The crash of Lancaster HK788 at Lyford, 8 April 1945
A month before the end of the war in Europe, an RAF Lancaster returning from a raid caught fire and crashed at…
The History of Wantage
Stories from Wantage, Grove and the villages, from the wantage.com archive.
The Hanney brooch and the West Hanney Saxon burial, 2009
In 2009 a metal detectorist at West Hanney found a gold and garnet brooch in the grave of a young woman buried…
The Childrey Warren pipeline excavations, 2018–19
Archaeologists working ahead of a Thames Water pipeline between Childrey Warren and Wantage found 10,000 years of activity and more than 30…
The Wantage Tramway
A 2½-mile roadside tramway linking Wantage with Wantage Road station, one of the first in Britain to use steam; open 1875–1945.
The unveiling of King Alfred’s statue, 1877
On 14 July 1877 the Prince and Princess of Wales unveiled Count Gleichen's marble statue of Alfred, given to Wantage by Colonel…
Wantage in the early 20th century
From Lord Wantage's death to the eve of the Second World War: a quiet market town, the tramway's decline and Charlton joining…
Wantage since 1945
Atomic science at Harwell, Williams F1 at Grove, a move to Oxfordshire, a new museum and the rapid growth of Wantage and…
The Wilts and Berks Canal at Wantage
The canal from Semington to Abingdon opened in 1810 with a branch into Wantage; railway competition killed it and it was abandoned…
Wantage Road station on the Great Western Railway
The GWR station at Grove, two miles from the town, served Wantage from 1846 until the Beeching closures of 1964.
King Æthelred’s council at Wantage and the Wantage Code
In about 997 King Æthelred's council met at the royal manor of Wantage and issued a law code with an early form…