Eynsham
Encyclopedia
Witney
Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
History
Eynsham grew up near the historically important ford of SwinfordSwinford, Oxfordshire
Swinford in the English county of Oxfordshire is a small settlement in the civil parish of Cumnor. It lies on the road between Eynsham and Farmoor on the south bank of the River Thames near Swinford Toll Bridge. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire....
on 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,...
flood plain. Excavations have shown that the site was used in the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
for a rectilinear enclosure on the edge of the gravel terrace.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
mentions Eynsham as Egonesham which it describes as one of four towns that the Saxons captured from the Britons in AD 571. Evidence has been found of 6th and 7th century Saxon buildings at New Wintles Farm, about 0.75 miles (1.2 km) north of the present parish church. There is some evidence that Eynsham had an early minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th centuries. The name is recorded in AD 864 (in the dative) as Egenes homme = "Ægen's enclosure or river-meadow".
In 1005 Aethelmar, kinsman of Aethelred II founded a Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
abbey on the site of the earlier minster. By the medieval period Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th...
was one of the largest in the area, but it was dissolved at the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
in 1538 and only a few remains are still visible. 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 Leonard
Leonard of Noblac
Leonard of Noblac or of Limoges or de Noblet , is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Haute-Vienne, in the Limousin of France.-Traditional biography:According to the romance that...
dates from the 13th century. It has been restored three times: by William Wilkinson
William Wilkinson (architect)
William Wilkinson was a British Gothic Revival architect who practised in Oxford, England.-Family:Wilkinson's father was a builder in Witney in Oxfordshire. William's elder brother George Wilkinson was also an architect, as were William's nephews C.C. Rolfe and H.W. Moore .-Career:Wilkinson...
in 1856 and H.G.W. Drinkwater
Harry Drinkwater
-Career:Drinkwater was a pupil of William C.C. Bramwell in Oxford 1860-65 and then assistant to the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street 1865-73. After a year as a Royal Academy travelling student Drinkwater began independent practice in Oxford. Drinkwater was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute...
in 1892 and most recently through the fundraising efforts of the whole community over a period of eight years in the 1980s. The Catholic Church eventually returned to Eynsham when St Peter's Church was built (1940 and 1967) on some of the old Abbey's lands.
By 1302 Eynsham had a wharf handling freight including hay, straw, malt, grain and timber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
. It was beside the Talbot
Talbot (dog)
The talbot was a white hunting dog which is now extinct because of its lack of purpose and need for constant care, but it has been credited with being an ancestor of the modern beagle and bloodhound...
Inn on Wharf Stream, a tributary of the Thames. By 1790 the newly-completed Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
was trading with Eynsham Wharf, primarily to sell coal from the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
. From 1792 th Oxford Canal employed a wharfinger
Wharfinger
Wharfinger is an archaic term for a person who is the keeper or owner of a wharf. The wharfinger took custody of and was responsible for goods delivered to the wharf, typically had an office on the wharf or dock, and was responsible for day-to-day activities including slipways, keeping tide tables...
at Eynsham and in 1800 it bought the lease of the wharf. The Oxford Canal consolidated its position at Eynsham by buying the Talbot Inn in 1845 and the freehold of Eynsham Wharf in 1849, perhaps in response to the Railway Mania
Railway Mania
The Railway Mania was an instance of speculative frenzy in Britain in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, more and more money was poured in by speculators, until the inevitable collapse...
that was beginning to take traffic from canals and navigations.
Eynsham Lock
Eynsham Lock
Eynsham Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England. It is on the southern bank near Swinford Oxfordshire. The large village of Eynsham is a little distance away on the northern bank....
is on the Thames just above the confluence with Wharf Stream. This was the last 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....
on the Thames, and was not rebuilt as a pound lock until 1928.
The village suffered a number of fires in its history. Two of the most serious were one on the morning of Whit Monday 1629 that destroyed 12 houses and another in 1681 that destroyed 20 houses. By the early part of the 19th century the parish had its own fire engine, and from then until 1949 the ground floor of the early 17th century Town Hall served as the parish fire station.
The fortunes of the main road through Eynsham have fluctuated. By the middle of the 18th century Swinford had a ferry, but the road was in poor condition. The heavier road traffic between Oxford and Witney preferred to pass further north via Bladon
Bladon
Bladon is a village and civil parish on the River Glyme about northwest of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.-Churches:The Parish Church of Saint Martin was originally 11th or 12th century, but was rebuilt twice in the 19th century: firstly in 1804, and then by the architect A.W...
, where the better-maintained 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...
- Woodstock
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a small town northwest of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. It is the location of Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and is buried in the nearby village of Bladon....
and Witney - Woodstock roads met. When the latter 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 1751, the road via Eynsham and Swinford ferry was included as a branch of it. In 1769 the Earl of Abingdon
Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon
Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon was an English peer and music patron.Bertie was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the son of Willoughby Bertie, 3rd Earl of Abingdon and Anna Maria Collins....
opened Swinford Toll Bridge
Swinford Toll Bridge
Swinford Toll Bridge is a privately owned toll bridge south of Eynsham, England that crosses the River Thames just above Eynsham Lock. The bridge carries the road between Farmoor and Eynsham...
to replace the ferry. The Witney - Woodstock road ceased to be a turnpike in 1869 but the Witney - Oxford road remained one until 1877.
Eynsham was an important coaching stop on the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Fishguard
Fishguard
Fishguard is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, with a population of 3,300 . The community of Fishguard and Goodwick had a population of 5043 at the 2001 census....
trunk road. Since 1922 this has been classified as the A40 road
A40 road
The A40 is a major trunk road connecting London to Fishguard, Wales and officially called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road in all legal documents and Acts...
. In 1936 a bypass for the main road was built north of the village, and the road over Swinford bridge was reclassified as the B4044.
The Witney Railway
Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway
The Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway was a single track railway line, long, in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.-The Witney Railway:In 1849 a branch line was proposed from the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway at Wilcote near Charlbury via North Leigh to Witney, but the route was...
between Witney and Yarnton
Yarnton
Yarnton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southwest of Kidlington and northwest of Oxford and southeast of Woodstock.-Archaeology:Early Bronze Age decorated beakers have been found in the parish...
was built through Eynsham parish and opened in 1861. Eynsham railway station
Eynsham railway station
Eynsham railway station served the Oxfordshire village of Eynsham and the Eynsham Sugar Beet Factory on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway between and . Eynsham station was just south of the village. The Witney Railway opened it in 1861 with one platform...
was on the south side of the village. The Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
took over the line in 1890 and enlarged Eynsham station in 1944. British Railways
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
closed the line to passenger trains in 1962. In 1970 the line closed to freight traffic and was dismantled.
Amenities
Local industries include gravel extraction and the large superconducting magnet factory, SiemensSiemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
Magnet Technology Ltd. There is also a business park on the village outskirts.
Eynsham Primary School is a community primary school. Bartholomew School
Bartholomew School Eynsham
Bartholomew School is a UK secondary comprehensive school which is situated in the village of Eynsham, West Oxfordshire. Currently there are 880 students in the school, 100 of which are in the sixth form. The school's current headteacher is Mr Hamilton...
in Eynsham is the county secondary school for the village and surrounding area. Its partnership Primary Schools are Eynsham Primary, Standlake, Stanton Harcourt, Freeland, Cassington and Hanborough. It is a specialist Technology College
Technology College
Technology College is a term used in the United Kingdom for a secondary specialist school that focuses on design and technology, mathematics and science. These were the first type of specialist schools, beginning in 1994. In 2008 there were 598 Technology Colleges in England, of which 12 also...
..
Eynsham Football Club plays in Witney and District Football League
Witney and District League
The Witney and District League is a football competition based in Oxfordshire, England. It has a total of four divisions headed by the Premier Division which sits at level 13 of the English football league system.-Champions:-Member clubs 2011–12:...
Division One. Eynsham Sports and Social Club plays in Witney and District Football League Division Three and its reserve team plays in Division Four. Eynsham Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association League Division Three.
Eynsham has a Women's Institute and a Morris dancing
Morris dance
Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, handkerchiefs and bells may also be wielded by the dancers...
side.
Notable residents
International racing driver and entrepreneur Dave Messenger.Ex Radio 1 and Virgin Radio DJ Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance was a British pop radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. He was one of the few music broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans...
.