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M E M B K D U R A Y I A V E N U E W N M AY F I E L D O A R Y G

F I S H E R S N Route 5 - Old Grove Walk O I T A T S Grove today is the largest village in the Vale of White Horse, vastly different from the village recorded in 1142 when King Stephen granted the Manor of Grove to the Abbott of Bermondsey, and very different from the self-supporting village that had its own baker, bacon factory, clockmaker, wheelwright, smith and forge and three working watermills, two of which are recorded as early as 1622, during the ensuing centuries.

Start at Old Mill Hall car park. Head north Walk on past 16th century timber framed box Follow the brook downstream, walking on the by basketball court; behind the court is the site “prefab” cottages: Brookside Cottage, Orchard grass to the next (cobbled) footbridge. of the “old mill” from which the hall gets its Cottage. name.

Look left at the old farm house – a timber frame yeoman farmhouse with herring bone design, initials AC above the centre top window. Old cobbled footbridge Orchard Cottage Orchard On our left is Brook Farm House with its Cross over to the Village Green at the surviving timber-framed pigeon house in the Letcombe Brook bridge. This brook is a rare

Old farm house example of a chalk stream; it originates from the springs above the Letcombes and flows for 12 kms until it joins the Childrey Brook. Pause to read the Letcombe Brook Information Board. Farm house roof detail Farm house roof

Turn right (east). Continue to Bay Tree public Farm House Brook house on the right. The present Bay Tree pub garden. Outside there are stone steps down to (1895) is next to the site of the old one which the brook for accessing drinking water (killing

was a thatched building on the left. Information board three Grove people out of a population of 520 during the 1832 cholera epidemic as the Now cross over the main road and turn right, Finish the walk by crossing over and walking water-borne disease spread downstream from back into Grove. up School Lane past the balancing ponds to Old Wantage). Mill Hall. Old stone steps Old Mill Hall

Return to the cobbled bridge and cross House Green onto the Green. See the Old Post Office to the The Green House and Green View are at right across the road, also Rowan Cottage which the roundabout at the start of Main Street. The was the “poor house” and in 1828 became part church footpath on the far side of the church of the Wantage Union. It stands on the former (with a “no cycling” sign) led to old wood-frame Village Green, which then covered both sides of cottages on the former village green, but they the road and has since been much encroached. burned down. Before dedication the cholera victims were buried here, then a church was built, then a second church, but this deteriorated and in the 1960’s a newer church was built which survives until the present day. Old Post Office

Follow the tarmac path across the Green towards the bus shelter. St John the Baptist Church fold line non-printing

Pause on the Green by the Millennium Proceed southwards along Main Street. Yew Stone, erected on 1st January 2000, depicting trees are situated around the site of the first old transport through the ages. church. Continue along Main Street past the bus shelter and seat. Millennium Stone Churchyard Some 30 metres on the left past “The Laurels” is the shed of the old wood yard; opposite was the coach builders. First on the left is Homeleigh Cottage (a cruck cottage made from four A-frames of elm tree), one of the two oldest cottages in the village although it has “new” brickwork now. Produced thanks to funds provided by SEEDA and Oxfordshire County Council through

Grove Village Hall Village Grove Oxfordshire Rural Community Council

Two red brick cottages on the left, Series Editor: Jean Nunn-Price MBE “Rosslyn” and “Old School View,” are across from the old school, where the village hall is Illustrations by Stuart Roper

Homeleigh Cottage now. Photographs by Dan Rolfe and David Greenaway Next door, “Old Herriards” is a box cottage. Text courtesy of Bill Fuller and Jean Nunn-Price

Opposite, The Old Cottage at 1, Oxford Further copies of this route and others in the Lane is another box cottage (a 2-bay cottage like series are available from the Independent Advice the Vale & Downland museum in Wantage). Centre, Market Square, Wantage