Think I’ve blagged a work secondment to the Oxford/ Culham /Ab area.

However, living in Sheffield for the last 19 years means I know nothing of this here ‘south’ and its flat
I’ll be there for about 6months and I’m assuming i’ll be wanting to come back every weekend, although the odd time to bring the OH down there would be good

What do I need to know about this area?
Where’s a good base to be?
Is there any good road biking/MTBing/ trail running around?
Where’s got a reasonable pub/bar/restaurant scene so I don’t lose my mind being indoors all the time?

Any other hints and tips for being away from home ad the OH for this amount of time?

Oxford is obviously the most vibrant of the places you’ve listed but you’ll have to factor in cost of rent against proximity to fun stuff especially if you’re only going to be here week days.

Culham / Abingdon way you’ve got decent off road running along the Thames and slightly further away you’ve got the Ridgeway.

Personally I think Oxfordshire is rubbish for mountain biking (distinct lack of anything even close to a mountain) but there’s a group that ride in the evenings throughout Winter in Oxford. Would recommend a CX / gravel bike for linking up road and bridleways.

Road riding is great and you’ve a pretty good mixture of terrain from hills in the Chilterns and Cotswolds to pan flat around the Thames.

My brother lives in Clifton Hampden (small village really), and a good mate lives down in Wallingford. The latter is, IMO, a nicer place than Abingdon or Didcot, and has plenty of places to eat and drink.

Didcot is a dormitory town based on the railway going through it, and is mostly modern, so is much as you would expect. Abingdon has a bit more of an older town feel in the centre. Neither are particularly exciting! Can’t comment on eateries etc in either, as we tend to visit country pubs when up there.

Oxford obviously has stacks of accommodation and masses of pubs and restaurants, but is bad for traffic (though you should be going the right direction if you’re work is to the south as it sounds from your locations). Friends tend to use the bus network for nights out in Oxford, which seems to work well for Wallingford and prob would for Abingdon.

Wantage always looks quite pleasant, over to the west. Dorchester to the SE is a lovely village.

There are lots of nice villages, but not sure how easy it would be to find accommodation (assuming you are needing to do this rather than it being sorted for you). If you look at these, try and avoid relying on commutes that use the A34 or Oxford bypasses. The A34 is on every traffic report ever broadcast it seems, and its always between the M4 and M40!

Biking wise, both road and MTB, the Chilterns are key. Very pleasant XC riding in the summer, wet mudfests in the winter! Aston Clinton has a DH course.
The immediate countryside is quite flat and mostly fields. Pleasant enough but not exciting. You also have the downs to the south, more open than the Chilterns but with similar slippery winter fun. For a shorter wander on foot, there are lots of nice options, for something more exciting, less so.

If you’ve access to a canoe or kayak, the Thames is on your doorstep and is surprisingly rural and quiet.

Think it’s all summed up above really.

I like Wallingford as a place. There’s some decent cycling for sure, but it depends what you class as ‘decent’ as it’s not Wales or Scotland. But it’s a nice day out with nice views an things to see.

Didcot is a typical small town place, cinema, food etc.. It’s ok, it’s nice enough, has good and bad places.

Chilterns which is about 30mins from Oxford is good XC style mountain biking. Also I regularly ride in the Oxford area in the evenings. There are some good spots if you know where to go, so its not all flat and crap.

Happy to show you around should you want. A group of us based in the area have local knowledge and meet regularly.

Checkout the daily commute route as some bits can gridlock

Lots of bridleways near Wantage but yeah mountain is not the word.

I’d decide what my ‘minimum needs’ are, pub/shop/chippie within walking, gym, social facilities, home parking, ?????? etc etc, commute, re pubs note that some are ‘gastro’ (check prices) and then have a look at the various towns and see how rents are (do you know about spareroom website)

Don’t discount Thame which is about 30 mins away from Culham.

It has a really good bus route to both Oxford and Aylesbury, is 20 minutes from Aston Hill Bike Park, it’s really easy to pick up the Ridgeway and the Chilterns from Chinnor, or there is an off road path to Princes Risbourough and Thame has a junction onto the M40 so you have good quick access to other areas of the country.

The pubs and restaurants are fairly good and the best kebab van in England pitches up every evening.

I’m halfway between Didcot and Wallingford. Drop me a PM or mail if you want to meet or ideas for routes.
For a pleasant life be close to Oxford or Didcot so you can get trains to Oxford or Reading. Didcot is less of a shithole than it used to be. Sadly I liked most of the venues that made it a shithole.
Didcot is an easy rail commute to Culham, Abingdon is good to but has nothing outside pubs and restaurants. Drop down for a weekend to check out the area. Wantage is like Didcot with no fast route out.

I grew up in Abingdon. I now live somewhere else and was super happy to leave. It will be a shock coming from Sheffield! Oxford is a decent city so will be waaay different from the other places.

