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Oxfordshire
(Physical landscapes - Oxfordshire Geology Trust - History and
Landscapes - Community Literature)
GEOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE
Philip Powell. Dovecote Press. Wimb ourne
2005
ISBN 978-1-904349-19-8
pp. 103 coloured plates, 27 maps, 5 tables. £12.95
The author states, “The object of this book is to explain something of
how the rocks (of Oxfordshire) were formed and their arrangement.” This is
achieved within a well-illustrated account of such interest and clarity that
the receptive audience will range from the established geologist to those
who have an intelligent, but non-specialist knowledge of the landscape of
the county and how it was formed. The author is careful to conclude by
bringing the story up to date by including Quaternary landscape changes,
acknowledging that, “It should be kept in mind that Oxfordshire as we know
it today has been shaped only in the last few thousand years.” A well
rounded book which will find a place on the shelves of those who have a
fascination in the subtle interplay between geology and landscape in this
gentle county.
THE SEVEN SHIRES WAY
Elaine Steane 2002.
ISBN 978-1-873877-51-7 Readon Publishing. 200 pages. 113 OS map
extracts. 78 illustrations.
RRP £12.95 Our price £8
At the Thematic
Trails specially negotiated price of £8 it is undoubtedly our
bargain of the year and is available at this price only by direct
purchase from Thematic Trails, or Longworth and District History
Society.
The book covers 21
independent walks, each existing in its own right and each of which can be
achieved easily in one day. Instructions include suggested public transport
for good access to each of the walks which are exclusively on public rights
of way. Directions include many relevant excerpts from Ordnance Survey maps
covering all the walks.

The walks are
arranged in linear sequence so that, if you have a mind to do so, in
21 days or less you can circumnavigate the county of Oxfordshire,
straying into seven shires on a walk which, in total, covers 234
miles. A useful list of overnight accommodation is included for
those undertaking all or part of this longer option.
The walks include
a wide variety of scenery from the marlstone scarp slope of Edgehill,
the ironstone villages of North Oxfordshire, the clay vale of
Aylesbury, the beech woods of the Chiltern Hills, the riverbanks of
the Thames, the open downland of Berkshire and the Cotswold villages
in Gloucestershire. With clear illustrations this ‘walking
companion’ included commentary on archaeology, history, botany
and some of the many literary connections.
THE GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE COTSWOLDS
Andrew Goudie & Adrian Parker. £15.00.
ISBN 978-0-9529662-0-3
Cotteswold Nat. Field Club. 1996. A5.139 pages. 54 figures. This
introduction to the physical landscape of the Cotswolds includes
chapters on the Jurassic geology, the Quaternary including glaciation
and river terraces, the valley systems, mass movement phenomena and the
form of the escarpment and its outliers.
Oxfordshire Geology Trust
This not-for-profit organisation has a large programme of events
encouraging the public, including children, to enjoy and conserve
Oxfordshire’s earth heritage. Below is a range of their landscape
trails (secrets in the landscape). To learn more about the
Oxfordshire Geology Trust visit
www.oxforshiregt.org
01
FARINGDON TRAIL, secrets in the landscape
(Oxfordshire Geology Trust) £2 12 page folding booklet 11X24cm, 14 colour plates, 6 maps and
figures. Starting in the town centre the walk circumnavigates the
town including such sites as the Bell Hotel, All saints Church,
Folly Hill, with views out over the Oxford Clay Vale, Folly Park,
Coxwell Pit and the Highworth Road. Attention is drawn to the way
the town is intimately connected with the limestone ridge upon which
it is built.
02
KIRTLINGTON AND BLETCHINGDON TRAIL, secrets in the
landscape £2 12 page folding booklet 11X24cm, 9 colour plates, 13 maps and
figures. The trail starts in Kirtlington Quarry rich in limestone
fossil shells and Ooids. The walk continues to the limestone-built
Pigeon Lock with views of Pound Hill, isolated within an abandoned
meander. In Bletchingdon, the houses, walls and roofing material all
emphasis the presence of limestone beneath.
