Benson, Oxfordshire
Encyclopedia
Benson is a village and civil parish in South
Oxfordshire
, England. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills
at the confluence of a chalk stream (Ewelme Brook) and the River Thames
, next to Benson Lock
. Being on the northern (eastern) bank of the Thames, Benson has always been in Oxfordshire, unlike nearby Wallingford and Abingdon, Oxfordshire
, which were part of Berkshire
until the 1974 boundary changes
.
The village is on river silts and gravel, just above the surrounding marshy land that gives nearby settlements of Preston Crowmarsh
and Crowmarsh Gifford
their names. The fertile land which surrounds the village meant that farming was the main source of employment until the 20th Century.
Recent excavations at the site of a new housing site at the junction of St. Helen’s Avenue and Church Road revealed evidence of early Neolithic (3500 BC) and later Bronze Age
or early Iron Age
(11th–8th centuries BC) pits and postholes, as well as a possible later Bronze Age roundhouse and three early or middle Saxon
(5th–6th centuries AD) sunken-floored buildings and a small Saxon enclosure.
in 573 AD who established a "Royal Vill". In 775 the West Saxons surrendered it to Offa of Mercia
, who wanted a stronghold on the eastern bank of the Thames.
The toponym
was originally Villam Regiam, "The King's Town". Later it was Bensington, from the Old English Bænesingtun meaning "farmstead of the people of [a man called] Benesa". The village is reputedly the site of the Battle of Bensington. The present "Benson" was adopted early in the 19th century.
At the time of the Domesday Book
of 1086 Benson was said to be a royal centre of great importance.
of Saint Helen is partly ancient. John Marius Wilson described it as "variously late pointed Norman and decorated; has a modern tower; contains a Norman font and two brasses; and is very good." The parish includes the hamlets of Fifield, Roke, and Crowmarsh-Battle or Preston-Crowmarsh. The village is often confused with RAF Benson
which is a well-known RAF station and airfield. The RAF airfield boundary is immediately adjacent to the village, and the aerodrome's construction closed the former 'London Road'. The RAF station buildings are on the opposite side of the airfield to Benson village, adjacent to the village of Ewelme
.
The church tower was rebuilt in 1794. It has a single clock face on the east-facing side with hours displayed in Roman numerals. The clock face erroneously has the nine o'clock marker painted as "XI". The eleven o'clock marker is also XI. This mistake gained fame during the Second World War
when Germany's English-speaking propaganda broadcaster, William Joyce
(Lord Haw Haw) promised an air raid on "an airfield near the village whose clock had two elevens". RAF Benson
was bombed soon afterwards.
The bell tower
has a ring
of eight bells. Six including the tenor and treble were cast by Thomas Janaway of Chelsea
in 1781. The current second and third bells were added by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
: the second cast by Charles and George Mears in 1852 and the third cast by Mears and Stainbank in 1922. In October 2009 White's of Appleton removed the original oak bell frame of 1794 and replaced it with a modern steel frame. White's refurbished the bells and fitted them with new headstocks for installation in the new steel frame.
Benson is one of several key sites of the English civil war
in thin South Oxfordshire, lying between the site of the Battle of Chalgrove Field
(which took place on 18 June 1643) and Wallingford Castle, reputedly the last Royalist
stronghold to surrender, and close to the Royalist cities of Oxford
and Newbury
. At Benson itself, a building is still known as the Court House from the time that King Charles I
held court there when en route to Oxford.
A flash lock
was installed on the Thames at Benson in 1746. Benson weir collapsed in 1783, necessitating the construction of Benson pound lock in 1788. Benson Lock was rebuilt in 1870.
The road between Henley-on-Thames
and Dorchester on Thames was made into a turnpike
in 1736 and in the 18th and early 19th centuries Benson became an important staging post for coaches running between London and Oxford via Henley. Its broad, open square was surrounded by coaching inns and at its peak the village four large inns, ten smaller alehouses and a blacksmith. The Henley - Dorchester road was disturnpiked in 1873.
The decline in coaching, enclosure
and the agricultural depression led to a fall in population, from 1300 in 1831 to 960 by 1901.
Among those who moved away was the family of Reginald Robinson Lee, aged about 16 when they moved to Hampshire. Reginald was born in Bensington in 1870, the son of William Lee (schoolmaster) and his wife Jane, and was baptized at the church of St. Helen, Bensington on 19 June 1870. Reginald signed on to the RMS Titanic in Southampton on 6 April 1912, aged 42. He was in the crows' nest with Fred Fleet when the iceberg was sighted at about 11.40 p.m. on 14 April 1912, and survived the tragedy, being rescued in lifeboat 13.
Lee subsequently testified before the Board of Trade
inquiry. He died on 6 August 1913 whilst serving aboard the Kenilworth Castle.
The failure to extend the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
to Watlington
, which would have meant a station at or close to Benson, left the village increasingly isolated as passenger transport between London and Oxford increasingly went via a railway which ran nowhere near the once-vital coaching stop.
