Nuffield

Nuffield is a small village half a mile south of the A4130 Wallingford to Henly road, about two miles west of Nettlebed in the heart of the Oxfordshire Chilterns. It is at one of the highest points in the southern Chilterns.

There are a number of listed buildings in and around the village but the only two actually in the village are the Church of the Holy Trinity and The Crown public house.

Holy Trinity Church dates from the C12 and has a C14 north aisle and other alterations. The chancel was restored c.1845. The Crown public house is probably late C17.

The village has an attractive common which is home to a golf club.

On the north side of the Wallingford to Henly road is Nuffield Place, the former home of William Morris, Lord Nuffield. Built in 1914, Nuffield Place is a good example of a complete, upper-middle class home of the 1930s. It contains an interesting collection of Nuffield memorabilia and is furnished and equipped precisely as it was when Lord Nuffield died in 1963. Lady Nuffield’s chief interest was the 1930s-style gardens which were laid out just after the first war and were influenced by Lutyens. They contain mature shrubs, specimen trees, lawns, brick and stone walls, an orchard, vegetable garden, ornamental pond and some statuary. The grounds continue into Park Wood, secondary mature woodland full of bluebells in spring.

Nuffield Place was, since 1963, owned by Nuffield College in Oxford, and has been open to the public during with limited opening times. However, the college has now transferred the property to the National Trust which, after a public appeal, intends to open it to the public.

Near Nuffield Place is a prison which was formerly a young offenders institution.