03
OXFORD CITY TRAIL, secrets in the landscape
(Oxfordshire Geology Trust)
£2 12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 16 plates,
5 maps and figures. This introduction to the geology of the city of
Oxford including Headington (Quarries and stone walls) and the city
centre (Magdalen College, the High Street and St Michael’s Tower).
Building materials include local limestone from Headington but stone
was also brought in from quarries in the Cotswolds, including from
Burford and Chipping Norton.
04
STONESFIELD TRAIL,
secrets in the landscape
(Oxford Geology Trust) £2
12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 17 plates,
7 maps and figures.
A two-hour circular walk through an area famous for its
stone slates and for its early discovery of fossil dinosaurs. No
dinosaur fossils guaranteed but there is the opportunity to examine
fossil-rich limestone in walls and houses. There is evidence too for
climatic change both in the rocks and their fossils and evidence of
more recent change since the last ice age.
05
ADDERBURY TRAIL, secrets in the landscape
(Oxford Geology Trust) £2
12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 16 plates,
5 maps and figures. Adderbury stands on Marlstone, an ironstone
which gives its building stones a rich red colour but a stone which
is vulnerable to weathering, something which you will quickly notice
as you tour the village. The village is surrounded by rich,
attractive rolling farmland which again has a close relationship to
the rocks beneath.
06
WHITE HORSE TRAIL, secrets in the Landscape
(Oxford Geology Group) £2 12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 22 plates,
5 maps and figures. From the Uffington White Horse carved into the
261 metre high White Horse Hill, explore the 2800 year old
earthworks of Uffington Castle with its outlier of Dragon Hill. To
the south of the crest of the escarpment runs the 85 mile long
Ridgeway, probably the oldest ‘road’ in Britain. From here there are
unparalleled views out across the clay Vale of the White Horse. The
trail explores the chalk upland landscape as well as offering
explanation for the presence of ‘sarsens’, flints and chalk as a
building stone.
07
BURFORD TRAIL, secrets in the Landscape
(Oxfordshire Geology Trust) £2 12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 12 plates,
9 maps and figures. The High Street descends steeply from the
Jurassic Limestone ridge towards the bridge across the River
Windrush. The honey-coloured limestone has provided the building
stone for many of the buildings in the town. Taynton Stone was used
to build the large church, sometimes called the ‘cathedral of the
Cotswolds’. From five quarries around Burford, Taynton Stone was
often sent down the Thames to places like Oxford and London where it
was used in St Paul’s Cathedral. The trail also discusses the form
of the River Windrush, its water mills and its dry valleys as well
as drawing attention to the many layers of different rocks which
make up the Cotswolds.
08
CHIPPING
NORTON TRAIL, secrets in the landscape
(Oxfordshire Geology Trust) £2
12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 15 plates,
9 maps and figures. Chipping Norton is built on a plateau of
limestone, about 200 metres above sea level. A small but deep
steep-sided valley cut into this limestone plateau makes this a good
place to explain how the Cotswold landscape is dictated by its
geology. In part this might also explain why perhaps the most famous
geologist in the world (William Smith 1769 - 1839) was born here.
In such an environment it is not surprising that the trail has
sections on Cotswold building stones, Jurassic fossils, Oxfordshire
Ironstone, geological sections, springs and even on William Smith
himself.
History
and Landscapes
RURAL LIFE IN THE VALE OF WHITE HORSE
1780-1914
Nigel Hammond
ISBN 978-0-9522467-0-1
Rectory Orchard Books
1993. 166 pages. 73 illust. RRP £7.95
Thematic Trail Price:
£3.
This book deals with the social, economic, political, agricultural and
industrial activity of the four towns: Abingdon, Faringdon, Wallingford and
Wantage, and the numerous rural settlements scattered between them. Subjects
include enclosure, farming techniques, the Berkshire Pig, weights and
measures, markets and fairs, village fetes, the canals, the Great Western
Railway, turnpikes, the Wantage Tramway and fox hunting.
GINGE TO LOCKINGE, HISTORICAL WALK
John Brooks
ISBN 978-0-948444-10-4
Thematic Trails 1988.
