Wytham

Wytham derives its name from the Anglo Saxon Witta's Home around 500 BCE.{{Cite book |title=The Berkshire Book |publisher=The Berkshire Federation of Women's Institutes |year=1939 |location=Reading |publication-date=1939 |pages=173–174}} The toponym is first recorded as Wihtham around 957, and comes from the Old English for a homestead or village in a river-bend.

The manor of Wytham, along with Wytham Abbey (not a religious foundation but the manor house) and much of the village, was formerly owned by the Earls of Abingdon. The Church of England parish church of All Saints was originally a medieval building{{cite web|url=http://www.wytham-church.org.uk/|title=All Saints Church, Wytham|website=wytham-church.org.uk|location=Wytham}} but it was extensively rebuilt between 1811{{cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=W.H. |editor1-link=William Henry Page |editor2-last=Ditchfield |editor2-first=P.H. |editor2-link=Peter Ditchfield |series=Victoria County History |title=A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4 |year=1924 |pages=427–430}} (pages 427-430) and 1812 by Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon. The ruins of the former Godstow Nunnery lie just east of the village.

In the 1920s, The 9th Earl of Abingdon sold the Wytham Estate – comprising not just the Abbey but most of the houses in the village and approximately 2,500 acres of park, farm and woodland, including Wytham Great Wood – to Colonel Raymond ffennell, who had made a fortune in South Africa and changed his name from Schumacher on arrival in England, and his wife Hope (née Weigall). During World War II they agreed to take in six East End children as part of the evacuee programme. After the war, they gifted the entire Wytham Estate to the University of Oxford – the largest bequest to the university since the Middle Ages. The Abbey was subsequently sold by the University of Oxford in 1991 and is now in private hands.

Wytham Woods is an area of long-established mixed woodland noted for its high population of badgers and long-term monitoring of great tits. It is on rising ground to the west of the village and covers 1000 acres. The woods are a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1001309.pdf Wytham Woods SSSI citation] The University of Oxford has owned the woods since 1942 and uses them for research in zoology and climate change.{{cite book|last1=Savill|first1=Peter|last2=Perrins|first2=Christopher|author-link2=Chris Perrins|last3=Kirby|first3=Keith|last4=Fisher|first4=Nigel|year=2011|doi=10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199605187.001.0001|title=Wytham Woods: Oxford's Ecological Laboratory|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=282|isbn=9780199605187|url=http://www.wytham.ox.ac.uk/book.php}} The university has a field station north of the village. It is claimed to be one of the most researched pieces of woodland in the world.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk/about|title=About Wytham Woods|publisher=University of Oxford|language=en|access-date=2018-02-05}} The woods are open to the public by permit which are available on application,{{Cite web|url=https://www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk/permit|title=Walking Permit Application {{!}} Wytham Woods|website=wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-02-05}} for walking but are closed to dogs, horses and bicycles.

A named path within the wood is called the Singing Way. It is aligned with Oxford and got its name because monks on pilgrimage from Cirencester to Canterbury would break into song here as they sighted the town and the end of their day's journey.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-UbUAAAAQBAJ&q=wytham+wood+badger+singing+way&pg=PT19|title=Badgerlands: The Twilight World of Britain's Most Enigmatic Animal|last=Barkham|first=Patrick|date=2013-10-03|publisher=Granta Publications|isbn=9781847087003|language=en|chapter=Chapter 2 Meles meles}} On 7 October 2017 an Oxfordshire Blue Plaque was unveiled at the Keeper's Hill car park in Wytham Woods, commemorating the bequest of the woods to the University of Oxford in 1942 by Raymond and Hope Ffennell.[http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/wytham_woods.html Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board: Wytham Woods]

Wytham village and Wytham Woods have frequently featured{{when|date=July 2016}} in the "Inspector Morse" detective novels by Colin Dexter, most notably in The Way Through the Woods.

Image:Wytham.jpg|The centre of Wytham, with the village shop on the left and the White Hart pub on the right

File:Keepers Cottage, Wytham Woods - geograph.org.uk - 307425.jpg|Keepers Cottage, Wytham Woods, a gift to the University of Oxford in 1943

File:Summer dappling.jpg|Ancient tree in Wytham Great Wood

File:Wytham War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1231172.jpg|Wytham War Memorial

File:John Krebs Field Station, Wytham, Oxon - geograph.org.uk - 442296.jpg|Oxford University's John Krebs Field Station, Wytham

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Category:Villages in Oxfordshire

Category:Populated places on the River Thames

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Vale of White Horse