East Hendred is a village and civil parish about 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 Sutton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on the River Thames south of Abingdon-on-Thames and northwest of Didcot. Historically part of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of Oxfordshire since the 1974 boundary changes. The 201 ...

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, it has been administered as part of

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England, since the 1974 boundary changes. 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 called "the most well connected village in Britain" because of its connections with the railway station in Didcot and the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred The Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred is a local village museum housed in the former Chapel of Jesus of Bethlehem, built in 1453 by Carthusian monks and now commonly called Champs Chapel, at East Hendred in the English English usually r ...

is a small museum in a former 15th century wayside chapel.

History

Just over south of the village is

Scutchamer Knob Scutchamer Knob, also known as Cuckhamsley Hill and occasionally as Scotsman's Knob or Beacon Hill, is an early British Iron Age, Iron Age round barrow on the Ridgeway National Trail at East Hendred Down in the England, English county of Oxfordsh ...

, 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 A Shire court, or moot was an Anglo-Saxon legal institution, used to maintain law and order at a local level, and perform various administrative functions, including the collection of taxes for the central government. The system originated in Wes ...

in the Middle Ages. It is on the Ridgeway National Trail at the southern end of the village.

Manors

The parish had five manors: *King's Manor *Abbey Manor, a

grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austral ...

of Reading Abbey. *Frampton's Manor *New College Manor *Arches Manor. Hendred House is the manor house of Arches Manor. One of the local public houses is named after the Eyston family, current lords of the manor.

Arches Manor

The Heraldic visitation of Berkshire gives the descent of the Arches family,Heraldic Visitation of Berkshire, vol.56, p.26, within pedigree of Eyston famil

/ref> originally ''D'Arches'', List of Latinised names, Latinised to ''de Arcubus''.Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1806, re Waddesden Hundred William Arches married Amyce Turberville, daughter and heiress of Richard Turberville esquire of East Hendred. His son was William Arches, followed by John Arches whose son Rawlin Arches left a daughter and heir Maud Arches. Maud married John Stowe of Burforde, Oxfordshire, and left a daughter and heiress Isabell Stowe, who married John Eyston, thus bringing the manor of Arches into that family. John Arches (d. ''circa'' 1405) of Arches was elected four-times as MP for

, in 1384, 1390, 1402 and 1404. The feudal

overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or serje ...

of his lands at East Hendred was the Duke of Lancaster.Woodger From 1394 he held the office of

alnager Alnage, or aulnage (from Old French ''aune'', ell; parallel to " yardage") was the official supervision of the shape and quality of manufactured woolen cloth. Origins The alnage was first ordered in 1196, during the reign of Richard I, that "wool ...

of Berkshire, and later of Oxfordshire also and served as bailiff of the liberty of the Bishopric of Winchester in the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. He left at least two sons, Ralph Arches (born ''circa'' 1378) and Richard Arches, who attended

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, Bishop of Winchester Wykeham's new foundation. Another branch of the Arches family, bearing the same canting armorials of ''Gules, three arches argent'', had been established in Buckinghamshire since at the latest 1309, and held the manors of

Little Kimble Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh is a civil parish in central Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the south of Aylesbury. The civil parish altogether holds the ancient ecclesiastical villages of Great Kimble, Little Kimble, Kimblewick a ...

, and in the parish of Waddesdon the manors of Eythrope and Cranwell.

Richard Arches Sir Richard Arches (died 1417), of Eythrope, in the parish of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, was MP for Buckinghamshire in 1402. He was knighted before 1401.Woodger, HoP biog of Sir Richard Arches Origins He was probably the son of Richard Arche ...

(d.1417) of Eythrope, was MP for Buckinghamshire in 1402. His eventual heir was John Dinham, 1st Baron Dinham (1433–1501), the son of his daughter and heiress Joan Arches. ArchesofArches&EythropeArms

Hendred House and the Eyston Family

The village is unusual in having a manor house, Hendred House, which has been held by a single family for over six hundred years. The Eyston family, heirs of the Arches, 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 The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

, 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 An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

, and Captain George Eyston, who held the world land speed record during the 1930s.

Anglican parish church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saint Augustine of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century – probably 26 May 604) was a monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.Delaney '' ...

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 Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

square west tower, built in about 1450, displaying the put-log holes of its construction. The church is also home to a medieval lectern depicting a crusaders foot standing on a dragon's head. The Jacobean

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

features carved heads of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, and was made in commemoration of the ascension of Charles II. The tower has a ring of six bells, one of which is dedicated to

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

and predates the

. There is a sundial on the south face of the tower.

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, former British Prime Minister (2010–2016), and his wife

Samantha Samantha (or the alternatively Samanta) is primarily used as a feminine given name. It was recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is uncertain. Spec ...

were married at the church in 1996. East Hendred St Mary's church