The village recovered as motor coaches (and increasingly private cars) became more important, and Benson gained a number of roadhouse-type cafes - early 20th Century equivalents to the Coaching Inns that had gone before.
primary school (separate primary and junior schools recently combined, allowing one to be sold off for housing development), a pre-school, a doctor's surgery, two public houses including 18th century coaching inn The Crown Inn and The Three Horseshoes (down from five since 1990 - the closed ones having become private homes) and about a dozen small shops, including a supermarket and a dispensing chemist. A large garage on the main Oxford road just outside the village has an on-site McDonald's
(with drive through) and a Marks and Spencer food outlet, though the Vauxhall main dealership has now closed.
The brook still runs through the village, and is home to trout and to the invasive American signal crayfish
.
Aircraft noise in the area can be significant, so property values are low compared to many of the surrounding villages.
The village is also a well-known frost-pocket, sometimes recording the lowest night-time temperatures in the UK. This minor climatic quirk may have led to the village's part in the development of modern meteorology, with an important meteorological observatory being located in the village in the early 19th century.
South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire is a local government district in Oxfordshire, England. Its council is based in Crowmarsh Gifford, just outside Wallingford....
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, England. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
at the confluence of a chalk stream (Ewelme Brook) and 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,...
, next to Benson Lock
Benson Lock
Benson Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England, close to Benson, Oxfordshire but on the opposite bank of the river. The first pound lock here was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1788 and it was replaced by the present masonry lock in 1870...
. Being on the northern (eastern) bank of the Thames, Benson has always been in Oxfordshire, unlike nearby Wallingford and Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
, which were 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....
.
The village is on river silts and gravel, just above the surrounding marshy land that gives nearby settlements of Preston Crowmarsh
Preston Crowmarsh
Preston Crowmarsh is a hamlet in Benson civil parish in South Oxfordshire. It is on the River Thames north of Wallingford. The river can be crossed on foot here at Benson Lock....
and Crowmarsh Gifford
Crowmarsh Gifford
Crowmarsh Gifford is a village in the civil parish of Crowmarsh in South Oxfordshire. It is beside the River Thames opposite the market town of Wallingford, the two being linked via Wallingford Bridge...
their names. The fertile land which surrounds the village meant that farming was the main source of employment until the 20th Century.
Archaeology
There is evidence of human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period - around 10,000 BC). The village occupies the site of an ancient British town and there is known to have been occupation during the Roman period, although Benson’s written history dates back only as far as AD 571.Recent excavations at the site of a new housing site at the junction of St. Helen’s Avenue and Church Road revealed evidence of early Neolithic (3500 BC) and later Bronze Age
Bronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain refers to the period of British history that spanned from c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the era of Iron Age Britain...
or early Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
(11th–8th centuries BC) pits and postholes, as well as a possible later Bronze Age roundhouse and three early or middle Saxon
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain was the invasion and migration of Germanic peoples from continental Europe to Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, specifically the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain after the demise of Roman rule in the 5th century.The stimulus, progression and...
(5th–6th centuries AD) sunken-floored buildings and a small Saxon enclosure.
Manor
The village was taken by the West SaxonsWessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
in 573 AD who established a "Royal Vill". In 775 the West Saxons surrendered it to Offa of Mercia
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
, who wanted a stronghold on the eastern bank of the Thames.
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...
was originally Villam Regiam, "The King's Town". Later it was Bensington, from the Old English Bænesingtun meaning "farmstead of the people of [a man called] Benesa". The village is reputedly the site of the Battle of Bensington. The present "Benson" was adopted early in the 19th century.
At the time of 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 Benson was said to be a royal centre of great importance.
Parish church
The Church of England parish churchChurch 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 Helen is partly ancient. John Marius Wilson described it as "variously late pointed Norman and decorated; has a modern tower; contains a Norman font and two brasses; and is very good." The parish includes the hamlets of Fifield, Roke, and Crowmarsh-Battle or Preston-Crowmarsh. The village is often confused with RAF Benson
RAF Benson
RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force station near Benson in South Oxfordshire, England. It is home to the Royal Air Force's support helicopters, the Aérospatiale Puma and the EH-101 Merlin, known as the Puma HC.Mk 1 and the Merlin HC.Mk 3 and Mk 3a....
which is a well-known RAF station and airfield. The RAF airfield boundary is immediately adjacent to the village, and the aerodrome's construction closed the former 'London Road'. The RAF station buildings are on the opposite side of the airfield to Benson village, adjacent to the village of Ewelme
Ewelme
Ewelme is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, northeast of the market town of Wallingford.To the east of the village is Cow Common and to the west, Benson Airfield, the north-eastern corner of which is within the parish boundary.The solid geology is chalk...
.
The church tower was rebuilt in 1794. It has a single clock face on the east-facing side with hours displayed in Roman numerals. The clock face erroneously has the nine o'clock marker painted as "XI". The eleven o'clock marker is also XI. This mistake gained fame during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when Germany's English-speaking propaganda broadcaster, William Joyce
William Joyce
William Joyce , nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an Irish-American fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He was hanged for treason by the British as a result of his wartime activities, even though he had renounced his British nationality...
