Warborough is a village and civil parish 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 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Wallingford and about 9 miles (14.5 km) south of Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. The parish also includes the hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Shillingford

Shillingford

Shillingford is a hamlet on the River Thames in Warborough civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It lies on the main road between Oxford and Reading, at the junction with the A329.-History:...

, south of Warborough beside the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

.

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...

 has evolved over the centuries. A property deed written about 1370 calls the village Wareburewe.

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 Saint Laurence was originally a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 of the adjacent parish of Benson

Benson, Oxfordshire

Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It is about north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills at the confluence of a chalk stream and the River Thames, next to Benson Lock...

. There is a record of the Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...

 giving the benefice

Benefice

A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...

 of Benson, including chapels at Nettlebed

Nettlebed

Nettlebed is a village in England in the Chiltern Hills about northwest of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and southeast of Wallingford.-History:Archaeological finds show that the area around Nettlebed has been inhabited since Palaeolithic times....

 and Warborough, to the Augustinian

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 Abbey at nearby Dorchester, Oxfordshire

Dorchester, Oxfordshire

Dorchester-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thame in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. Despite its name, Dorchester is not on the River Thames, but just above the Thame's confluence with it...

 in about 1140.

Perhaps the oldest item in the church is the font

Baptismal font

A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...

, which dates from late in the 12th century. The chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 has Decorated Gothic features from the early part of the 13th century, including the east window and one of the windows on the south side. The other windows of the chancel are later Perpendicular Gothic additions. The nave and south transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

 are Perpendicular features from the 14th century, although the transept arch and window are Decorated. The Gothic Revival architects

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 G.F. Bodley

George Frederick Bodley

George Frederick Bodley was an English architect working in the Gothic revival style.-Personal life:Bodley was the youngest son of William Hulme Bodley, M.D. of Edinburgh, physician at Hull Royal Infirmary, Kingston upon Hull, who in 1838 retired to his wife's home town, Brighton, Sussex, England....

 and Thomas Garner

Thomas Garner

Thomas Garner was one of the leading English Gothic revival architects of the Victorian era. His name is usually mentioned in relation to his almost 30-year partnership with George Frederick Bodley...

 restored the chancel in 1881. The Perpendicular Gothic windows in the nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 are also Victorian.

The bell-tower was rebuilt in 1666. Its two oldest bells were cast in 1618, and two more date from 1675. It had a peal

Change ringing

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....

 of six bells, but in 1955 two new bells were cast and hung increasing the peal to eight.

Warborough has a number of half-timbered

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 and thatched

Thatching

Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...

 houses, including a cruck

Cruck

A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which supports the roof of a building, used particularly in England. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally bent, timber beams that lean inwards and form the ridge of the roof. These posts are then generally secured by a...

 cottage 100 yards (91.4 m) southwest of the parish church. A date stone on the manor house

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

 on the north side of the village green says it was built in 1696. The vicarage is Georgian

Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...

. Near the cruck cottage is a terrace of four cottages designed in 1952 by the architect Lionel Brett

Lionel Brett, 4th Viscount Esher

Lionel Gordon Baliol Brett, 4th Viscount Esher was a Britih peer, architect and town-planner. He succeeded to his title on the death of his father in 1963....

.

The malt

Malt

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...

ster Joseph Tubb

Joseph Tubb

Joseph Tubb was a maltster from Oxfordshire, England. His lasting legacy is the Poem Tree at Wittenham Clumps.- Biography :Tubb lived at Lavender Cottage in Warborough, a village near the town of Dorchester. He wished to become a wood carver, but his father convinced him to become a maltster...

 (1805–79) lived in Warborough. In 1844-45 he carved the Poem Tree at Wittenham Clumps

Wittenham Clumps

Wittenham Clumps is the commonly used name for a set of small hills in the flat Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham in the English county of Oxfordshire....

.

Warborough and Shillingford Festival was founded in 1965. It is held annually in July

Amenities

Warborough has a village shop and 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 Six Bells.

The village has a pre-school and a Church of England

Voluntary controlled school

A voluntary controlled school is a state-funded school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in which a foundation or trust has some formal influence in the running of the school...

 primary school. Most secondary school pupils from the parish attend Wallingford School

Wallingford School

Wallingford School is a secondary school located in the town of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England. It was founded by Walter Bigg in 1659 in association with the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, formally succeeding Wallingford Grammar School when it merged with Blackstone Secondary Modern in...

.

The village green has a playground and sports pitches. Cross Keys and Warborough Football Club plays in Upper Thames Valley League Division I.

The Greet Hall hosts the Warborough and Shillingford Women's Institute, a short mat bowls

Short mat bowls

-History:The Short Mat Bowls game was first played in Wales by two South Africans who came to work in the area. They had played bowls outdoors in South Africa and, perhaps due to the poor climate and the long close season in this country, they began to play a simulation of the outdoor game on a...

 club and a jujitsu club and is the venue for parish council meetings.