Charlton

Charlton today

Charlton is the old village on the eastern edge of Wantage, now joined to the town but still recognisable along Charlton Village Road. Its core is a loose cluster of brick and timber farmhouses and cottages, most of them from the 17th and early 18th centuries, and it has its own conservation area. Holy Trinity, an Edwardian brick church on Charlton Village Road, is a daughter church of Wantage parish. Newer housing surrounds the old village, and the Kingsgrove development lies just to the north. Charlton is part of Wantage town and gives its name to the Wantage Charlton ward; it has been in Oxfordshire since 1974.

History

Name and Domesday

Charlton is a common English place-name, from the Old English for a farmstead of the ceorls, the free peasants. A grant of five hides at “Ceorlatun” in 956 may refer to this Charlton, but it is not certain. By 1086 the land was divided between four holders: the king, Henry de Ferrers, William son of Corbucion, and Ralph de Tosny. Together their holdings had 41 households, making Charlton a sizeable place at the time.

Manors and families

The largest holding passed to the Earley family, who held it in the 13th and 14th centuries, and then to the Carews. Sir Edmund Carew sold it in 1497 to Bartholomew Reed, a London goldsmith, and in 1578 it went to Edmund Wiseman, after which its history is unclear. Two smaller estates, known as Baldwins and Weeks, were joined in the 15th century and given by John Golafre to support a chantry at Fyfield; after the chantries were dissolved they passed through several owners, including the Wirdnams of Charlton, the Dunches and the Wilmots, and tradition says they were later bought by Matthew Wymondsold and joined to the Lockinge estate. A fourth estate, Franklins, took its name from a family recorded here from 1316. By the 1920s no manorial rights were exercised.

Farms and enclosure

Charlton was a farming township within Wantage parish. Its open fields were enclosed later than those of Wantage and Grove: the Charlton enclosure award dates from 1868. Several of the farmhouses from before that time survive, including Parsonage Farm, Barnard’s Farm and Truelock’s Farm.

The church

Holy Trinity was first built in 1848 as a chapel of ease, so that Charlton people did not have to walk into Wantage for services. A chancel was added in 1891 and the original nave was pulled down and rebuilt in 1906, so the present building is essentially Edwardian: red brick and stone, with a timber bellcote and an apsed chancel.

The 20th century

Post-war housing filled the fields between Charlton and the town, and Charlton became part of Wantage in all but name. The Wantage Charlton conservation area was designated in 1984 to protect the old village street.

Things to see

• Charlton Village Road, with its 17th and early 18th-century brick and timber houses (conservation area).
• Holy Trinity church (1848, rebuilt 1891–1906).
• Listed farmhouses including Parsonage Farmhouse, Barnard’s Farmhouse and Truelock’s Farmhouse (private, seen from the road).