(Lord Haw Haw) promised an air raid on "an airfield near the village whose clock had two elevens". RAF Benson
RAF Benson
RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force station near Benson in South Oxfordshire, England. It is home to the Royal Air Force's support helicopters, the Aérospatiale Puma and the EH-101 Merlin, known as the Puma HC.Mk 1 and the Merlin HC.Mk 3 and Mk 3a....
was bombed soon afterwards.
The bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
has a ring
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 eight bells. Six including the tenor and treble were cast by Thomas Janaway of Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
in 1781. The current second and third bells were added by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
: the second cast by Charles and George Mears in 1852 and the third cast by Mears and Stainbank in 1922. In October 2009 White's of Appleton removed the original oak bell frame of 1794 and replaced it with a modern steel frame. White's refurbished the bells and fitted them with new headstocks for installation in the new steel frame.
Social and economic history
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
in thin South Oxfordshire, lying between the site of the Battle of Chalgrove Field
Battle of Chalgrove Field
The Battle of Chalgrove was a small battle during the English Civil War in the county of Oxfordshire. It took place around 09:00 hours on the morning of 18 June 1643 in Chalgrove Field, northeast of Chalgrove in Oxfordshire...
(which took place on 18 June 1643) and Wallingford Castle, reputedly the last Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
stronghold to surrender, and close to the Royalist cities 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...
and Newbury
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse and the adjoining former USAF...
. At Benson itself, a building is still known as the Court House from the time that King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
held court there when en route to Oxford.
A flash lock
Flash lock
Early locks were designed with a single gate, known as a flash lock or staunch lock. The earliest European references to what were clearly flash locks were in Roman times....
was installed on the Thames at Benson in 1746. Benson weir collapsed in 1783, necessitating the construction of Benson pound lock in 1788. Benson Lock was rebuilt in 1870.
The road between Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...
and Dorchester on Thames was made into a turnpike
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
in 1736 and in the 18th and early 19th centuries Benson became an important staging post for coaches running between London and Oxford via Henley. Its broad, open square was surrounded by coaching inns and at its peak the village four large inns, ten smaller alehouses and a blacksmith. The Henley - Dorchester road was disturnpiked in 1873.
The decline in coaching, enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
and the agricultural depression led to a fall in population, from 1300 in 1831 to 960 by 1901.
Among those who moved away was the family of Reginald Robinson Lee, aged about 16 when they moved to Hampshire. Reginald was born in Bensington in 1870, the son of William Lee (schoolmaster) and his wife Jane, and was baptized at the church of St. Helen, Bensington on 19 June 1870. Reginald signed on to the RMS Titanic in Southampton on 6 April 1912, aged 42. He was in the crows' nest with Fred Fleet when the iceberg was sighted at about 11.40 p.m. on 14 April 1912, and survived the tragedy, being rescued in lifeboat 13.
Lee subsequently testified before the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
inquiry. He died on 6 August 1913 whilst serving aboard the Kenilworth Castle.
The failure to extend the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway is a long standard gauge heritage railway in the English county of Oxfordshire. It operates along most of the length of the former Wallingford branch of the Great Western Railway , from Cholsey station, north of Reading on the Great Western Main Line, to a...
to Watlington
Watlington
Watlington could be*Watlington, Norfolk, England*Watlington, Oxfordshire, England*Whatlington, Sussex, England*Watlington, New Zealand...
, which would have meant a station at or close to Benson, left the village increasingly isolated as passenger transport between London and Oxford increasingly went via a railway which ran nowhere near the once-vital coaching stop.
The village recovered as motor coaches (and increasingly private cars) became more important, and Benson gained a number of roadhouse-type cafes - early 20th Century equivalents to the Coaching Inns that had gone before.
Amenities
Despite lacking a railway station, and despite its relative distance from the M4 and M40, Benson is today a thriving commuter village, with a Church of EnglandVoluntary 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 (separate primary and junior schools recently combined, allowing one to be sold off for housing development), a pre-school, a doctor's surgery, two public houses including 18th century coaching inn The Crown Inn and The Three Horseshoes (down from five since 1990 - the closed ones having become private homes) and about a dozen small shops, including a supermarket and a dispensing chemist. A large garage on the main Oxford road just outside the village has an on-site McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
(with drive through) and a Marks and Spencer food outlet, though the Vauxhall main dealership has now closed.
The brook still runs through the village, and is home to trout and to the invasive American signal crayfish
Signal crayfish
The signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, is a North American species of crayfish. It was introduced to Europe in the 1960s to supplement the Scandinavian Astacus astacus fisheries, which were being damaged by crayfish plague, but the imports turned out to be a carrier of that disease...
.
Aircraft noise in the area can be significant, so property values are low compared to many of the surrounding villages.
The village is also a well-known frost-pocket, sometimes recording the lowest night-time temperatures in the UK. This minor climatic quirk may have led to the village's part in the development of modern meteorology, with an important meteorological observatory being located in the village in the early 19th century.