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King Alfred was born in Wantage
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Didcot Town FC won the 2005 FA Vase
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10% of the female members of the House of Lords are old girls of St. Mary’s School, Wantage
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AEA Technology, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Culham Laboratory, Infineum, the Williams Motor Racing Centre, the Diamond Synchrotron and Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment are all based in the constituency. Indeed 10% of the solar silicon used in the world is made by Crystalox who are based in the constituency
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Wantage was once represented by Airey Neave MP, who was murdered by the IRA in 1979. His coat of arms now hangs above the entrance to the Chamber of the House of Commons
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The last folly built in England is to be found on Folly Hill near Faringdon
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RM plc based at Milton Park is the largest manufacturer of computers in the UK
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2005 is the 350th anniversary of the demolition of Wallingford Castle by Oliver Cromwell
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The prehistoric Ridgeway runs through the constituency
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The Great Western Railway, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and described by him as one of the finest railways in the world and runs through Didcot
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Faringdon became the first fairtrade town in the South-East on England on the 2nd February 2004 and won Market Town of the Year in 2009. Grove became a fair-trade village in 2009.
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Tim Rice has written an “Ode to Didcot Power Station”.
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The sculptor Henry Moore is responsible for the positioning of the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station
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Wallingford is one of just four towns mentioned in the text of Magna Carta
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The statue of King Alfred in Wantage square is modelled on Lord Wantage, a former MP for the area, who won the VC in the Crimean War and helped found the British Red Cross.
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George Orwell and Agatha Christie are both buried in the constituency, at Sutton Courtenay and Cholsey
Got any more interesting facts? E-mail them to Ed and we will put them on the site!