East Hendred

East Hendred is a village and civil parish about 4 mi east of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse and a similar distance west of Didcot. The village is on East Hendred Brook, which flows from the Berkshire Downs to join the River Thames at Sutton Courtenay. East Hendred was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.

The westernmost parts of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus are in the parish. The Ridgeway and Icknield Way pass through the parish.

It was awarded the most well connected village in the Britain last year because of its connections with the well connected train station in Didcot, the M4, and the local cities/towns of Oxford/Newbury/Reading.

History
Just over 2 mi south of the village is Scutchamer Knob, the remains of an Iron Age long barrow. King Edwin of Northumbria is said to have killed Cwichelm of Wessex there in the 7th century. Scutchamer Knob was the meeting point of the Shire Moot in the Middle Ages. It is on the Ridgeway National Trail at the southern end of the village.

The parish had five manors: King's Manor, Abbey Manor, Frampton's Manor, New College Manor and Arches Manor. Abbey Manor was a grange of Reading Abbey. Hendred House is the manor house of Arches Manor. One of the local public houses is named after them.

Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred is a small museum in a former 15th century wayside chapel.

Hendred House and the Eyston Family
The village is unusual in having a manor, Hendred House, which has been held by a single family for over six hundred years. The Eyston family first acquired the property in the mid-15th century and remain lords of the manor to this day.

The Eyston family were recusants who remained Roman Catholic following the English Reformation, and this has had a strong influence on the history and development of the village. The medieval chapel of Saint Amand, a private chapel attached to the manor house, remained in Catholic use during penal times and is still used for occasional services today. The family was also responsible for the building of St. Mary's Church and the establishment of St Amand's School during the 19th century,

Notable members of the Eyston family include Charles Eyston, a 17th century antiquarian, and Captain George Eyston, who held the world land speed record during the 1930s.

Parish church
The Church of England parish church of Saint Augustine of Canterbury dates from late in the 12th century. It has a rare working example of a 16th century faceless clock, which as well as chiming and striking plays the Angel's Hymn by Orlando Gibbons every three hours. Henry Seymour of Wantage made the clock in 1525 and it was extensively restored in 1961.

The church has a Perpendicular Gothic square west tower, built in about 1450, displaying the put-log holes of its construction. There is a sundial on the south face of the tower. The tower has a ring of six bells, one of which is dedicated to Saint Anne and predates the English Reformation. The church is also home to a medieval lectern depicting a crusaders foot standing on a dragon's head. The Jacobean pulpit features carved heads of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, and was made in commemoration of the ascension of Charles II.

David Cameron and his wife Samantha were married at the church in 1996.

Monastery
Adjoining the Roman Catholic parish church of St Mary is the former Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred, a community of contemplative Benedictine nuns, the first to be founded in England for more than half a century.

Amenities
East Hendred has three public houses: The Wheatsheaf, the Eyston Arms and The Plough. The Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred houses artefacts, archives and photographs from the village's history. The museum's collection can be viewed online.

Notable residents

 * Roy Jenkins, politician
 * Charles Eyston
 * George Eyston