Ashbury, Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°33′50″N 1°37′08″W / 51.564°N 1.619°W / 51.564; -1.619

Ashbury
Ashbury War Memorial
Ashbury  Ashbury shown within Oxfordshire
Population	495 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SU2685
Civil parish	Ashbury
District	Vale of White Horse
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	SN6
Dialling code	01793
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Wantage
Website	Ashbury Parish News
List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire

Ashbury is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is about 7 miles (11 km) east of Swindon in neighbouring Wiltshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Idstone and Kingstone Winslow.

Archaeology

The neolithic burial site of Wayland's Smithy is in the parish 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the village.

History

15th century manor house

The earliest known record of Ashbury is from AD 840, when King Æthelwulf of Wessex granted land at Aisshedoune to his minister Duda.^[2] In subsequent charters the toponym evolved as Æcesbyrig in AD 856, Aysshedoune in AD 947, Æcesburuh in AD 953 and 960 and Eissesberie in the 11th century.^[2]

After AD 953 the manor of Ashbury was granted to Glastonbury Abbey, which then held it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.^[2] A deer park was established for the Abbey in the south of the parish.^[3] It is bounded by an ancient embankment enclosing a rounded area characteristic of Medieval parks.^[4] It may equate to the Aysshen Wood recorded in a terrier of the parish in 1519 as covering 415 acres (168 ha).^[2] The former deer park is now the Upper Wood of Ashdown Park.

Ashbury Manor House was built in the 15th century.^[2][5] The brick upper storey of its porch was added in 1697, which is also the likely date that the chimneys were added.^[2][5]

Ashdown House, built in about 1660, is in the parish about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the village.

Churches

St Mary the Virgin parish church

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary was originally Norman but was rebuilt in the 13th century.^[6] In the 20th century the artist Martin Travers converted the north transept into a chapel of Saint Hubert in memory of Evelyn, Countess Craven who had lived at Ashdown House in the parish.

Ashbury has a former Methodist chapel in Chapel Lane.^[7] It is now a private home.

Ashbury Mission Hall was a "tin tabernacle" building of corrugated iron opened in 1908.^[7] The building was replaced in 1972-73 with the present Ashbury Evangelical Free Church.^[7]

Amenities

Former parish school, now the Village Hall

Ashbury has a public house, the Rose and Crown Hotel,^[8] controlled by Arkell's Brewery.^[9] The village has a sub-Post Office.

The Church of England primary school in Ashbury serves both Ashbury and Compton Beauchamp.^[10] The present school was built in the latter part of the 20th century. The previous school building is now the village hall.

Ashbury has a cricket club.^[11]

References

Sources

• Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 503–512. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 70–72. 
• Rackham, Oliver (1976). Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. p. 144. ISBN 0-460-04183-5. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ashbury, Oxfordshire

• Ashbury in the Domesday Book

v t e The District of the Vale of White Horse Oxfordshire • County Council elections • District Council elections • Wantage County Constituency • Oxford West and Abingdon County Constituency Towns Abingdon (Caldecott) • Faringdon • Wantage (Belmont) Large villages Blewbury • Cumnor (Chilswell, Cumnor Hill, Dean Court, Farmoor, Swinford) • Drayton • East Challow • East Hendred • Grove • Harwell • Kennington • Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor (Kingston Bagpuize, Southmoor) • Marcham (Cothill) • Milton • North Hinksey (Botley, Harcourt Hill) • Radley • St. Helen Without (Dry Sandford, Shippon) • Shrivenham • Stanford in the Vale (Bow) • Steventon • Sunningwell (Bayworth, Boars Hill, Foxcombe Hill) • Sutton Courtenay • Watchfield • Wootton (Boars Hill, Henwood, Lamborough Hill) Other civil parishes (component villages and hamlets) Appleford-on-Thames • Appleton-with-Eaton (Appleton, Eaton) • Ardington and Lockinge (Ardington Wick, East Lockinge, West Ginge, West Lockinge) • Ashbury (Idstone, Kingstone Winslow) • Baulking • Besselsleigh • Bourton • Buckland (Gainfield) • Buscot • Charney Bassett • Childrey • Chilton • Coleshill • Compton Beauchamp (Knighton) • Denchworth • East Hanney • Eaton Hastings • Fernham • Frilford • Fyfield and Tubney (Fyfield, Tubney, Netherton) • Garford • Goosey • Great Coxwell • Hatford (Little Hatford) • Hinton Waldrist (Duxford) • Kingston Lisle • Letcombe Bassett • Letcombe Regis • Little Coxwell • Littleworth • Longcot • Longworth • Lyford • Pusey • Shellingford • South Hinksey (Hinksey Hill)• Sparsholt • Uffington • Upton • West Challow • West Hanney • West Hendred (East Ginge) • Woolstone • Wytham (Seacourt) Former districts and boroughs Municipal Borough of Abingdon • Abingdon Rural District • Faringdon Rural District • Wantage Urban District • Wantage Rural District Former constituencies Oxfordshire County Constituency • Abingdon Borough Constituency • Berkshire North or Abingdon County Constituency • Abingdon County Constituency List of Parliamentary constituencies in Oxfordshire • List of places in Oxfordshire • List of civil parishes in Oxfordshire