Uffington, Berkshire

Description
Uffington, a parish, with a village, in Berks, on the Wilts and Berks Canal, and on the G.W.R., and in the White Horse Vale, under the White Horse Hill, 4 1/4 miles S by E of Great Faringdon, and 7 NW from Wantage. It has a station, called Uffington Junction, about a mile N of the village, and a post and money order office under Faringdon; telegraph office at railway station. Acreage, 2929; population of the civil parish, 557; of the ecclesiastical, 555. There is a parish council of six members and a chairman. Uffington took its name from the Saxon king Offa, and gives the title of Viscount to the eldest son of the Earl of Craven. A description of the town is given in the opening chapter of " Tom Brown's Schooldays." White Horse Hill, in this parish, bears on its summit the figure of a galloping horse, cut 2 or 3 feet deep through the turf to the chalk, and covering nearly an acre of ground. It is ascribed to Alfred the Great, but is more probably the work of the ancient Britons. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £257 with residence. The church is an ancient cruciform building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, S porch, and a central octagonal embattled tower with pinnacles. It contains several interesting tombs and memorials, and there are some ancient yew trees in the churchyard. There are Baptist and Congregational chapels and a public reading-room.