Dunsden Green or Dunsden is a village in the civil parish of Eye & Dunsden

Eye & Dunsden

Eye and Dunsden is a largely rural civil parish in the most southern part of English county of Oxfordshire.It includes the villages of Sonning Eye, Dunsden Green and Playhatch and borders on the River Thames with the village of Sonning in Berkshire connected via Sonning Bridge just over the river...

 in South Oxfordshire

South Oxfordshire

South Oxfordshire is a local government district in Oxfordshire, England. Its council is based in Crowmarsh Gifford, just outside Wallingford....

, about 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of
Reading, Berkshire

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....

. Before 1866, it was part of the Oxfordshire section of Sonning civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

.

History

The toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 means "valley of a man named Dyn(n)e". In 1086 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...

 recorded it as Dunesdene, and a document of 1586 records it as Donsden Grene.

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:...

 of All Saints was designed by the architect John Turner

John Turner (architect)

John Turner was an English architect, noted for his ecclesiastical buildings.-Life:John Turner was born in Holborn, London in 1806 and married Fanny Louise Carter in 1839. He had two children, John Goldicutt and Joseph Edward both of whom died without issue...

 and built in 1842.

Nearby is the former vicarage. The future First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...

 lived from September 1911 to February 1913 when he served as a lay assistant to the parish priest, Rev. Herbert Wigan.

The village school was built in 1848. It is now the village hall

Village hall

In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...

.

In 2002 the Loddon Brewery

Loddon Brewery

The Loddon Brewery is an award-winning brewery based in Dunsden Green in the Oxfordshire countryside, near both Henley on Thames and Reading. It has become one of the fastest growing breweries in England, with beer now available nationally.- History :...

 was established in a converted 18th century brick and flint barn at Dunsden Green Farm.

In November 2007 a new community orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

 was established by the planting of a Blenheim Orange

Blenheim Orange

Blenheim Orange is a cultivar of apple. It was found at Woodstock, Oxfordshire near Blenheim in England in about 1740.A tailor named George Kempster planted the original kernel and the apple, known locally as Kempster's Pippin, began to be catalogued in about 1818...

 apple tree on the village green

Village green

A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...

 by Lord Phillimore, the main local landowner. The orchard will be beside the village green

Village green

A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...

.

External links