£2.95
36 pages. 24 illustrations.
Whilst walking through a village landscape in West
Oxfordshire, historical sources and the landscape itself are
combined to demonstrate how evidence from a variety of sources can
be used to throw light on the nature and rate of historical change
which has taken place in this small area of English countryside.
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Locally you can buy
your Ginge to Lockinge booklet at:
Vale and Downland Museum, Church Street. Wantage. OX12 8BL
Ardington Post Office. High Street. Ardington Oxfordshire T:
01235 -833237
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THE ABINGDON WATERTURNPIKE
MURDER, a True-life Tale of Crime & Punishment.
Mark Davies.
ISBN 978-0-9535593-2-9.
Oxford Towpath Press 2003. 132 pages. £6.99.
“This is a true story. All the main characters in it actually lived
in or near Abingdon at the end of the eighteenth century; most –
ordinary working people of little note – would no doubt be greatly
surprised to find themselves remembered over 200 years later. But
that, I hope is part of the charm of this tale. Dramatic in its own
right – what murder isn’t, after all? ...” Mark Davies.
Essentially the story is woven from 25 documents held at the Oxfordshire
Record Office in Oxford. A fascinating insight into 18th century life of the
labouring poor with a murder thrown in.
DIARY OF WILLIAM TAYLER, footman 1837 by William Tayler
(edited by Dorothy Wise)
ISBN 978-1-900893-02-2
Westminster City Archives 1998
£7.50 Paperback Height 25cm 96 pages. 40
illustrations. A gentleman servant’s journal, being a fascinating
account of a year in the life and times of a Westminster household
(both master and servants). The local association is that William
Tayler was born and brought up in Green Farm, Grafton, near
Clanfield, Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire Community Literature Project
Thematic Trails, in close association with Longworth and District
History Society, have initiated the ‘Oxfordshire Community
Literature Project’, a programme which supports locally published
literature within the county. Selected literature, deemed to
encourage the interpretation and appreciation of valued local
environments, is provided with a national shop window and marketing
structure by inclusion within the Thematic Trails national catalogue
and web site displays. This service is available both to individuals
and local organisations and is provided by Thematic Trails free of
charge. The following organisations,
listed in alphabetical order,
already make use of this facility and their publications are
as follows:
Abingdon Ock Street Heritage Group
Abingdon Walks Denchworth Local History Group
Iffley
History Society Longworth and District History Society; see
Oxfordshire Golden Ridge or visit their web site:
www.l-h-s.org.uk
The Marcham Society Standford-in-the-Vale History Society Turnpikes
- Tolls - Ancient Routes (Alan Rosevear)
Uffington - Tom Brown's School Museum Publication Gardening with Nature (National series by Jenny Steel)

Abingdon
Ock Heritage Group
OCK
STREET REMEMBERED; an Abingdon Community Editors: Jackie
Hudson, Elizabeth Drury. Design: Ken Organ. 2008.
£7.00
A4. 45 pages. Over 100 black and white photos. Other
illustrations include a fascinating, detailed O.S. map of Ock Street
in 1912. At one level this book is a nostalgic look at the history
of the street, much of it as remembered by the residents themselves.
They look back to the sense of community which existed in this
microcosm of Abingdon life. That is a pleasant enough exercise in
itself but the text does not shy away from reflections on the
poverty and fear of disease that haunted the population of streets
such as this until comparatively recent times. This is a nicely
balanced book and an admirable example of community literature.
Abingdon Walks
A series of walks
in the Abingdon area provide a pleasant way to explore the ancient
town and the surrounding countryside. Each walk, with illustrations
and simply walking instructions, can be instantly printed out and
should be used with a local map. The introductory instructions point
out that, these are not intended to be a step by step guide to the
walks that leads you by the hand every step of the way, but rather
to enhance your walk by highlighting local history, views and
curios. Some of these items may indeed tempt you to stray off your
route so keep a map at hand!
Inner town walk -
Sutton Courtney walk – Outer town walk – Samuel Pepys walk – Marcham
walk – Boar’s Hill walk – Dorchester to Abingdon walk (Thames path)
– Abingdon to Oxford walk (Thames oath) – MG trail.
