KEY       Food at lunchtime         Food in the evening   Well-behaved children allowed in certain areas   Well-behaved dogs allowed in certain areas   Garden   Car park     Accommodation   Public bar     Pub games played     Open fire   Less than 1/2 mile from railway station   Wheelchair access to pub and WCs

Appleton: Settlement where apples were grown - first recorded as Eammundesleah (Eammund's clearing) or Appeltun in 942 AD.
A long, strung-out village built in a variety of architectural styles, both old and new, which stands on a ridge of high ground about 100ft above and to the east of the Thames. The old village, clustered around church and manor house, still retains an aura of rural tranquility. The White family have a workshop in the village and for four generations have practised the rare craft of bell-hanging. Their fame has spread countrywide and they service church bells throughout an extensive area. A green lane (Badswell Lane) leads down to the river and Northmoor Lock. Beside it, half way down on the right hand side, you will find Badswell or Badger's Well, an ancient well with its neatly constructed masonry. According to local tradition, its waters were a sovereign cure for eye ailments! [CN]

An attractive estate village which, with neighbouring Lockinge, is still, for the most part, under the ownership of the lord of the manor. Redundant farm buildings scattered around the village have been leased as craft workshops or small light industrial units.

A small village of stone-built thatched cottages at the foot of the downs on the border between Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The nearby hamlet of Kingstone Winslow boasts a picturesque overshot water mill which has been recently restored to working order by its present owners.

Originally, Bissopeston meaning settlement (tun) belonging to a bishop. First mentioned in 1086 as part of the bishop of Ramsbury's estate. However, the strip lynchetts on the donws overlooking the village suggest prehistoric settlement. Bishopstone became a parish in the 13th century. The village is justly famous for its large pond, and the maze of small paths surrounding it.

Royal Oak

Cue's Lane, SN6 8PP

tel: 01793 790481

website: www.royaloakbishopstone.co.uk

Cask beer range - Arkell: 2B, 3B
Pretty, beamed pub with pleasant views over the village.
Last updated: 26 Feb 2008

True Heart

High St, SN6 8PH

tel: 01793 790080

website: www.trueheart.co.uk

Cask beer range - Free house
Beamed, chracterful 300 year old pub, just off the main road through the village. Renowned for its speciality nights, including an occasional beer festival.
Last updated: 26 Feb 2008

Besselsleigh: Clearing belonging to Petrus Besyles, who owned the village in 1412. First recorded as Leia in 965 AD.
A small hamlet lying just off the A420 about a mile northeast of Appleton.

A veritable maze of cottages, some of which are thatched, situated on a Corallian limestone ridge looking down upon the flat expanse of the Upper Thames basin. Buckland House, built in 1757, now, sadly, a conference centre, boasts a 150-acre deer park and a lake. A cart-track leads down to the River Thames and Tenfoot Bridge which replaced an old flash weir.

Small collection of houses on the A417 Wantage to Faringdon road. As the name suggests, the focus of the village was for many years the station on the Great Western railway.

A fairly remote village situated on the bank of the River Ock. The village corn mill, originally fitted with a breastshot waterwheel, can be found on the road to Lyford just past the church. Disused since 1915, it has now been restored to working order by the Wantage Industrial Archaeology Group.

A picturesque village, whose name comes from "Ciliarithe" meaning "a stream rising in the village that belonged to Cilia". Cilia was a sister of Abingdon's first Abbot of 673. Lying at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, black and white half-timbered cottages cluster around the village duck pond, complete with ducks (and geese). Watercress beds can be found in the stream beyond the Hatchet. Photographic evidence shows that this scene has not changed in a hundred years. However, there is a cunningly concealed council estate, from which a footpath leads down the hill to the Wilts and Berks canal and to West Challow.

A pretty village lying only just within Oxfordshire, it is built of Cotswold stone on a steep hill leading down to the River Cole and the Wiltshire border. Coleshill House was unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1952 during building alterations.

Situated on a minor road only 2 miles from Abingdon, Cothill consists of a small cluster of houses overshadowed by Cothill House and its grounds, which are now a public school.

