20 Attractions to Explore Near The Ridgeway

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A stunning collection of dramatic and rare plant species and creatures of the rainforest that thrive in tropical temperatures. A visit to The Living Rainforest is a rare opportunity to see some of the wonderful plants and wildlife that the world is losing as rainforests disappear. The Living Rainforest has been accredited by the Council for Learning Outside of the Classroom and awarded the LOtC Quality Badge. Each year around 25,000 children visit the Living Rainforest as part of their school's

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.

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’, 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 '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.

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.

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.

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

The Donnington Castle is a ruined medieval castle that was held by the Abberbury family from 1287. It consists originally of a curtain wall with four round corner towers, two square wall towers, and a substantial gatehouse, constructed around a courtyard in the style typical of the fortified residences of the period. The site is under the care of English Heritage and is protected from unauthorised change as a scheduled ancient monument.

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.

The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway is a 2+1⁄2-mile long standard gauge heritage railway in the English county of Oxfordshire. It run steam and diesel trains on the historic ‘Bunk’ line linking Cholsey with the market town of Wallingford. Trains run on selected weekends and bank holidays throughout the year and, where available, are steam hauled.

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.

Dorchester Abbey is not only one of the finest monastic buildings in Oxfordshire, with a history going back to AD 635, but is also the parish church of the village of Dorchester. It is a popular tourist destination, educational resource and, as the largest public building in south Oxfordshire, a much-sought after venue for concerts and other major events.

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.

Wallingford Museum is a colourful, delightfully intimate and family friendly local history museum on two floors of a medieval building in the heart of Wallingford. The museum has an extensive collection relating to the town's history. Displays include archaeology, Wallingford Castle, and the town in mediaeval and Victorian times. A free audio tour is available.