Nature lovers have helped raise £850,000 to buy an Oxfordshire meadow, which is one of the most important inland areas for wading birds in England.

Just hours before tomorrow's deadline, the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has revealed it has managed to raise the money and secure the land at Gallows Bridge Farm, near Bicester.

The floodplain meadow on the Upper River Ray, at Marsh Gibbon, is home to a variety of wildlife, including curlew, lapwing and snipe.

Over the past 20 years there has been a 40 per cent drop in the number of curlew and lapwing as a direct result of habitat loss. And Gallows Bridge Farm is one of the few places where curlew still breed.

The trusts fundraising campaign received a generous legacy and a pledge of £200,000 from Wren, which distributes grants from landfill taxes.

Other pledges included £344,083 from the Tubney Charitable Trust, a charity created in 1997 by Miles Blackwell, late chairman of Oxford bookseller Blackwells.

The public helped raise the remaining £150,000.

Nigel Phillips, head of landscape projects at BBOWT, said: "We are thrilled that we have managed to raise enough money to purchase this amazing piece of habitat and I can't wait to get out there and get on with the restoration.

"We continue to welcome donations towards restoring the area, including returning brooks and rivers to their natural courses and providing new ditches and scrapes for the curlew.

"The purchase is just the beginning. If we want this to be 'curlew country' then we are going to have to work hard at providing the right habitat for wildlife and to benefit people too."

The purchase of the land at Gallows Bridge farm brings BBOWT an important step closer to fulfilling its 30-year vision of returning the area to a wild landscape, linking nature reserves and bringing life back to the meadows.

Returning the floodplain to a properly managed wetland will also help local people by acting as a natural flood defence, absorbing water which could cause problems downstream.