Faringdon is a walkable town, less than 2km across and boasting a wide range of local facilities. Oriel Gardens is perfectly located to take advantage of all that Faringdon town centre has to offer, with a variety of shops, cafes, employment and leisure opportunities all within walking and cycling distance. What’s more, there is also a retail park with two supermarkets, a doctor’s surgery, and leisure centre all located within less than half a mile’s walking distance.
Your Travel Plan Coordinators (TPC) are here to help you make the most of your area, by finding the best ways to travel whether that be to work, school, the shops, or for leisure!
Contact your TPC for information regarding your Local Area, the local walking and cycling network (including routes out into the countryside), the latest public transport information, car travel options, and Travel Vouchers.
Walking
Faringdon town centre and surrounds have lots to offer including a number of smaller shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants, as well as a dentist, pharmacy, community centre, library, several churches, a vet, and of course a weekly market every Tuesday morning. There are three large supermarkets located both to the east and west of Oriel Gardens, as well as a local primary school off Proctor Way, and a local nursey and Community College also within walking distance.
The town’s central market square and old town hall are less than a 15-minute walk of the Site, following a direct route along Park Road, Station Road, and Marlborough Street.
Faringdon is very well served with opportunities for leisure and sports activities. Faringdon Leisure is located less than half a mile west of Oriel Gardens, offering a well-equipped gym, indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam room, a fitness class studio, and several sports hall courts for racquet sports and ball games. The town also boasts a gym, a country park with Skate and Cycle Park, as well as football, cricket, tennis and bowling clubs.
Faringdon is also blessed with great access to the countryside, whether that be a walk through the historic woodlands of Badbury or an amble up the iconic Folly Tower with spectacular views over 5 counties. There are a number of circular routes to capture these landmarks, and Faringdon Town Council have produced step-by-step route maps for both these three- and six-mile sign-posted loops available to download on their website, and also from the link below:
Walking is great exercise and most of all it is free! Walking, even for ten minutes a day can contribute to looking and feeling great. Regular walking can reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol, tone up muscles and strengthen bones. It is excellent for losing weight or simply improving fitness levels through low impact and low intensity exercise. It is also a great form of relaxation, with the potential to help with mindfulness and to relieve the mind of stress or anxieties.
The benefits of choosing walking over car use include:
01 – Reduces travel costs
02 – Helps reduce congestion
03 – Expands social networks
04 – Helps burn calories
05 – Reduce wear and tear of your own vehicle
Visit the websites below for helpful information and tools that will make your walking experience an enjoyable one.
Cycling
As well as walking, cycling is also great for the mind, body, and our environment. The physical, mental health and well-being benefits of cycling are wide-ranging and reaching, and once you have access to a bike, cycling is a significantly cheaper form of every-day, and recreational travel when compared to driving or using public transport.
Routes to Faringdon Town Centre via cycling or other forms of wheeling from Oriel Gardens are supported by a shared footway-cycle path along Park Road, as well as towards the retail park and Country Park along Henry Blake Way, and along a quieter route towards Faringdon town centre via Volunteer Way and Southampton Street. The Town Council, and Farcycles have devised three excellent cycling routes, all starting from Southampton Street in town, and exploring the wider Vale of White Horse.
Less than half-a-mile north-east of Oriel Gardens is a Cycle Park set up by Farcycles. Located within Faringdon’s Country Park, less than half a mile north-east of Oriel Gardens. This multi-surface cycle loop is the perfect location to learn the basics of cycling, boost your confidence, and learn more about road safety when cycling.
Farcycles run a cycle shop within Faringdon Town Centre, on the corner of Marlborough Street and Bromsgrove, Their shop is well worth a visit whether you’d like to purchase a new bike or equipment, get your bike fixed or serviced, or to get hold of one of their excellent Leisure Route Maps.
You can find their website via the link below, or alternatively pop in to the Farcycles Cycle Shop, and find out more about what they are organising by speaking to one of their friendly volunteers.
Farcycles Bike Shop
Bus
Oriel Gardens is well served by bus with 4 bus services available from bus stops located along Park Road, less than 100m walk from the Site’s access at Proctor Way. These include the S6, 67, 68, and 61 Community Bus.
The S6 gold, operated by Stagecoach, runs between Oxford and Swindon, with both approximately 45 minutes east and west of Faringdon respectively. The S6 bus runs up to every 15 minutes Monday to Sunday, and every 30 minutes in the evenings. ’Journeys run late into the night over the weekend from Oxford and Swindon too further information on the S6 service, timetable updates, and further information on ticket pricing can be found via the following links:
The 67 and 68 bus services also operate and serve bus stops on Park Road. Both routes run between Faringdon and Wantage via Stanford in the Vale, with a frequency of 1 per hour for the 67, and 1 every 2 hours for the 68. The Faringdon Community bus (service number 61) is ran by volunteers, and provides local transport for individuals and groups in and around Faringdon. The Bus operates a timetabled service in and around Faringdon every weekday morning except Bank Holidays.
Bus times and timetables to all four services’ timetables can be found by visiting stagecoachbus.
Train
The nearest train station is Swindon Station, approximately 13 miles west of Oriel Gardens. The S6 bus service provides a direct 50-minute link to Swindon Bus Station, which is located within a 300m walk of the Rail Station, therefore providing a relatively direct and efficient interchange between bus and rail services.
Swindon Station provides access to frequent Great Western Railway services on the Great Western Main Line between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads (via Didcot Parkway and Reading), as well as the Swindon to Swansea main line (via Bristol Parkway and Cardiff Central).
Didcot Parkway Railway Station, approximately 18km east of Oriel Gardens is also served by GWR Main Line Service.
Visit the websites below for helpful information about rail services close to Faringdon.
Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles and (EVs) and plug in hybrid vehicles are becoming increasingly popular and growing at a rapid rate in the UK. According to Zapmap there are just under 1,400,000 fully electric cars in the UK at the end of January 2025. The number of charging points is growing rapidly. At the end of January 2025, there were 74,611 electric vehicle charging points across the UK.
In 2024 there were 381,970 new fully electric cars sold, which was 19.6% market share of all new cars registered that year. More fully electric cars were sold in 2024 than any other and represented 21% more than in 2023.
The benefits of car sharing include:
01 – Charge across 37,613 UK charging locations
02 – Cuts costs
03 – Reduce emissions
Further information on the benefits on buying an EV can be found on Zapmap.
There are 12 EVCP charging bays within the Southampton Street car park within the centre of Faringdon, less than a kilometre from Oriel Gardens. There are an additional four EVCP charging points located within the Tesco Superstore car park off Park Road.
CAR SHARING
Car sharing is when two or more people travelling on the same route travel together for some or all of a trip. One of the people travelling is usually the owner of the vehicle and the others are passengers. Passengers can sometimes make a contribution towards fuel or parking costs, or sometimes share the driving.
The benefits of car sharing include:
01 – Avoiding car-ownership costs
02 – Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
03 – Convenience
Faringdon Town Council are currently investigating the idea of having an electric car sharing club in Faringdon. We will keep you updated here, and through our Newsletter, how these plans progress.
There are two car-clubs operated by Co-Wheels within the Vale of White Horse district in Abingdon – Cattle Market, OX14 3JT (relocated to nearby Audlett Drive car park while works are carried out at Cattle Market) and West St Helens, OX14 5BU
Peer-to-peer car sharing is where people offer privately-owned vehicles for rent to others via an online platform. This option can provide a solution to car sharing in areas where a car club is not operating. Hiyacar and Getaround are examples of carsharing platforms.
Sustainable Travel
Still need to drive your own car? There are still ways to develop more sustainable habits, why not try some of the below techniques:
01 – Remove unnecessary weight from your car such as roof racks or boxes
02 – Avoid breaking and accelerating hard by driving smoothly
03 – Make sure your car tyres are fully inflated
04 – Check the air filters and get your vehicle regularly serviced.
Home Working and Delivery
Reducing the need to travel to work or while at work can save time and money while benefiting the environment. If you work from home just once a fortnight you are reducing your commute by 10%, which saves you both time and money.
Working from home one or more days per week is beneficial to the environment through reduced car based commuting and congestion, so if you are able and it works for you it would be good to continue doing it.
01 – Improved work life balance
02 – Reduced leves of sickness absence
03 – Reduced costs in travel and lunches
Home Delivery
Supermarkets also provide home shopping delivery options in the local area including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco and Morrison’s. This could reduce the need to travel by car for your weekly or larger shopping trips. A lot of clothes, shoes, toys and goods retailers also offer online shopping services, with deliveries to your home address, local post offices or even local grocery shops; depending on the retailers preference. Delivery details will be on retailers websites.
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