An out-of-the-way but pleasant village with a few modern accretions. The ancient butter cross used to stand at the road junction in the middle of the village until very recently. However, because it was continually being knocked down by unwary motorists, it has now been removed and will probably be re-erected in a safer position within the village.

East Challow is unfortunate in lying on the main A417 very close to Wantage. In the last three decades, it has attracted road improvements and a housing estate. The Wilts & Berks. Canal passed through it at the bottom of the hill. There is a pleasant walk in both directions along its towpath, to Wantage to the east and to West Challow and Childrey to the west.

A pretty village, partly brick-built, partly half-timbered, situated just off the A338 on the Letcombe Brook, beside which there are pleasant walks to be found if one wanders up any of a number of little cul-de-sacs.

Claims the unusual distinction of having won the Best Kept Village award several times for both Berkshire and Oxfordshire and deservedly so. East Hendred has been in the hands of the Eyston family for nigh on six hundred years. Unlike some, it is not a self-consciously picturesque village; there is no gilding of the lily. The thatched cob walls are characteristic of this part of Oxfordshire where suitable building stone was scarce.

Eaton: Settlement on a river, in this case the Thames. First recorded as Eatun in 811 AD.
A compact and attractive hamlet on a ridge of high ground about a mile north of Appleton. Although it feels remote, it lies little more than 4 miles from Oxford centre (by crow). The village once saw much more traffic when it lay on the road leading to the chain ferry at Bablockhythe, which once took both vehicles and pedestrians across the Thames. The ferry, which continued in use until the late 1950's, charged fivepence for cars (a penny a wheel; if you didn't have a spare, then the steering wheel was charged!).

A small stone-built market town with an interesting, 17th century town hall perched on Italianate columns in the market place. Faringdon has regained its peaceful atmosphere thanks to the bypass constructed in recent years. The Folly is a large brick tower standing on an eminence half-a-mile to the east of the town. It was built in 1935 by order of Lord Berners to relieve local unemployment and is reputedly one of the last follies to be built in England.

Fernham: Settlement amongst ferns. First recorded as Fernham in 821 AD.
A pleasant village situated on the flatlands of the Vale of the White Horse at the foot of Furze Hill, from the top of which one may enjoy a panoramic view of the Vale, and even catch glimpses of the White Horse itself. It boasts a small green and a village well and pump, sheltered by a roofed wooden construction, which was the sole village water supply for the inhabitants until well into the last century. From Chapel Lane, just a few yards east of the Woodman, one may amble along footpaths which lead to Furze Hill and the woods at the back of Ringdale Manor. [CN]

Woodman

Fernham, nr. Faringdon, SN7 7NX

tel: 01367 820643; mobile: 07951 744878

email: enquiries@thewoodmaninn.net

website: www.thewoodmaninn.net

11-11 (Monday-Saturday), 12-10.30 (Sunday)

Cask beer range - Changing. Butts Barbus Barbus; Ramsbury Gold; Sharps Doom Bar; White Horse Bitter (Dec 2007)
An ancient inn dating back 400 years to the 15th Century, known as the Woodman since 1840. Large, rambling, single bar full of low beams, nooks, crannies and interesting artifacts. Huge, open log fire in the bar, an adjacent dining area and a converted barn used as an overspill area. The emphasis is on good food and real ales. Beers are kept on stillage behind the bar, and now benefit from cooling jackets in the summer. Very friendly cats. After a period of closure, the Woodman has reopened with the same cats, but a different landlord, and an interesting range of beers!
Last updated: before 1 Dec 2007

Frilford Heath: The heath near Frithela's ford. Frilford was first recorded as Frileford in 965 AD.
Frilford Heath lies about a mile north of Frilford village and indeed is a sandy heath which is now an extensive golf course, with opulent modern houses strung out either side of the A338. [CN]

Fyfield: At the five hides - a hide was a Saxon land measurement, which varied with the terrain - the area of land which could support one family. Five hides was the normal holding of a thegn. Fyfield was first recorded as 'aet fif hidum' in 956 AD.
A small and attractive village now thankfully bypassed, built mainly of corallian limestone, situated on a ridge overlooking the upper Thames basin. [CN]

Gozzard's Ford: A corruption of Gooseherd's Ford.
One or two houses, a farm, and the Black Horse are all to be found today. The ford was presumably over the Sandford Brook, a tributary of the River Ock, which flows just to the east of the hamlet. [CN]

Great Coxwell boasts the famous tithe barn built in the 13th century by the Cistercian monks of Beaulieu. The village is mercifully ignored by the busy A420 to the south.

