Brightwell-cum-Sotwell

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell
St. Agatha's parish church
Brightwell-cum-Sotwell  Brightwell-cum-Sotwell shown within Oxfordshire
Population	1,530 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	SU5890
Civil parish	Brightwell-cum-Sotwell
District	South Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Wallingford
Postcode district	OX10
Dialling code	01491
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Wantage
Website	Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Website
List of places UK England Oxfordshire

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell is a twin-village and civil parish in the Upper Thames Valley in South Oxfordshire. It lies between Didcot to the west and the historic market town of Wallingford to the east. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire.

History

Brightwell and Sotwell were originally two separate villages, rural settlements whose inhabitants worked the land.

Prehistory

For thousands of years hunter-gatherers of the Thames Valley would have passed this way, stalking wild animals and gathering from the trees that grew on the greensand in this area. This good soil and the abundant water supply may have encouraged Iron Age farmers (1500 BC - AD 50) to settle in this area. The ramparts on Wittenham Clumps provide enduring evidence of Iron Age settlement in the area. Then came the Romans, and there seems little doubt that the road from Dorchester to Silchester passed along what is now the Mere and Mackney Lane.

Medieval times

The first written evidence of a village here comes from the various Saxon charters describing ownership of land in Beorhtanville, Suttanwille and Maccanie. Subsequently, William the Conqueror's agents recorded in the Domesday Book 70 families and two mills in Brightwell and Sotwell, but where these stood and how they were powered is unknown.

Within 50 years of Domesday, Brightwell Castle was involved in the civil war between King Stephen and his cousin Matilda. The exact site of this castle is unknown, but it probably lay within the moated areas of what later contained St Agatha's/Brightwell manor house in Brightwell or Stonor Hayes manor house in Sotwell.

Early modern times

For the next 800 years Brightwell and Sotwell parishes only occasionally appear in recorded history. For example:

• 1500 (circa) Prince Arthur (eldest son of Henry VII) stayed at Sotwell House.
• 1507 Clerk in Holy Orders murdered in St Agatha's.
• 1649 Edward Hyde DD ejected from his living for being a Royalist.
• 1666 Church collection for victims of the Great Fire of London.
• 1726 Mrs Frances Riggins leaves a legacy "for bread and ye schooling for ye poor of Slade End".
• 1774-1849 Reverend Thomas Wintle. "About 4 o'clock with my neighbours at ye Red Lion where they dined at the expense of ye parish and myself and then set again to mark the boundaries"
• 1781 King George III rode through the village returning from a stag hunt.
• 1785 A Sunday school set up by the Reverend Wintle.
• 1811 Inclosure Act for Brightwell.

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, the village had some significant philanthropists who worked hard for the good of the villagers:

• Reverend Marmaduke Thompson - building of Brightwell National School in the village.
• Reverend John Haldane Stewart - building of the new village school, which is now the village hall. Forming a night school for adult parishioners.
• Farmer Edward Fairthorne - Reading Room and recreation ground for the villagers. Scholarships for promising boys to go to Wallingford Grammar School.
• Miss Augusta Fairthorne - endowment of the Free Church.

Modern times

The War Memorial records the loss of villagers in the armed services in two world wars. In the second half of the 20th century there was significant expansion of the villages and in 1948 the villages of Brightwell and Sotwell were brought together as one civil parish. In 1949 the Greenmere estate was built and later, estates were also built at Kings Orchard, Monks Mead and Datchet Green.

There are no immediate plans for any major development.

Notable buildings and structures

A walk around the narrow village streets will reveal many houses still standing which date back to Tudor times and beyond. The oldest building is probably Woodleys (Old Nursery Lane), with other examples such as Dobson's (Sotwell Street), The Old Priory (Little Lane), Middle Farm and Abbots House (both Church Lane - formerly Great Lane) and Smalls House (Mackney). The Church of England parish churches of St Agatha (Brightwell) and St James (Sotwell) would have been at the centre of village affairs, surrounded by many thatched cottages with cob, or wattle and daub, walls.

Notable residents

• George Warner Allen (1916–1988); artist
• Brightwell is home to Mount Vernon, the world centre for education and information on Dr Edward Bach. Mount Vernon was the home and workplace of Bach in the last years of his life, where he completed his research into the Bach flower remedies.
• Charlie Brooker, the British comedy writer, grew up in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.
• Sir William Glock, Director of Music at the BBC and head of the Proms concerts, also lived in the village and died there in 2000.
• William Ralph Inge, a Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London lived in Brightwell Manor. His family continued to reside there until the early 1970s.

Gallery

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  The Red Lion public house

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  Inside St. Agatha's parish church

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  Moat Cottage and K6 telephone box

External links

• Royal Berkshire History: Brightwell-cum-Sotwell
• Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Website
• Dr Edward Bach Centre
• Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Primary School
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