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Wantage

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This article is about the English town. For the town in the United States, see Wantage Township, New Jersey.
Not to be confused with Wantagh, New York.

Wantage (/ˈwɒntɪdʒ/) is a historic market town and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of Oxfordshire since 1974. The town is on Letcombe Brook, 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Abingdon, 24 miles (39 km) north-west of Reading, 15 miles (24 km) south-west of Oxford and 14 miles (23 km) north-west of Newbury.

Wantage
Wantage Market Place with its statue of
King Alfred the Great, born in Wantage
Wantage is located in Oxfordshire
Wantage
Wantage
Location within Oxfordshire
Population13,106 (2021 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceSU3987
• London57 miles (92 km)
Civil parish
  • Wantage
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWantage
Postcode districtOX12
Dialling code01235
PoliceThames Valley
FireOxfordshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
WebsiteWantage.com Gateway to Wantage
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire
51°35′20″N 1°25′37″W / 51.589°N 1.427°W / 51.589; -1.427

It was the birthplace of King Alfred the Great in 849.[2]

History

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Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church

Wantage was a small Roman settlement[3] but the origin of the toponym is somewhat uncertain. It is generally thought to be from an Old English phrase meaning "decreasing river".[3] King Alfred the Great was born at the royal palace there in the 9th century,[2] in what was originally known as Wanating.[4] Wantage appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its value was £61 and it was in the king's ownership until Richard I passed it to the Earl of Albemarle in 1190. Weekly trading rights were first granted to the town by Henry III in 1246.[3] Markets are now held twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays.[5] Royalist troops were stationed in Wantage during the English Civil War.[3]

In the 19th century, Lord Wantage became a notable local and national benefactor.[6] He was very involved in founding the British Red Cross Society.[6] In 1877 he paid for a marble statue of King Alfred by Count Gleichen to be erected in Wantage market place, where it still stands today.[3][6] He also donated the Victoria Cross Gallery to the town.[3][6] This contained paintings by Louis William Desanges depicting deeds which led to the award of a number of VCs, including his own gained during the Crimean War. It is now a shopping arcade.[3] Wantage is home to the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin, founded by the vicar of Wantage William John Butler in 1848; it was once one of the largest communities of Anglican nuns in the world. Wantage once had two breweries which were taken over by Morlands of Abingdon. In 1988 the town was thrust into the headlines after a Brass Tacks programme entitled "Shire Wars" exposed the drunken violence that plagued the town and surrounding villages at that time.[7]

Governance

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Former head office of Wantage Urban District Council in Portway

Wantage Town Council consists of 16 councillors, all of whom (as of the May 2023 elections) are Liberal Democrats. The parish forms part of the district of the Vale of White Horse.

Until 1974, Wantage had two local government councils: Wantage Rural District, which had its headquarters in Belmont,[8] Wantage and Wantage Urban District, which had its headquarters in Portway.[9] These bodies were both abolished as part of the Local Government Act 1972 and became part of the Vale of White Horse District Council. It was at this point that Wantage was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire.

Wantage is part of the Didcot and Wantage constituency which is currently represented in the House of Commons by Liberal Democrat MP Olly Glover who was first elected in the 2024 general election.[10] The constituency was first contested at the 2024 general election after the former Wantage constituency was abolished following the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.[11]

Geography

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Wantage is at the foot of the Berkshire Downs escarpment in the Vale of the White Horse. There are gallops at Black Bushes and nearby villages with racing stables at East Hendred, Letcombe Bassett, Lockinge and Uffington. Wantage includes the suburbs of Belmont to the west and Charlton to the east. Grove to the north is still just about detached and is a separate parish. Wantage parish stretches from the northern edge of its housing up onto the Downs in the south, covering Chain Hill, Edge Hill, Wantage Down, Furzewick Down and Lattin Down. The Edgehill Springs rise between Manor Road and Spike Lodge Farms and the Letcombe Brook flows through the town. Wantage is home to the Vale and Downland Museum. There is a large market square containing a statue of King Alfred, surrounded by shops some with 18th-century facades. Quieter streets radiate from it, including one towards the large Church of England parish church. Wantage is the "Alfredston" of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.[12]

Transport

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Stagecoach Gold bus in Wantage Market Place on former route X30 (now S9)

Wantage is at the crossing of the B4507 valley road, the A417 road between Streatley and Cirencester, the A338 road between Hungerford (and junction 14 of the M4 motorway) and Oxford, and the B4494 road to Newbury.[13]

