Longworth
Coordinates: 51°42′18″N 1°25′37″W / 51.7051°N 1.4270°W
| Longworth | |
 St. Mary's parish church |
|
 Longworth
Longworth shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 848 (2001 census[1]) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU3999 |
| Civil parish | Longworth |
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Abingdon |
| Postcode district | OX13 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wantage |
| Website | Longworth Village on the Web |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Longworth is a village and civil parish about 7 miles (11 km) west of Abingdon-on-Thames and a similar distance east of Faringdon and south of Witney. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Forthcoming boundary changes will add the hamlet of Newbridge to the parish of Longworth.[citation needed]
Longworth parish stretches between the River Thames in the north and the River Ock in the south. Harrowdown Hill, in the north of the parish near the Thames, is where biological warfare expert David Kelly died (or committed suicide) during the Second Gulf War WMD scandal.[2] Sir Henry Marten, a 17th century Judge of the Admiralty Court, and his son, Henry Marten, the regicide, lived at Longworth House.[3][4]
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[edit] Geography and transport
Longworth is 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Oxford and 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the old market town of Bampton. Longworth is just south of the River Thames crossing at Newbridge.
Longworth has two bus services. RH Transport services route 63 links Longworth with Oxford from Monday to Saturday via the villages of Southmoor, Hinton Waldrist, Appleton, Eaton and Cumnor. Grayline[5] route 43 links Eaton with Abingdon-on-Thames via Longworth on Mondays and Thursdays.
[edit] Public houses
Longworth has two public houses: the Blue Boar[6] in the village and The Maybush Inn at Newbridge about 1 mile north of the village. The Lamb and Flag 2 miles south of the village was in the parish, however, boundary changes in 2011 moved the public house into Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor.
The thatched part of the Blue Boar was built 1606 during the Great Rebuilding of England and the two storey part was added about 50 years later. Its not clear however whether it has always been a pub. As it is on the main route out of the village to the River Thames it was popular in the 19th century as a resting stop for horse, cart and drover. The current owner rescued it from dereliction in the late 1970s and has extended and modernised it while retaining the beams and open fires. It is the only one of five original licenced premises surviving within the village boundary and is now a gastropub.
On the Blue Boar pub sign, the white boar and the white rose on the pennant are the symbols of Richard III. The blue boar was the personal badge of the De Vere family who were the Earls of Oxford. Legend has it[clarification needed] that when King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, any White Boar pub signs were quickly repainted as Blue Boars, as an acknowledgement that the white boar was dead and the blue boar prevailed.[citation needed]
[edit] Blue Boar RFC
Blue Boar Rugby Football Club[7] is based at the Blue Boar pub in Longworth. It normally plays home games at Oxford RFC.[clarification needed]
The club played its first game of rugby in March 1977, as a result of a challenge by staff of Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford. The occasion proved so enjoyable that the following season several more matches were arranged against local sides and the club affiliated to the Oxfordshire Rugby Football Union. In succeeding seasons the number of fixtures and strength of opposition increased, and in May 1981 the club was elected to the Rugby Football Union.
In September 1980 the club made its first tour of Cornwall. It made further visits to the Duchy in 1987, 1988 and 1989. It made its first foreign tour in 1981, when a party of 35 players and supporters went to Brittany and enjoyed themselves so much that they returned there a year later. In 1991 the club was the first English RFU club to make an official tour of Hungary, which was hosted by the Hungarian Rugby Union.
The club reached the final of the Oxfordshire Knockout Cup Plate competition in the 2003-04 and 2008-09 seasons.
[edit] References
- ^ "Neighbourhood Statistics: 2001 Census: Key Statistics: Parish Headcounts: Area: Longworth CP (Parish)". Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=798750&c=Longworth&d=16&e=15&g=481387&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1212705531427&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ "David Kelly laid to rest". BBC News. 2003-08-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3127605.stm. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ Ford, David Nash. "Sir Henry Marten (1562–1641)". Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/hmartensr.html. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ Ford, David Nash. "Sir Henry Marten (1602–1680)". Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/hmarten.html. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ Grayline: Ancillary Services[dead link]
- ^ The Blue Boar
- ^ Blue Boar RFC
[edit] Further reading
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 466–471.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 171–172.
[edit] External links
Media related to Longworth at Wikimedia Commons
