West Challow

West Challow today

West Challow is a small, quiet village on the clay of the Vale, just off the A417 and west of East Challow. Childrey Brook and Woodhill Brook drain the parish, and the line of the old Wilts & Berks Canal skirts the south side of the village. Farmland surrounds it, with the downs rising to the south. It was in Berkshire until 1974.

About 230 people live in the parish. The village has St Laurence’s church, which is usually open in the daytime, and a village hall that also hosts regular pub nights. There is no pub, shop or school. It is reached by lanes from the A417 at East Challow and from Childrey.

History

Name and Domesday

Challow shares its name, Ceawa’s mound, with East Challow; it was written Ceveslaue in Domesday Book. In 1086 the nuns of Amesbury in Wiltshire held an estate at Challow with 20 households, and they had held it before the Conquest too. This became the manor of Petwick, or West Challow. A second manor was granted by Henry I to Robert Achard between 1107 and 1118.

Manors and families

When Amesbury priory was dissolved in 1541, Petwick and the chapel of West Challow went to Sir Thomas Seymour, who sold them at once to the tenant, Richard Plott. From before 1635 until 1802 the Pigott family owned much of the parish, and their 18th-century floor slabs are in the chancel. In 1899 the manor was bought by Lord Wantage, and in 1924 his widow owned most of the land. Manor Farm, a Grade II* listed Queen Anne house with older parts, is the chief house.

One West Challow woman made a mark far from home. Joan Vokins, a Quaker, travelled as a missionary to America and the West Indies in 1680. She died in 1690, and her writings were published afterwards as God’s Mighty Power Magnified.

The church

St Laurence’s is a plain rectangle under one roof. The nave dates from about 1190, with a round-arched north doorway of that time. The bell turret and west window are 14th-century, and the carved timber north porch and the oak chancel screen are 15th-century. The Jacobean pulpit and communion table are 17th-century. One of the two bells was cast by Paul le Potter, a London founder, in about 1283, and carries his name; it is thought to be the oldest English bell signed by its maker. The church was restored in 1892. For centuries it was a chapel of Letcombe Regis, then shared a vicar with East Challow from the 1850s until 1977, and it is now in the Ridgeway Benefice.

Canal, railway and the village hall

The Wilts & Berks Canal came through in the early 19th century. The Great Western Railway opened a station to the north in 1840, called Faringdon Road until 1864 and Challow after that, which closed to passengers in 1964. From 1894 until 1951 village events were held in a parish room in the old school house. The present village hall was opened on 30 June 1951 by John Betjeman, who had just come to live in Wantage.

Things to see

• St Laurence’s church: the Norman north doorway, the 15th-century porch and screen, and the Jacobean pulpit.
• Manor Farm, a Grade II* listed house, from the road (it is private).
• The course of the Wilts & Berks Canal south of the village.
• Thatched and timber-framed cottages along the village lane.