Once a village with a true community spirit, within the last thirty years it has been reduced to playing the role of dormitory to Wantage. It now has as many inhabitants, most of whom live in the housing estates which have sprung up around it, one built on a WW2 airfield. Its saving grace is its village green and the Letcombe Brook which flows through it and from which pleasant walks can be found northwards across the fields to East and West Hanney. Until 1945, Wantage was connected to Wantage Road railway station near Grove, itself long closed, by the famous Wantage tramway. For years, one of its engines, 'Jane', used to stand on the station platform. It is now in the hands of the Didcot Railway Centre.

A long, straggling village which merges imperceptibly into the neighbouring village of Southmoor, both now mercifully bypassed by the A420(T).

One of a string of villages in the Vale of White Horse situated on the spring line, "King's stone" presumably referring to the Blowing Stone. Legend has it that King Alfred himself used this hollow stone to rally his troops before the Battle of Ashdown in 871, when he and his brother, King Ethelred, defeated the Danish army which had marched from Reading down the Icknield Way. The cottage at the cross-roads on the B4507 (alias the Icknield Way) was the original Blowing Stone Inn, as evidenced by the Blowing Stone itself which still stands in its front garden.

A pretty, springline village nestling at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, about 2 miles from Wantage with which it is connected by a pleasant footpath. It has older buildings built both of brick and half-timbering.

Little Coxwell, now a quiet cul-de-sac of a village thanks to its being cut off by the upgraded A420, is a charming stone-built village. The old village pump still stands outside the Eagle while the reputedly original Cock Well, after which the village is supposedly named, lies a quarter-of-a-mile down a lane to the south of the village.

A farming hamlet just north of the A420 built of Corallian limestone and overlooking the upper Thames basin.

A village situated in a wide bend of the infant River Ock looking towards the White Horse. Look out for the now sadly defunct Bricklayers' Arms on the green.

Birthplace in 1825 of R. D. Blackmore, author of 'Lorna Doone', whose father was rector. A sprawling village on a ridge of Corallian limestone looking down upon the River Thames at New Bridge. The church and manor make a splendid picture together at the western end of the village although it looks as if the manor's nameplate was taken from a steam locomotive of the same name. A footpath from Tuck's Lane past the Blue Boar leads down to the Thames and a bridleway from the manor leads one towards Hinton Waldrist. The New Inn, a square, 19th century, brick-built Morland's pub, closed down some years ago.

This is the easternmost stone-built village in the Vale of White Horse. It is home to Denman College, headquarters of the National Federation of Women's Institutes. There is a circular dovecote in the centre of the village said to have been built by order of the abbot of Abingdon Abbey. Marcham Mill, a mile to the south on the River Ock, was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Milton Hill consists of a few houses, a pub, a couple of fruit farms and the former Esso Research Centre, all in uneasy proximity of each other. Situated on a road which was once the principle highway from the Midlands to the South Coast (the old A34), it is now by-passed by the new A34 about a mile to the east. At the junction of an even older winding road used as a short cut to avoid Rowstock, this is a remnant of an ancient track which can be traced over the Berkshire Downs towards Hungerford and the south-west.

Shippon: =byre, from the Old English 'scipen'. First recorded as Sipene in the Domesday Book, 1066 AD.
A pleasant village, only prevented from being engulfed by Abingdon by the A34 bypass.

A large village on the Wiltshire border at the western end of the Vale of White Horse. The original village is built of limestone but it suffers from the presence of the Royal Military College of Science which moved in 1947 to nearby Beckett Park from Woolwich. There soon sprang up the essential standard, brick-built housing and administration blocks, the whole encompassed by an ugly MOD security fence.

