Just a couple of miles west of Woodstock, if you branch off the main road to the right, you find the little village of Wootton. In the Middle Ages, Wootton was larger and more important than the stockade in the woods that was Woodstock. They were both in the middle of the Forest of Wychwood, a royal hunting forest covering a huge part of the area, but Wootton was the administrative centre.

The subsequent royal connection in Woodstock gave this more widely known settlement the advantage and Wootton was left to its core cottage industry of glove making, for which, it seems, it had no equal. Anthony Wood, the great 17th century antiquarian, wrote that the water of the river Glyme which runs through the valley on which Wootton is balanced, “hath so great vertue therein that all the skins of a more delicate kind are so well seasoned with it for the making of white leather that none whiter, softer or better is hardly found. Wootton’s history of Cottage industry means that it remains an almost undisturbed medieval village.

Little lanes zigzagging up and down the steep valley sides, pretty cottages, several of which used to be pubs of one kind or another, are now the homes of the residents of a thriving rural community.

In the 18th and 19th century this village was sometimes referred to as Wootton Whitechurch, presumably because of the prominence of the lovely Church that stands at the top of the valley.

There are enough of the 19th century oak pews left for the congregation to sit in, along with the contemporary pulpit, The 14th century font, octagonal with vertically convex sides, and the memorials and arms on the walls are probably more visible than heretofore. The feel of the church is welcoming and friendly.