Rotherfield Peppard

Coordinates: 51°31′41″N 0°57′25″W / 51.528°N 0.957°W / 51.528; -0.957

Rotherfield Peppard
Peppard
All Saints' parish church
Rotherfield Peppard  Rotherfield Peppard shown within Oxfordshire
Population	1,473 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SU710815
Civil parish	Rotherfield Peppard
District	South Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Henley-on-Thames
Postcode district	RG9
Dialling code	01491
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Henley
List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire

Rotherfield Peppard (locally often referred to as Peppard) is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is just over 3 miles (5 km) west of Henley-on-Thames, about 5 miles (8 km) north of Reading, Berkshire and just over 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the village of Rotherfield Greys.

The village gives its name to the Reading electoral ward of Peppard.

Toponym

Rotherfield derives from the Old English redrefeld meaning "cattle lands". Within the parish is the open land of Peppard Common, once used for grazing and small timber.

Church and chapel

The Church of England parish church of All Saints^[2] was Norman, but was almost completely rebuilt in 1874.^[3] All Saints' is now a Grade II* listed building.^[4] The ecclesiastical parish is part of the united benefice of Rotherfield Peppard, Kidmore End and Sonning Common.

Providence Chapel was founded in 1795. It later became Peppard Congregational Church. It is now Springwater Church.^[5]

Social and economic history

Blount's Court is an early 19th century house with neoclassical features. However, its interior includes a 15th century doorway and 16th century panelling.^[3] It was the childhood home of Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys and is now the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre.

Wyfold Court was designed by Somers Clarke and built in 1872–78 for the Lancashire cotton magnate and Conservative policitian Edward Hermon (1822–81).^[6] The building is of scarlet brick with blue brick diapers and yellow stone details.^[6] Its style combines the Flamboyant period of French Gothic architecture with a touch of Scots Baronial.^[6] The front façade has towers with corner turrets, gargoyles and traceried windows, and the garden front has mullioned bay windows, crocketed gables with heraldic beasts.^[6] Indoors, the main corridor is rib vaulted and there is a lofty staircase hall with a huge window with stained glass of royal coats of arms.^[6] In the 1970s the critic Jennifer Sherwood summarised Wyfold Court as a "Nightmare Abbey".^[6]

In 1932 Wyfold Court was converted into Borocourt Hospital, an institution for patients with learning disabilities.^[7] It is now a Grade II* listed building.^[7]

The village has thrice been used for settings in the television drama series Midsomer Murders^[8] and also for many of the scenes (including the eponymous house) in the Merchant Ivory Productions film Howards End.^[9]

There was formerly a Peppard F.C., which played in the Combined Counties Football League in the 1990s and Hellenic Football League in the early 2000s until it disbanded.

Amenities

The village has a Church of England primary school.^[10]

References

Sources and further reading

• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 737–738. ISBN 0-14-071045-0. 
• Townley, Simon C, ed. (2011). A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 16: Binfield Hundred (Part One): Henley-on-Thames and Environs. Victoria County History. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN 978-1-904356-38-7. 

External links

Media related to Rotherfield Peppard at Wikimedia Commons

v t e The District of South Oxfordshire Oxfordshire • County Council elections • District Council elections • Henley County Constituency • Wantage County Constituency Towns Didcot • Henley-on-Thames • Thame (Moreton) • Wallingford • Watlington (Christmas Common, Northend) Large Villages Benson (Preston Crowmarsh) • Berinsfield • Brightwell-cum-Sotwell (Brightwell, Mackney, Sotwell) • Chalgrove • Chinnor (Emmington, Henton, Oakley) • Cholsey (Winterbrook) • Crowmarsh (Crowmarsh Gifford, North Stoke, Mongewell, Newnham Murren) • Ewelme • Garsington • Goring-on-Thames • Great Milton • Horspath (Bullingdon Green) • Sandford-on-Thames • Shiplake (Lower Shiplake) • Sonning Common • Wheatley (Littleworth) • Woodcote Other Civil Parishes (Component Villages and Hamlets) Adwell • Aston Rowant • Aston Tirrold • Aston Upthorpe • Beckley and Stowood (Beckley, Stowood) • Berrick Salome (Berrick Prior, Roke, Rokemarsh) • Binfield Heath • Bix and Assendon (Bix, Bix Bottom, Lower Assendon, Middle Assendon) • Brightwell Baldwin • Britwell Salome • Checkendon • Clifton Hampden (Burcot) • Crowell • Cuddesdon and Denton (Cuddesdon, Denton) • Culham • Cuxham with Easington (Cuxham, Easington) • Dorchester • Drayton St. Leonard • East Hagbourne (Coscote) • Elsfield • Eye and Dunsden (Sonning Eye, Dunsden Green, Playhatch) • Forest Hill with Shotover (Forest Hill, Shotover) • Goring Heath (Whitchurch Hill, Cray's Pond) • Great Haseley (Latchford, Little Haseley, North Weston, Rycote) • Harpsden • Highmoor (Satwell) • Holton • Ipsden • Kidmore End (Gallowstree Common) • Lewknor (Postcombe, South Weston) • Little Milton • Little Wittenham • Long Wittenham • Mapledurham (Trench Green, Chazey Heath) • Marsh Baldon (Baldon Row) • Moulsford • Nettlebed • Newington (Great Holcombe) • North Moreton • Nuffield • Nuneham Courtenay • Pishill with Stonor (Pishill, Stonor, Maidensgrove, Russell's Water) • Pyrton (Clare, Standhill) • Rotherfield Greys • Rotherfield Peppard • Shirburn • South Moreton (Fulscot) • South Stoke (Littlestoke) • Stadhampton (Chiselhampton, Brookhampton, Ascott) • Stanton St. John (Woodperry) • Stoke Row • Stoke Talmage • Swyncombe • Sydenham (Kingston Stert) • Tetsworth • Tiddington-with-Albury (Tiddington, Albury) • Toot Baldon • Towersey • Warborough (Shillingford) • Waterstock • West Hagbourne • Whitchurch-on-Thames • Woodeaton • Waterperry with Thomley (Waterperry, Thomley) • Wheatfield • Wilcote Former Districts and Boroughs Bullingdon Rural District • Municipal Borough of Henley-on-Thames • Henley Rural District • Thame Urban District • Municipal Borough of Wallingford • Wallingford Rural District Crowmarsh Rural District • Culham Rural District • Goring Rural District • Headington Rural District • Thame Rural District Former Constituencies Oxfordshire County Constituency • Wallingford Borough 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

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