Buscot
| Buscot | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 Buscot Park | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU2397 |
| Location: | 51°40’37"N, 1°40’1"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 176 (2001) |
| Post town: | Faringdon |
| Postcode: | SN7 |
| Dialling code: | 01367 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Vale of White Horse |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wantage |
Buscot is a village and parish in north-eastern Berkshire on the River Thames. It is to be found in the very north-eastern corner of the county, where it meets Gloucestershire across the Thames to the north and Wiltshire across the River Cole to the south-west. Buscot is about a mile and a half south-east of Lechlade on Thames, the latter in Gloucestershire.
The border of Berkshire and Gloucestershire is a short one, a mile and a half or so and all marked by a navigable reach of the Thames, and the only bridge between the two is that outside Buscot.
Many of the properties in Buscot are owned by the National Trust and are let to long-term residents, some of whom work the farms on the agricultural estates surrounding the village. There is a village hall, tea shop and adjacent car park, and a children's playground. Nearby Buscot Park houses the notable Faringdon Collection of paintings, Italian water garden, and walled vegetable garden and fruit orchards. A short walk from the end of the village leads past Buscot Weir field to Buscot Lock on the River Thames.
Parish church
The parish church of St Mary was built in about 1200.[1] The stained glass in the east window of the chancel was made by the prolific pre-Raphaelite artist, Edward Burne-Jones in 1891.[2] (Nearby, at Kelmscott House in Kelmscott just across the river in Oxfordshire, lived the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement which he exemplified, William Morris.)
The bell tower has a ring of four bells, the oldest of which was cast at Bristol in about 1399.[3] The treble bell was cast by Thomas Gefferies of Bristol[4] in about 1520.[3] A further bell was cast by William and Robert Cor of Aldbourne[4] in Wiltshire in 1708.[3] The ring was completed by the addition of the present tenor bell, cast by Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry[4] in 1891.[3] St. Mary's has also a service bell, cast by Edward Neale of Burford in Oxfordshire.[4] in 1661.[3]
Eaton Hastings
Eaton Hastings is a small hamlet east of Buscot; a scatter of farms and cottages in the meadows by the River Thames. A footbridge by Eaton Hastings leads across the river to Kelmscott. These meadows either side of the river were idealised by William Morris and in his News from Nowhere the characters row up the Thames from London to here to help in the hay harvest.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Buscot) |
References
- ↑ Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 512-517
- ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 108
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Buscot S Mary". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Buscot&DoveID=BUSCOT. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Bell Founders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
Sources
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 512–517. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62759.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 108–109.