West Hendred
| West Hendred | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 West Hendred Brook | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU4488 |
| Location: | 51°35’46"N, 1°23’35"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 385 (2001) |
| Postcode: | OX12 |
| Dialling code: | 01235 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Oxfordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wantage |
| Website: | West Hendred Parish Council |
West Hendred is a village in Berkshire about three miles east of Wantage. A downland village, West Hendred's parish stretches down from the Ridgeway in the south through the spring line and meadows to the former marshland of the plain of the Thames in the north. The parish is about 2,000 acres in area and six miles long, but only about ½ mile wide at the widest point. This is an example of a downland linear parish encompassing a wide variety of land types - chalk downland, greensand on the spring line and clay to the north.
The Great Western Main Line crosses the northern part of the parish. Two ancient roads, the Icknield Way and Ridgeway cross the parish in the south.
The parish includes the hamlet of East Ginge, which is immediately below the Downs. Neighbouring hamlet West Ginge, however, is in the parish of Lockinge. Both of the hamlets have populations less than 30, although records from previous censuses (1881, 1901) show that they were more extensive with several occupied farms up to the Downs.
The parish has good examples of post-mediæval drovers' roads, a Roman road, a buried Roman villa and well-preserved mediæval watercress beds.
West Hendred has one public house, The Hare,[1] on the main A417 road to Wantage. It is now a gastropub.
Parish church
The parish church is Holy Trinity, a 13th-century building on the site of a former wooden Anglo-Saxon church. While many of our mediaeval churches are a patchwork of styles built at various ages, Holy Trinity, West Hendred is predominantly representative of one-phase of building.
The church is stone-built with a flint tower and small flying buttresses. A series of carved sundials is found on the wall outside. The most notable historical element of the church is the floor tiling. These are good examples, if worn, of mediæval tiles. It is a Grade I listed building.
History
The earliest reference to West Hendred is the granting of several hides of land to thegn Brihtric by King Eadwig in AD 955 and by King Edgar I in AD 964 to Abingdon Abbey[2] In 1538 Corpus Christi College, Oxford became the Lord of the Manor. The college still owns considerable land in the village and surrounding area.
The village though small had its own village school until 1967, when it was closed for rationalisation and combined with that of East Hendred in new 1960s premises.
See also
References
- ↑ The Hare at Hendred
- ↑ Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 302-307
Further reading
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 302–307. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62718.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 264.
