Wytham village, to the north-west of Oxford, is as pretty as a picture. It is remarkable that a village just four miles from Oxford should retain so much character and such a sense of tranquillity, while being so close to the roar of the traffic on the A34. It lies near a sharp bend in the River Thames, hence the name, coming from the Saxon words ‘wiht’, a bend, and ‘ham’, a village, estate or manor. With its simple village ‘square’, abbey and church and above all its woods, Wytham is a living reminder of our Oxfordshire heritage. Equally it seems to teach us a lesson in how to come to terms with modern life, without losing the past.

Overlooking the village, as a splendid backcloth, are Wytham woods, once the haunt of highwaymen, and still the precursor of stormy weather: ‘When Wytham Hill wears a cap, Farmers all beware of that!’ Tucked between the woods and the A34, the village has a long and illustrious history.

The manor and estate belonged originally to Abingdon Abbey, but subsequent holders and owners have been a roll-call of prominent Oxfordshire families (though Wytham in fact was part of Berkshire until 1974). First it was held by the de Wytham family from the 12th century to about 1479. The Harcourt family, immensely grand, then took over the estate until the dissolution of the monasteries. At the dissolution, another grandee, Lord Williams of Thame bought Wytham, and it then passed via his daughter to the earls of Abingdon. So it remained for many years, until the seventh earl sold it to Colonel Raymond ffennell in 1920. He in turn bequeathed the estate to Oxford University. Today the manor is in private hands again, though the university still owns almost all the village and houses, as well as the surrounding woods and farmland. Wytham Abbey itself is a handsome house, with outbuildings and a farm, and as the historian of the village says, ‘not unlike the 17th century gothic buildings of several Oxford colleges’.

No article about Wytham is complete without a reference to Raymond ffennell, by all accounts a most modest and generous benefactor. Born in 1871 with the name of Schumacher, he adopted his mother’s maiden name and made a fortune in South Africa. Coming to England, he bought the Wytham estate and turned it over to good works. ffennell was an ‘enthusiastic promoter of education’ inviting classes from schools in Oxford to his estate for the day. For the children, it was, as one of the teachers wrote, ‘a dream come true – a visit to fairyland’. A small child writing a postcard home to her mother in the East End of London in 1937, said: ‘this must be a very holy place’. Holy it may have been, but it was also practical, as children tried their hand at hay-making, sheep shearing and milking. He also built the village hall in the late 1920s.

Raymond ffennell’s beneficence spread beyond Wytham. A founder member of the Oxford Preservation Trust, in 1924 he gave Raleigh Park, 27 acres at North Hinksey overlooking Oxford, to the people of the city. Today it is both a nature reserve and a recreational park.

Oxford University acquired the Wytham estate from ffennell in 1943. The agricultural land, some 1,579 acres, was purchased by the university, while the abbey and 300 acres were given, with Raymond and Hope ffennell continuing to live there in their lifetimes. Around 960 acres of Wytham Woods were also bequeathed to the university.

Walking round the woods, the visitor passes a simple memorial stone to ‘the woods of Hazel’, in memory of Hazel ffennell, their only child, who died in 1939. According to obituary in The Times, she was ‘a girl of rare promise . . . with a strange and beautiful genius for the understanding of birds and animals, which before her early death she had begun to express through the gift of sculpture’.

Thus one of the great benefactions in the history of Oxford University arose out of a personal tragedy. The university also uses one of the former farms set up by the earl of Abingdon, ‘Northfields’, a mile north of the village, as a field station for research into agriculture, including new initiatives such as the Hydrology and Global Canopy Programme and the Food Animal Initiative (FAI).

Wytham’s All Saints church is first mentioned in 1135 as an entry in the English register of nuns at nearby Godstow Abbey. Parish registers go back to 1559, a year after the accession of Elizabeth I to the throne. It is a handsome building, the very picture of an English village church, surrounded by gravestones and hard by the abbey. The splendid blue and gold clock on the face of the tower still keeps immaculate time.

Like many a parish church it has been restored and then rebuilt: first around 1490 and then more seriously in 1811, when it was rebuilt by the fifth earl of Abingdon, with material from Cumnor Place. The interior is a fine mix of varied stained glass and memorials from across the centuries, with a grey painted gallery, sporting a prominent ‘ancient’ royal coat of arms. Two windows in particular stand out — the first features five 14th century roundels depicting a king, possibly Richard II, a queen, Anne of Bohemia, the Good Shepherd, Our Lady at the Annunciation and the eagle, the emblem of St John. A second, the large east window, is the Adoration of the Shepherds.

