LAND alongside Dorchester’s historic bridge has become the county’s newest nature reserve.

Old Bridge Meadow has been bought by the Hurst Water Meadow Trust and will be turned back into a traditional water meadow which is allowed to flood during times of high river levels.

The trust’s achievement marks a personal triumph for 91-year-old former GP Dr Peter Pritchard, who is retiring as the trust’s secretary after 13 years of campaigning to purchase and restore 22 acres of water meadows around the village.

He said: “The meadows had always been open to the public when farmers owned them and we worried that if the land went on the open market it would be closed off. It’s a wonderful resource.

“As a registered charity, we can’t sell the land, so it’s preserved forever.”

The site includes a raised causeway, which once led to a medieval bridge over the River Thame.

The meadow was acquired from a local benefactor who sold it at a reduced rate after buying it from a farmer.

The trust raised money from several bodies, including the parish and district councils and the Landfill Communities Fund. Members of the public also helped raise the £52,000 needed.

Pupils at the village’s St Birinus Primary School have already spread wildflower seeds across the field, and large banks of nettles have been cut back to improve access.

Former Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Sir Hugo Brunner told guests who gathered at the official opening on Tuesday: “Dorchester has set an example and other villages are now following that.

“It will be wonderful, particularly for children, to be introduced to the wonders of nature on the Bridge Meadow.”

The trust’s chairman Richard Douglas said: “The main objective is to restore the land as it was centuries ago.”