Uffington, Oxfordshire
Encyclopedia
Uffington is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Faringdon
. It was part of Berkshire
until the 1974 boundary changes
transferred it to Oxfordshire. Uffington is most commonly known as the location of the Uffington White Horse
hill figure
.
of St Mary
is known as The Cathedral of the Vale and has the rare feature of a hexagonal tower. The village is in the middle of the Vale of the White Horse
, otherwise known as the Ock
Valley. Like most parishes in the Vale, Uffington parish is long and thin, running north-south, so that it includes both low-lying arable land and grazing upland on the Berkshire Downs
. The River Ock forms most of its northern boundary. The western boundary runs up across Dragon Hill, Whitehorse Hill, Uffington Down and the gallops on Woolstone Down before turning north again as the eastern boundary across Kingston Warren Down and Ram's Hill, almost to Fawler and partially along Stutfield Brook. The parish formerly included Baulking
and Woolstone
.
District and has its own parish council. The village has been twinned with Le Chevain
in France
since 1991.
.
The Great Western Main Line
was built through the parish in 1840, passing just over 1/2 mi north of the village. In 1864 the Faringdon Railway was completed, joining the Great Western at a junction 1 miles (1.6 km) northeast of the village. Uffington railway station
was opened at the junction. British Rail
ways closed the station in 1964.
One of the United Kingdom
's best-known archaeological sites, the White Horse is a 374 feet (114 m) long Bronze Age
hill figure, cut out of the turf on White Horse Hill on the Berkshire Downs
, just south of the village of Woolstone. It is generally thought to have been a religious totem
of some kind, associated with the people who later became known as the Atrebates
. In this capacity it was probably associated with the adjoining Dragon Hill, a small natural hillock with an artificially flattened top. Above these stands Uffington Castle
, an Iron Age
hill fort
(overlying a Bronze Age predecessor) where some of this tribe may have lived. There are also a number of associated burial mounds and there are others further south. Just to the south of the hill fort, the ancient trackway thought to be Britain's oldest road, called the Ridgeway
, passes through the parish. Ram's Hill seems to have been a Bronze Age cattle ranching and trading centre.
theories, Uffington was not the location of the Battle of Ashdown
in 871 and the White Horse was not created as a memorial by King Alfred
's men. The place does, however, appear in mid-10th century boundary charters. Abingdon Abbey
owned the manor throughout the Middle Ages
and King Edward I
visited their grange there.
In 1630 Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, bought the Uffington and Compton estates from Sir Francis Jones. This began a 329 year connection between the Craven family
and Uffington. St Mary's Church suffered during the Civil War
because of their Royalist
sympathies. Despite their long ownership of the Uffington estate the Earls of Craven never lived in Uffington, basing themselves instead at nearby Ashdown House
.
The common land
s of Uffington, Baulking and Woolstone were enclosed
in 1776.
Division Four. Uffington Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division Four. Uffington has also a badminton club and a tennis club.
Faringdon
Faringdon is a market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of the Thames Valley, between the River Thames and the Ridgeway...
. It was part of Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
until the 1974 boundary changes
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
transferred it to Oxfordshire. Uffington is most commonly known as the location of the Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...
hill figure
Hill figure
A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and rubble made from material brighter than the natural...
.
Location and character
The village is one of chalk-block houses and thatch, at the foot of the White Horse Hills. The Church of England parish churchChurch of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of St Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
is known as The Cathedral of the Vale and has the rare feature of a hexagonal tower. The village is in the middle of the Vale of the White Horse
Vale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. The main town is Abingdon, other places include Faringdon and Wantage. There are 68 parishes within the district...
, otherwise known as the Ock
River Ock
The River Ock is a small English river which is a tributary of the River Thames. It has as its catchment area the Vale of White Horse, a low-lying and wide valley in South Oxfordshire and flows into the River Thames, at Abingdon on the reach above Culham Lock.-Course:The River Ock rises near the...
Valley. Like most parishes in the Vale, Uffington parish is long and thin, running north-south, so that it includes both low-lying arable land and grazing upland on the Berkshire Downs
Berkshire Downs
The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in southern England, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
. The River Ock forms most of its northern boundary. The western boundary runs up across Dragon Hill, Whitehorse Hill, Uffington Down and the gallops on Woolstone Down before turning north again as the eastern boundary across Kingston Warren Down and Ram's Hill, almost to Fawler and partially along Stutfield Brook. The parish formerly included Baulking
Baulking
Baulking or Balking is a village and civil parish about southeast of Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 Boundary Changes transferred it to Oxfordshire....
and Woolstone
Woolstone, Oxfordshire
Woolstone is a village and civil parish about south of Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse. Woolstone was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire....
.
Local government
Uffington is in the Vale of White HorseVale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. The main town is Abingdon, other places include Faringdon and Wantage. There are 68 parishes within the district...
District and has its own parish council. The village has been twinned with Le Chevain
Le Chevain
Le Chevain is a commune in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region in north-western France.-References:*...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
since 1991.
