Large emerald ferns sprout from the ground, rotting logs teem with moisture-loving mosses, and dappled sunlight filters through the twittering canopy above.

It looks like a tropical rainforest or a scene from our prehistoric past, but this is a remarkable nature reserve in West Oxfordshire.

Welcome to Hook Norton Cutting.

Ironically (but like so many other nature reserves), the whole reason this reserve exists is because of a major industrial development: this eight-hectare strip of hillside used to carry a Great Western Railway track that was used to transport iron ore from Hook Norton to the blast furnaces of the Midlands and South Wales.

Indeed, two parts of the track in this area were once carried by huge, stone viaducts, built in the 1880s, that towered over the surrounding countryside and were once called 'Oxfordshire's pyramids', they were so impressive. The tall pillars still stand today, rising up out of the woodland like ancient ruins being overtaken by climbing plants, adding to the exotic and mysterious feel of the place.

The viaducts were dismantled in the 1960s after the railway fell into disuse, and the tracks were pulled up. The area was abandoned and nature quickly reclaimed it, before it was eventually acquired by BBOWT as an official nature reserve.

Today, Hook Norton’s Victorian past still shapes this whole site.

First of all, to access the northern half of the reserve, you have to park on the Swerford Road next to a road bridge which once ran over the railway line, then clamber down the steep slope into the valley below where you are at once dwarfed by the towering brick edifice.

The tunnel going south under the bridge is not owned by BBOWT and so is not accessible.

Heading north, you dive into a woodland of oak, field maple and ash.

The many species of bird recorded here include great spotted and green woodpeckers, garden warbler, blackcap, whitethroat and goldcrest.

Foxes and badgers both nest in the ground below.

The remaining retaining walls of the railway track are a lichen and moss-spotter's dream, and exotic-sounding varieties such as spiral extinguisher-moss, bristly fringe-moss, wooly fringe-moss and comb-moss all thrive around the site.

If you keep going deeper into the woodland, the path takes you up onto the ridge that used to carry the track, and ferns start to sprout up between the fallen branches in dells on the hilly ground around you: smooth and shiny hart's-tongue fern and corrugated male-fern.

These ferns, the mosses, and other species in the heart of these woods are all typical of what is sometimes called 'the English rainforest': high-humidity, sheltered woodland of a kind that was once much more common in the British Isles.

Like so many other habitats, some of this type of woodland has been destroyed by development, but another one of the biggest threats to woodlands like these is ash dieback, which we sadly have at Hook Norton Cutting but are working hard to control.

But there are yet more reasons why Hook Norton Cutting is a remarkable reserve.

One of them is its fantastic fossils.

The cutting is home to fine examples of Jurassic oolite limestone, which is more than 145 million years old.

This rock, which we have cleared scrub away from so it is easier for visitors to see, contains many fossils and is stained a striking red by the presence of iron oxide.

What's more, if you take the short walk to the southern section of the reserve, you will discover a completely different kind of habitat - open, sunny banks of limestone grassland studded with a galaxy of wild flowers including woolly thistle, oxeye daisy, fairy flax and wild carrot.

We also have common lizards hunting in this tall grass, as well as common blue, meadow brown and ringlet butterflies fluttering above.

To find out more about Hook Norton Cutting and plan your visit today, head to the reserve page: bbowt.org.uk/nature-reserves/hook-norton-cutting

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Learn about some of the fascinating species that live at Hook Norton Cutting: