The town of Faringdon, located in the county of Oxfordshire, is more than just a pretty, friendly town. It beautifully combines all the traits that make English towns so beloved throughout the world. While it is no doubt a pretty burg, it also offers plenty of exciting historical landmarks; a very good "plus" in terms of measuring fantastic British towns.
Another great barometer for deciding how lovely an English town is, is the town's prevalence to a historic body of water. Some of the lakes in England (and the lochs in Scotland, for that matter) are among the most well-known and most significant in the entire world. Faringdon is fortunate to be located right alongside one of the most stunning of these bodies of water: The River Thames. Without the Thames many of the cities that are known throughout the continent may have never grown the way they did. It is because of the Thames that London was able to become one of the largest metropolises in the world and Faringdon also benefited from its proximity to the historic Thames. Farington is flanked on the other side by the Ridgeway, another well-known geographical feature of note. The Ridgeway was created by the massive glaciers that once were found covering the entire world during the many Ice Ages that permeated the life of our planet. The enormous weight of these ice blocks helped to hew mountains and valleys from continent to continent and, at least in the case of the Ridgeway, they helped to shape the roads that ran alongside these glaciers. There are many chalk cliffs in the area and, when all these neat features are combined, the result is a stunning display of beauty.
Faringdon's name means "fern covered hill" and, to be sure, Faringdon does have plenty of exciting plant species as well as all kinds of wildlife. If one had to pick the most famous and most unique organism in the town, however, the consensus would be easily reached: The Fairingdon Sponge Gravel. While this creature doesn't sound very interesting (or even alive) the fact of the matter is that it is one of the oldest fossils ever found and these sponges are found in the gravel all around Fairingdon. Many books have been written about this Cretaceous being and other small organisms can also be found within this gravel. Countless visitors to the town have made it a point to not leave without trying to get their hands on a piece of this blast from the past. As far as creatures that are still alive are concerned, however, much fanfare has been made about the dyed pigeons in Fairingdon House. This tourist haven is home to the tradition of dying pigeons for fun and it is not out of the ordinary to see pink, blue, and even more wildly colored pigeons flying around the area. The tradition was started by a noted madman by the name of Lord Berners. Put simply, there is a special kind of charm in Fairingdon that can't be replicated anywhere else in the world. For this reason alone it is highly recommended that you lay eyes on this treasure before your life ends.
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