A village, now bypassed by the new A420(T), which is an adjunct of Kingston Bagpuize.

Small springline village at the foot of the downs whose principal industry is horse racing. A nine men's morris board, a kind of noughts-and-crosses game, was found carved on the stone door frame of the vestry in the church, probably by mediaeval workmen in their lunch-hour! Note also the wooden effigies to be found in the church.

A large, sprawling, polyfocal village just off the A417 whose stony ford must have been on the River Ock by Stanford Mill a quarter-of-a-mile to the south-east. The area around its two greens, Church Green and Upper Green, is particularly attractive. Chapel Road offers a fortuitously attractive mixture of brick, slate, stone and thatch. The old whitewashed and thatched Red Lion nearby is now sadly defunct.

A large village, now bypassed, but formerly lying on the main Oxford to Newbury road. It is renowned for its immense four-acre green and its mediaeval raised causeway which begins at the church and extends for about a mile until it peters out just before the A34 bypass. Tradition has it that the causeway was constructed by late mediaeval monks who inhabited the priory at Steventon to enable them to arrive dryshod whenever they visited Sutton Courtenay abbey. In the older part of the village near the church there are a number of fine, half-timbered houses alongside the causeway, one of which, Priory Cottage, is owned by the National Trust.

Sunningwell: The spring of Sunna's people. First recorded as 'at Sunningwellan' in 811 AD.
A large village lying at the foot of Boar's Hill. Like Shippon, it is only separated from Abingdon by the A34 bypass and a few fields. Note the attractive village pond opposite the church.

Tadpole Bridge was constructed over the Thames in 1802 to carry the turnpike from Buckland to Bampton, taking its name from a nearby weir. Despite its remoteness, a wharf was built here where trade throve, so much so that it attracted the Trout Inn which survives to this day. The riverside is now a Mecca for fishermen.

Birthplace of Thomas Hughes, author of 'Tom Brown's Schooldays'. Uffington is a large village of clunch-and-thatch cottages which stands beneath White Horse Hill with its enormous 360-foot-long horse, looking not unlike some anorexic dachshund, cut into the chalk. Over two thousand years old, it was reputedly carved by the Dobunni, an Iron Age Celtic tribe, to mark the southern boundary of their territory. Wayland Smith's Cave is about one-and-a-half miles south-west along the ancient road known as the Ridgeway. It is a famous long barrow where one's horse would be shod overnight by Wayland, the Norse Smith-God, himself provided that a coin of sufficient value were left on a nearby stone. The church, dating from 1150, boasts an unusual octagonal tower.

The Vale of the White Horse's principal market town with a statue of King Alfred the Great. This was erected in 1878 in the market-place to commemorate his birth there in 849. In Mill Street can be found the terminus of the old Wantage tramway which ran from Wantage to Wantage Road Station two-and-a-half miles away until it closed in 1945. The gable on the shop halfway down Mill Street still proclaims that it was constructed for the Wantage Tramway Company in 1904. At the bottom of Mill Street can be seen what is left of the wharf and buildings of the Wantage arm of the Wilts & Berks. Canal. On the opposite side of the road, there begins a delightful walk alongside the Letcombe Brook which will take one to Willoughby's Mill and the other end of town.

Once a quiet village now disfigured and dominated by the nearby Royal Military College of Science established in Shrivenham's Beckett Park. The stone-built village itself, although now swallowed up by an inappropriate MOD housing estate, is surprisingly well preserved and even retains its small village green.

An attractive village founded on a drier piece of land between the Childrey and the Letcombe Brooks. Despite some modern development, the old village centre, comprising village green, manor house, church and the Plough in Church Street is particularly pleasing.

Smaller than and not quite so attractive as its near neighbour, East Hendred, West Hendred nonetheless possesses a certain charm. There are one or two black-and-white half-timbered houses in the older part of the village towards the church. The Icknield Way, an ancient road, now a green, grassy track, crosses the Ginge Brook and passes through the parish half-a-mile south of the village. In the village itself, there is a choice of footpaths across the fields to both East Hendred and Ardington.