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 Na ...

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, primaril ...

, 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 ...

in Letcombe Bassett 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 to join Childrey Brook, which is a tributary of the River Ock, 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, t ...

, 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, 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 Letcombe Valley is a nature reserve south of Letcombe Regis in Oxfordshire. It is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), with the assistance of the Friends of Letcombe Valley. The reserve was part of a ...

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 Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of ...

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