Churchill, Oxfordshire

The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the toponym as Cercelle. A pipe roll from AD 1168 records it as Cerzhulla.[3] A charter of the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford from about 1175 records it as Chirchehull.[4] Other late 11th-century, 12th century and early 13th-century variants include Cercell, Cercell', Cercella, Cerchil, Cerchull and Cerchulla. A Close Roll from AD 1220 records it as Cerceill'. An entry in the Book of Fees for about AD 1235–36 records it as Cershull'. An assize roll from 1246–47 Latinises the name as Sercellis. A feudal aid document from 1346 records it as Cerccell.[3]

The name is derived from Old English. The parish's old church (see below) was not on top of the hill, so the name may not necessarily refer to a hill with or belonging to a church. There is a barrow almost at the top of the hill, so the first part of the name could be derived from the Brythonic word cruoco[3] or crūc,[4] meaning a hill, burial ground, or barrow. But if this is the case, crūc must have become confused with the Old English cirice ("church") at an early date.[3]

Churchill was originally at the foot of a hill now called Hastings Hill, but on 31 July 1684 a fire destroyed 20 houses and many other buildings and killed four people. The village was rebuilt higher up the hill, with stone houses instead of the old timber-framed and thatched cottages. The fire was apparently caused by a baker who, to avoid chimney tax, had knocked through the wall from her oven to her neighbour's chimney.[5] The old village can still be seen as grassy mounds in the pastures around the Heritage Centre.

The former Chipping Norton Railway, part of the Great Western Railway, passed near Churchill. The line had a small railway station, Sarsden Halt, ¹⁄₄ mile (400 m) northwest of Churchill. British Railways closed the halt to passengers in 1962[6] and closed the railway in 1964.

There are three notable monuments in the village. A monolith, made of stone found in nearby Sarsden Wood, was erected in 1891 at the behest of the 3rd Earl of Ducie, commemorates William Smith. A memorial fountain, erected in 1870 at the behest of Julia, Countess of Ducie, commemorates her father, James Haughton Langston. Jennifer Sherwood described this fountain as: "Memorably ugly. A squat, square tower with obelisks and flying buttresses carrying a dumpy spire. The water drips from a rude spout at the side."[7] There is also a parish war memorial.

Warren Hastings (1732–1818) was the first Governor-General of British India, born in Churchill on 6 December 1732. His mother died within a week of his birth, and he took her maiden name as his Christian name after his father abandoned him; he was brought up by a foster mother (Mary Ellis). He was educated at the parish school, and went on to a successful career in the British East India Company, becoming Governor-General in 1774. On his return to England his political enemies had him impeached, and although he won his case against them, it ate up most of his fortune. He did manage, however, to buy back the family estates in Daylesford, a village near Churchill, and died there on 22 August 1818.

William Smith (1769–1839) "Strata Smith" was the "father of English geology". Smith was born in Churchill on 23 March 1769, the son of a blacksmith. He was educated at the parish school until he was 11, then went to London for two years. In 1788, when he returned to Churchill, his uncle (a Hook Norton farmer) encouraged his interest in surveying, and together they pursued various schemes for land improvement and drainage. At 18 he became an assistant surveyor, helping to survey Churchill and Sarsden for the 1788 Enclosure Act. His experience of different rock formations led him to develop the theory that the occurrence of different types of fossil could be used to order the geological sequence of rock strata. Although from 1800 he gained a reputation as a civil engineer, he became famous for preparing and producing a series of detailed geological maps of England. He died on 28 August 1839 in Northampton.

Celebrity chef Rick Stein was born in Churchill.

Rebekah Brooks, journalist and editor, has a small estate at Churchill.

Hunt Edmunds plaque on the front of the Chequers

The village has a public house, the Chequers, that was built late in the 18th or early in the 19th century.[16] It was controlled by Hunt Edmunds brewery before Mitchells & Butlers Brewery took the company over in the 1960s. It is now a gastropub.[17]

Churchill had two primary schools: the "Top School", opposite the church on Junction Road, was the Girls' School, and the "Lower School", further down the hill on the Sarsden Road, was the Boys' School. Their dates are somewhat obscure; the Lower School is said to have been built in 1716, though that seems surprisingly early to some historians, and the deeds of the Top School date it to the 1850s, though its rainwater heads are dated 1870. The Lower School was closed in 1947, the Top School in 1982,[18] and both have been converted and divided into private houses.

The Village Hall was built in 1870 at the behest of James Langston as a Reading Room for the village. It was converted into the village hall after the Second World War.

Bus route X8 serves the village. Buses run peak hours only, Monday to Friday, linking Kingham railway station and Chipping Norton via Churchill. Pulham's Coaches operates the route for Oxfordshire County Council.[19]

• Churchill & Sarsden Heritage Centre

• Anonymous (2010) [2000]. All Saints Church Churchill (3rd ed.). Churchill: All Saints PCC.
• Ekwall, Eilert (1960) [1936]. Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Churchill. ISBN 0198691033.
• Gelling, Margaret (1954). Smith, AH (ed.). The Place-Names of Oxfordshire, Part II. XXIV. based on material collected by Doris Mary Stenton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the English Place-Name Society. Churchill.
• Jenkins, Stanley; Brown, Bob; Parkhouse, Neil (2004). The Banbury & Cheltenham Direct Railway. Lydney: Lightmoor Press. ISBN 1-899889-15-9.
• Mann, Ralph (2013). A History of Churchill and Sarsden. Churchill: Churchill Old Church Preservation Society. ISBN 978-0-9575690-0-3.
• Morton, John L (2001). Strata: How William Smith Drew the First Map of the Earth in 1801 & Inspired the Science of Geology. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1992-7.
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 544–545. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
• Watkins, Alan (1988). Churchill and Sarsden: A Portrait in Old Photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-9513622-0-8.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Churchill.

• Churchill and Sarsden
• Churchill and Sarsden Heritage Centre
• Baz (3 June 2004). "Churchill Standing Stone". The Megalithic Portal.
• Haddon, Celia (11 February 2011). "Old Vicarage". The Megalithic Portal.
• "Churchill". War Memorials in Oxfordshire. Andy Parsons.