To download
Abingdon walks visit:
www.abingdonwalks.co.uk
Denchworth
HISTORICAL WALK AROUND DENCHWORTH
Denchworth Local History Group 2006
50p 12 pages 14 illustrations A3 sheet folded and concertinaed to make
pocket-sized (10cm X 21cm) pamphlet. Clear instructions for an
exploration of the village with reference to 23 points of interest.
A useful introduction to this Vale of White Horse village.
THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST JAMES THE GREAT, DENCHWORTH
Denchworth Local History Group 2001 £1.00 14 pages (A5) 20 pen and ink drawings. An introduction and guide to
the history, architecture and monuments of this quiet rural church.
For more information about the Denchworth Local History Group
contact Susan Brandon Tel: 01235 868451 Email:
sue@brandonm.freeserve.co.uk
Longworth and District History Society
See full page: Oxfordshire
Golden Ridge (Kingston Bagpuize, Southmoor, Longworth,
Hinton Waldrist) or visit the history web site:
www.l-h-s.org.uk

Marcham Society publications
NEW
MARCHAM REMEMBERED a
village in pictures
ISBN
978-0-9530220-2-1
(2009) size 22cm X
28cm. 106 pages. 265 illustrations. £10 This is a record in
pictures, together with a commentary, of the village of Marcham,
three miles to east of Abingdon in the Vale of the White Horse. The
photographic record plots the changes in Marcham from an
agricultural backwater a hundred years ago, to the greatly expanded
settlement of today where it is no longer a place of work for most
of its inhabitants. The book also serves as a village history of the
past 100 years and is a celebration of village life and community,
both the old and new.
A
TALE OF TWO BENCHES
Claire Bolton
ISBN 978-0-9530220-1-4.
2000. A5. 21pages.
£2.95
Reflections on Robert Gibbings and his link with Marcham.
AYRIS FAMILY RECEIPT BOOK of 1845
(published 1997). 23 pages.
£2.95
The Ayris family, sometime local blacksmiths, made a
record of useful recipes. These included how to make ‘a Horse Mare
or Gelding follow its owner or stand to be shod’; ‘For the Cankers’;
for ginger, parsnip and rhubarb wine and gooseberry vinegar.
CORAL RAG: The Marcham Society Journal
Volume One Spring 2001
44 pages (A5).
£3.00 Focus: Wild Celery - Marcham’s water birds - Marcham’s
misfortunes - David Jones, Vicar 1699 to 1724.
Volume Two Spring 2002
56 pages (A5)
£3.50 Focus: Excavations: Marcham’s Roman Amphitheatre
- Duffield Memorial - The Church that Marcham might have had -
Plants - Moths and Butterflies - Hedgerows - Lost and Found (Stone
loom weight) in Marcham.
Volume Three Spring 2003
52 pages (A5)
£3.50 Focus: Excavations: Manor Farm, Marcham - Snails -
Victorian clay pipes - Conker collecting 1917 - The Snowdrop - 17C
women in Marcham.
Volume
Four Spring 2004
56 pages (A5)
£3.50
includes an update on the excavations on Trendles Field, Manor Farm;
articles on slugs, the Church Institute a century ago, Marcham in
1901 and Commercial Bakers in Marcham in the 19th and 20th
Centuries.
Volume Five 2005 48 pages
(A5)
£3.50
includes articles to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World
War II; Marcham at war, Prisoners of War, Bombs in the Marcham area
and War Memorials. Also churchyard plants, Gravestone Inscriptions
and Skeletons at the Amphitheatre.
Volume Six 2006
44 pages (A5)
£4 includes updates on the Marcham-Frilford Archaeological
sites; grapes at Frilford Heath; the school in the 1930s and 1940s;
Life on the Wall; the Gore-Brownes of Oakley Park.
Volume Seven 2007
48 pages, 50 illustrations in b/w and colour (A5) £4
Includes: Field Walking in Big Leas Field, Manor Farm;
Ammonites in Marcham; Marcham Floods.