Transport
The village is about 3 miles (5 km) west of the A417 roadA417 road
-Streatley - Gloucester :It runs from Streatley at its junction with the A329 to Wantage, over the picturesque Berkshire Downs. In Wantage, it negotiates the market place -Streatley - Gloucester (M5):It runs from Streatley at its junction with the A329 (between Reading and Wallingford) to Wantage,...
.
The Great Western Main Line
Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in Great Britain that runs westwards from London Paddington station to the west of England and South Wales. The core Great Western Main Line runs from London Paddington to Temple Meads railway station in Bristol. A major branch of the Great...
was built through the parish in 1840, passing just over 1/2 mi north of the village. In 1864 the Faringdon Railway was completed, joining the Great Western at a junction 1 miles (1.6 km) northeast of the village. Uffington railway station
Uffington railway station
Uffington railway station is a former station on the Great Western Main Line. The station was about northeast of the village of Uffington, a village in what was then part of Berkshire, on the west side of the road between Uffington and Baulking.In 1864 Uffington became a junction as the Faringdon...
was opened at the junction. British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways closed the station in 1964.
White Horse and other prehistoric features
- See main articles: Uffington White HorseUffington White HorseThe Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...
, Dragon HillDragon Hill, UffingtonDragon Hill is a small hillock immediately below the Uffington White Horse on the border of the civil parishes of Uffington and Woolstone in the English county of Oxfordshire...
, Uffington CastleUffington CastleUffington Castle is all that remains of an early Iron Age hill fort in Oxfordshire, England. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the eastern end...
and The RidgewayThe Ridgewaythumb|right|thumb|The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countrysideThe Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road...
One of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's best-known archaeological sites, the White Horse is a 374 feet (114 m) long Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
hill figure, cut out of the turf on White Horse Hill on the Berkshire Downs
Berkshire Downs
The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in southern England, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
, just south of the village of Woolstone. It is generally thought to have been a religious totem
Totem
A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
of some kind, associated with the people who later became known as the Atrebates
Atrebates
The Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquests.- Name of the tribe :Cognate with Old Irish aittrebaid meaning 'inhabitant', Atrebates comes from proto-Celtic *ad-treb-a-t-es, 'inhabitants'. The Celtic root is treb- 'building', 'home' The Atrebates (singular...
. In this capacity it was probably associated with the adjoining Dragon Hill, a small natural hillock with an artificially flattened top. Above these stands Uffington Castle
Uffington Castle
Uffington Castle is all that remains of an early Iron Age hill fort in Oxfordshire, England. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the eastern end...
, an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
(overlying a Bronze Age predecessor) where some of this tribe may have lived. There are also a number of associated burial mounds and there are others further south. Just to the south of the hill fort, the ancient trackway thought to be Britain's oldest road, called the Ridgeway
The Ridgeway
thumb|right|thumb|The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countrysideThe Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road...
, passes through the parish. Ram's Hill seems to have been a Bronze Age cattle ranching and trading centre.
History
Despite popular VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
theories, Uffington was not the location of the Battle of Ashdown
Battle of Ashdown
The Battle of Ashdown, in Berkshire , took place on 8 January 871. Alfred the Great, then a prince of only twenty-one, led the West Saxon army of his brother, King Ethelred, in a victorious battle against the invading Danes.Accounts of the battle are based to a large extent on Asser's "Life of...
in 871 and the White Horse was not created as a memorial by King Alfred
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
's men. The place does, however, appear in mid-10th century boundary charters. Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...
owned the manor throughout the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and King Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
visited their grange there.
In 1630 Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, bought the Uffington and Compton estates from Sir Francis Jones. This began a 329 year connection between the Craven family
Earl of Craven
Earl of Craven, in the County of York, is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1664 in favour of the soldier William Craven, the eldest son of Sir William Craven, Lord...
and Uffington. St Mary's Church suffered during the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
because of their Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
sympathies. Despite their long ownership of the Uffington estate the Earls of Craven never lived in Uffington, basing themselves instead at nearby Ashdown House
Ashdown House, Oxfordshire
Ashdown House is a 17th century country house in the civil parish of Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire. Until 1974 the house was in the county of Berkshire, and the nearby village of Lambourn remains in that county....
.
The common land
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...
s of Uffington, Baulking and Woolstone were enclosed
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
in 1776.
Notable residents
]- Sir John BetjemanJohn BetjemanSir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
lived in the village in the 1930s. - Thomas HughesThomas HughesThomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
(1822-1896), author of Tom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
, was born in the village. The village school mentioned in the book still exists: now it is Tom Brown's School Museum and has exhibits on Thomas Hughes, the Uffington White Horse, and other local subjects. The large village hall is named the Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall.
Amenities
Uffington United Football Club plays in North Berks Football LeagueNorth Berks Football League
The North Berks Football League is a football competition in England. The league was founded in 1908. It has a total of five divisions, with Division One sitting at Step 7 of the English football league system. Despite its name, the vast majority of clubs are based in South Oxfordshire...
Division Four. Uffington Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division Four. Uffington has also a badminton club and a tennis club.