WOODCOTE

Woodcote is a large, some would say rather characterless, South Chilterns village. However a lot of people enjoy living there and the village does have some redeeming features.

To quote from the village website:

‘To drive through Woodcote is to miss it. A green, a village hall, a couple of modern shops and schools are all you see. Nothing distinguished or distinguishing, certainly none of the expected Thames Valley village charm with its quota of church, pub and old cottages suitably rose strewn and picturesque. Driving up from Whitchurch Hill each day to work it feels like ascending to a village in the clouds. With its radio mast to prove it, Woodcote is the highest point in the South Chilterns, after Nuffield, but leaves behind an impression of bungalows and open spaces and not much more. True, there is the attractive thatched barn of Church Farm overlooking the crossroads and here lies the key to the puzzle. Woodcote is one of the Chiltern villages which unlike their Thames Valley cousins often have a common at their centre ringed around with small farms. To find the centre you have to investigate the periphery as old Woodcote is in the valleys and hollows which surround its open heart. It is a pattern of settlement laid down in very early times and little altered since, rural but not at all isolated.’

There are two churches in the village - St Leonard's Church, Church of England and the Church of Christ the King, Roman Catholic. The latter is a modern timber-clad building. In addition, a Methodist church meets at St Leonard's Church once a month. For the history and full information about St Leonard's Church click here.

The Woodcote Rally is an annual festival of steam, vintage & veteran transport with entertainment for all the family. Crafts, trade stands, children's entertainment, protected animals, live bands, a traditional fun fair and CAMRA's famous Festival of Ale.

Woodcote is about three miles west of Goring and a mile south of the A4074 road from Wallingford to Caversham.