Oxfordshire Way: Wootton Door to Weston-on-the-Green

The Oxfordshire Way runs across the heart of England, along ancient rights of way, all of which existed long before they were thus joined together, passing through historic settlements and crossing the grain of the country. The old tracks and field paths have been used for centuries. Some are prehistoric, some are Roman, and many were first trodden in Saxon times. They link villages and hamlets mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The inns of these places usually provide food and accommodation, bed-and- breakfast can be found on or close to the route, and there are some campsites. Village shops survive in surprising numbers.

Kirtlington was a busy place in Saxon times. It lay on the frontier of Mercia, where Akeman Street crossed the Port Way and Aves Ditch, all important routes. Kirtlington still has an air of prosperity aided by the beautiful Kirtlington Park. The mansion, built between 1742 and 1746 for local worthy, Sir James Dashwood, is not open to the public but is important for its ‘monkey room’, one of only two such singeries surviving in England. Decorated in 1745 by the French artist J F Clermont, monkeys are depicted disporting themselves in the landscape as elegant huntsmen.

Weston-on-the-Green’s manor house is now a hotel. It is on a site once belonging to Osney Abbey. The present facade dates from 1820, but hides medieval and 16th-century work. Lord Williams of Thame acquired Weston Manor in 1540, and made the 16th-century alterations. This is the first of three houses on the Oxfordshire Way that are associated with Lord Williams. He was the trusted servant of four of the five Tudor monarchs, astutely keeping abreast of political and religious changes.

From the A44 the Oxfordshire Way continues along Akeman Street, initially along a lane. It crosses the River Glyme, whose dammed waters make the majestic lakes of Blenheim, before flowing to the Thames. Over the T-junction, Akeman Street follows a raised cart track, which rises up to give superb views. Glancing back, look across the Glyme valley to Blenheim. Ahead, the panorama encompasses all the ground between this last spur of Cotswold, the Oxford Heights, where the television transmission mast at Beckley acts as a good location marker, and Brill in Buckinghamshire. At a junction of paths in a spinney, take the middle path.

Akeman Street reaches the A4260 next to Sturdy’s Castle, now an inn offering accommodation, and beyond this descends along field edges into the Cherwell valley. Crossing a lane to a further field (potentially with livestock) Eeventually it crosses a plank bridge over a stream. Here you bid farewell to Akeman Street and turn right to a lane where the old stone house, Field Cottage, guards the humps and hollows of the now-vanished village of Old Whitehill.

The Oxfordshire Way turns left at the lane, goes under the railway bridge and then turns right to cross two branches of the River Cherwell at Flight’s Mill, and reach the Oxford Canal at Pigeons Lock. It continues across the canal head along Mill Lane, reaching Kirtlington at a wide triangular green. Go past a village pond and a school before turning left opposite The Dashwood at the entrance to Kirtlington Park, by the village hall car park.

Taking the right-hand of two paths when entering the estate, Ggo across the park and through fields towards Weston-on-the- Green. Cross a track to enter a small wood and, at a second track, right for 27yds (25m) then continue left to maintain the same line. In the final field before Weston-on-the-Green, cut diagonally across between large marker posts. Arriving in a cul-de-sac, the route continues by crossing the road 10yds (9m) to the right, where a further path between houses brings you to the church. St Mary’s Church was rebuilt in 1743 and gives the impression of being larger than it is. Inside, it is full of a sense of light. On the wall by the pulpit is a curious iron cross with an open centre. This is a strange relic indeed, a mast- head cross from a galleon of the Spanish Armada.