Idstone

Ashbury is a village and large civil parish at the upper end (west) of the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is centred 7 miles (11 km) east of Swindon in neighbouring Wiltshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Idstone and Kingstone Winslow. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 506.

Bishopstone is a village and civil parish in the Swindon unitary authority of Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) east of Swindon, and on the county border with Oxfordshire. Since 1934 the parish has included the village of Hinton Parva. Bishopstone lies on the north slope of the Lambourn Downs, overlooking the Vale of White Horse. It is between Wanborough and Ashbury on the historic Icknield Way. The village has a public house, the Royal Oak, and a number of thatched cottages, centred on a mill-pond. The village is often used as a base for walkers on the Ridgeway National Trail. The Ridgeway above Bishopstone is a byway open to motor vehicles between April and October. On the downs above Bishopstone are medieval field systems known as lynchets and many other historic earth-workings.

Alfred's Castle is a small Iron Age hill fort, situated at grid reference SU277822, behind Ashdown Park in the civil parish of Ashbury in Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire). It lies 2–3 km south of the Ridgeway and is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.It has a large enclosure attached that shows as a cropmark. Excavation has shown this to be contemporary with the small enclosure, started in the 6th century BC. The hill fort was established within a series of late Bronze Age linear ditches and revealed much evidence for occupation within it. In the late 1st century, a Romano-British farmhouse was built within the abandoned prehistoric enclosure. King Alfred won a great victory against the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown, in AD 871. Being located just to the west of Ashdown House, Victorian antiquaries associated Alfred's Castle with the King's troop movements before the battle. The exact site of Alfred's battle has not yet been determined, however, so is a matter for debate. The most likely sites are near Compton and Aldworth in Berkshire. Excavations were carried out at Alfred's Castle from 1998 to 2000 by archaeologists from Oxford University. A final analysis was published in 2014.

Wayland's Smithy is an Early Neolithic chambered long barrow located near the village of Ashbury in the south-central English county of Oxfordshire. The barrow is believed to have been constructed about 3600 BC by pastoral communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to the British Isles from continental Europe. Although part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland's Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows - found only in south-west of Britain - known as the Severn-Cotswold group. Wayland's Smithy is one of the best surviving examples of this type of barrow. The site's appearance is a result of restoration following excavations undertaken by archaeologists, Stuart Piggott and Richard Atkinson, in 1962–63. Their research of the site showed it had been built in two different phases. First as a timber-chambered oval barrow built around 3590 and 3550 BC and then later as a stone-chambered long barrow in around 3460 to 3400 BC. The barrow is on the same hill range as Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle; it is also close to The Ridgeway, the ancient trackway across the Berkshire Downs. The barrow, which is a scheduled monument, is under the guardianship of English Heritage and open all year round. It has been used as a ritual site in modern Paganism since the late 20th century.

Hinton Parva, also known as Little Hinton, is a village in the Borough of Swindon in Wiltshire, England. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the eastern edge of the Swindon built-up area, and is separated from the town by farmland and the village of Wanborough. Hinton Parva was a separate civil parish until 1934, and is now in the parish of Bishopstone. Parts of the village were taken over by the War Department during World War II in 1943 to store tanks. The Norman parish church of St Swithun is a Grade I listed building. An area around the church was designated a conservation area in 1990.

Ashdown House (also known as Ashdown Park) is a 17th-century country house in the civil parish of Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire. Until 1974 the house was in the county of Berkshire, and the nearby village of Lambourn remains in that county. It is a Grade I listed building and the grounds are included in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*.

Shrivenham railway station was a station on the Great Western Main Line serving the village of Shrivenham in what was then part of Berkshire.

The 1848 Shrivenham rail collision was a rail accident that occurred in England on May 10, 1848, resulting in at least six deaths and 13 injuries.

Compton Beauchamp is a hamlet and civil parish 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Shrivenham in the Vale of White Horse, England. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 50.

Ashdown Park is a 9.3-hectare (23-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) south of Ashbury in Oxfordshire. The SSSI is part of the park of Ashdown House. The park has been designated an SSSI because of the lichens on its many sarsen boulders. These are in parkland which is heavily grazed to ensure that the lichens, which have taken centuries to grow, do not become shaded. Noteworthy species include Aspicilia caesiocinerea, Buellia saxorum, Candelariella coralliza, Rinodina atrocinerea and Parmelia loxodes.The park is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

The Coombes, Hinton Parva (grid reference SU228826) is a 15.9 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1989. The Coombes, made up of chalk grassland, is owned by the National Trust.

Bourton is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Highworth in neighbouring Wiltshire. The western boundary of the parish is a stream that also forms the county boundary. Bourton was part of the parish of Shrivenham until 1867. Bourton was part of Berkshire until the 1974 local government boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 326.