Frilford, Garford and Lyford
Right
on the busy crossroads of the A338 Oxford to Wantage road
and the A415 Witney to Abingdon road is the hamlet of
Frilford. Frilford is fine if you want a prep school,
garden centre or garage, or if you live there in one of the houses set back from
the road, but otherwise it is probably somewhere you drive
through quickly without really noticing it!
The
centre of Frilford is dominated by the Abingdon School
playing fields. Opposite the playing fields is the Abingdon
Preparatory School and, down a short drive, Frilford
Evangelical Chapel. On the outskirts of the village to
the west is Millets
Farm Centre, which includes a farm shop, restaurant,
garden centre and small animal park for the children,
and to the north towards Frilford Heath is the Frilford
Heath Golf Club.
Off
the A338 on the road that runs from just south of Frilford
west to Charney Bassett are the small villages of Garford
and Lyford. This is typical Vale countryside with small
streams and sleepy attractive villages, and Garford and
Lyford don't disappoint.
Garford
spreads along the road to Charney
Bassett from the A338. The church, St. Luke's is a
chapel of ease. It must be fairly unique as it is approached
through a famyard!
Lyford
is a smaller village and most of it is in a quiet culdesac
which leads to Lyford Manor, Manor Farm and the Jacobean
Church of St. Mary.
Garford
and Lyford are both villages which sprung up where the
River Ock could be crossed safely by ford. The Ock now
is bridged at Lyford just outside the village on the road
to Charney Bassett, and at Garford too the river is presumably
bridged where it flows through Millets Farm.