Longcot
| Longcot | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 Longcot village pump | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU2790 |
| Location: | 51°36’58"N, 1°36’18"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 574 (2001) |
| Post town: | Faringdon |
| Postcode: | SN7 |
| Dialling code: | 01793 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Vale of White Horse |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wantage |
Longcot is a village in western Berkshire about 3 miles south of Faringdon and about 2 ½ miles northeast of Shrivenham. The main A420 road between Swindon and Oxford passes through the parish but passes the village by a mile northwest.
Longcot (also known until the 20th century as Longcott) is in the Shrivenham Hundred.
Geography
Longcot Civil Parish covers 1,894 acres. It is in a wide bend of the young River Ock, in typical low-lying vale landscape. The view from the village is dominated by the great scarp of the Lambourn Downs which rises up a few miles to the south, and on these downs the Uffington White Horse is clearly visible.
Longcot had many mature elm trees in hedgerows and gardens, portrayed by Fred C Palmer's photography, until Dutch elm disease affected them early in the 1970s.
Church and school
The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin was built in the 13th Century, but with one exception all the windows are later insertions. The original west tower collapsed in 1721 while the bells were being rung. It was rebuilt in 1722. Four stone urns, mounted on iron spikes at each corner of the tower, were removed in the late 1970s for safety.
Longcot has had a Church of England school since 1717, the original building in the southwest corner of the churchyard paid for by voluntary subscription. The current school building, built in 1969 opposite The Green on Kings Lane, replaced a previous building on the same site built in 1874.
History
The manor and most of the land belongs to Viscount Barrington, whose family has been a dominant presence.
For most of its history Longcot was an agricultural community, but population growth in early 19th Century began with the arrival of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1805[1] and the building of Longcot Wharf, which was the busiest wharf on this section of the canal due to its nearness to Faringdon. The village population declined in line with the loss of commercial traffic on the canal to the Great Western Railway, completed in 1841. Commercial traffic on the canal ceased completely in 1902 and it was formally abandoned by Act of Parliament in 1914.[2]
References
books
- Dalby, L.J. (2000) [1971]. The Wilts and Berks Canal (3rd ed.). Usk: Oakwood Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-85361-562-4.
- 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.
- Richards, Guy; Dalton-Morris (Shirley). Longcot: A Village in the Vale. ISBN 0-9536602-0-6.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Longcot) |