Vale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically part of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of the White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway National Trail in its far south, across the North Wessex Downs AONB at the junction of four counties. The northern boundary is defined by the River Thames. The name refers to Uffington White Horse, a prehistoric hill figure.
Vale of White Horse
Vale of White Horse District
1 April 1974
Non-metropolitan district council
223.4 sq mi (578.6 km2)
65th (of 296)
142,116
160th (of 296)
640/sq mi (250/km2)
- 48.6% Christianity
- 41.7% no religion
- 6.1% not stated
- 1.4% Islam
- 0.9% Hinduism
- 0.5% Buddhism
- 0.5% other
- 0.2% Judaism
- 0.2% Sikhism
38UE (ONS)
E07000180 (GSS)
As well as being a local authority district, the Vale of White Horse is a geographical, historical and cultural region. The name "Vale of White Horse" predates the present-day local authority district, having been described, for example, in Daniel Defoe's 1748 travel account A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain.[2] There are references to the name as early as the 17th century; the Elizabethan antiquarian and historian William Camden referred to the "Vale of White Horse" in his 1610 topographical study on the British Isles.[3] Traditionally, the Vale has been understood to cover an area wider than the present-day local authority district, stretching from Buscot, in the west, to Streatley, in the east.[4] The Vale and Downland Museum, based in Wantage, stores and presents the cultural heritage of the region.
History[edit]
The area has been long settled as a productive fertile chalklands above well-drained clay valleys, and well-farmed with many small woodlands and hills between the Berkshire Downs and the River Thames on its north and east sides. It is named after the prominent and large Bronze Age-founded Uffington White Horse hill figure.
The local government district was formed as part of the 1974 re-organisation, taking in three small Berkshire towns – in descending size order Abingdon, Faringdon and Wantage – and the surrounding rural parishes. There are 68 parishes in the district. Previously, since the 19th century, the administrative areas had been the Municipal Borough of Abingdon, Wantage Urban District, Abingdon Rural District, Faringdon Rural District, and most of Wantage Rural District.
Geography[edit]
The Vale is the valley of the Ock, a stream which joins the Thames from the west at Abingdon. It is almost flat and well wooded, its green meadows and foliage contrasting richly with the bald summits of the Berkshire Downs, which flank it on the south. The numerous elm trees that once were a major feature of the Vale were lost to Dutch Elm Disease. To the north, a low ridge separates it from the upper Thames Valley, holding back the soft Jurassic sedimentary and Cretaceous deposits (Greensand, Gault and Kimmeridge Clay) behind a hard corallian limestone escarpment ridge, in what is technically a hanging valley; but local usage sometimes extends the vale to cover all the ground between the Cotswolds (on the north) and the Berkshire Downs. According to the geographical definition, however, the Vale is from two to five miles wide, and the distance by road from Abingdon to Shrivenham at its head is 18 miles.
Wantage is the only town in the foot or slopes of the vale (Faringdon, on the northwestern rim, is closely associated). Wantage is in a sheltered hollow at the foot of the hills, along which villages concentrate often in long strip parishes. Numerous springs, the run-off from the chalk hills were main local water sources, and an accessible water table enabled the growing of fruits, grains and vegetables.
The Ridgeway[edit]
A grassy track represents the Ridgeway, claimed as the oldest road in Europe, perhaps five thousand years old or more. It travels along the crest of the hills, far above what would then have been marshy lowlands or forests, continuing Icknield Street, from the Chilterns to Goring and Streatley on the River Thames. It links The Wash and Salisbury Plain, and would have been an important artery for trade.
Other earthworks, in addition to those near the White Horse, overlook the Vale, such as Letcombe Castle (also known as Segsbury Camp) above Wantage. At the foot of the hills, not far east of the Horse, is preserved the so-called Blowing Stone of Kingston Lisle, a mass of sandstone (a sarsen) pierced with holes in such a way that, when blown like a trumpet, it produces a loud note. It is believed that, in earlier times, the stone served the purpose of a bugle.
Several of the village churches in the Vale are of interest, notably the fine Early English cruciform building at Uffington, that has an octagonal tower and is known as The Cathedral of the Vale.[6]