SHILLINGFORD

Shillingford is a small Thames-side village with several attractive houses. The A4074 bisects the village, but the Thame road has been diverted to form a mini-bypass so it avoids the centre of the village leaving the original road as a quiet back road.

Wharf Road, on the south side of the village, leads down to Shillingford Wharf, a small Thames-side green which is the only public access to the river. Here the council has thoughtfully provided a seat to enable relaxing appreciation of the river and plaques on the wall record the flood levels at various times during the 18th & 19th centuries. They must have been some floods; the flood of January 27th 1809 reached some seven feet above the present ground level!

The name of the village probably means 'the ford of the family or the followers of a man called Sciall(a)'. Now the river is bridged by a fine C19 three-arched stone bridge which was built on the site of an ancient bridge in 1827. It continues across the flood-lands on the northern side where there are three small arches to take flood-water. The present stone bridge replaced an earlier wooden one.

On the far side of the river is the well-known Shillingford Bridge Hotel which has a pleasant lawn running down to the water's edge where mooring is provided for customers.

Shillingford is on the A4074 Reading to Oxford road at the junction with the A329 road to Thame.