Denchworth

The Abingdon Chronicle claims that Cædwalla of Wessex granted Deniceswurth to Abingdon Abbey late in the seventh century AD, and that this was confirmed by Coenwulf of Mercia early in the ninth century.[2]

The Domesday Book records that by 1086 Henry de Ferrers held the manor of Denchesworde:[2]

"The same Henry de Ferrers holds Denchworth and Reiner holds of him. Aethelric held it TRE.[3] Then assessed at 7 hides now at five and a half hides. There is land for five ploughs. In demesne is one plough and five villans and five cottars with one plough and 30 acres (12 ha) of meadow and there is a church. TRE it was worth 70 shillings and afterwards 60 shillings. Now 4 pounds."[4]

Overlordship of the manor remained with the Ferrers family until Denecheswrth was granted to the Earls of Lancaster along with the Honour of Tutbury,[2] presumably starting with Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster in the latter part of the 13th century.

Denchworth manor was assessed at half a knight's fee and had been let to Henry de Tubney by the middle of the 13th century. It remained with his manor of Tubney until 1428. Somewhen between then and 1448 the half fee was sold to a member of the Hyde family. The Hydes kept the manor until 1617, when George Hyde sold it to Sir William Cockayne. Sir Wiliam's son Charles inherited Denchworth in 1626. Charles Cokayne was created 1st Viscount Cullen in 1642, and was succeeded by Brien Cokayne, 2nd Viscount Cullen in 1661. In 1663 the 2nd Viscount sold Denchworth to Gregory Geering. Denchworth remained with the Geering family until 1758, when William Geering sold it to Worcester College, Oxford. The college still held the manor in the early 1920s.[2]

The landowning Fettiplace family had a home at North Denchworth.[2]

Manor houses

The Archway is the western entrance lodge for the Manor House

There are two moated sites in the parish, both of which are on Childrey Brook.

Denchworth's medieval manor house in the village had a large moat, part of which is still in water. The oldest part of the present house is late 15th or early 16th century. A three-bay wing was added to one side of the house early in the 17th century, and a second wing added to the other side later in the 17th century. The manor house is a Grade II* listed building.[5]

Denchworth's other moated site is in the northeast corner of the parish. It is a small, rectangular site about 440 yards (400 m) southeast of Hyde Farm.

Just north of the Manor House in the village were Brook Lane Barns; an 18th-century five-bayed barn flanked by shelter sheds. The barn and sheds were timber-framed, had weatherboarded walls and thatched roofs[6] and had been converted into offices.[7] Brook Lane Barns were destroyed by fire in the early hours of 11 March 2012.[7]

St James' parish church from the southeast, showing the chancel, south transept and churchyard cross

Denchworth had a parish church by 1086, but the oldest part of the present Church of England parish church of Saint James is 12th century. This is a small part of the south wall of the nave, which seems to have been rebuilt and extended westwards in the 13th century.[2] The south doorway is a plain late Norman arch.[8]

Later in the 13th century the north chapel and the north-west tower were added. The south transept was added in the 14th century and was originally Decorated Gothic.[8] The chancel, north chapel and possibly the south transept were rebuilt in the 15th century,[2] mostly with Perpendicular Gothic windows.[8] The church was restored from 1852 onwards.[2] It is a Grade II* listed building.[9]

The Perpendicular Gothic font is also 15th-century.[2] The Perpendicular-style pulpit is neo-Gothic and was made in 1889.[8]

The south porch is neo-Gothic and was added during the 19th-century restoration. It replaces a two-storey south porch, in whose upper room Gregory Geering and the then vicar established an antiquarian chained library.[2] Its contents included a 1483 edition of the Golden Legend that is now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and other rare volumes that were transferred to Denchworth vicarage.[2] The library also held curiosities such as a "mermaid's rib".

St James' parish church: late medieval south window of the south transept

The church has monumental brasses to Oliver Hyde (died 1516) and his wife Agnes, to William Hyde (died 1557), his wife Margery and their children,[8] and to another William Hyde (died 1567) and his wife Alice. One of the inscriptions for William and Margery Hyde has a commemorative plaque for the foundation of Bisham Priory in 1333 on the back. In the south transept is a memorial tablet to Gregory Geering (died 1690) and four more to members of the Geering family who died in the 18th century.[2][8]

The tower has a ring of four bells, but they are currently unringable.[10] Ellis I Knight of Reading, Berkshire cast the treble bell in 1624.[10] Henry III Bagley, who had bellfoundries at Chacombe in Northamptonshire and Witney in Oxfordshire, cast the second bell in 1733.[10] The remaining bells are from the Whitechapel Bellfoundry: the third bell cast by Robert Stainbank in 1868 and the tenor bell by Mears and Stainbank in 1869.[10] St James' has also a Sanctus bell cast by an unknown founder in about 1699.[10]

St James' parish is now a member of the Vale Benefice, along with the parishes of East Challow, Grove and West Hanney.[11]

At the junction of Brook Lane and Hyde Road is the base and broken shaft of a 14th or 15th century preaching cross.[12]

The village has a 17th-century[13] public house, the Fox Inn,[14] controlled by Greene King Brewery.

In 1729 Richard Gilgrasse left £50 to be invested in land and for the income from the investment to fund the teaching of poor children in Denchworth parish. A sum of £53 13s 2d in British government consols was added to this after Denchworth's common lands were enclosed in 1806. A National School in Denchworth was established in 1858. The school building and schoolteacher's house were designed by the Oxford Diocesan Architect George Edmund Street and built in 1853. The interest from the consols was put towards the upkeep of the building.[2] The former school building is now a private house.[15]

The village used to have a post office, which was in a 17th-century former farmhouse in Hyde Road. It is now a private house.[16]

General

• Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire. Victoria County History. 4. assisted by John Hautenville Cope. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 280–284.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 126–127.