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Uffington in Berks County England History and GeographyUFFINGTON, a parish in the hundred of SHRIVENHAM, county of BERKS, 4¼ miles (S.S.E.) from Great Farringdon, containing, with the chapelries of Baulking and Wolstone, 925 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Berks, and diocese of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at £21. J. A. Houblon, Esq. was patron in 1816. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome cruciform structure, in the early style of English architecture: the spire was destroyed by lightning, about 1750. The Wilts and Berks canal passes through the parish. Thomas Saunders, in 1636, founded and endowed a free school for twelve boys of this parish, and six from Wolstone: the rents applied for its support amount to £41. 15. On White Horse hill, just above the village, is Uffington Castle, a large encampment, surrounded by a double vallum, the inner one very high: it is seven hundred feet from east to west, five hundred from north to south, and is supposed to be a work of the Britons, afterwards occupied by the Romans. This hill has its name from the rude figure of a horse, three hundred and seventy-four feet in length, cut in the turf, near the summit, said to be commemorative of the victory which Alfred obtained over the Danes in this neighbourhood, though some consider it a British work. Lands were formerly held here by cleaning, or rather cutting, away the turf, to render the figure more visible; for which purpose a custom still prevails among the inhabitants of assembling to scour, as it is termed, the horse, on which occasion they are entertained by the lord of the manor, and spend the day in festivity. To the westward of Uffington Castle is a large tumulus, called Wayland-Smith, and there are various other tumuli scattered on these downs, particularly between Uffington and Lambourn, the most considerable of which are those called the Seven Barrows. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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