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Grove today is the largest village in the Vale of the White Horse,
from the sparsely populated
hamlet shown on an early map in the 1700s it now looks set to burst its
boundaries in the 2000's.
The village is recorded as far back as 1142 when King Stephen granted a manor
here to the Abbot of Bermondsey, and two local watermills are recorded as early
as 1622. During the 1770s the turnpike road (now the A338) was built as a more
direct route between Wantage and Oxford, and this remains as Grove’s eastern
boundary.
At the beginning of the 1800s the Wilts and Berks Canal cut through the village
bringing with it all the colourful characters associated with the canal trade.
The Great Western Railway opened Wantage Road station in 1840, two miles from
Wantage on the northern boundary of Grove. To connect this with the town, the
Wantage Tramway Company in 1875 laid a single track alongside the turnpike road
and provided England’s first steam-powered passenger and goods service. This was
hauled by a succession of engines, attaining fame through an ignoble defeat in a
race through Grove between the tram and the local sweep’s donkey cart, and
notoriety through frequent and inconvenient derailments. On one occasion a
spark from a passing engine set fire to the thatched roof of a cottage.
With the outbreak of the Second World War an airfield was built over the
agricultural acres to the west of the village. In August 1944 a sextet from the
Glenn Miller Band came to play at a dance in the camp ballroom.
By the beginning of the 1960s the airfield was no longer used. The canal had
long fallen into disuse and the three mills on the Letcombe brook suffered the
same fate. Buses and lorries now provided passenger and goods transport so the
tramway rails were taken up and the road widened. Dr Beeching short-sightedly
closed Wantage Road station, and many older houses were demolished to make way
for the new; small farmers gave up farming and sold their land to builders — the
age of the housing estates had begun!
Yet Grove tries to preserve its history. Visitors come and see where the
airfield once was. Although it is now almost entirely covered with housing and a
new business park, it is perpetuated in many local road names. And one may stand
on the road bridge and look down at what was Wantage Road station, or go to
Didcot and see Shannon, the last of the tramway engines which is displayed in
the railway museum there. Walking through the fields it is possible to trace the
line of the canal, and a small stretch of it is now being restored by local
enthusiasts. Although a few houses from the 16th and 17th centuries remain,
sadly there is now no evidence left of Grove’s clockmaker, or wheelwright, or
sawmill, forge and blacksmith, nor of the bakery or bacon factory, though one
mill still stands and traces of the other two can be found.
Grove now has a modern parish church; three others on the same site fell down
over the centuries. There is a Methodist chapel built in 1890 which now has
extensions on either side of the original building, and a much older Strict
Baptist chapel was completely rebuilt in the 1980s.
There are two village halls. The 1950s one became inadequate, and the 1980s one
is of unusual but practical design — a good conversational gambit for those
using it! Also in duplicate are the shopping centres, schools, doctors, dentists
and sheltered accommodation for the elderly. Soon there will be two graveyards,
the one at the church now being full up, future customers will have to be buried
half a mile away. There also used to be two ghosts, but it would seem they have
moved on due to lack of interest in them and pressures of everyday living — or
haunting!
Traditions too have died. The famous Duck Races, part of the ancient village
feast, were stopped in the 1950's by the RSPCA as a protest against cruelty to
ducks. The May Day celebrations, revived after the Second World War, in which
the whole village took part, are now observed only by schoolchildren as part of
the school fete. The annual summer Horticultural Show survives with the scent of
the summer produce tent intact, though its venue has changed from the common to
the recreation ground: but lost are the nationwide Tug-of-War Teams Competition
and the AA races. However, members of societies, sports clubs, church leaders,
educationalists, and even the Parish Council, manage to preserve a community
spirit among this huge and changing population.
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