Marcham

Marcham is two miles west of Abingdon: close enough for the big shop, and far enough to tell people at dinner parties that you live in a village. It went to bed in Berkshire in 1974 and woke up in Oxfordshire, and Frilford and Garford, once part of the parish, have since gone off and set up as parishes of their own. Cothill and Gozzard's Ford stayed put, which is either loyalty or nobody asking. Two miles from a market town turns out to be exactly as rural as most buyers here wanted, and not a field further.