Volume Eight 2008 44 Pages, 30
illustrations in b/w and colour. A5 £4
Includes: Upwood: a house of it’s time – Dealing with the Government
1650 style – Frilford Heath: rare habitat and plants – Quarries at
Marcham – Marcham School 1945 to 2003.
Stanford-in-the-Vale
HATFORD, a Parish
Record Violet M Howse (1976)
£5.00 62 pages (A5) 12 plates. A facsimile edition published
in 2009 by Stanford-in-the-Vale History Society. The book is the result of
long-term meticulous research building up a picture of Hatford from
the Bronze Age to 1974 and originally published privately by Violet Howse herself in 1976.
The Stanford Historian
Edited by Phil Morris.
ISSN 1476-8232
£1 per issue.
Vol 1 (1) Spring 2002
(A5) 36 pp (Street names 1 - Growing up between the wars).
Vol 1 (2) Autumn 2002
(A5) 32 pp (Street names 2 - St Denys
Church 1 - Richard III).
Vol 2 (2) Autumn 2003 (A5) 32 pp (Childhood memories - What
was the Local Militia?).
Vol 3 (1) Spring 2004 (A5)
32 pp (Street names 3 - Childhood Memories 2 - Gleanings)
Vol 3 (2) Autumn 2004 (A5)
40 pp (Possible ‘First Fleet’ connections - Memories 3)
No 7 Autumn 2005 (A5) 40 pp
(Oral History Project, So, what then is history?)
No 8 Spring 2006 (A5) 36 pp (Oral History
Project; Violet and Jasmine Howse Photographic Archive Project;
Wayside, the history of a Victorian Stanford house) No 9 Autumn 2006 (A5) 32 pp (The Furthest
Promised Land - Cottages on the Green)
No 10 Spring 2007
(A5) 44pp (‘Poor Law’ examinations of 1747 – Diary of
the Trans-Atlantic crossings of John West – 15th century Vine
Cottage)
No 11 Autumn
2007 (A5) 24pp (Tithe records – Diary of John West, part 2 –
Family trees; Whiting and King).
No 12 Spring 2008 (A5) 28pp (Slavery - villains or slaves -
Diary of John West, part 3 - Architecture St Denys Church, part 1).
No 13 Autumn 2008 (A5) 24pp (Roads of
Stanford - Architecture St Denys Church, part 2).
No 14 Spring 2009 (A5) 28pp (Local 19 century clerics – 2nd
WW childhood – 1870 incidents at the turnpike)
No 15 Autumn 2009 (A5) 28pp (Evacuated to Berkshire –
Waterman Furlong – Lieutenant James’s Horse Blister)
Turnpikes - Tolls - Ancient routes (Alan Rosevear)
These booklets reflect Alan Rosevear’s long-term research interests
in the Turnpikes, milestones, toll houses, coach, railway and waggon
routes across the Upper Thames Valley. The text is supported by
maps, tables, drawings and figures drawn from a wide variety of
historical sources. A very worth-while historical resource in its
own right.
RUTV 1 Ancient Roads Across the Vale of White Horse. (A4) 18 pages 1993
2000 £2.00
RUTV 2 Ogilby's Road to Hungerford. (A4) 8 pages. 1993, 1994. 90p
RUTV 3 Turnpike Network in the Upper Thames Valley. (A4) 36
pages. 1994-9. £3.80
RUTV 4 Besselsleigh Turnpike, + Harwell to Streatley Turnpike.
(A4) 29 pages. 1993-9. £2.80
RUTV 5 The Wallingford, Wantage and Faringdon
Turnpike. (A4) 22 pages £3.80
RUTV 7 Turnpike Roads through Abingdon +Henley to Dorchester
Turnpike. (A4) 39pp, 2000 £4.60
RUTV 8 Turnpike Roads around Oxford. (A4) 56 pages. 1994-95-2000.
£5.80
RUTV 9 The King’s Highway - Recorded journeys through the Thames
Valley. (A4) 33 pp. 2000. £3.50
RUTV 10 Milestones and Toll-houses on old Turnpike Roads. (A4) 24
pages. 1993-1996. £3.00
RUTV 11 Coach and Waggon Services Across the Upper Thames Valley.
