Littleworth is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a p ...

, about east 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 ...

, England. It is in Wheatley

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 ...

, immediately west of Wheatley village.

History

There were two

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

s on the hill about south of the hamlet. One was a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single central vertical post. The vertical post is supported by four quarter bars. These ar ...

that burned down in 1875. The other, Wheatley Mill, is an octagonal

tower mill A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind.Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia (2005), 520 Thi ...

that dates from before 1671. It has been rebuilt and re-equipped a number of times, including in 1763 after a fire and in 1784 when the

Eagle Ironworks, Oxford The Eagle Ironworks was an ironworks owned by W. Lucy & Co. on the Oxford Canal in Jericho, Oxford, England. William Carter founded the works in 1812 with a shop in the High Street, Oxford, High Street and moved it to its site beside the can ...

supplied some of the machinery. The tower mill had fallen out of use by 1914, and lightning struck it in 1939. Since 1976 the windmill has been under restoration. The mill is open to the public one Sunday a month from May until October. In 1864 an extension of the

Wycombe Railway The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to . History The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament, the ( 9 & 10 Vict. ...

from to was built through Littleworth.

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 ...

ways closed the line and Wheatley station in 1963. Most of its route through Littleworth was in a cutting, with single-arched brick bridge that still carries Littleworth Road over it.

Amenities

Littleworth has one

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, the Cricketer's Arms free house.

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 ...

route 46 links Littleworth with Oxford via

Horspath Horspath is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about east of the centre of Oxford, England. The 2011 census recorded the parish's population as 1,378. Archaeology The parish's western boundary largely follows the course of a Roma ...

, Cowley and with

Great Milton Great Milton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of Oxford. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,042. The School Great Milton church of England primar ...

via Wheatley. Buses run hourly, seven days a week, from early morning until after midnight.

References

{{South Oxfordshire Hamlets in Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire District