Abingdon Rural District

Faringdon was a rural district in the administrative county of Berkshire from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on that part of the Faringdon rural sanitary district which was in Berkshire; however, it also included for a time Lechlade, a small market town in Gloucestershire. It was situated in the northwest region of historic Berkshire, but the area was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974 and is now in the southwestern region of that county. The Faringdon rural district bordered Gloucestershire to the northwest, Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire and the River Thames to the north. It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and merged with other districts to form the new Vale of White Horse, which was in the new non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire.

Marcham is a village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,905. The parish includes the hamlets of Cothill 1+3⁄4 miles (2.8 km) east-northeast of the village, and Gozzard's Ford 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) northeast of the village. Frilford and Garford used to be townships of Marcham parish, but are now separate civil parishes. All these parishes were part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred them to Oxfordshire. Marcham parish extends about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) north–south and up to 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) east–west. It is bounded to the south by the River Ock and to the east largely by Sandford Brook, a tributary of the Ock. To the west it is bounded largely by field boundaries. To the north the parish tapers almost to a point, bounded to the west by the A338 road, to the north by the A420 road and to the east by field boundaries. The land is low-lying, rising from about 177 feet (54 m) above sea level by the Ock in the south to 312 feet (95 m) at Upwood Park in the north. Marcham village is on the A415 road, which runs east–west through the parish. The A415 links Abingdon and A34 Marcham interchange to the east with Kingston Bagpuize on the A420 road to the west.

Denman, formally Denman College, was a residential adult education college centred on what was Marcham Park at Marcham in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire). Founded by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) in 1948, Denman offered day schools and residential courses in cookery, craft and lifestyle, as well a variety of events, conferences and weddings. In July 2020 the NFWI trustees announced the proposed permanent closure of the college.

Hitchcopse Pit is a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) nature reserve north-west of Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. It is part of Frilford Heath, Ponds and Fens, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.This former sand quarry has heath, woodland, scrub, grassland and a pond. There are many solitary bees and wasps, which create burrows in the soft sand walls of the quarry. The ground has many lichens and grassland plants, and there are scattered boulders which are covered with mosses.

Cothill House is a day and boarding boys' independent school for preparatory pupils in Cothill, Oxfordshire, which houses around 220 boys from the ages 8–13.

Dry Sandford Pit is a 4.2-hectare (10-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site and it is managed as a nature reserve by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.This former sand quarry exposes a sequence of limestone rocks laid down in shallow coastal waters during the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic, around 160 million years ago. It has many fossil ammonites. It has diverse calcareous habitats, including fen, grassland, scrub and heath. It is nationally important entomologically, especially for bees and wasps.

Dry Sandford is a village in the Vale of White Horse district of England, about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Abingdon. It is one of two villages in the civil parish of St Helen Without. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire.

Cothill Fen is a 43.3-hectare (107-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. It is a Special Area of Conservation and parts of it are a Geological Conservation Review site, a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 1, and a National Nature Reserve. It also includes two areas which are nature reserves managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, Lashford Lane Fen and Parsonage Moor.This site has nationally rare calcareous fen and moss-rich mire habitats and a rich invertebrate fauna, including 25 species in the Red Data Book of Invertebrates. More than 330 vascular plants have been recorded. It is a nationally important site geologically because the sampling the peat gives a picture of the vegetation over the early Holocene, between 10,000 and 6,500 years ago.

Frilford Heath Golf Club is a 54-hole golf club in Frilford, Oxfordshire, set amongst 500 acres of heathland to the southwest of Oxford city.

Royal Air Force Abingdon, or more simply RAF Abingdon, is a former Royal Air Force station near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It is now known as Dalton Barracks and is used by the Royal Logistic Corps.

Frilford is a hamlet and civil parish about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Abingdon, at the junction of the A415 and A338 roads. It lies in the traditional county of Berkshire, but since 1974 has been administered as part of Oxfordshire.

Frilford Heath, Ponds and Fens is a 108.8-hectare (269-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Frilford, west of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. An area of 3 hectares (7.4 acres), separate from the main site is Hitchcopse Pit, a nature reserve managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.Natural England describes the acid grassland, heathland and valley fens of this site as unique in southern England. Over 400 vascular plants have been recorded, including some which are nationally rare. There are unusual insects such as the wasp Microdynerus exilis, which was only recognised as native to Britain in the late twentieth century, the red data book of threatened species fly Cheilosia mutabilis, and the nationally uncommon Epistrophe diaphana.There is no public access the main site, which is almost all on Frilford Heath Golf Course, but Hitchcopse Pit is open to the public.