Long Wittenham
Coordinates: 51°38′13″N 1°12′40″W / 51.637°N 1.211°W
| Long Wittenham | |
 Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 950 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU5493 |
| Civil parish | Long Wittenham |
| District | South Oxfordshire |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Abingdon |
| Postcode district | OX14 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wantage |
| Website | Welcome to Long Wittenham.com |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Didcot, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.
It used to be known as Earl's Wittenham, after its owner Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester.[2]
It lies by a loop in the River Thames, on slightly higher ground than the flood-plain around it. About 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east, across the river, was the Roman town of Dorcic - now Dorchester-on-Thames. To the south-east lies neighbouring Little Wittenham and the Wittenham Clumps, otherwise called the Sinodun Hills.
It is twinned with the village of Thaon in Normandy, France.
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[edit] History
Whilst the village is supposedly named after a Saxon chieftain, named Witta, there is evidence of earlier cultures. Bronze-Age double ditch enclosures and middle Bronze-age pottery were identified in the 1960s,[3] and early Bronze-age items, such as an axe and spearhead, have been found in the Thames.[4] Later settlement evidence is more extensive: Iron Age and Roman presence comes in the forms of trackways, various buildings (enclosures, farms and villas), burials (cremation and inhumation), and pottery and coins.[5] There is also evidence of possible Frankish settlement: a 5th Century grave that contained high-status Frankish objects.[6] This early habitation was first revealed in the 1890s, in the first ever use of cropmarks to discern archaeological remains.[7]
It is from the Saxon period that the core of the village emerges. There are cropmarks (dating from the 6th Century) that outline a large collection of buildings, which indicate, if not a royal palace, then certainly a high status Saxon enclosure, and the variety and number of objects found in Saxon burial sites around the village would appear to support this.[8] These large, Saxon burial sites also indicate a good sized population, that lasted over many years. Historians now recognise[8] that the general area of southern Oxfordshire was the heartland of the Gewisse - certainly the proximity to the Iron-Age hillfort of Wittenham Clumps and the Roman (and post-Roman) town of Dorchester, show that the localised area was of great importance for many centuries - though the notion that Witta (and / or his family) were related to the later Royal families of Wessex, is unproven.
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and whilst still a rural settlement is nowadays less of an agricultural community. By Tudor times, parish records show it had a population of around 200, with arable crops: wheat, oats, barley, even rye being farmed. In 1534, the Manor was bought by Sir Thomas White and given to his foundation, St. John's College in Oxford. Until recently, the President and scholars of St. John's owned most of the houses in the village and much of the land; indeed, before the Enclosure Acts there were just two large, open fields, divided into strips, which were leased to the various villagers by the College. In 1857, using a special government grant for agricultural communities, the village school was built. Local legend claims that Oliver Cromwell addressed the villagers on his way to his niece's wedding, in neighbouring Little Wittenham.
[edit] Buildings
The village Cross has First Millennial origins: the base dating from the 7th century. Saint Birinus preached here when he brought Christianity to the area. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary, begun around 1120, is on the site of a previous Saxon church. The chancel arch survives from the Norman building; the aisles and tower are later additions. The font is a rare Norman lead one; at some later point it was encased in wood, and this preserved it from iconoclastic Roundhead soldiers in the 17th century.[7] The church has the smallest monument in England[7] a small stone effigy of Gilbert de Clare. Cruck Cottage can be architecturally dated to being around 800 years old and consequently locals have claimed it may be the oldest house in South Oxfordshire.
The building housing Pendon Museum, began as The Three Poplars public house. Declining trade forced its sale in 1954. It became a Youth Hostel, before the owner Roye England turned it into a model railway museum. Other pubs included The Machine Man (which was disfranchised in 2003), The Plough and The Vine (now The Vine and Spice Indian restaurant). North of the village is the Barley Mow Inn (nowadays just a pub), which is closer to Clifton Hampden but is on the Wittenham side of the parish boundary. A Methodist chapel was built in 1820, and later converted into a butcher's, a general store, and a Post Office. It was disfranchised in 2006 and turned into a private house.
[edit] Amenities
The village has a sporting club: Long Wittenham Athletics Club, which is based at Bodkins Field. This and other flat fields around the village have often been utilised as impromptu landing sites for hot-air balloonists.
The village has an annual fete, which is widely attended. It used to take place at the Vicarage until the mid 1990s, whence it was re-located to The Plough Inn.
At the eastern edge of the village lies the newly planted (2005) Neptune Wood, one of the 33 British Trafalgar Woods,[9] planted to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
[edit] References
- ^ "Area: Long Wittenham CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=798665&c=Wittenham&d=16&e=15&g=480749&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1268876774734&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ "www.longwittenham.com/history.html"
- ^ "Excavations at Northfield Farm, Long Wittenham, Berks." Margaret Gray, p.107-109
- ^ National Monuments Record Number SU59 SW 22
- ^ "Prehistoric and Romano-British landscapes at little Wittenham and Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire." Steve Baker
- ^ "The Early Saxon Period" S. Hawkes, p.78
- ^ a b c "www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/longwittenham.html" David Nash Ford
- ^ a b "Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire" John Blair, p.31
- ^ "Neptune Wood". Tree for All. http://www.treeforall.org.uk/trafalgar/TrafalgarWoods/Otherwoods/Neptune/.
[edit] Further reading
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 384–390.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 170–171.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Long Wittenham |
- Berkshire History: Long Wittenham including a ghost story
- Long Wittenham Church of England Primary School
- Long Wittenham Athletic Club/Football Club
