19 Facts About Wantage

Wantage is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England.

Wantage was a small Roman settlement but the origin of the toponym is somewhat uncertain.

Wantage was very involved in founding the British Red Cross Society.

Wantage is home to the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin, founded by the vicar of Wantage William John Butler in 1848; it was once one of the largest communities of Anglican nuns in the world.

Wantage once had two breweries which were taken over by Morlands of Abingdon.

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Wantage has a town council consisting of 16 councillors, 15 of whom are Liberal Democrats with the remaining beingLabour councillor.

Wantage constituency is currently represented by Conservative MP David Johnston who was first elected in the 2019 general election after former MP Ed Vaizey announced that he would not stand for re-election.

Wantage is at the foot of the Berkshire Downs escarpment in the Vale of the White Horse.

Wantage includes the suburbs of Belmont to the west and Charlton to the east.

Wantage is the "Alfredston" of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

Wantage is at the crossing of the B4507 valley road, the A417 road between Streatley and Cirencester and the A338 road between Hungerford and Oxford.

The tramway's Wantage terminus was in Mill Street and its building survives, but little trace remains of the route.

Oxfordshire County Council have ambitions to re-open the former Wantage Road railway station and has stated that the station is a priority in their Connecting Oxfordshire plans.

Nearest public airport to Wantage is London Heathrow, approximately 42 miles east of the town.

Wantage has been the site of a church since at least the 10th century and the present Church of England parish church of Saints Peter and Paul dates from the 13th century, with many additions since.

An action group, Wantage Rejuvenated, is being sponsored by the town's chamber of commerce to try to bring business back into the area and inject new life into the town.

The proposed Wantage development is one mile from a similar mass of 2,500 homes proposed for the village of Grove and which will use the same road network.

In 2014 Wantage was nominated for the Government's Great British High Street Award whereby Wantage won the award for Britain's Best Town Centre beating several other towns nominated for the award.

Wantage has a non-League football club: Wantage Town FC, who play at Alfredian Park in the Southern Football League.