Wytham

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Wytham
Berkshire
Wytham Village - geograph.org.uk - 1231174.jpg
Wytham
Location
Grid reference: SP4708
Location: 51°46’41"N, 1°18’47"W
Data
Population: 131  (2001)
Post town: Oxford
Postcode: OX2
Dialling code: 01865
Local Government
Council: Vale of White Horse
Parliamentary
constituency:
Oxford West and Abingdon
Website: Wytham Village

Wytham is a village in northern Berkshire on Seacourt Stream, a branch of the River Thames, about three miles north-west of Oxford. It is tucked just west of the Western By-Pass Road, part of the Oxford Ring Road.

The village's name is first recorded as Wihtham around 957, and comes from the Old English for a homestead or village in a river-bend.[1]

The manor of Wytham along with Wytham Abbey (not a religious foundation but the manor house) and much of the village was formerly owned by the Earls of Abingdon. The parish church of All Saints is a mediæval building extensively rebuilt between 1811[2] and 1812[3] by Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon.

Wytham Woods is an area of long-established mixed woodland noted for their high population of badgers and long-term monitoring of great tits. The woods are a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The University of Oxford owns the woods and uses them for research in zoology and climatology. The University also has a field station north of the village.

Picture gallery

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Wytham)

References

  1. Mills & Room, 2003
  2. Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 427-430
  3. Pevsner, 1966, page 314

Sources

  • Mills, A.D.; Room, A. (2003). A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. not cited. ISBN 0198527586. 
  • Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 427–430. 
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 314.