Drayton is a village and civil parish about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Wantage

Wantage

Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....

. It was part of Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

 until the 1974 boundary changes

Local Government Act 1972

The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

 transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire.

The parish is bounded by the Land Brook in the west and the Childrey Brook in the east. The Great Western Main Line

Great Western Main Line

The Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in Great Britain that runs westwards from London Paddington station to the west of England and South Wales. The core Great Western Main Line runs from London Paddington to Temple Meads railway station in Bristol. A major branch of the Great...

 between Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

 and Swindon

Swindon

Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

 runs through the parish just south of the village, but there is no station.

History

The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 describes Denchworth as being granted to Henry de Ferrers

Henry de Ferrers

Henry de Ferrers was a Norman soldier from a noble family who took part in the conquest of England and is believed to have fought at the Battle of Hastings of 1066 and, in consequence, was rewarded with much land in the subdued nation.His elder brother William fell in the battle. William and Henri...

:

"The same Henry de Ferrers holds Denchworth and Reiner holds of him. Aethelric held it TRE. Then assessed at 7 hides

Hide (unit)

The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

 now at five and a half hides. There is land for five ploughs. In demesne is one plough and five villans and five cottars

Cotter (farmer)

See also Canadian band The Cottars.Cotter, cottier or cottar is the Scots term for a peasant farmer formerly in the Scottish highlands. Cotters occupied cottages and cultivated small plots of land...

 with one plough and 30 acres (12.1 ha) of meadow and there is a church. TRE it was worth 70 shillings and afterwards 60 shillings. Now 4 pounds."

Denchworth was the home of the old and widespread Berkshire families of Fettiplace

Fettiplace

Fettiplace is an English family name of Norman descent, with at least 800 years of history. They were landed gentry, chiefly in the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.-Origin:...

 and Hyde

Hyde Family of Denchworth

The Hyde family of Denchworth in the English county of Berkshire were a landed family from at least the Norman period to the late modern era. They were chiefly seated at various places in Berkshire, but there were major branches in County Cork in Ireland and Fairfield, Connecticut in the United...

. The Hydes have many old memorial brasses

Monumental brass

Monumental brass is a species of engraved sepulchral memorial which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood...

 in the Church of England parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

. One has the commemorative plaque

Commemorative plaque

A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...

 for the foundation of Bisham Priory on the back. There are also stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows by Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...

 and it once had a large library of early printed books as well as curiosities such as a "mermaid's rib".

Economy & amenities

Denchworth has a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, the Fox Inn, controlled by Greene King Brewery

Greene King Brewery

Greene King is a British brewery established in 1799 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. It has grown to become one of the largest British owned breweries in the UK through a series of takeovers which have been the subject of some criticism. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent...

.

RJN Motorsport is based in Denchworth parish.

External links

• The Garden House at Denchworth Manor