Wantage is well connected by bus services linking the town with Oxford and other nearby towns and villages.[14] Stagecoach West run the S9 service up to every 20 minutes between Oxford, Botley, Cumnor, East Hanney, Grove and Wantage.[15] Oxford Bus Company run the X1 service up to every hour between Oxford, Abingdon, Marcham, East Hanney, Grove and Wantage.[16] Thames Travel run the connector X35 service up to 30 minutes between Didcot, GWP North, Harwell Campus, East Hendred, Wantage and Grove, and the connector X36 service up to every 30 minutes between Didcot, Milton Park, Steventon, East Hanney, Grove and Wantage Monday to Saturday daytimes.[17][18] and Pulhams Coaches run both the 67 service up to every hour between Wantage, East Challow, Stanford in the Vale and Faringdon, and the 68 service 2-4 times a day between Wantage, East Challow, Childrey, Uffington and Faringdon.[19][20] There are up to seven buses per hour operating between Wantage and Oxford, and up to four buses per hour operating between Wantage and Didcot. Night buses NS9 and cityNX1 also operate on Friday and Saturday evenings, providing late night services between Wantage, Abingdon and Oxford.[21]

 
The former head office of the Wantage Tramway Company in Mill Street

Wantage does not have a railway station; Didcot Parkway, 8 miles to the east, is the nearest station, with services towards Reading, Oxford, London, Bristol and Cheltenham. The Great Western Main Line is just north of Grove (2 miles north of Wantage) where the former Wantage Road railway station used to be. It was closed during the Beeching cuts in 1964.[22] The Wantage Tramway used to link Wantage with Wantage Road station. The tramway's Wantage terminus was in Mill Street and its building survives, but little trace remains of the route.[23] One of the tramway's locomotives, Shannon, alias Jane, is preserved at Didcot Railway Centre.[24] Oxfordshire County Council have ambitions to open a railway station on the former Wantage Road site.[25] In 2018 a feasibility study was carried out for a new Wantage & Grove Parkway station with the hope that the proposed station could be served by a new service operating between Bristol and Oxford.[26] The proposed station received backing from Network Rail in 2021 after a new Oxfordshire rail study was published, which recommended a new station at Wantage/Grove, subject to additional main line infrastructure.[27]

The nearest public airport to Wantage is London Heathrow, approximately 42 miles (68 km) east of the town.[28]

A section of the Wilts & Berks Canal passes through the parish.[29]

Education

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Front of King Alfred's Academy Centre Site

There is one state secondary school in Wantage, King Alfred's Academy, and approximately ten primary schools.[30] The secondary school converted into an academy in 2011 and was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in that year.[31][32]

Between 1873 and 2006, an Anglican private girls' school, St Mary's School, was located in Wantage. The school closed in 2006 when St. Mary's merged with Heathfield School, Ascot.[33] A former independent preparatory school, St Andrew's, established in 1926, closed permanently in 2010.[34]

Fitzwaryn School, a school catering for children with special needs aged 3–19, is situated in Wantage.[35] The school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in 2014.[36] It is named after the ancient lords of the manor of Wantage, the FitzWarin family, powerful Marcher Lords seated at Whittington Castle in Shropshire.

In October 2013, the Vale Academy Trust was created when King Alfred's Academy, Charlton Primary School and Wantage CE Primary School came together to form a partnership.[37] The trust was founded by local heads, governors and other stakeholders in the hope of creating quality partnerships among the schools to ensure higher quality education for the area.[38] Since the trust was formed in 2013, three other primary schools in the area have joined.[39] The Vale Academy Trust announced plans in September 2016 to build a brand new free school in Grove for children from the ages of two to sixteen. The school is planned to have a capacity of up to 1,000 students and hoped to open in 2019 in preparation for large scale housing developments that are planned for Wantage and Grove but has not yet been built (March 2021).[40]

Media

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Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Oxford TV transmitter.[41]

Wantage's local radio stations are BBC Radio Oxford on 95.2 FM, Heart South on 102.6 FM.

Local newspapers are the Wantage & Grove Herald[42] and Oxfordshire Guardian.

