Longcot

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 51.616
longitude= -1.605
official_name= Longcot
population= 574 (2001 census)
shire_district= Vale of White Horse
shire_county = Oxfordshire
region= South East England
constituency_westminster= Wantage
post_town= FARINGDON
postcode_district = SN7 7
postcode_area= SN
dial_code= 01793
os_grid_reference= SU273909
ambulance_service=

Longcot is a small village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse district in the south-west of Oxfordshire (though formerly in Northern Berkshire). It is located 1 mile SE of the A420 road between Swindon and Oxford, 4 miles (6 km) SSW of Faringdon and 3 NE by E of Shrivenham.

Geography

Located in a wide bend of the nascent River Ock, Longcot is situated in archetypal low-lying vale landscape, the outlook being dominated by the scarp of the Lambourn downs a few miles to the south.

Until Dutch elm disease denuded the village in the early 1970s, Longcot had many mature English Elms gracing hedgerows and gardens.

The Civil Parish of Longcot occupies an area of 1894 acres (7.66 km²) and was in the County of Berkshire until the Local Government Act 1972 enacted in 1974.

History

Longcot (or, until 20th century, Longcott) was in the Shrivenham Hundred, with the majority of land and the manor belonging to Viscount Barrington.

For most of its history Longcot was an agricultural community, but population growth in early 19th Century began with the arrival of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1805 and the construction of the Longcot Wharf (the busiest wharf on this section of the canal, due to its proximity to Faringdon). The village population declined in line with the loss of commercial traffic on the canal to the Great Western Railway, completed in 1841. Commercial traffic on the canal ceased completely in 1902.

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin was constructed in the 13th Century, but with one exception all the windows are later insertions. The original west tower collapsed in 1721 (while the bells were being rung) and was rebuilt in 1722. Four stone urns, mounted on iron spikes at each corner of the tower, were removed in the late 1970s for safety reasons.

Longcot has had a church school since 1717, the original building in the SW corner of the churchyard paid for by voluntary subscription. The current school building, built in 1969 opposite The Green on Kings Lane, replaced a previous building on the same site constructed in 1874.

Population

The following data has been taken from historical Census information in the public domain.

Further reading

* Longcot: A Village in the Vale, Guy Richerds & Shirley Dalton-Morris ISBN 0-9536602-0-6

External links

* [http://www.longcotprimary.ik.org Longcot & Fernham C of E Primary School]
*
* [http://www.faringdon.org/vllongcot.htm Faringdon.org: Longcot]
* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=2529&st=longcot Vision of Britain: Longcot]