Didcot guidebook

But as anyone who's travelled on the Oxford to Reading line can attest, the 325-foot high chimneys are a striking sight and dominate the surrounding landscape. You don't really expect them. Not in the heart of Oxfordshire.

So isn't living next door to this industrial behemoth a bit of a downer? Isn't it terribly unhealthy? Doesn't it depress house prices?

But others love them - and you can see why. Designed by the architect Frederick Gibberd, who was also responsible for Liverpool Cathedral, they have a certain grandeur and architectural majesty. There'd probably be bitter protests if they were scheduled for demolition.

Are they unhealthy? In a word: no. The 'smoke' from the towers is actually steam vapour, there's no stench (or any unpleasant smell) hanging like a pall over the land, and the power station isn't at all noisy. How many exhaust-strangled urban streets can you say that about?

Does the power station affect house prices? Didcot is certainly among the more affordable areas in Oxfordshire, but that's probably as much to do with its housing stock - not quite as upmarket as it is in places like Wallingford and Abingdon - as it is with the power station.

Within the local market it does, however, (as do the pylons running through parts of the town) have an impact. There are, agents admit, some buyers who prefer not to see the towers, though others are quite blasé about them.

Moreover, as one agent points out, the most recently built properties in Didcot, in the Ladygrove estate, are closest to the power station, and they're proving immensely popular. So it's horses for courses.

Until the mid-nineteenth century it was a quiet little place, so much so that local writer Brian Lingham entitled volume one of his town history Didcot: The Long Years of Obscurity To 1841 (volume 2 is the equally cheerful A Poor, Struggling Little Town: 1918-1945).

What momentous event happened in 1841?? Not sure really, to be honest, but in 1839 Isambard Kingdom Brunel brought the Great Western Railway to Didcot, and in 1844 he built a new station there.

It was this strategic location that brought the army to Didcot during the First World War - logistics and all that, old boy - and some of the current housing stock was built to accommodate the military and the workers who served them.

The army is still here, bunking down at Vauxhall Barracks off Station Road - on the map it's rather excitingly left blank with the legend 'M.O.D Restricted Area', but I thought better of wandering past with a pair of binoculars.

But private and public housing schemes from the Twenties and Thirties, some Sixties and Seventies housing, and developments from the Eighties and Nineties, make up the bulk of the property here (of which more below).

More new development is in the pipeline - South Oxfordshire District Council hopes to see 4,500 new homes within the next ten years and a further 3,000 by 2026, a proposal that should have a positive impact on the town - though it's also one some local residents are determined to resist.

As shopping streets go it's not the most exciting that you'll ever encounter, but it does have most of life's necessities.

That means estate agencies, takeaways, a couple of smart coffee shops, W.H. Smith, Boots, an optician, a butcher, a post office, banks, bakeries, dry cleaners - you get the picture.

The success of this development recently prompted the council to unveil a £250,000 scheme to revamp Didcot Broadway with new paving, lighting, and seating.

A street market is held here on Fridays and Saturdays and there's a thriving farmers' market every second Saturday of the month (produce includes game in season, jams, preserves, beef, lamb, apple juices, sauces and pickles, plant nursery, vegetables, eggs, sunflowers, etc).

As you head west up the Broadway it runs into Wantage Road and this brings you past Didcot Hospital and the Woodlands Medical Centre. To the east is the roundabout at Jubilee Way and from here you have access to the A4130.

There are plenty of clubs and societies to keep you busy - everything from choral societies and stamp collecting to historical associations and sports clubs.

The Northbourne Community Centre is housed in a striking old church building on Church Street, and further south of here is a leisure centre (off Mereland Road) and the council-run Didcot Wave pool with its health and fitness gym.

The power station, the hospital and the retail distribution centre next to Ladygrove all provide local employment, as does the Harwell International Business Centre in nearby Harwell (4,500 people work here for 100 organisations).

The town itself is surrounded by lovely countryside and pretty rural villages, and there's a golf course off Hadden Hill Road (Hadden Hill Golf Course) with 18 different opportunities to perfect your swearing.