Architecture

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The Old Town Hall, Wantage, completed in 1878

Wantage has been the site of a church since at least the 10th century and the present Church of England parish church of Saints Peter and Paul dates from the 13th century, with many additions since.[43] Saints' Peter and Paul contains seventeen 15th-century misericords.[43]

King Alfred's Grammar School was designed by the architect J. B. Clacy[44] of Reading[45] and built in 1849–50[44] but incorporates a highly carved Norman doorway[44] from a demolished chantry chapel that formerly stood in the churchyard.[3][43] The Old Town Hall in Wantage was completed in 1878.[46]

Developments

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In recent years four or more significant housing developments have been constructed. At least one development (including the new health centre) has been on a greenfield site adjacent to the A338 road towards Oxford. The other three, however, have been on brownfield sites, converting a scrapyard next to the Letcombe Brook.

In 2006, a commercial development began construction with a Sainsbury's supermarket as a focus. This supermarket is double the size of the previous one and was intended to have a significant impact on the town by drawing more visitors from outlying villages. The impact was projected as being positive, aimed at preventing the town becoming a commuter town and retaining some commercial activity. An action group, Wantage Rejuvenated, is being sponsored by the town's chamber of commerce to try to bring business back into the area and inject new life into the town.

There was activism in the town regarding development in 2011, with a campaign to stop the demolition of a building close to the town centre by Vanderbilt Homes, who initially gained permission to convert an early Georgian bank of shops into a mixed commercial and residential block. Vanderbilt applied to have the buildings completely demolished, prompting a local petition and campaign for the application to be refused at the discretion of the Town Council, as although the building is old, it is not listed.[47]

Another area of development which has provoked local protest has been on the north of the town, where a 1,500-home estate is proposed, increasing housing in the town by 35%. Residents launched petitions and the then local MP, Ed Vaizey, raised concerns, especially regarding the ability of local road infrastructure to cope. The town is served by the A338 and A417, which are single-carriageway roads. The proposed Wantage development is one mile from a similar mass of 2,500 homes proposed for the village of Grove and which will use the same road network.[48]

In 2014 Wantage was nominated for the Government's Great British High Street Award whereby Wantage won the award for Britain's Best Town Centre beating several other towns nominated for the award.[49]

Sport and leisure

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Wantage has a non-League football club: Wantage Town F.C., who play at Alfredian Park in the Southern Football League. Grove is also the home to Formula One constructor Williams Grand Prix Engineering.[50]

Wantage & Grove Cricket Club's first recorded match was in 1863. The club has three teams and play in Charlton, Wantage.[51]

On 12 September 2014, cyclists competing in the 2014 Tour of Britain passed through Wantage during Stage 6 of the event. The participants entered Wantage via the B4494 road and left via the A417 towards Harwell and then on towards the end of the stage at Hemel Hempstead.[52]

White Horse Harriers AC is an athletics club based in Wantage and Grove. They organise the annual White Horse Half Marathon, which starts and finishes in Grove.[53]

Corallian Cycling Club was founded in 2016 and organises regular sociable cycle rides from Wantage Market Place.[54]

Notable people

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Statue of Alfred the Great, by Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Sport

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Twinning

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Wantage is twinned with:[74]

