Lyford is a small village and civil parish on the River Ock about 4 miles (6 km) north of Wantage.

[2] Lyford's name refers to a former ford across the river Ock, now replaced with a bridge on the road to Charney Bassett.

[5] Lyford Grange, just east of the village, was originally a moated manor house of Abingdon Abbey built in a quadrangle.

[7] In the reign of Elizabeth I the Grange belonged to a recusant family, the Yates, who harboured a community of Bridgettine nuns.

[1] In 1581 the house was searched; three priests were eventually found and arrested by the government agent, George Eliot: Thomas Ford, John Colleton and the renowned Jesuit, Edmund Campion.

[15] An open field system of farming continued in the parish until Parliament passed the Lyford Inclosure Act 1801 (41 Geo.

9 Squadron RAF based at Bardney in Lincolnshire, had taken part in a raid on a benzole factory in mainland Europe.

On its return flight the plane caught fire and crashed in a field barely 400 yards (370 m) south of the parish church and Manor Farm.

[16] Flight Sergeant Gordon Symonds, who was born and raised in Wantage, was killed just a couple of miles from his home.

It was installed in the parish church; the actor Richard Briers attended the ceremony[17] and read Noël Coward's poem Lie in the Dark and Listen.