For cinema, theatre, art, restaurants and the like you'll have to make a trip to Oxford or Reading. Didcot itself has half a dozen or so local pubs dotted about the place, but not much in the way of nightlife.

Lydalls Road, Lydalls Close and Manor Road, all to the West of Haydon Road, are the heart of the old village of Didcot and contain a few real surprises.

From the Haydon Road entrance, Lydalls Road begins with red brick semis and some attractive Art Deco-style houses with crittal windows, as well as larger detached houses with generous gardens front and back.

It's all very sedate, suburban and leafy and the residents seem keen to keep it that way.

Why the pot-holed lane in such an obviously attractive neighbourhood? A local tells me it's a private road and the owners of the houses would have to pay to have it properly surfaced, something they're reluctant to do because they think it will encourage traffic through their peaceful streets. You can see their point.

Turn left into Britwell Road and walk past the crumbling old barn and you'll eventually emerge on the Broadway. Go straight on and you enter a grassy lane that leads into Lydalls Close.

Turn right and you pass a lovely old beamed farmhouse on Foxhall Road; just past here, and across the road is the barn-like building now housing the Didcot Conservative Association.

Turn into Manor Road and you'll find some very attractive old stone and red-brick period cottages, a few large detached houses, a bungalow here and there, and some timber-framed houses opposite the Queen's Arms pub on the corner.

This, apparently, is the highest point in Didcot and provides a charming reminder of what the village might have looked like before the arrival of trains and industry.

Stonor Close, just off Lydall Road is a nicely done development by the South Oxfordshire Housing Association. Another impressive scheme of theirs can be seen across the Foxhall Road in the streets off Blake's Field - pretty cottage-style red-brick terraces with tiled roofs and dormer windows.

Wessex Road, Kynaston Road Vicarage Road, St Peters, and St Andrews all have 20s council-built semis. Houses in a similar style were built after the war on Ridgeway Road, Sindoun Road, the Croft, Newlands Avenue, and Glebe Road.

The houses here are attractive red-brick semis, many with distinctive pitched roofs and good gardens. The whole scheme has an attractive Arts & Crafts feel and the properties are, for the most part, neat and well-maintained.

So it should - these are very attractive streets with thoughtfully designed houses. They're close to the centre of town, within walking distance of several of the town's main schools and also within walking distance of the station.

For larger new-build houses you might want to check out the small development on Cullens Place off Newlands Road. This features detached houses in a mix of Georgian and Arts & Crafts styles laid out in a small close just a stone's throw from the Broadway.

In the midst of this area, on Mereland Road, there's also a bit of a Didcot curiosity - a collection of 60s semis where Mereland Road curves into Queensway (also in Harding Strings).

As I walked down here in the middle of January the surprising emergence of these yellow and white houses took on a slightly surreal quality when John's Ices van jingled optimistically past.

With a sharp east wind making refrigeration all but redundant there seemed to be no takers for what I'm sure are truly scrumptious 99s - and I can't say I was at all surprised.

The streets off Hagbourne Road have pretty cottage-style terraces - the best are on Church Street, East Street, Bourne Street and High Street.

There are larger semis on Wessex and Kynaston Roads, and also on High Street once you're past Wessex Road. The Northbourne Community Centre is here too, housed in a dramatic church building on, no surprises, Church Street.

These are laid out in a neat terrace beginning just below the entrance to the Orchard Centre and running down to Hitchcock Way - the station is across the road.

It's an attractive and well-maintained row of houses with dark red bricks, clipped hedges, green timber gates and small porches.

This is a popular 90s development of mainly three and four bed semis and terraced houses laid out in closes around an ornamental lake. In all, there are 3,000 people living here.

Cow Lane and Mersey Way run through the centre of Ladygrove, which is a fairly self-contained community complete with schools, a leisure centre, a health centre, a small parade of shops, a pub, and a football pitch. Didcot FC is also located here.

The train lines form a border on the west side, and on the other side of these lies an industrial estate with distribution warehouses for Asda and Tesco. Keep going west, across the Abingdon Road, and you reach the power station.

As with Millbrook, the power pylons are a bit of an issue here and agents say some buyers shy away from properties near them.