There is a corbel of a bagpiper and several memorial brasses and tablets: to Robert de Wytham, Robert Lyall, a former rector, and Henry Octavius Coxe, a Bodley’s Librarian. The ffennell family of Raymond, Hope and Hazel are commemorated by a memorial on the south wall, while less wealthy but also worthy benefactors are remembered.

Jasper Rodes of the parish gave seven pounds, three of which were ‘to pave or pitch the church-way’. Katherine Cantwell gave five pounds to the poor. And the memorial to Colonel Edward Purcell(1656-1717), brother of the celebrated musician Henry, sadly states that he retired to Wytham ‘decayed with age and broken with misfortune’. He chose his spot well in terms of peace and quiet.

A hundred or so yards from All Saints (both the church and abbey are slightly separate from the village), beside the war memorial is The White Hart, once a farmhouse, with parts dating back to the 14th century, and now a popular pub.

The white hart was the personal badge of Richard II, granted by the king to his troops after the battle of Radcot Bridge in 1370. It is said that veterans of that battle subsequently opened taverns throughout England.

The atmosphere at this White Hart manages to be both old and new — traditional pine tables, a flagstone floor and log fire combine with modern cooking. There is a stone dovecote in the car park — a listed building — and modern sculpture in the dining rooms.

Other village buildings have new uses. The school closed in 1968, having opened in 1858, but the old school and the schoolhouse still stand, along with a variety of picturesque cottages, almost all owned by the university. Wytham itself is not on the Thames, but the willow-lined Seacourt stream babbles through the village at the end of cottage gardens. Seacourt is one of the lost villages of the area, originally near Botley.

First mentioned in a Saxon charter of 957 as well as The Domesday Book, by the middle ages it had been reduced to two houses, though surprisingly the parish of Seacourt continued until 1900. Today, apart from being a favourite stream of the North Oxford Angling Society, the name is remembered more prosaically in Seacourt Tower and Seacourt Park and Ride at Botley.

Then there are the magnificent woods, some 960 acres, with the main part — known as ‘the Woods of Hazel’. The woods are essentially run by Oxford University for scientific research. Nigel Fisher, the present conservator, has suggested that it is the most researched woodland in the world. The whole area is a site of special scientific interest, with groups involved including other university bodies, government organisations and more recently the Environmental Change Network.

Research projects vary from studies of badgers to the great tit. The latter project started in 1947 and appears to be the longest-running biological set of data in the world, with more than 1,000 nesting boxes checked every day in the nesting season.

But Wytham Woods is not just a scientific site for zoology or climate change. The woods are open to walkers, with a permit, to admire the mixed woodland and wonderful views of Oxford and its surroundings.

Approximately a third of the area is ancient semi-woodland, with oak and hazel prominent. Another third is more recent woodland, with ash and sycamore. The rest a variety of woods, with many beech trees spreading their old and twisted branches.

Alongside are grasslands habitats, with marshy areas, ponds and streams adding to the diversity. A casual walker may see roe and fallow deer and muntjak; hear woodcock and redstart; but probably not recognise many of the over 900 species of beetle identified at Wytham.

From the car park, an anti-clockwise circular walk leads past a large chalet, then Hazel’s stone and enormous veteran beeches and finally offers a view south east, with the John Radcliffe hospital instantly recognisable — if it is sunny — in brilliant white. The setting is tranquil, scenic and remote enough to suggest just why Colin Dexter chose Wytham Woods as a location in his book and subsequent television film, The Way Through the Woods. Both book and film were high in body count, even by Morse standards. Karen Anderson kills in the woods Dr Myton, an attempted rapist: George Daley, a blackmailer: her husband David Michaels: and Sergeant Lewis — almost! It comes as something of a relief to learn that this Morse television episode was shot far away in the woods at Leith Hill in Surrey rather than at Wytham.

Today, the abbey, the church and the pub — together with a local shop in a grade II listed building — still dominate the small community. The plan of the village is much as it was in the 18th century, but if the look of the place is ancient that does not mean Wytham is in decline. Groups such as the Parents Association, the cricket club and Aunt Sally team suggest otherwise.