Wytham Abbey Geograph-3504897-by-Dave-Price

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

on the

Seacourt Stream Hinksey Stream is a branch of the River Thames to the west of the city of Oxford, England. It starts as Seacourt Stream (also known as Wytham Stream), which leaves the Thames at a bifurcation north of the village of Wytham, and rejoins the riv ...

, a branch 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 ...

, about northwest of the centre 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 ...

. It is just west of the Western By-Pass Road, part of the

Oxford Ring Road The Oxford Ring Road circles the city of Oxford, England. It is a dual carriageway ring road for most of its length apart from a short section between Woodstock Road and Banbury Road in the north of the city. The severe restrictions on traff ...

( A34). The nearest village is Godstow. Wytham was the northernmost part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. 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 ...

is first recorded as ''Wihtham'' around 957, and comes from the

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 ...

for a homestead or village in a river-bend.

History of the manor

The manor of Wytham, along with Wytham Abbey (not a religious foundation but the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

) and much of the village, was formerly owned by the

Earls of Abingdon Earl of Abingdon is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 30 November 1682 for James Bertie, 5th Baron Norreys of Rycote. He was the eldest son of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey by his second marriage to Bridget, 4th Barones ...

. The Church of England parish church of All Saints was originally a medieval building but it was extensively rebuilt between 1811 and 1812 by Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon. The ruins of the former Godstow Nunnery lie just east of the village.

The 20th century

In the 1920s, The 9th Earl of Abingdon sold the Wytham Estate – comprising not just the Abbey but most of the houses in the village and approximately 2,500 acres of park, farm and woodland, including Wytham Great Wood – to Colonel Raymond ffennell, who had made a fortune in South Africa and changed his name from Schumacher on arrival in England, and his wife Hope (nee Weigall). During

World War II 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 opposing ...

they agreed to take in six East End children as part of the evacuee programme. After the war, they gifted the entire Wytham Estate to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

– the largest bequest to the University since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The Abbey was subsequently sold by the University of Oxford in 1991 and is now in private hands.

Wytham Great Wood

Wytham Woods is an area of long-established

mixed woodland Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These f ...

noted for its high population of

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...

s and long-term monitoring of

great tit The great tit (''Parus major'') is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Af ...

s. It is on rising ground to the west of the village and covers 1000 acres. The woods are a Site of Special Scientific Interest.Wytham Woods SSSI citation
/ref> The University of Oxford has owned the woods since 1942 and uses them for research in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The University has a field station north of the village. It is claimed to be one of the most researched pieces of woodland in the world. The woods are open to the public by permit which are available on application, for walking but are closed to dogs, horses and bicycles. A named path within the wood is called the Singing Way. It is aligned with Oxford and got its name because

monks A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

on pilgrimage from

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

would break into song here as they sighted the town and the end of their day's journey. On 7 October 2017 an Oxfordshire Blue Plaque was unveiled at the Keeper's Hill car park in Wytham Woods, commemorating the bequest of the woods to the University of Oxford in 1942 by Raymond and Hope Ffennell.Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board: Wytham Woods
/ref>

Inspector Morse

Wytham village and Wytham Woods have frequently featured in the "

Inspector Morse Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series '' Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...

" detective novels by

Colin Dexter Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''Inspector Morse'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV television series, ''Inspector Morse'', fr ...

, most notably in '' The Way Through the Woods''.

Gallery

Image:Wytham.jpg, The centre of Wytham, with the village shop on the left and the White Hart pub on the right File:Keepers Cottage, Wytham Woods - geograph.org.uk - 307425.jpg, Keepers Cottage, Wytham Woods, a gift to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1943 File:Summer dappling.jpg, Ancient tree in Wytham Great Wood File:Wytham War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1231172.jpg, Wytham War Memorial File:John Krebs Field Station, Wytham, Oxon - geograph.org.uk - 442296.jpg, Oxford University's John Krebs Field Station, Wytham

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Populated places on the River Thames Civil parishes in Oxfordshire