SHILLINGFORD
Shillingford
is a small Thames-side village with several attractive
houses. The A4074 bisects the village, but
the Thame road has been diverted to form a mini-bypass
so it avoids the centre of the village leaving the original
road as a quiet back road.
Wharf
Road, on the south side of the village, leads down to
Shillingford Wharf, a small Thames-side green which is
the only public access to the river. Here the council
has thoughtfully provided a seat to enable relaxing appreciation
of the river and plaques on the wall record the flood
levels at various times during the 18th & 19th centuries.
They must have been some floods; the flood of January
27th 1809 reached some seven feet above the present ground
level!
The
name of the village probably means 'the ford of the family
or the followers of a man called Sciall(a)'. Now the river
is bridged by a fine C19 three-arched stone bridge which
was built on the site of an ancient bridge in 1827. It
continues across the flood-lands on the northern side
where there are three small arches to take flood-water.
The present stone bridge replaced an earlier wooden one.
On
the far side of the river is the well-known Shillingford
Bridge Hotel which has a pleasant lawn running down to
the water's edge where mooring is provided for customers.
Shillingford
is on the A4074 Reading to Oxford road at the junction
with the A329 road to Thame.