History
Prehistoric artefacts have been found in the area, including a polished hand-axe from about 3000 BC and a larger than life Celtic carved stone head from about 500 BC.
The toponym Woodcote means "cottage in the wood". Woodcote was first documented in 1109, when it was a dependent settlement of South Stoke, which in turn was a possession of Eynsham Abbey. At the time of the Hundred Rolls in 1279, Woodcote had 14 freeholders and 20 tenants. Woodcote's population grew thereafter but then declined, perhaps as a result of the Black Death. In 1366 as a result of depopulation 15 virgates of land at Woodcote were vacant.
Woodcote Manor may date from the 12th century. In 1550 it was called Rawlins Manor.
There is a Jacobean barn in the grounds of Woodcote House. Woodcote House itself is a Georgian country house built in 1733. It was remodelled by the architect Detmar Blow in 1910. Since 1942 it has been the premises of The Oratory School, a Roman Catholic day and boarding independent school.
Woodcote used to hold an annual sheep fair on the first Monday after St Leonard's Day (6 November). The earliest known record of it is from early in the 18th century, but the link with the feast day of the parish's patron saint suggests the fair may have begun in the Middle Ages. The fair was still being held in 1852.
Woodcote farmed largely on an open field system with five open fields until 1853, when an Act of Parliament enabled an enclosure award for South Stoke and Woodcote. Woodcote provided the common pasture for the whole of South Stoke parish, while South Stoke beside the River Thames provided most of the parish's hay meadow.
In the 20th century Woodcote outgrew South Stoke. By 1920 most residents worked outside the parish, many commuting to either Reading or a RAF station at Goring Heath.
Woodcote won the Oxfordshire Village of the Year title for 2008.
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