...

, which is a tributary of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. Letcombe Brook is a

chalk stream Chalk streams are rivers that rise from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock. Since chalk is permeable, water percolates easily through the ground to the water table and chalk streams therefore receive little surface runoff. As a result, th ...

, which is globally rare. Development, agriculture and water demand have degraded its habitats, but its water is now cleaner than for many years, and it supports a rich diversity of wildlife, including water voles, bullheads and

brook lamprey The brook lamprey (''Lampetra planeri'', also known as the European brook lamprey and the western brook lamprey) is a small European lamprey species that exclusively inhabits freshwater environments. The species is related to, but distinct from, ...

s, which are protected species.Letcombe Valley Nature Reserve, Wildlife Extra
/ref> The Letcombe Brook Charitable Trust was established as a memorial to the poet

Sir John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

, who lived in the area for many years. In 1972, the year he was appointed

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

, he wrote the poem "On Leaving Wantage", which begins "I like the ways these old brick garden walls run unevenly down to Letcombe Brook". The brook runs through the Letcombe Valley a nature reserve near Letcombe Regis which was opened in 2010. The

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), is a wildlife trust covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It sh ...

has been given a 50-year lease and a grant of £230,000 to manage the site as a nature reserve by a local developer.Wildlife Extra, New chalk stream nature reserve opens in Oxfordshire
/ref>

References

Rivers of Oxfordshire {{England-river-stub