  • Mably in France since 1990
  • Seesen in Germany since 1979

Nearby places

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Wantage". City population. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b Ford, David Nash (2003). "King Alfred the Great (849–899)". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ford, David Nash (2004). "Wantage: Where the Great are Born". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  4. ^ Hamerow, Helena (31 March 2011). The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. OUP Oxford. p. 995. ISBN 9780199212149. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  5. ^ "OXTowns: Wantage Local Information". OXLink Ltd. 2003. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d Ford, David Nash (2008). "Col. Sir Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, Baron Wantage of Lockinge (1832–1901)". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Shire Wars (1988)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Wantage Rural District Council" (PDF). London Gazette. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  9. ^ "Wantage Urban District Council" (PDF). London Gazette. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  10. ^ "Didcot and Wantage results". BBC News. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  11. ^ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – South East". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  12. ^ Davison, Steve (2008). Walking in the Thames Valley. Cicerone Press. ISBN 9781849655378. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  13. ^ "Getting to Wantage". Wantage.com. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  14. ^ "GETTING TO WANTAGE". Wantage.com. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  15. ^ "S9" (PDF). Stagecoach West. 3 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  16. ^ "X1/NX1" (PDF). Oxford Bus Company. 1 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  17. ^ "X35" (PDF). Thames Travel. 1 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  18. ^ "X36" (PDF). Thames Travel. 1 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  19. ^ "67" (PDF). Pulhams Coaches. 1 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  20. ^ "68" (PDF). Pulhams Coaches. 26 November 2023. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Wantage". bustimes.org. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  22. ^ "Wantage Road station and Oxfordshire's lost railway". BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  23. ^ "The Wantage Tramway". Wantage.com. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  24. ^ "No.5 – Shannon/Jane". Didcot Railway Centre. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
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  27. ^ "Future of Oxfordshire rail network mapped out in new study". Network Rail. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  28. ^ "Closest airports to Wantage, United Kingdom". Closest Airport to. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  29. ^ "The Canal / Interactive Map". Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  30. ^ "Schools List". Oxfordshire County Council. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  31. ^ Wilkinson, Ben. "King Alfred's specialist sports college in Wantage moves to become academy". The Herald Series. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  32. ^ "King Alfred's (Specialist Sports College) Inspection Report" (PDF). King Alfred's Academy. Ofsted. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  33. ^ "About Us". Heathfield School. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  34. ^ "St Andrew's prep school, Wantage, faces closure in the summer". The Herald Series. 12 January 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  35. ^ "Welcome to The Fitzwaryn School". Fitzwaryn School. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  36. ^ "Fitzwaryn School – School Report" (PDF). Ofsted. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  37. ^ "About Vale Academy Trust". Vale Academy Trust. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  38. ^ "Our Ethos". Vale Academy Trust. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  39. ^ "Our Academies". Vale Academy Trust. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  40. ^ Hughes, Pete (14 September 2016). "Vale Academy Trust, Wantage, reveals plans to open new secondary school in Grove". The Herald Series. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  41. ^ "Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter". May 2004.
  42. ^ "Wantage & Grove Herald". British Newspapers Online. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  43. ^ a b c Ford, David Nash (2004). "Wantage: St. Peter & St. Paul's Church". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  44. ^ a b c Pevsner, 1966, page 254
  45. ^ Brodie, Antonia; Felstead, Alison; Franklin, Jonathan; Pinfield, Leslie, eds. (2001). Directory of British Architects 1834–1914, A–K. London & New York: Continuum. p. 375. ISBN 0-8264-5513-1.
  46. ^ "Wantage Area Walks" (PDF). Love Wantage. p. 1. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  47. ^ Wantage and Grove Review Issue No 401. 3 October 2011. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  48. ^ Ellery, Ben (8 December 2009). "Anger as Wantage is chosen for 1,500-home development". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  49. ^ "Team effort wins Wantage award for best town centre". The Herald. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  50. ^ "Contact". Williams F1. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  51. ^ "Wantage and Grove Cricket Club". Wantage and Grove Cricket Club. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  52. ^ "Tour of Britain 2014 route revealed". Cycling Weekly. 31 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  53. ^ "White Horse Half Marathon". White Horse Harriers. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  54. ^ "Corallian Cycling Club". Corallian Cycling Club. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
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  60. ^ Ford, David Nash (2003). "Alice FitzWarin (c.1375-c.1410)". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  61. ^ Ford, David Nash (2001). "Sir Ivo FitzWarin (1343–1414)". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  62. ^ Richards, William (24 December 1787). A Review of the Memoirs of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell by the Rev. Mark Noble. R.Marshall. p. 69. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  63. ^ Cook, Chris (1977). Sources in British Political History 1900–1951: Volume 4: A Guide to the Private Papers of Members of Parliament: L-Z. The Macmillan Press Ltd. p. 24. ISBN 9781349157624. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  64. ^ "Robert Loyd-Lindsay Lord Wantage of Lockinge" (PDF). Vale & Downland Museum. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  65. ^ Sister Janet, Mother Maribel of Wantage, Published by SPCK, London (1972) ISBN 0281027285
  66. ^ "Frances O'Connor Biography". IMDB. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  67. ^ "Lester Piggott". Lambourn.info. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  68. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Shore, William Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  69. ^ Ammon, Ulrich; Mattheier, Klaus J., eds. (13 January 2007). "English in the European Parliament: MEPs and their Language Repertoires". Sociolinguistica Jahrbuch (2007). Vol. 21. Walter de Gruyter – Max Niemeyer Verlag. pp. 151–165. doi:10.1515/9783484605060.151. ISBN 978-3-484-60506-0. S2CID 151106389. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  70. ^ "Leigh Bedwell Profile". Aylesbury United Football Club. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  71. ^ "The Dream Team!". BBC Oxford. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  72. ^ "Edward Cawston". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  73. ^ Keating, Frank (19 July 2007). "Hugh Johns". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  74. ^ "Wantage Twinning". Wantage.com. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2017.

Sources

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Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Wantage.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wantage.
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