Appleford-on-Thames

Although Appleford-on-Thames is close to the River Thames, north of Didcot and west of Sutton Courtenay on the B4016, the big mystery for a visitor to the village is where is the river? There is no sign of it at all!

At the extreme south of the village is a level crossing over the main railway line from Didcot to Oxford. However to enter the village from the direction of Didcot you ignore the level crossing and turn sharp right. The road into the centre of the village is a long straight one with little of interest except for the public house, The Carpenter's Arms.

In the centre of the village the road turns left and leaves the village over a railway bridge and past the station. Also in the centre of the village is the start of Church Street which leads to Manor Farm and the parish church, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. There are a few interesting buildings in this road.

Historically Appleford was a place where apples from the Harwell orchards were carried across the Thames into Oxfordshire. (Until the middle of the last century this part of Oxfordshire was part of Berkshire.) Appleford was once a key crossing point along the river and there was once a bridge over the Thames here. It is also known that there was another church as well as the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene at the south side of the bridge.

Although nothing remains of it today, it is believed that there was a church on the site of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Saxon times, probably founded by Saint Birinus of Dorchester or one of his priests. The oldest features of the present building date from the times when the nave was rebuilt in the Twelfth Century and the chancel in the Thirteenth.