England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on the left bank of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
, in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Hampden is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over east of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Since 1932 the civil parish has included the village of Burcot, east of Clifton Hampden. The 2011 Census record ...
. Until 1932, it lay in the civil parish of Dorchester.
Heritage
Burcot in the 17th century was an important trans-shipment point on the Thames. The river at that time had become almost unnavigable between
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and Burcot, so that goods for Oxford had to be unloaded at Burcot and taken on by road. This led in 1605 to the formation of the
Oxford-Burcot Commission
The Oxford-Burcot Commission was the first Commission concerned with the management of the River Thames, appointed by an Act of Parliament of 1605 by James I to make the stretch of river from Burcot to Oxford navigable. The Commission took respons ...
, with the task of improving navigation.
The village, lying mainly between the main road and the Thames, became a desirable Thames-side residential area in the late 19th century. Almost all the earlier housing was pulled down. The only survivors from before the Victorian era are the Grade II listed Old Cottage, thought to be Tudor, The Tudor Cottage and the 16th-century pub premises. No other building dates from before 1888. The
poet laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ...
lived at Burcote Brook from 1932 until his death in 1967. Shortly afterwards, the house burnt down and was replaced by a
Cheshire Home
Leonard Cheshire is a major health and welfare charity working in the United Kingdom and running development projects around the world. It was founded in 1948 by Royal Air Force officer Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC.
Leonard Cheshire's aims ...
, which is named after him.
Governance
The village belongs to Clifton Hampden and Burcot parish, whose population was recorded in the 2011 Census as 662. It has been part of the
South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...
local-government district since
Henley Rural District
Henley was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974.Abingdon, now the A415. Bus services are confined to schooldays.
The village has a
thatch
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
-roofed pub, ''The Chequers'', which has developed into a restaurant.Pub websit Retrieved 12 May 2018. The nearest retail facilities are at the shopping centre in Dorchester, less than two miles away.
The former school is now a private house. The nearest primary school and church are at Clifton Hampden. Burcot is home to the business that developed the search engine "Ask Jeeves".