Grove is a village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, England. The village is on Letcombe Brook, about north of

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Berkshire, it has been a ...

and south-west of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. The 2021 Census recorded the parish's population as 8,336. It is home to

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

constructor

Williams Racing Williams Racing, legally known as Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited and competing as Atlassian Williams Racing, is a British Formula One team and constructor. It was founded by Frank Williams (1942–2021) and Patrick Head. The team w ...

History

In 1622 Thomas Grove had a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

at Grove. Grove Farmhouse is dated 1684. It is a chequer brick building of three bays and its doorway has bolection moulding. The

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

s of Wantage and Grove were enclosed by an Act of Parliament passed in 1803. The land awards under the Act seem to have been made in 1806. In 1770 the turnpike road was built as a more direct route between Wantage and

. Between 1796 and 1810 the

Wilts & Berks Canal The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a ...

was built; its main route passed through the village, and a branch of the canal was built between Grove and Wantage. In 1840 ,the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

opened Wantage Road station on the northern boundary of Grove. In 1875, the Wantage Tramway was built. This was a single track laid alongside the turnpike road linking Wantage Road Station and Wantage. It was operated by steam

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

locomotives which pulled both a passenger tramcar and goods wagons. Competition from the railway and tramway reduced canal traffic, and the Wilts & Berks fell into disuse in 1901. Increasing competition from road transport reduced traffic on the tram, and passenger tram services were ended in 1925. Parts of the Wilts & Berks Canal around Grove are still visible, providing some local walks. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is working to reopen the entire canal, and several small sections around Grove have already been restored. In 1965,

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

closed Wantage Road station. Oxfordshire

County Council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...

has a policy to seek a new station to be built to serve Wantage and Grove. The De Havilland Venom by Grove Airfield - geograph

In 1942, RAF Grove was opened as a

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

training base. In 1943 it was transferred to the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

and the 45th Air Depot Group established one of the largest and busiest supply airfields in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. In 1946 the USAAF returned the airfield to the RAF, who relegated it for non-flying operations. In 1955 the station was transferred to the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

, which used it until the 1960s. The site was then sold off and private housing was built on part of the former airfield. In 1945, the Wantage Tramway closed to freight traffic. One of its steam tram engines is preserved at

Didcot Railway Centre Didcot Railway Centre is a railway museum and preservation engineering site in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England. The site was formerly a Great Western Railway engine shed and locomotive stabling point. Background The founders and commercial backers ...

. Grove has lately been a site of extensive housing development, greatly increasing its size and almost merging with the nearby town of Wantage. Grove is now the largest village in the

Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It Historic counties of England, was historically part of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Hors ...

. A

De Havilland Venom The de Havilland DH 112 Venom is a British post-war single-engined jet aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. Much of its design was derived from the de Havilland Vampire, the firm's first jet-p ...

fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...

used to be displayed on a pylon outside Grove Technology Park. In February 2022

Storm Eunice Storm Eunice () (known as Storm Zeynep in Germany and Storm Nora in Denmark) was an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds that was part of the 2021–2022 European windstorm season. Storm Eunice was named by the U ...

broke the pylon, and the aircraft was destroyed when it hit the ground.

Parish churches

King Stephen granted land at Grove to the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

Abbey of Bermondsey in 1142. Grove is said to have had a chapel of St.

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

until it was destroyed in 1733. It would have been a chapelry of the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Wantage, of which Grove was a part until the 1830s. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

is an 18th-century wooden one brought from All Saints' parish church, Pusey. A new

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

was built in 1832 and Grove was made into a separate

in 1835. The 1832 building was replaced by a new parish church of St.

James the Great James the Great ( Koinē Greek: Ἰάκωβος, romanized: ''Iákōbos''; Aramaic: ܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: ''Yaʿqōḇ''; died AD 44) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles t ...

, built in 1900 or 1901. St. James' was a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

building in an

Early English Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

style with six bays and a south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

. It was designed by P.A. Robson, son of the architect Edward Robert Robson. In the 1960s Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

found St. James' to be derelict. In the 1960s a new parish church of St. John the Baptist was built to replace St. James'. The foundation stone is dated 1965. It incorporates items from St. James' including the font, a stained glass window depicting St. James and a panel listing successive vicars of the parish.

Transport

The A338 road passes through the parish, along the east side of the village. To the north, the A338 links Grove with the A420 at Besselsleigh, west of Oxford. To the south, the A338 links Grove to Wantage, Hungerford, and junction 14 of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

. Several bus services link Grove with local towns and villages. Stagecoach West,

Oxford Bus Company The City of Oxford Motor Services Limited, trading as Oxford Bus Company, is a bus operator serving the city and surrounding area of Oxford, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History Horse trams and horse buses The City of Oxf ...

and its sister company Thames Travel provide frequent daily services from Grove to Oxford, Abingdon,

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, located south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. Historically part of Berkshire, the town is noted ...

Milton Park Milton Park is the UK’s largest single ownership innovation community, situated in Vale of the White Horse in South Oxfordshire, England. The Park is located between Didcot and Abingdon in Science Vale UK, a cluster of significant growth, i ...

, Harwell Campus and Wantage. Night buses between Oxford and Wantage also operate on Friday and Saturday nights, with services running as late as 3am on these days. The nearest railway station is , about east of Grove. The station can be reached by road, and bus services provide a direct link to the station.

Amenities

Grove has two primary schools: :*Millbrook Primary School. :*Grove Church of England Primary School. Grove has three

public houses A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

: :*The Baytree, Denchworth Road :*The Bell, Main Street :*The Volunteer Inn, Station Road

Sports and leisure

Since 1996, Grove has been the home to

team and constructor

, who moved from their original factory in

. Williams won the World Constructors’ Championship in the

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

and

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

seasons, with

Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill (born 17 September 1960) is an English former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won 22 Grands Prix acr ...

winning the World Drivers’ Championship in 1996 and

Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve (; born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian former racing driver, who competed in IndyCar from 1994 PPG Indy Car World Series, 1994 to 1995 PPG Indy Car World Series, 1995, and Formula One from to . Villeneuve won t ...

in 1997. As well as the factory, the Williams base also features an Experience Centre which includes tours, a museum and hands-on activities. The centre also hosts race day hospitality for fans. Grove

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

clubs play at the Cane Lane parish recreation ground on the outskirts of the village. Grove Rugby Football Club was founded in 1971 and plays in the Southern League, North division. The Club fields four senior sides, including veterans. Grove RFC has a youth section, across twelve mini (mixed, under–7 to under–12) and junior groups (under–13 to under–18; including two girls' teams, under–15 and under–18). One of its alumni is Jon Dunbar, who captained Grove in the early 2000s before moving to

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

and then Leeds Tykes/Leeds Carnegie on a professional contract. Grove Challengers F.C., the local association football junior side, was founded in 1971. The club is open to children aged 5–17, and teams play in the Oxford Youth Football League. A free weekly 5K

Parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for runners, walkers and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across five continents. Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinto ...

takes place in Grove. Every Saturday morning the event is held on a multi-lap course of the Grove fields and recreation grounds.

Twinning

Grove is twinned with: * Mably, France, since 1990

Nearby places

References

Sources

* *

External links

Grove Parish Council
{{authority control Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire