Didcot ( ) is a

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular ...

county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of

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 ...

, east of

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

and north west of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Didcot station opening as a

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

on the Great Western Main Line in 1844. Today the town is known for the

railway museum A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives ( steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic ...

and

power stations A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many po ...

, and is the gateway town to the Science Vale: three large science and technology centres in the surrounding villages of Milton (

Milton Park Milton Park is a mixed use business and technology park in Oxfordshire, England, operated by MEPC plc. It is just south of the village of Milton, about west of Didcot. It is on the site of a former Ministry of Defence depot between the A ...

), Culham (

Culham Science Centre The Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) is the UK's national laboratory for fusion research. It is located at the Culham Science Centre, near Culham, Oxfordshire, and is the site of the Joint European Torus (JET), Mega Ampere Spherical Toka ...

) and Harwell (

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus is a 700-acre science and technology campus in Oxfordshire, England. Over 6,000 people work there in over 240 public and private sector organisations, working across sectors including Space, Clean Ener ...

which includes the

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It began as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with the Atlas ...

History

Ancient and Medieval eras

The area around present-day Didcot has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years. A large archaeological dig between 2010 and 2013 produced finds from the Mesolithic,

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. In the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

era the inhabitants of the area tried to drain the marshland by digging ditches through what is now the Ladygrove area north of the town near

Long Wittenham Long Wittenham is a village and small civil parish about north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rura ...

, evidence of which was found during surveying in 1994. A hoard of 126 gold

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denom ...

dating from about 160 was found just outside the village in 1995 by an enthusiast with a metal detector. It is now displayed at the Ashmolean Museum on loan from the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 does not record Didcot. In 13th-century records the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

appears as ''Dudecota'', ''Dudecote'', ''Doudecote'', ''Dudcote'' or ''Dudecothe''. Some of these spellings continued into later centuries, and were joined by ''Dodecote'' from the 14th century onward, ''Dudcott'' from the 16th century onward and ''Didcott'' from the 17th century onward. It is derived from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

, meaning the house or shelter of Dudda's people. The name is believed to be derived from that of

Dida In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) is an optional information and communication technology (ICT) course, usually studied by Key Stage 4 or equivalent school students (aged 14-16). DiDA was introduc ...

, a 7th-century

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

n sub-king who ruled the area around Oxford and was the father of Saint

Frithuswith Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide (c. 65019 October 727; ang, Friðuswīþ), was an English princess and abbess. She is credited as the foundress of a monastery later incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford. She was the daughter of a sub-ki ...

or Frideswide, now the patron saint of both Oxford and

Oxford University 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 th ...

Didcot was then a rural Berkshire village, and it remained so for centuries, only occasionally appearing in records. If Didcot existed at the time of the

in 1086, it will have been much smaller than several surrounding villages, including Harwell and

, that modern Didcot now dwarfs. The nearest settlement recorded in the Domesday Book was ''Wibalditone'', with 21 inhabitants and a church, whose name possibly survives in Willington's Farm on the edge of Didcot's present-day Ladygrove Estate. The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of All Saints go back to the 12th century. They include the walls of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and east wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

, which were built about 1160. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Early modern era and the coming of the railways

White Cottage, Didcot - geograph-4311294-by-Jaggery

Parts of the original village survive in the Lydalls Road area around All Saints' church. In the 16th-century Didcot was a small village of landowners, tenants and tradespeople with a population of about 120. The oldest surviving house in Didcot is White Cottage, a 16th-century

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

building in Manor Road that has a

wood shingle Wood shingles are thin, tapered pieces of wood primarily used to cover roofs and walls of buildings to protect them from the weather. Historically shingles, also known as shakes, were split from straight grained, knot free ''bolts'' of wood. T ...

roof. It is a Grade II listed building. At that time the village centre consisted of a group of cottages and surrounding farms around Manor, Foxhall and Lydalls Roads. Those still surviving include The Nook, Thorney Down Cottage and Manor Cottage, which were all built in the early to mid-17th century. Didcot village was on the route between

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

(now Wantage Road), which in 1752 was made a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

. Didcot had three toll gates that collected revenue for the

turnpike trust Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, ...

until 1879, when the trust was dissolved due to the growing use of the railway.

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway, engineered by

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...

, reached Didcot in 1839. In 1844 the Brunel-designed Didcot station was opened. The original station burnt down in the late 19th century. Although longer, a cheaper-to-build line to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

would have been through Abingdon farther north but the landowner, the first

Lord Wantage Brigadier General Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, (17 April 1832 – 10 June 1901) was a British soldier, politician, philanthropist, benefactor to Wantage, and first chairman and co-founder of the British National Society for Aid t ...

, is reputed to have prevented that alignment. The railway and its junction to assisted the growth of Didcot. The station's name helped to standardise the spelling "Didcot".

Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway

Didcot's junction of the routes to

and to

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

via the

Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR) was a cross-country railway running north–south between Didcot, Newbury and Winchester. Its promoters intended an independent route to Southampton and envisaged heavy traffic from the Midl ...

(DN&S) made the town militarily important, especially during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

campaign on the Western Front and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

preparations for D-Day. The DN&S line has since closed, and the large

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

ordnance depots have disappeared beneath the power station and Milton Park Business Park; however the 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC is still based at the

Vauxhall Barracks Vauxhall Barracks is a military installation in Didcot, Oxfordshire. History The barracks were established during the First World War alongside a depot for storing explosives from Woolwich Arsenal. By the end of the War 1,900 troops were based t ...

in the town. Remains of the DN&S railway survive in the eastern part of town. This line, designed to provide a direct link to the south coast from the Midlands and the North avoiding the indirect and congested route ''via''

and Basingstoke, was built in 1879–82 after previous proposals had failed. It was designed as a main line and was engineered by John Fowler and built by contractors TH Falkiner and Sir Thomas Tancred, who together also constructed the

Forth Railway Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...

. It was a very costly line to build due to the heavy engineering challenges of crossing the Berkshire and

Hampshire Downs The Hampshire Downs form a large area of downland in central southern England, mainly in the county of Hampshire but with parts in Berkshire and Wiltshire. They are part of a belt of chalk downland that extends from the South Downs in the southe ...

with a 1 in 106 gradient to allow for higher mainline speeds, and this initial cost and the initially lower than expected traffic volumes caused the company financial problems. It never independently reached

, but instead joined the main

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

line at Shawford, south of Winchester. In the

there was so much military traffic to the port of

that the line was upgraded. The northern section between Didcot and Newbury was made double track. It was closed for 5 months in 1942–43 for this to be done. Several of the bridges in the area of Didcot and the Hagbournes were also strengthened and rebuilt. Although passenger trains between Didcot and were withdrawn in 1962, the line continued to be used by freight trains for a further four years, and there was regular oil traffic to the north from the refinery at Fawley near Southampton. But in 1966 this traffic was also withdrawn, and then the line was dismantled. The last passenger train was a re-routed ''

Pines Express The ''Pines Express'' was a named passenger train that ran daily between Manchester and Bournemouth in England between 1910 and 1967. It ran for the first time under the name ''Pines Express'' on 26 September 1927; and is believed to have been ...

'' in May 1964, diverted due to a derailment at . A section of the abandoned embankment towards Upton, now designated as a

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United K ...

route, has views across the town and countryside.

21st century

As at 2011, Didcot had a population of more than 26,000, and by 2021, the population had grown to more than 31,000. The new town centre, the Orchard Centre, was opened in August 2005. As part of the Science Vale Enterprise Zone, Didcot is surrounded by one of the largest scientific clusters in the United Kingdom. There are a number of major science and technology campuses nearby, including the

, and

. The

Diamond Light Source Diamond Light Source (or Diamond) is the UK's national synchrotron light source science facility located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. Its purpose is to produce intense beams of light whose special characteristic ...

synchrotron, based at the Harwell Campus, is the largest UK-funded scientific facility to be built for more than 30 years. Wright StreetLite SK66 HRN Didcot GreenwoodWay

Wright StreetLite SK66 HRN Didcot GreenwoodWay

Didcot has been designated as one of the three major growth areas in Oxfordshire; the Ladygrove development, to the north and east of the railway line on the former marshland, is set to double the number of homes in the town since construction began in the late 1980s. Originally, the Ladygrove development was planned to be complete by 2001, but the plans for the final section to the east of Abingdon Road were only announced in 2006. Before the Ladygrove development was completed, a prolonged and contentious planning enquiry decided that a 3,300-home development would be built to the west of the town, partly overlapping the boundary with the

Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically a north-west projection of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway N ...

. This is now known as Great Western Park. In 2008 a new £8 million arts and entertainment centre, Cornerstone, was opened in the Orchard Centre. It has exhibition and studio spaces, a café and a 236-seat auditorium. Designed by Ellis William Architects, the centre is clad with silvered aluminium panels and has a window wall, used to connect the building with passing shoppers. The United Kingdom government named Didcot a garden town in 2015, the first existing town to gain this status, providing funding to support sustainable and environmentally friendly town development over the coming 15 years. In 2017, researchers named Didcot as the most "normal" town in England.

Railways

Didcot - GWR 800017+800016 arriving from Swansea

Didcot Railway Centre

Formed by the Great Western Society in 1967 to house its collection of Great Western Railway locomotives and rolling stock, housed in Didcot's 1932-built Great Western engine shed. The Railway Centre is often used as period film set and has featured in works including ''

Anna Karenina ''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writt ...

'', '' Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'' and ''

The Elephant Man Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then we ...

''. The centre is north of

Didcot Parkway Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844 and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 by British Rail to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead. ...

railway station, and is accessed from the station via the pedestrian subway.

Didcot Parkway station

The station was originally called Didcot but then renamed in 1985 by British Rail; the site of the old GWR provender stores, which had been demolished in 1976 (the provender pond was kept to maintain the water table) was made into a large car park to attract passengers from the surrounding area. An improvement programme for the forecourt of the station began in September 2012. This was viewed as being the first phase of better connecting the station to Didcot town centre.

Economy

Power stations

Didcot A Power Station Didcot power station (Didcot B Power Station) is an active natural gas power plant that supplies the National Grid. A combined coal and oil power plant, Didcot A, was the first station on the site which opened in 1970 and was demolished betwee ...

(between Didcot and Sutton Courtenay) which was commissioned in 1968, ceased generating electricity for the National Grid in March 2013. '' Country Life'' magazine once voted the power station the third worst eyesore in Britain. The power station

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...

s were visible from up to away because of their location, but were designed with visual impact in mind (six towers in two separated groups apart rather than a monolithic 3×2 block), much in the style of what is sometimes called Didcot's 'sister' station – Fiddlers Ferry Power Station – at

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

, Cheshire, constructed slightly earlier. The power station had also proved a popular man-made object for local photographers. In October 2010, Didcot Sewage Works became the first in the UK to produce

biomethane Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as sustainable natural gas (SNG) or biomethane, is a biogas which has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil natural gas and having a methane concentration of 90% or greater. By increasing the concentr ...

gas supplied to the National Grid, for use in up to 200 homes in Oxfordshire. On Sunday 27 July 2014 three of the six cooling towers were demolished in the early hours of the morning, using of explosives. The demolition was streamed live by webcam. On Tuesday 23 February 2016, part of the boiler house building at the power station collapsed; one person was declared dead, five injured and three missing. All were believed to have been preparing the site for demolition. On Sunday 17 July 2016, what remained of the structure was demolished in a controlled explosion. The bodies of the three missing men were still in the remains at that time. A spokesman said that because of the instability of the structure, it had not been possible to recover the three bodies. For safety reasons, robots were used to place the explosive charges, and the site was demolished just after 6am. On Sunday 18 August 2019, the remaining three cooling towers were demolished at 7am.

Car racing

Didcot has a strong connection with the

Williams Grand Prix Engineering Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, currently racing in Formula One as Williams Racing, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded by former team owner Frank Williams and automotive engineer Patrick Hea ...

team as Frank Williams founded the team there in a former carpet warehouse in 1977. After establishing themselves in

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

, the factory, now including a small 'Williams Museum', moved within Didcot to a new factory on the

site on Basil Hill Road. They stayed there until 1995 when they finally outgrew the site, moving to nearby Grove where they are based today. In 2012 a new road through the new Great Western Park development in Didcot was named ''Sir Frank Williams Avenue'' in honour of Williams' contribution to the town. Didcot also hosts a Pirelli distribution and logistics centre which provides tyres for

Grand Prix motor racing events across Europe. Didcot's link to the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such ...

continued in 2015 when the head offices of the

Bloodhound SSC ''Bloodhound LSR'', formerly ''Bloodhound SSC'', is a British land vehicle designed to travel at supersonic speeds with the intention of setting a new world land speed record. The arrow-shaped car, under development since 2008, is powered by a je ...

team were moved to the new University Technical College (UTC) Oxfordshire site on the boundary between Didcot and Harwell. The team are aiming to break the world

land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...

with their supersonic car.

Agriculture

Didcot is surrounded by farmland which has historically grown traditional

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

crops such as

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, sheep farming is also common in the area. The area is also noted for farmers growing

opium poppies Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

for legal production of

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...

and heroin to meet

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

demand. The poppies produced are sold to

Macfarlan Smith MacFarlan Smith is a pharmaceutical research company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, founded in 1815. It is part of the Fine Chemical and Catalysts division of Johnson Matthey. Background J.F. Macfarlan J.F. Macfarlan Ltd was founded in 1780 as a ...

, a major

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

, who hold a licence from the United Kingdom's Home Office.

Printing

From 2007 until 2017, the

Daily Mail & General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...

had a printing plant in Didcot.

Military

The

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

is on the edge of town. The regimental headquarters of

11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC is a specialist regiment of the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) responsible for counter terrorist Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), the safe recovery or disposal of conventional m ...

is based in the town.

Local government and representation

Until 1974 Didcot was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year, and from

Wallingford Rural District Wallingford Rural District, an administrative area in what was then Berkshire, now Oxfordshire area, in southern England was established in 1894, from the then Berkshire area within Wallingford Rural Sanitary Authority (the Oxfordshire area bec ...

to the district of

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 ...

, becoming the largest town in the new district. Didcot is also the largest town in the parliamentary constituency of

, which has been represented since 2019 at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

David Johnston David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served from 2010 to 2017 as Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation. He is the commissioner of the Leaders' Debates Commis ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

. Didcot is a parish but has the status of a town. It is administered by Didcot Town Council, which comprises 21 councillors representing the six wards in the town: *All Saints – 5 members *Ladygrove – 7 members *Milbrook – 1 member *Northbourne – 4 members *Orchard – 1 member *Park – 3 members

Health

The district in England with the highest healthy life expectancy, according to an

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for t ...

(ONS) study, is the 1990s-built Ladygrove Estate in Didcot. While the average UK healthy lifespan was thought to be 68.8 for women and 67 for men in 2001, people in Ladygrove district of Didcot could expect 86 healthy years. It is believed Ladygrove may have benefited from the local recreation grounds and sports centre.

Education

Didcot is served by seven

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s: All Saints' C of E, Aureus, Ladygrove Park, Manor, Northbourne C of E, Stephen Freeman and Willowcroft. Along with these seven schools based in Didcot, a further six local village schools form the Didcot Primary Partnership: Blewbury Endowed C of E, Cholsey, Hagbourne, Harwell Community, Long Wittenham C of E and South Moreton County. Didcot Primary Academy, opened in 2016 in the Great Western Park area, falls under Harwell Parish. There are two state secondary schools in Didcot: St Birinus School and

Didcot Girls' School Didcot Girls' School (also known as DGS) is a secondary school with academy status for students in Didcot, Oxfordshire and the surrounding rural area. The school has been awarded with Language College and Enterprise College status (as of 2006) ...

are single-sex schools that join at

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

to host ''Didcot Sixth Form''. Following the construction of the Great Western Park estate, another two secondary schools have opened;

UTC Oxfordshire UTC Oxfordshire is a mixed University Technical College located in Harwell, Oxfordshire, England. It opened in 2015 and caters for students aged 14–19 years. The UTC's sponsors are Activate Learning, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, RM, Mi ...

(ages 14–19), in 2015, and Aureus School (ages 11–16), in 2017.

Arts and culture

Arts centre

Cornerstone, a new 278-seater multi-purpose arts centre, was opened on 29 August 2008.

Choir

Didcot Choral Society, founded in 1958, performs three concerts a year in various venues around the town as well as an annual tour (Paris in 2008, Belgium in 2009).

Symphony orchestra

Didcot Concert Orchestra, founded in 2017, performs concerts every February, May and October at Cornerstone arts centre in Didcot.