I bought my first mtb at Behind Bars in Abingdon 1992 and then struggled to find anything much good for riding other than the Ridgeway. I lived in Stanford in the Vale which is west of Wantage for six years while working in Abingdon and was very pleased to move to Devon at the end of that. Only stayed because of disastrous negative equity… Oxford wasn’t a bad place though.

Think it’s all summed up above really.

Hardly – no mention of Swindon!

Is that Cameron country?
If so be wary of budding authors (god help us) in Shepherd’s huts.
Other than that – enjoy…..

Oxford: rubbish riding, outstanding pubs.

Oxford/Culham/Abingdon/Didcot

Everybody talk about pop muzik

I grew up just up the hill from Wallingford. I guess having never really ridden much in proper mountains I don’t have the comparison but I reckon there’s great mountain biking around the area. Mostly up on the Chilterns ridges admittedly but miles and miles of woodland paths and sone deceptive tech if you know where to look.

Road riding is proper good as well. Probably gravel bike would be an ideal compromise especially if you live down on the lowlands.

Wallingford is a lovely little town but pretty quiet. I actually rather like Abingdon, it’s perhaps a bit chavtastic on occasion but also significantly more affordable than the villages. Also great curry, half decent brewery and some really good pubs.

Oxford and the A34 is traffic hell. All that can be said really. Nice city, good for gigs and pubs, nice enough shopping if that’s your thing.

Dave

Funny, I love Oxford. Working in and around the town for many many years over a 40yr period and such good nightlife. I go to Reading over Oxford for shopping though.

Just south of Didcot …

The rents in Oxford are ridiculous. If it’s viable I would want to be near the Cowley road, the best pubs and restaurants are there IMO. Otherwise I’d go to a village with vibrant pub or pubs. I live North of Oxford so the wrong end, but I’m sure there are nice villages down that way.

The Berkshire Downs & Ridgeway has some good riding…until it rains.

Nuffield church down to Wallingford, Grims Ditch, best descent for miles and miles

+1 for that Weeksy. In fat I did that during the week, the only downer for me is the cycle up for ages first to go and play in the woods over Nettlebed way.

… and it’s a footpath 😉

Grims ditch, used to be a regular of the Mountain High wenesday night rides many years ago!!

I used to work in Milton Hill which is near Culham and lived in a village in the Kennet Valley. If its pubs and restaurants you want then Oxford is the place but you’ll pay for it and getting in and out of Oxford and along the A34 at rush hour can be a nightmare. Also if you are paying for travel to and from Sheffield every week will you have enough spare cash to be going out in Oxford every week? I stayed in Wantage for a month or so before we bought our place and I liked it. Excellent road biking, flat or hilly and during the summer there is loads of MTBing on the North Wessex Downs- its in no way like Didcot as another poster claimed. If Newbury isn’t too far a commute for you I’ll add that to the list. Not as expensive as Oxford but it has pubs, restaurants and theaters. Frankly I think Oxford is overrated and a victim of its own success as it just too busy- for me anyway. We hardly ever went there because in the time it took to drive to Oxford and take the park and ride into town we could be parked up in the middle of Cheltenham, Bath or Bristol.

As said by others, there are no mountains, and a lot of muddy, chalky trails between farmland, which become an absolute slog fest in the winter (and often in the summer too)

But, thanks to the ridgeway being on a ridge (DUH!) there are some nice decents and tech squirreled away on either side, particularly south of Wantage and around the ilsley’s and compton, just be prepared to work for you fun, and make sure you ride a bike with really good mud clearance (worst is the long grass that gets packed in with mud to form a sort of wattle and daub type afair that is capable of jamming up anything, even motorbikes and landrovers and sets like concrete if let to dry!

Oh, and i hope you like riding in ruts, because there’s sodding miles and miles, and miles of narrow, pedal-catching, front-wheel-snatching, over-the-bars-into-the-stringers, ruts…..

I bought my first mtb at Behind Bars in Abingdon 1992 and then struggled to find anything much good for riding other than the Ridgeway. I lived in Stanford in the Vale which is west of Wantage for six years while working in Abingdon and was very pleased to move to Devon at the end of that.

Are you me? 😉

I bought my first ‘proper’ MTB from Terry at Behind Bars in 1991/1992. Did a bit of after school and Saturday work there too.
Went to school in Stanford and then Abingdon, and lived in Goosey.
Then moved to Devon (still here).

Did you ever go on the Sunday rides out of Wantage with Terry and the Behind Bars lot? If so we must know each other!

As far as the OP goes, it’s pretty well covered above. Ridgeway and around is lovely in summer, think Mint Sauce cartoons, but pretty horrible in winter.
Chilterns are ace, but again a muddy slog.
Once we could drive we went to the FoD every other weekend!

