Wantage and Grove Active Travel - WAGAT

02/10/2026

Thanks to all for a very good response to our recent post about the improved pathway between Charlton Village and Kingsgrove. Another good news story to report is that the old canal towpath between Stockham and the A417 in East Challow has also been significantly improved. This was narrow and overgrown in places, with intrusive tree roots and very muddy in the winter. It has been transformed with a good hardcore base and a smooth top dressing. We need to see how it fares through the winter, but at the moment this is very nice indeed!

30/09/2026

We are very pleased to report that Crab Hill Lane between the north end of Charlton Village Road and Rutherford Road in the Kingsgrove development has been significantly upgraded by the County Council. This had previously been a narrow and uneven, often muddy path and we identified it in the early stages of the planning for Kingsgrove as a crucial car-free interconnect from the whole of the Kingsgrove development for walking, scooting, cycling and mobility scooter use to Charlton village, Charlton primary school and on to Wantage Town Centre. It has now been transformed and is a 3m wide smooth path surfaced with Flexipave rubberised material. This is of very good quality and has exceeded our expectations. Very happy! Please go and try this path out and tell us what you think.

16/09/2026

A bit outside of our patch, but very important news for those commuting or generally travelling into Oxford. The Botley Road will reopen this coming Sunday, 20th September. At the same time the S9 bus service from Wantage & Grove will be extending the route through Frideswide Square and into the centre of town as it used to be before the railway bridge closure. There will be more frequent shuttle buses from Seacourt Park & Ride into town and the walking and cycling pathways under the railway bridge will be significantly wider and more pleasant. This is very long awaited good news. We recommend the Park & Ride (combined with walking, cycling or shuttle bus) or the S9 buses for getting into Oxford from here.

Oxford Station expansion and area upgrade

20/08/2026

We have noticed that there are barriers at both ends of the Crabhill Lane path from Charlton Village Road up into the Kingsgrove estate (circled red on the map). We assume this is in preparation for the resurfacing work to turn this path into an all-weather smooth route for walking, cycling and mobility scooters. We will keep you posted with progress. In the meantime, there is an alternative safe and quiet route through from Charlton Village as shown in yellow on the map.

05/08/2026

This is an interesting new local business. We cycled out to take a look last week. They are very friendly and knowledgeable and have a good selection of refurbished bikes - particularly good quality children's bikes. They also do bike servicing - very handy for anyone who works on Harwell Campus. Also a very good location on the edge of the Chilton Garden Centre site.

09/07/2026

We have been working for some time on getting a pedestrian crossing installed on Wellington Gate, outside the new secondary school. There have been a string of bureaucratic complications which have made this frustratingly slow - the main problem is that the original outline planning approval years ago did not include such a crossing. It is therefore sadly not surprising to see locals residents taking up the same issue in an online petition. We do support this and we hope it might be another factor in unlocking a solution.

Install traffic calming measures on the crossroads outside St Johns Academy Secondary site

17/06/2026

We had a brilliant day out at the Grove & Wantage Extravaganza on Saturday. Perfect weather, great organisation and huge crowds. We were busy all day with conversations about walking, cycling and mobility scooting, we met old friends and made some new ones. Our super bike mechanic Colin was also busy adjusting and repairing bikes and dispensing wise advice to those who didn't have their bikes with them. Our new power generating bike was a big hit and many bubbles were produced. The highlight was undoubtedly seeing His Majesty's Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (aka Jim Sibbald) pedalling furiously in full regalia.

Thanks to all who stopped by and particularly grateful thanks to the organisers.

16/06/2026

We had a great time at the Grove & Wantage Extravaganza on Saturday. Hopefully many of you did too. It was really nice to chat to lots of people about cycling, walking and mobility, to see lots of bikes fixed and adjusted and to enjoy our bubble-making static bike in action. Photos coming soon!

But for now, as many of you will know the County Council has opened a consultation on proposed changes to the traffic flows and layout of Wantage Market Place. We are broadly supportive of this, but there are lots of details and concerns to sort out and get right. There is quite a lot of debate on social media just now, but not always based on the facts. So this is a public service announcement that there is a drop-in session at The Beacon from 5-8 this evening to view the details and speak to the team involved. There was a similar session on Saturday and this is your chance to get the full picture. We recommend going along if you can.

13/06/2026

The sun is shining and we are set up ready for the Grove and Wantage Extravaganza on Grove rugby ground. Come and see us - we have Colin from Dr Bike waiting to check and adjust your bikes and we have our new amazing power generating bike waiting for you to blow some bubbles. We will also have the latest news on walking and cycling projects in the area.

25/04/2026

Great to see this post from our wonderful local bike shop, Ridgeway Cycles. We would love to see more of these set-ups in use in Wantage and Grove. We’ll do what we can to make sure the infrastructure keeps up with demand.