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Baulking, previously in Berkshire, is a relatively tranquil village with about
85 inhabitants, situated in the lovely Vale of the White Horse and bounded on
one side by the river Qck, known locally as Rosey Brook. Long ago it was a
thriving market town, its market day having been changed by charter in 1219 from
Thursday to Tuesday, and has had connections with the ancient abbey of Abingdon
and the manor of Kingston Lisle. Parts of the village were in the past owned by
the Earls of Spencer and of Craven. Today, although Intercity trains whizz
through the cutting (begun in 1839) and under Brunel’s bridge, one can neither
board a train at Uffington station (which was built in Baulking parish) nor
refresh oneself at the Junction Hotel, both now closed.
The main feature of the village is its large goose green around which stand
attractive farmhouses, pretty cottages and the remains of the old village pump.
This 18 acre green, in former times controlled by two gates, is now necessarily
in three separate parts, the natural ‘divisions’ being the railway and the
church, alongside the latter of which there is presently a cattle grid. Certain
adjacent land-holders to the green have grazing rights consisting of sheep
commons: so many sheep equal one cow, horse, etc, and whereas in olden times
flocks of sheep grazed the green and wool was an important industry, today
cattle are let loose annually from 13th May to 6th December. It is good to see
domestic geese back after a long interval, but guinea fowl and other poultry are
no longer around.
The church of St Nicholas was built in this idyllic spot in the 13th century,
and has interesting wall paintings which were uncovered and restored in 1988—9.
A service is held every Sunday. It is recorded that the present churchyard, for
some time previously already fenced with oak, was consecrated and first used as
a burial ground in 1849/50. The last vicar of Baulking left in 1951 on becoming
Dean of Wells, whereupon the vicarage was sold and the parish linked to that of
Uffington and Woolstone.
The spacious village green is a favoured meeting place of the Old Berks Hunt,
and records show there was a meet of the Royal Buckhounds on 2nd March 1893 when
hundreds of folk turned out and there were waggons, ‘musicianers’, cock-shies
and Aunt Sallies. In the 1920s point-to-points were staged on Baulking Hill.
Mention must be made of Baulking Green, the horse which put the village on the
map in the 1960s, bringing many glittering steeplechase trophies back to this
corner of England.
Agriculture is still the predominant industry, though today only two of the
eight farms have dairy herds, the lush pasture elsewhere being grazed by store
cattle, with in places diversification to arable. In the 1970s open caste mining
for high quality fuller’s earth and the drying thereof on site began, thus
providing an ever changing scene: first the creation of bunds, then excavation
to great depths even necessitating the resiting of the road to
Stanford-in-the-Vale, and after extraction immediate reclamation field by field.
The village hall, brick kiln, shop, pub, school — and alas the splendid elms —
are no more, and inevitably some residents now commute elsewhere. Children are
taken to Uffington or Wantage for their schooling, and, although some
consumables are delivered to the door, there is a community bus based in
Uffington which conveys Baulking people to Faringdon for shopping, while a
mobile library attends to the cultural needs of the parish. The village joins
forces with Uffington and Woolstone for many activities, including sport, the
WI, MU, Scouts and Guides, but it controls its own parochial affairs through its
Parish Meeting.
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