East Challow
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East Challow is a village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
about west of
Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...
in the
Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically a north-west projection of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway N ...
, England. Historically it was part of the
ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...
of
Letcombe Regis Letcombe Regis is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The village is on Letcombe Brook at the foot of the Berkshire ...
, but since 1852 East and
West Challow West Challow is a village and civil parish about west of the market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The village is on Childrey Brook, which is a tributary of the River Ock. West Challow was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundar ...
have formed their own single ecclesiastical parish. The civil parish was part of
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 ...
until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to
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 ...
.


Etymology

The
place-name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
''Challow'' is first attested in a
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
from 947 (though the earliest surviving copy of the charter is from the 12th century), in the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
phrase "to Ceawan Hlewe", which can be translated as "to Ceawa's burial mound",Victor Watts, ''The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 124. where ''Ceawa'' is a
personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
attested only here and in the place-name ''Chawridge''.Richard Coates,
On Some Controversy Surrounding ''Gewissae'' / ''Gewissei'', ''Cerdic'' and ''Ceawlin''
, ''Nomina'', 13 (1989–90), 1–11.
John Insley, 'Britons and Anglo-Saxons', in ''Kulturelle Integration und Personennamen im Mittelalter'', ed. by Wolfgang Haubrichs, Christa Jochum-Godglück (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019), §4. The name appears as ''Ceveslane'' (considered to be a mis-spelling of ''Ceveslaue'') in the
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086. Thirteenth-century variants included ''Chaulea'', ''Chaulauhe'', ''Chawelawe'' and ''Shawelawe''. The "East" element in the name, added to distinguish East Challow from
West Challow West Challow is a village and civil parish about west of the market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The village is on Childrey Brook, which is a tributary of the River Ock. West Challow was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundar ...
, is first found in 1284 (in the form ''Est Challowe'').


Church and mission


Church of England

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 ...
of St Nicolas was a-12th century
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
building, but the
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...
and some masonry of the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
are now almost the only original features that survive. In the 13th century the
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...
and chancel arch were rebuilt, and the
bell-cot A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...
and three- bay north
aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
were added. The
Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
south chapel was added early in the 14th century. The communion table was made in the 17th century. In the 18th century the aisle was rebuilt in brick, and a porch was added over a 12th-century doorway. In 1858 St. Nicolas' was drastically restored, with the aisle and west front rebuilt and the nave re-roofed. The rebuilding of the west front removed a 12th-century west doorway and a 15th-century west window above it. In 1884 the low tower was added at the west end of the aisle. The oak rood screen was added in 1905. The church is a Grade II*
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. St. Nicolas' has two bells, which are not dated, but the smaller was cast by Robert Wells of
Aldbourne Aldbourne (pronounced "awld·bawn") is a village and civil parish about north-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in a valley on the south slope of the Lambourn Downs – part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. ...
, Wiltshire, which makes it very likely to be 18th-century.


The Mission

The Mission is a
Free Church A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions fr ...
that was built in 1904.


Transport

East Challow village is on both sides of the A417 road, on its section from Wantage to
Faringdon Faringdon is a historic market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England, south-west of Oxford, north-west of Wantage and east-north-east of Swindon. It extends to the River Thames in the north; the highest ground is on the Ridg ...
. The
Wilts & Berks Canal The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a ...
was built east–west across the parish and opened in 1810, to convey Somerset coal through Wiltshire and Berkshire to the Thames. The canal fell into disuse and was abandoned in 1914, but work to restore it has been in progress since the 1970s. Parts of its route are now footpaths, and there is a narrow strip of overgrown land between Canal Way and Canal Farm Lane.


Amenities

East Challow has a
public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, the Goodlake Arms, that was once controlled by
Morland Brewery Morland was a British brewery which was bought by Greene King in 2000. Morland's beers include Hen's Tooth, Old Speckled Hen, Tanner's Jack and Morland's Original. John Morland founded the brewery in 1711. In the 1860s, Morland bought Abbey B ...
.
Vicarage Hill Vicarage Hill is a cricket ground located in East Challow, Oxfordshire. Situated on the site of a park which has been in existence since the 1890s, the ground is surrounded to the west by the road from which it gets its name, to the south by the ...
, the village
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
ground, hosts some home matches of the
Oxfordshire County Cricket Club Oxfordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Oxfordshire. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championsh ...
.


References


Sources

* * {{authority control Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire