Marcham

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Marcham
Marcham shown within Oxfordshire
Population	2000
OS grid reference	SU454966
Parish	Marcham
District	Vale of White Horse
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ABINGDON
Postcode district	OX13
Dialling code	01865
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Wantage
List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°39′59″N 1°20′38″W / 51.6664, -1.3438

Marcham is a village and also a civil parish, part of the Vale of the White Horse in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is located on the A415 (Abingdon to Witney) road, approximately two miles to the west of Abingdon town centre. Marcham was formerly in the county of Berkshire - until the Local Government Act 1972.

The name Marcham is derived from the old English Merceham, where a ham is a homestead, and merece is a place where wild celery grows.^[1]^[2]

The village includes Marcham Primary School (Church of England), Marcham Football Club, and Marcham All Saints' Church - with an original 13th Century tower (the rest of the buildings having been rebuilt in 1837).^[3] Marcham is also home to Denman College, a residential adult education college, owned by the British Women's Institute.^[4]

An extensive compex of Iron Age and Roman remains, including a temple and possible amphitheatre, lies in Trendles Field, behind the former Noah's Ark Inn, in the extreme south-west of the parish. This site is the focus of an ongoing Oxford University research project, with excavations occuring every July.