Longworth

The oldest parts of the Anglican St Mary's Church, Longworth are 13th-century. The current chancel, west tower and north aisle are 15th-century. The chancel has a reredos by the Arts and Crafts movement painters and sisters, Kate and Myra Bunce.{{NHLE |num=1048616 |desc=Church of St Mary |grade=I |accessdate=8 April 2016}} It is a Grade I listed building.

The parish is in the benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield.{{Cite web |url=http://www.achurchnearyou.com/longworth-st-mary/ |author=Archbishops' Council |author-link=Archbishops' Council |publisher=Church of England |work=A Church Near You |title=Longworth: St Mary, Longworth |access-date=8 April 2016}} J. R. Illingworth, a theologian and philosopher, was Rector of St Mary's from 1883 to 1915.

Longworth had a Congregational chapel, built in 1848, and a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1861.{{sfn |Page |Ditchfield |1924 |p=461}} Both chapels have now been converted into private homes.

Longworth's original manor house is early 17th-century. It was built for a judge, Sir Henry Marten, about a mile south of the village on the edge of the Vale of White Horse.{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Marten, Henry (1562?-1641) |display=Marten, Henry (1562?–1641) |volume=28}} It was later the home of his son, Henry Marten, the regicide and republican. In the 20th century, it was home to Sir Clarendon Hyde, a Liberal MP and businessman.{{sfn |Page |Ditchfield |1924 |p=461}}

File:Longworth Manor Gazebo.jpg

The current manor house, Longworth House, was originally called Manor Farm. It is just west of the parish church.{{sfn |Page |Ditchfield |1924 |p=461}} It was built in the late 17th century, and remodelled and extended in the early 20th century. It is a Grade II listed building.{{NHLE |num=1368400 |desc=Longworth Manor |grade=II* |accessdate=22 May 2020}} It was home to Colonel Granville Walton, a leading Scout.{{Cite web |url= http://www.cherbury-gainfield.org.uk/St%20Marys%20Church%20Longworth%20Information%20Guide.pdf |title=St Mary's Church, Longworth |website=www.cherbury-gainfield.org.uk |access-date=22 May 2020}}

File:Squirrel Cottage, Longworth - geograph.org.uk - 1439215.jpg

John Fell (1625–86), an English churchman and influential academic, was born in Longworth;{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Fell, John |volume= 10 |last= Yorke |first= Philip Chesney |author-link= |pages= 240–242 |short=1}} he was Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and later concomitantly Bishop of Oxford.

A farmstead about a quarter of a mile (1.2 km) south of the village has a 17th-century tithe barn, with a queen post roof seven bays long. It is a Grade II* listed building.{{NHLE |num=1387458 |desc=Tithe Barn |grade=II* |accessdate=8 April 2016}} and a scheduled monument.{{NHLE |num=1006289 |desc=Barn at Longworth House (hospital) |accessdate=8 April 2016}}

The novelist R. D. Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone, was born at the Old Rectory in 1825.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Blackmore, Richard Doddridge |volume= 4 |page= 24 |short= 1}} His father was briefly curate-in-charge of the parish.{{sfn |Winn |2010 |p=45}}

Harrowdown Hill is where biological warfare expert David Kelly died in 2003 during the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction controversy.{{Cite web |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3127605.stm |title=David Kelly laid to rest |date=6 August 2003 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=5 June 2008}} This gave rise to a public enquiry that concluded with the Hutton Report. A song by Thom Yorke called Harrowdown Hill questioned the Government's handling of the matter.

Longworth has a non-denominational county primary school.[http://www.longworthprimaryschool.uk/ Longworth Primary]

File:Optare Solo YJ10 MFN Longworth.jpg bus in Longworth]]

Oxfordshire County Council subsidised bus route 63 between Oxford and Southmoor serves Longworth on weekdays. From Monday to Friday there are five departures a day from Longworth to Oxford, and four buses a day from Oxford to Longworth. There is no service on Saturday, Sunday, or Bank Holidays. The current contractor operating the route is Thames Travel.{{cite web |url= https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/services/THTR/63?date=2023-03-02&direction=inbound |title=Thames Travel 63, Thames Travel 63S |publisher=Oxford Bus Company |access-date=2 March 2023}}

File:The Blue Boar, Longworth - geograph.org.uk - 459417.jpg

There is a pub in the village, the Blue Boar, which was built in 1606 and has a thatched roof.{{Cite web |url=http://www.blueboarlongworth.co.uk/|title=Homepage {{!}} The Blue Boar |website=www.blueboarlongworth.co.uk |access-date=2019-01-26}}{{NHLE |num=1284516 |desc=The Blue Boar public house |grade=II |accessdate=8 April 2016}}

The Lamb and Flag, about 1¼ miles (2 km) southwest of the village, was in the parish until boundary changes in 2011 transferred it to Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor. It is now a private house. These changes brought the Maybush Inn at Newbridge into the parish.

The white boar and the white rose on the Blue Boar pub sign are symbols of King Richard III. The blue boar was the personal badge of the De Vere family as Earls of Oxford. It is claimed that when Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, any White Boar pub signs were quickly repainted as Blue Boar, to signify that the white boar was dead and blue had prevailed.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}}

{{More footnotes|section|date=November 2017}}

Blue Boar Rugby Football Club,[http://clubs.rfu.com/CLUBS/portals/blueboarrfc/ Blue Boar RFC] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107024132/http://clubs.rfu.com/CLUBS/portals/BlueBoarRFC/ |date=7 January 2009}} based at the Blue Boar pub, normally plays home games at the Oxford R.F.C. ground. It played its first rugby game in March 1977, after a challenge by staff of Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford.

In the following season, several more matches were arranged against local sides and the club affiliated to the Oxfordshire Rugby Football Union. The number and quality of its fixtures increased and in May 1981 the club was elected to the Rugby Football Union. In September 1980 it made a first tour of Cornwall, followed by further visits in 1987, 1988 and 1989. Its first foreign tour in 1981 took 35 players and supporters to Brittany. The team returned there a year later. In 1991 the club was the first English RFU club to make an official tour of Hungary, hosted by the Hungarian Rugby Union. The club reached the final of the Oxfordshire Knockout Cup Plate competition in the 2003–04 and 2008–09 seasons.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=WH |editor1-link=William Henry Page |editor2-last=Ditchfield |editor2-first=PH |editor2-link=Peter Ditchfield |others=assisted by John Hautenville Cope |year=1924 |title=A History of the County of Berkshire |volume=4 |series=Victoria County History |place=London |publisher=The St Katherine Press |pages=466–471 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp466-471}}
• {{Cite book |last=Pevsner |first=Nikolaus |author-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1966 |title=Berkshire |series=The Buildings of England |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=171–172}}
• {{Cite book |last=Winn |first=Christopher |year=2010 |title=I Never Knew That about the River Thames |place=London |publisher=Ebury Press |page=45}}

{{Commons category|Longworth}}

• [https://longworthvillage.promotemyplace.com// Longworth Village on the Web]
• [https://www.longworth-pc.gov.uk/ Longworth Parish Council]

{{Vale of White Horse}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Villages in Oxfordshire