That all depends how well you know the routes and the areas, sure mine are the opposite South side of the Ridgeway and in winter i stay off them, but even on the north over by Checkendon, Nuffield, Pangbourne etc you don’t need ruts and clay. On the south of it around Hermitage, Yattendon etc i can ride for hours without much in the way of ruts. Sure, none of these are as well known as the Ridgeway, but they still exist in abundance.

Im Didcot based and the town has improved massively in the last few years. Still not great if you like going on a Saturday afternoon pub crawl as the pubs are so far apart but you can get a bite to eat easy enough. Oxford or reading are only 10 minutes on the train.

The best mtb is definitely between Wallingford and the M40/stonor park and the ridgeway. Expect a lot of 5 minutes up hill, 2 minutes down. Viewranger app and the MBUK routes are valuable for finding routes. One of the benefits of this area is the ease of escaping it to other places. Swinley, Aston hill, tidworth are all within an hour. BPW, rogate, Surrey Hill’s, windhill are all within 2.

All in all, it’s not a bad area to live. I’ve been here since birth and have never felt the need to upsticks and move to another location.

Still not great if you like going on a Saturday afternoon pub crawl as the pubs are so far apart

That’s where the bikes come in. TBH other than meeting mates in Broadways or The Prince I tend only to have a beer in Cornerstone or Berry I tend to drink in the villages. South Moreton, Long Wittenham, Hagborne, Steventon, Harwell etc

A useful link for local rights of way if you move here

https://portal.oxfordshire.gov.uk/content/publicnet/council_services/environment_planning/countryside/Definitive_Map/definitive_map_links.pdf

Are you me? 😉

I bought my first ‘proper’ MTB from Terry at Behind Bars in 1991/1992. Did a bit of after school and Saturday work there too.
Went to school in Stanford and then Abingdon, and lived in Goosey.
Then moved to Devon (still here).

Did you ever go on the Sunday rides out of Wantage with Terry and the Behind Bars lot? If so we must know each other!

Unfortunately I never knew about those rides – might have made me feel better about the place, which I hated while there. Not helped by the negative equity, someone trying to pinch my car from the drive and then someone stealing it from the car park at work. Not that I’m still scarred or anything 🙂

I deeply miss Cowley for nightlife, the Isis pub in the summer and The Bear during the dead of winter.

Nope – the best descent is from Cookley Green down to the edge of Warburg nature reserve, Nuffield down grimsditch is up there but footpath for the majority and there’s been a few unhappy walkers in the past.

Anyways, depends what you’re after. Young people stuff then it’s got to be Oxford, old people stuff then Wallingford is ideal. You can ride the Chilterns and the downs for miles and miles of cross country, loads of low traffic road routes, lots of organised/dis-organised bike groups, the thames for watery stuff.

Nope – the best descent is from Cookley Green down to the edge of Warburg nature reserve,

Bookmarked. 👍🏼

Rideout needed Jim…. no idea where that one is.

Footpath, meh… tell someone who cares 😉

Cookley Green down to Warburg is a bit too pedally though. The bridleway down to Dame Alice Farm just near there in the other direction is better in my opinion, plus the one from the back of the cemetery down to behind the houses on Fairmile on the edge of Henley 😉

If working at Culham, worth noting the route you would have to take if / when the Thames floods in the winter. Usually closes both Culham and Clifton Hampden bridges, long old detour via Wallingford or Abingdon. With the amount of traffic around there these days, even for the small number of days it floods, it would still be a massive ball ache.

I was born and spent my first 37 years in Wallingford so clearly my favourite place. One of the main reasons I never moved locally was the riding from the door.

Yo eddiebaby (et all)

re Definitive map – yup, but this is so much more useful and quicker (if somewhat colourful)

http://www.rowmaps.com/

Cheers

Id argue that the chilterns is actually really nice for biking. Its just not remote so frequently feels like youre riding through someones garden rather than across some remote hilltop. Think Blaca Moor and ecalshall parks rather than Cut Gate.

Road riding is great, even if the traffic isnt.

Lots of gravel/cx stuff once you’ve figured out which paths arent chalk/clay.

Ridgeway (or the double if you have the legs) makes a challenge.

Plan your commute, did I mention the traffic? Based on my experience doing secondments Id live within a bike commute of work and near a local cycling clubs meet point. A bit of routine, exercise and company saves of neflix (or grumble) and boredom.

“Cookley Green down to Warburg is a bit too pedally though” – It is a bit, but then that doesn’t seem to matter as usually I’ve just climbed up from sea level (ok Thames level!) to get there.

Dame Alice and down to the fairmile are good shouts as well – one day will get around to marking it all up on a map as a single mega-loop.

@jimfrandisco I’ve done a few loops around the area doing all the main descents (apart from Fairmile, I’m not familiar with that one). They are on Strava but i’m not sure on how to make them into a map or allow people to follow to follow them. I only have the free Strava account.

Anyone fancy a little meet up ride?