Wytham
| Wytham | |
 All Saints' parish church |
|
  Wytham |
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| Population | 131 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP4708 |
| Civil parish | Wytham |
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX2 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Oxford West and Abingdon |
| Website | Wytham Village |
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Coordinates: 51°46′41″N 1°18′47″W / 51.778°N 1.313°W
Wytham /ˈwaɪtəm/ is a village and civil parish on Seacourt Stream, a branch of the River Thames, about 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Oxford. It is just west of the Western By-Pass Road, part of the Oxford Ring Road (A34).
Wytham was the northernmost part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The toponym is first recorded as Wihtham around AD 957, and comes from the Old English for a homestead or village in a river-bend.[2]
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 Church of England parish church of All Saints is a medieval building extensively rebuilt between 1811[3] and 1812[4] 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 climate change. The University also has a field station north of the village.
Wytham village and Wytham Woods have frequently featured in the "Inspector Morse" detective novels by Colin Dexter.
Gallery
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The centre of Wytham, with the village shop on the left and the White Hart pub on the right
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Keepers Cottage, Wytham Woods, a gift to the University of Oxford in 1943
References
- ↑ "Area selected: Vale of White Horse (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
- ↑ Mills & Room, 2003, page not cited
- ↑ Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 427-430
- ↑ 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 0-19-852758-6.
- 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.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wytham. |
- Wytham Village Hall
- All Saints Church, Wytham
- Nature Conservation in Wytham Woods
- Wytham Woods SSSI citation