(A4) 31 pp. 1993-9. £5.00
RUTV 12 Response of the Turnpikes to the coming of the Railway. (A4)
15 pages. 1993-4-6 £1.60
RUTV 13 Early Road Maps of the Upper Thames Valley. (A4) 35 pages.
1993. 1994, 1996. £3.60
Uffington: Tom Brown's School Museum Publication
THE WHITE HORSE AND THE VILLAGE OF UFFINGTON
Jane Cooper and Sharon Smith.
Tom Brown’s School Museum Publication 2004 £5.00
A5, 60 pages, 41 illustrations and maps.
This book is an attractive story of the growth and history of the
village of Uffington in the Vale of the White Horse. The 3000
year-old White Horse on the edge of the Berkshire Downs dramatically
dominates the view to
the immediate south-west of the village. The
probable long-term relationship of the village and the White Horse
provides
a fascinating theme which threads its way through the book
from an iron age settlement, excavated to the immediate north of the
village, to present-day studies.
For further information on the village and its museum visit:
www.museum.uffington.net
WHITE HORSE TRAIL, secrets in the Landscape
(Oxford Geology Group) £2 12 page folding pocket booklet 11X24cm, in full colour. 22 plates,
5 maps and figures. From the Uffington White Horse carved into the
261 metre high White Horse Hill, explore the 2800 year old
earthworks of Uffington Castle with its outlier of Dragon Hill. To
the south of the crest of the escarpment runs the 85 mile long
Ridgeway, probably the oldest ‘road’ in Britain. From here there are
unparalleled views out across the clay Vale of the White Horse. The
trail explores the chalk upland landscape as well as offering
explanation for the presence of ‘sarsens’, flints and chalk as a
building stone.
Gardening with Nature (Jenny
Steel)
Jenny Steel, formerly ran the Wildlife Gardening Centre in Kingston Bagpuize.
A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A
WILDLIFE GARDEN
Jenny Steel. Webbs Barn Designs 2003 A5. 40 pages 29
illustrations. £3.00 From the personal experience of developing a
two-acre plot over a period of ten years, Jenny of Kingston Bagpuize gives a
flavour of a year in the life of what has become a very remarkable wildlife
garden.
BUTTERFLY GARDENING
Jenny Steel ISBN 978-0-9541116-2-5
Webbs Barn Designs 2007. A5. 32 pages, 20 colour illustrations, 7 plant
lists. £4.95 How to encourage butterflies to visit and breed
in your garden; Garden butterflies & their life cycle; Nectar plants;
larval food plants; the winter garden.
GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE Jenny Steel.
Webbs Barn Designs 2001. A5. 28 pages. £3.00
How to make your garden wildlife friendly.
WILDFLOWERS FOR GARDENS Jenny
Steel Webbs Barn Designs 2001. A5. 28 pages. £3.00
A descriptive list of over 140 wildflowers to attract
wildlife to your garden.
COTTAGE GARDENS Jenny Steel
Webbs Barns Designs 2001. A5. 28 pages. £3.00 A
descriptive list of useful plants to attract wildlife, including
butterflies, to your garden.
MEADOWS AND CORNFIELDS Jenny Steel
ISBN 978-0-9541116-0-1 Webbs Barn
Designs 2001. £3.50 A5. 25 pages. 20
colour illustrations.
How to create and maintain a meadow or cornfield to attract wildlife
to your garden.
WILDLIFE PONDS
Jenny Steel ISBN 978-0-9541116-1-8
Webb Barns Designs 2002. £3.50
A5. 32 pages. 17 colour photos. How to create a natural looking pond to
attract wildlife to your garden.
NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS AND CLIMBERS
Jenny Steel Webbs Barn Designs 2003 A5. 28 pages, 5 illustrations.
£3.00 Jenny lists native trees, shrubs and climbers that are
suitable for garden cultivation, giving information on their height, the
soil conditions which they prefer, whether they have flowers or berries and
most importantly, what wildlife they attract.
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