West Hendred

West Hendred
Holy Trinity parish church
West Hendred Location within Oxfordshire
Population	385 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SU4488
Civil parish	West Hendred
District	Vale of the White Horse[2]
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Wantage
Postcode district	OX12
Dialling code	01235
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Wantage
Website	West Hendred Parish Council
List of places UK England Oxfordshire 51°35′46″N 1°23′35″W / 51.596°N 1.393°W / 51.596; -1.393

West Hendred is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) east of Wantage. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. West Hendred is downland village, its parish stretching from the Ridgeway in the south through the spring line and meadows to the former marshland of the Oxfordshire plain in the north. The parish is about 2,000 acres (810 ha) in area and 6 miles (10 km) long, but only being about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) 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. The Icknield Way and The Ridgeway cross the parish in the south.

The parish includes the hamlet of East Ginge, which is immediately below the Downs and includes Ginge Manor, home of Annabel Astor, Viscountess Astor,^{[citation needed]} mother of Samantha Cameron. Neighbouring hamlet West Ginge, however, is in the parish of Lockinge. Both of the hamlets have populations less than 30, although records from the 1881 and 1901 censuses show that they were more extensive with several occupied farms up to the Downs.^{[citation needed]} The parish has good examples of post-medieval drovers' roads, a Roman road, a buried Roman villa and well-preserved medieval watercress beds.

History

The earliest reference to West Hendred is the granting of several hides of land to thegn Brihtric by Eadwig in 955 and by Edgar the Peaceful in 964 to Abingdon Abbey^[3] In 1538 Corpus Christi College, Oxford became the Lord of the Manor. The college still owns considerable land in the village and surrounding area.^{[citation needed]} The Church of England parish church of the Holy Trinity is a 13th-century building on the site of a former wooden Saxon church, with small flying buttresses and a series of carved sundials on the wall outside. The most notable historical element of the church is the floor tiling. These are good examples, if worn, of medieval tiles. Holy Trinity is a Grade I listed building as it is predominantly representative of one phase of building. The last head teacher of the parish school, from 1945 to 1967, was E.A.G. Prosser. In 1967 the school was closed and combined with East Hendred in new premises.^{[citation needed]} West Hendred has a public house, The Hare,^[4] on the main A417 road to Wantage. It is now a gastropub.

Town twinning

West Hendred is twinned with:

• Sarceaux, Orne – France.^[5]

References

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.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 264.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to West Hendred.

• West Hendred Parish Council
• Hendred Portal (East & West Hendred)
• The Hendreds School

This page was last edited on 5 August 2023, at 23:15