Didcot is a town in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

Didcot dates back to the iron age. The settlement was situated on the ridge in the town, and the remainder of the surrounding area was marshland.

The Romans attempted to drain the marshland by building the ditch that runs north through what is now known as the Ladygrove area north of the town near Long Wittenham.

Didcot first appears in historical records in the 1200s as Dudcotte, Berkshire. The name is believed to be derived from that of the local Abbot. Didcot was then a sleepy rural Berkshire village with a population of 100 or so, and remained that way for hundreds of years, only occasionally cropping up in records.

1839 saw the arrival of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway to Didcot, his station followed in 1844 which enclosed the track completely in a similar style to Paddington. This and the branch junction to Oxford created the conditions for the future growth of Didcot. The station's name also finally fixed the spelling of Didcot. The more obvious location for the branch junction would have been the town of Abingdon a little further north, but the landowner Lord Wantage is reputed to have prevented the railway coming close to the town.

The position of Didcot at the junction of the Was to London and Oxford to Southampton rail lines made the location of strategic importance to military logistics. Although the warehousing that was built to serve these needs has long since disappeared, there is still an army camp on the edge of town.

After World War II technology changed, with steam locomotives becoming obsolete, and the motor car becoming common. The station was renamed Didcot Parkway and the old steam areas became a car park so that the station would attract travellers from the area.

A change in the county boundaries also meant that the town moved from Berkshire to Oxfordshire.

Building was started on the 2000 MW coal-fired power station for the CEGB during the 1960s, and was completed early in the 1970s at a cost of £104m and up to 2400 workers were employed at peak times. It is located on a 300 acre (1.2 km²) site formerly part of the Ministry of Defence Central Ordnance Depot . The main contractors were GEC Parsons , Babcock and Wilcox , GP Trenthams and John Thompson. The main chimney is 650 ft (198 m) tall with the six cooling towers 325 ft (99 m) each.

The power station was voted Britain's third worst eyesore in 2003. [1]

Didcot is now home to around 24,500 people and is the largest town in the South Oxfordshire District area. It has been designated as one of the three major growth areas in the county with a new town centre under construction and due for completion in early 2005. # Named link: the Orchard Centre

External link

• http://www.didcot.gov.uk