20 Attractions to Explore Near The Vale & Downland Museum

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The Ridgeway

The Ridgeway

5.11km from The Vale & Downland Museum

The Ridgeway in Oxfordshire stretches 85 miles from Overton Hill near Avebury, Wiltshire, to Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring, Buckinghamshire. It has been used for 5000 years by many different groups of people; travelers, farmers, and armies. Today it is popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, horse riders, and disabled people using mobility scooters. One of the good trekking destinations and also a beautiful place flourished with natural beauty.

Uffington Castle - White Horse and Dragon Hill

Uffington Castle - White Horse and Dragon Hill

9.86km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Uffington ‘Castle’, which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age hillfort. The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old. It consists of a large enclosure, measuring about 220 metres by 160 metres, surrounded by a wide chalk-stone bank or inner rampart about 12 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, and formerly lined with sarsen stones.

Uffington White Horse

Uffington White Horse

9.86km from The Vale & Downland Museum

The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old. Nearby Dragon Hill, a natural mound about 10 metres high, is named for its association with the legend of St George.

Uffington Castle

Uffington Castle

9.89km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Uffington 'Castle', which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age hillfort. It consists of a large enclosure, measuring about 220 metres by 160 metres, surrounded by a wide chalk-stone bank or inner rampart about 12 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, and formerly lined with sarsen stones. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the western end.

Wayland's Smithy

Wayland's Smithy

11.84km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Wayland's Smithy is an atmospheric historic site about a mile's walk along the Ridgeway from the Uffington White Horse. This two-phase Neolithic tomb was a mortuary structure of stone and wood. After a short period of disuse, this was encased within a second, larger, barrow double its height, which remained in use for about 100 years. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental

Farmer Gow's

Farmer Gow's

11.99km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Farmer Gow's is a small livestock farm in a beautiful Oxfordshire countryside setting in the Vale of White Horse. It is an Activity Farm with lots of indoor and outdoor farm activities for the kids, from chick handling and ferret walking to hay bale climbing and tractor rides. It was one of the iconic attraction in this area and also it will be a new experience for visitors.

Faringdon Folly Tower

Faringdon Folly Tower

12.64km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Faringdon Folly was the last folly to be built in England. It stands 100 feet high and dominates the landscape above the historic market town of Faringdon. The folly was built by Lord Berners of Faringdon House in 1935 and offers superb views over 5 counties on a clear day. It was Hailed as 'Britain's finest 20th century Folly Tower' and 'One of the most important follies in Britain'

National Trust - Ashdown

National Trust - Ashdown

12.87km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Ashdown House, originally a hunting lodge, looks more like a tall doll's house stranded on the Berkshire Downs. Although the architect is uncertain, it is thought that Craven commissioned Captain William Winde to build the Dutch-style mansion as a hunting lodge and refuge from the plague.

Didcot Railway Centre

Didcot Railway Centre

13.04km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Didcot Railway Centre is a former Great Western Railway engine-shed and locomotive stabling point located in Didcot. It has a fine collection of over 20 locomotives, passenger coaches and freight wagons. Visitors will be able to take a trip behind one of the Great Western Railway’s steam express engines on the Centre’s demonstration line at weekends and Wednesdays.

Thames Path

Thames Path

13.06km from The Vale & Downland Museum

The Thames Path National Trail is a wonderful way to explore the River Thames. This long distance walking route starts at the source of the river in a field in the Cotswolds and follows the banks of the Thames for 184 miles (294km) through several rural counties before entering the City of London and finishing at the Thames Barrier in Greenwich.

New Bridge

New Bridge

13.57km from The Vale & Downland Museum

New Bridge is a 13th-century bridge carrying the Abingdon–Witney road over the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, close to the Thames' confluence with the River Windrush. It is one of the two oldest surviving bridges on the Thames, part Grade I and part Grade II*-listed. The bridge is in a rural setting, with a public house at either end: the Maybush Inn on the south bank and the Rose Revived on the other.

Abingdon County Hall Museum

Abingdon County Hall Museum

13.62km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Abingdon County Hall Museum’s aim is to present the history of Abingdon and the surrounding locality in the most informative, exciting and accessible way possible. It housed a courtroom on the first floor, raised on arches above a market space. It is now home to the Abingdon County Hall Museum, and there are fine views from the rooftop overlooking the market square.

Abbey Meadows

Abbey Meadows

14.09km from The Vale & Downland Museum

The Abbey Gardens are a charming stroll with flat, easy paths and wide gates. Amongst the planted flower displays can be found Victoria’s statue and the ruins which have fooled many a visitor into thinking they have seen the remains of Abingdon Abbey. It has won the Green Flag award for parks and open spaces for ten years in a row.

Great Coxwell Barn

Great Coxwell Barn

14.19km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Great Coxwell Barn is a Mediæval tithe barn at Great Coxwell, Oxfordshire, England. It is on the northern edge of the village of Great Coxwell, which is about 9 miles northeast of Swindon in neighbouring Wiltshire. The barn was built about 1292 for the Cistercian Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire, which had held the manor of Great Coxwell since 1205. Since 1956 it has been in the care of the National Trust.

Welford Park

Welford Park

14.72km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Welford Park is a private estate with a fabulous snowdrop collection. They thrive on chalky soil. Parkland and gardens surrounding an elegant Queen Anne manor. The gardens are best known for the Snowdrop Woods, with early flowering snowdrops in bloom through February and early March. The estate opens its grounds to the public every year for about four weeks to enable visitors to see the carpets of snowdrops that line the riverbanks and flow through the nearby woods.

Badbury Hill

Badbury Hill

15.06km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Badbury Hill is an area of woodland, well-loved for its bluebells, walking and cycling. The summit of the hill is the site of an Iron Age hill fort known as Badbury Camp. It is roughly circular in shape, most of which was levelled early in the 19th century. It is now a wooded area, known locally as Badbury Clump, of roughly nine acres, swathed in bluebells in May and is a well-frequented local recreation area, for walkers and dog-owners.

Pendon Museum

Pendon Museum

15.57km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Pendon Museum, located in Long Wittenham near Didcot, Oxfordshire, England, is a museum that displays scale models, in particular a large scene representing parts of the Vale of White Horse in the 1920s and 1930s. The museum's main feature is one of the world's finest landscape model of parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire as they were around 1930. It includes exact models of buildings, of railways and other transport. The entrance fee includes an audio guide. Family trails are available too.

Wittenham Clumps

Wittenham Clumps

17.57km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district. The Clumps are made up of Round Hill and Castle Hill. Enjoy a figure of eight walk around the hilltops or head between them.

National Trust - Buscot Park

National Trust - Buscot Park

17.81km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Buscot Park is a country house at Buscot near the town of Faringdon in Oxfordshire within the historic boundaries of Berkshire. It was built in an austere neoclassical style between 1780 and 1783 for Edward Loveden Loveden. It remained in the family until sold in 1859 to Robert Tertius Campbell, an Australian. Campbell's daughter Florence would later be famous as Mrs Charles Bravo, the central character in a Victorian murder case that remains unsolved to this day.

Kelmscott Manor

Kelmscott Manor

18.28km from The Vale & Downland Museum

Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire. Visitors today can still experience the beauty and seclusion that inspired many of William Morris’s most important designs and writings as well as influencing his ideas on conservation for both the built and natural environments. It includes furniture, original textiles, pictures and paintings, carpets, ceramics and metalwork. The estate also boasts a beautiful garden.

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Know more about The Vale & Downland Museum

The Vale & Downland Museum

The Vale & Downland Museum

Vale & Downland Museum & Visitor Centre, 19 Church St, Wantage OX12 8BL, UK

The Vale and Downland Museum is situated in the bustling market town of Wantage and has lots to offer for a fun, interactive family day out. It offers a wide range of services, including galleries interpreting the cultural heritage of the Vale of White Horse region, temporary exhibitions, a library, a gift shop, and a cafe with a delightful terrace and patio garden.