Film and TV

In November 2018, Rebellion Developments began setting up a new studio on the edge of Didcot, valued at $100 million, using the existing former '' Daily Mail'' printing works on Milton Road. The studio is planned to be used for film and TV series based on '' 2000 AD'' comic series characters, including ''

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of '' 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running ...

: Mega City One.''

Sport and leisure

Didcot_Town_Football_Club,_Station_Road_-_geograph

Leisure centres

Didcot has three main leisure centres: * Didcot Leisure Centre * Didcot Wave Leisure Centre (pool) * Willowbrook Leisure Centre

Football

Didcot Town Football Club's home ground is the Loop Meadow Stadium on the Ladygrove Estate, having moved from their previous pitch off Station Road in 1999 to make way for the new Orchard Centre development. Founded in 1907, the club currently play in the 8th tier of the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

system. Most notable achievements include winning the FA Vase in 2005 and reaching The

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

1st Round in 2015.

Cricket

Didcot

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

Club's current home ground is at Boundary Park in Great Western Park.

Korfball

Didcot Dragons

Korfball Korfball ( nl, korfbal) is a ball sport, with similarities to netball and basketball. It is played by two teams of eight players with four female players and four male players in each team. The objective is to throw a ball into a netless baske ...

club was founded in 2003. The club has two teams in the Oxfordshire leagues. They train in Willowbrook Leisure Centre in the winter and Boundary Park in the summer.

Running

Didcot has its own chapter of the Hash House Harriers. The club started in 1986 (the first run was on 8 April of that year). Didcot Runners is an AAA affiliated running club founded in 2003 that meets every Tuesday & Thursday for group runs and fitness sessions. Its members participate in running races across the country.

Cycling

Didcot Phoenix cycle club was founded in 1973 and is represented by over 70 members who participate in a range of

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

activities including touring, time trials, road racing, Audax, cyclocross and off-road events. The

OVO Energy OVO Energy is a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England. It was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick and began trading energy in September 2009, buying and selling electricity and gas to supply domestic properties throughout the UK. By Ju ...

Women's Tour, a

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws as ...

event, passed through Didcot on 12 June 2019. The race was halted for around 30 minutes on the Broadway because of a crash that caused the withdrawal of race leader

Marianne Vos Marianne Vos (; born 13 May 1987) is a Dutch multi-discipline cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . After winning a junior European and World Championship in road racing, she continued her success in senior cycling by becomin ...

Table tennis

The Didcot & District

Table Tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Association (DDTTA) was established in 1949 to promote the playing of table tennis in the Didcot area. It organises an annual league competition containing affiliated teams from towns and villages across south Oxfordshire.

Parks, gardens and open spaces

Didcot Town Council maintains the following: * Edmonds Park * Loyd Recreation Park * Smallbone Recreation Park * Garden of Remembrance * Marsh Recreation Ground * Great Western Drive Park * Ladygrove Park and Lakes * Ladygrove woods * Ladygrove Skate Park * Mendip Heights Play Area * The Diamond Jubilee Garden * Broadway Gardens * Stubbings Land * Millennium wood at the Hagbourne Triangle * Cemetery, Kynaston Road Didcot also has a nature reserve, Mowbray Fields, where wildlife including

common spotted orchid ''Dactylorhiza fuchsii'', the common spotted orchid, is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae. ''Dactylorhiza fuchsii'' is one of Europe's commonest wild orchids. It is widespread across much of Europe, with the range ...

and

Southern Marsh Orchid ''Dactylorhiza praetermissa'', the southern marsh orchid or leopard marsh orchid, is a commonly occurring species of European orchid. Description ''Dactylorhiza praetermissa'' grows to tall, with leaves generally unspotted. The flowers, appea ...

occur.

Notable people

* Didcot was the birthplace of

William Bradbery William Bradbery (11 July 1776 – 11 August 1860), an entrepreneur, was the first person in England to cultivate and sell watercress on a commercial basis. Early life William was born in Didcot in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), he was one of seven ...

