Denchworth

Denchworth today

Denchworth is a quiet village of about 170 people on the heavy clay of the Vale, set between two small streams, the Land Brook to the west and the Childrey Brook to the east, which run north towards the Ock. The main street runs beside the Childrey Brook, and lanes lead in from Wantage and Grove. The Great Western main line passes just south of the village; there has never been a station.

The church of St James, the moated Denchworth Manor and the Fox Inn stand close together near the centre, among thatched and timber-framed cottages. At the time of writing the Fox, a stone-built pub of the late 17th century, is open. The old school and post office are now private houses. The stump of a medieval village cross stands where the Wantage lane meets the street.

History

Name and Saxon charters

The name is usually explained as the enclosure (Old English worth) of a man called Denic. A 10th-century grant of five hides to a thegn called Wulfric describes boundaries that follow Childrey Brook and the Land Brook, and they match the modern parish closely. Abingdon Abbey’s chronicle claims that Cædwalla of Wessex gave Denchworth to the abbey in the 7th century, but the Victoria County History judges the charters offered as proof to be forgeries.

Domesday and manors

In 1086 South Denchworth was split between Henry de Ferrers, whose holding included the church, and Robert of Stafford, with 19 households between them. North Denchworth, on the edge of Hanney, was held by William of Eu and later became the home of the Fettiplace family. Over the Middle Ages the parish was divided into several small manors, among them Circourt, Cleets and Lovedays. From the 13th century the Hyde family gradually gathered them together, and they lived here until George Hyde sold up in 1617. After the Cokaynes and the Geering family, the main manor was sold in 1758 to Worcester College, Oxford.

Manor house and church

Denchworth Manor stands inside a large moat, part of which still holds water. Its oldest part is of the late 15th or early 16th century, with wings added in the 17th. St James’s church has a Norman south doorway and a small north tower, and was largely rebuilt in the 13th and 15th centuries. Brasses to Oliver Hyde (died 1516) and two William Hydes (1557 and 1567) survive. One of them is cut on the back of an older plate recording the laying of a foundation stone at Bisham Priory in 1333. In 1693 the vicar and Gregory Geering set up a chained library in the room over the porch; its 1483 Golden Legend is now in the Bodleian Library.

Enclosure, railway and school

The common fields were enclosed by an award of 1806. The Great Western Railway was built across the south of the parish in 1840. In 1729 Richard Gilgrasse left money to teach poor children, and it later helped to maintain a National school built in the 1850s. The school building is now a house. Brook Lane Barns, an 18th-century thatched barn converted to offices, burned down in 2012. Denchworth moved from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in 1974.

Things to see

• Church of St James (Grade II*): Norman doorway, 15th-century font, Hyde brasses and Geering memorials.
• Denchworth Manor (Grade II*) and its moat, seen from the road (private).
• The Fox Inn (Grade II), a late 17th-century stone pub.
• The village cross stump (Grade II) at the road junction.
• K6 telephone kiosk and old roadside pump, both listed.