Long Wittenham
| Long Wittenham | |
|---|---|
| Population | 950 (2001 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SU545935 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Abingdon |
| Postcode district | OX14 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Welcome to Long Wittenham.com |
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish on the south bank of the River Thames in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire.
History
Whilst there is evidence of pre-Iron-Age culture: for example a Bronze Age shield Yetholm-type shields was found here[citation needed], evidence of a Roman presence: indicated by the Roman road to the north, and evidence of possible Frankish settlement: a 5th Century grave that contained high-status Frankish objects[2]; the village is supposedly named after a Saxon chieftain, named Witta. There are crop marks (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[3]. These large, Saxon burial sites also indicate a good sized population, that lasted over many years. Historians now recognise[3] 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-on-Thames, show that the localised area was of great importance for many centuries - though the, perhaps fanciful, 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 (merchant) 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 has it that Oliver Cromwell addressed the villagers on his way to his niece's wedding, in neighbouring Little Wittenham.
Buildings
The village Cross has First Millennial origins: the base dating from the 7th century. St. 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 being later additions. The font is a rare Norman Lead example; at some later point it was encased in wood, and this preserved it from iconoclastic Roundhead soldiers in the 17th Century. The church is also home to the smallest monument in England: a small, stone effigy of a Crusader. Cruck Cottage can be architecturally dated to being around 800 years old and as such is (possibly) the oldest house in South Oxfordshire.
The building housing Pendon Museum, originally started life as The Three Poplars - a working man's pub; declining trade forced its sale in 1954. It became a Youth Hostel, before the owner Roye England turned it into a railways museum. Other pubs included The Machine Man (which was sadly disfranchised in 2003), The Vine, and The Plough. To the north is the Barley Mow Inn (though nowadays just a pub), which though a stone's throw from the village of Clifton Hampden, was on the Wittenham side of the old county line. A Methodist chapel was built in 1820, and later converted into a butcher's, a general store, and a Post Office; it too was disfranchised - to be turned into a private dwelling.
Points of interest
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[4], planted to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Location
Long Wittenham is in the Thames Valley 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Didcot, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Abingdon. To the west is the village of Appleford, which has the nearest railway station, on the line between Didcot and Oxford.
The River Thames flows east towards Long Wittenham, until the Clifton Cut bypasses the twistiest section adjacent to the village; thence from Clifton Lock it flows north, passing under Clifton Hampden Bridge. The road to the village of Clifton Hampden (on the north side of the river) can be impassable when the river floods. From the lock, to a little way beyond Clifton Hampden, the bottom of the river is rock - the only place on the navigable Thames where this occurs (according to local punt-men this makes for unsteady punting). Thence the river forms a loop to the south, to Little Wittenham.
To the east, over the river, is the Roman town of Dorchester-on-Thames, actually a little way from the riverside. To the south-east lie the Wittenham Clumps / Sinodun Hills.
References
- ^ "Area: Long Wittenham CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ "The Early Saxon Period" S. Hawkes, p.78
- ^ a b "Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire" John Blair, p.31
- ^ "Neptune Wood". Tree for All.
Further reading
- Page, William & Ditchfield, P.H. (1924). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. pp. 384–390.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). The Buildings of England: Berkshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 170–171.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
External links
- Berkshire History: Long Wittenham including a ghost story
- Long Wittenham Church of England Primary School
- Long Wittenham Athletic Club/Football Club
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