East Hendred

East Hendred is a village and a Civil parish in the English county of Oxfordshire, about 7 km to the east of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse and is situated west of Didcot similar distance. Until 1974 the town was part of the county of Berkshire.

The East Hendred Brook flows through the Parish, which extends from the Vale of White Horse way up to Berkshire Downs. Even the western edge of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus is within the Parish. The Ridgeway and Icknield Way, two old streets also lead through.

History

East Hendred is the Scutchamer Knob, where King Edwin according to legend, killed in the seventh century Cwichelm of Wessex. Scutchamer Knob is the site of a megalithic chamber loose bed of the Iron Age and was in the Middle Ages of meeting of the Shire Moot. It is located on the Ridgeway National Trail at the southern end of the village.

The Parish was divided into five Gutssitze: King's Manor, Abbey Manor, Frampton 's Manor, New College Manor and Manor Arches. Abbey Manor was convent of Reading Abbey. Hendred House is the manor of Arches. It is the residence of the Eystons, the oldest of the old Berkshire family, which still has the same basic rule. One of the local pubs is named after them.

Hendred House and the family Eyston

The village is unusual by the manor Hendred House, who was over six hundred years in the same family. The Eystons had purchased the property mid-15th century, and remained up to the present masters of the house.

The Eyston family was one of the objectors of the English Reformation and remained Roman Catholic. This step had a strong influence on the history and development of the village. Dedicated to Saint Amand consecrated medieval private chapel belonging to Hendred House, remained a Catholic church and is still occasionally used for church services. The family also left the St Mary's Church built and founded in the 19th century, the St Amand 's School.

Notable members of the family were Charles Eyston, a bookseller in the 17th century and George Eyston who held a land speed record in the 1930s.

Parish Church

The parish church of the Church of England is dedicated to St Augustine of Canterbury and dates from the 12th century. In it married in 1996 who later became Prime Minister David Cameron 's wife Samantha. In it is a rare, functional copy of a clock by John Seymour of Wantage, was made in the 16th century and a carillon that plays the Angel's Hymn by Orlando Gibbons every three hours. The church has a square church tower on the west side.

There are also in East Hendred with St Mary römiosch a Catholic parish church.

Monastery

Adjacent to the Catholic parish church of St Mary is the Holy Trinity Monastery, founded in 2004, a community of Benedictine nuns.

Other Facilities

In East Hendred, there are three pubs, The Wheatsheaf, Eyston Arms and The Plough. The Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred in an old chapel on the wayside from the 15th century collects artifacts, photographs and other archival material from the village's history.