, the first person to cultivate

watercress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf v ...

commercially in the early 19th century. * Didcot is the birthplace of former

and

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

manager Maurice Evans and one of Reading's most-capped football players Jerry Williams. * Didcot-born rower Ken Lester competed in the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

at the age of 13 in the coxed pairs (as the

cox Cox may refer to: * Cox (surname), including people with the name Companies * Cox Enterprises, a media and communications company ** Cox Communications, cable provider ** Cox Media Group, a company that owns television and radio stations ** ...

), he remains Britain's youngest ever male Olympian. * Figurative artist

Rodney Gladwell Rodney Gladwell (1928–1979) was a British artist born in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England whose paintings "hover between abstraction and figuration and play on this ambiguity". Between 1949-1950, he followed in the foot steps of one of the greates ...

was born in the town in 1928. * Air Commodore Russell La Forte was born in Didcot in 1960 and was commander of British armed forces in the South Atlantic Islands between 2013 and 2015. He was a member of the Didcot Air Training Corps (Air Cadets) as a child. *

Matt Richardson Matthew Jeffrey Richardson (born 28 May 1991) is an English comedian and broadcaster, known as a co-presenter on the ITV2 spin-off show '' The Xtra Factor'' with Caroline Flack in 2013. In 2016, Richardson became the drive time presenter on th ...

, a comedian and television presenter known for hosting '' The Xtra Factor'', grew up in Didcot. * The band Radiohead are from nearby Abingdon and recorded many tracks from their discography in a converted apple shed on the edge of Didcot, near the power station site. This included a number of tracks from '' OK Computer'' which has appeared frequently in critic's lists of the greatest albums of all time. *

Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A memb ...

has been Lord Vaizey of Didcot since entering the House of Lords in September 2020. From 2005 to 2019, Ed Vaizey was MP for Wantage (which includes Didcot in the constituency).

In popular culture

Didcot's synonymous connection with railways was noted in Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (producer), John Lloyd's humorous book the ''Meaning of Liff'', published in 1983. The book, a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet", referred to "a Didcot" as "The small, oddly shaped bit of card which a ticket inspector cuts out of a ticket with his clipper for no apparent reason". Didcot is referred to in Ricky Gervais' comedy feature film ''David Brent: Life on the Road'': the song "Lady Gypsy" on the film's soundtrack tells of a romantic meeting "by the lakeside, just south of Didcot". An electricity pylon on farmland alongside Abingdon Road (opposite Tamar Way) on the eastern edge of Didcot featured on the cover of US rock band Black Swan Lane's album ''Under My Fallen Sky'', released in November 2017. Didcot Road Sign

In March 2018, anonymous artist Athirty4 added a series of fictional fantasy names to a number of road signs in Didcot. The names included: Narnia (world), Narnia, Neverland, Emerald City, Middle-earth, Middle Earth, and Gotham City. Oxfordshire County Council thought the signs were an act of vandalism; however, members of the general public felt that the signs brought a lot of positive attention to the town.

Nearby places

Main nearby towns and city

* Abingdon is 8 miles (13 km) north of Didcot by road via the A34. *

is 14 miles (23 km) north of Didcot by road via the A34, or approximately 18 minutes by train. * Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallingford is 6 miles (10 km) east of Didcot by road via the A4130. *

is 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Didcot by road via the A417 and A329, or approximately 12 minutes by train. *

is 9 miles (15 km) west of Didcot by road via the A417. * Swindon is 37 miles (60 km) west of Didcot by road via the A34 and M4, or approximately 15 minutes by train. Source

Villages and hamlets within approximately 5 miles of Didcot

* Appleford * Aston Tirrold * Aston Upthorpe * Berinsfield * Blewbury * Brightwell-cum-Sotwell * Chilton, Oxfordshire, Chilton * Clifton Hampden * Coscote * Culham * Dorchester on Thames, Dorchester * Drayton, Vale of White Horse, Drayton * East Hagbourne * Fulscot * Harwell *

* Little Wittenham * Milton, Vale of White Horse, Milton * Milton Hill * North Moreton * Rowstock * South Moreton * Steventon, Oxfordshire, Steventon * Sutton Courtenay * Upton * West Hagbourne

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Didcot Twinning AssociationDidcot.com community websiteDidcot Today – local community websiteDidcot FirstFuture Didcot

360° Panorama of Church interiors
{{Authority control Didcot, Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Railway towns in England Towns in Oxfordshire