LITTLE WITTENHAM
Witeham, Witteham (xi–xiii cent.); Wittenham
(xiii cent.); Wyttenham (xiv cent.); Whytenam
(xv cent.); Wittingham, Abbatts Witnam, Witnam,
Lytell Wytnam (xvi cent.); Little Wittenham,
East Wittenham (xvii cent.).
The ecclesiastical parish, conterminous with the
civil parish of Little Wittenham, 888 acres in extent,
lies on the right bank of the Thames. The early
boundaries (falsely ascribed to 862) included the northeast portion of the present Long Wittenham. (fn. 1) They
started at Gateclife (fn. 2) (? on the Thames), went up by
Scillinges Brook, eastward to Caberes Back (or ridge);
thence westward to the 'headdan treowe', to the new
trench (furh); along the trench, over Crowan Brook,
to the new trench, so to the highway, and along this
north-west to the Thames. (fn. 3) The present road lead
ing north from the west side of the village stops
where it meets the road going westward to Long
Wittenham, but is continued by a field track which is
the parish boundary as far as the site of Little Town,
a row of cottages removed in the early 19th century. (fn. 4)
The subsoil is Gault, Upper Greensand, Gravel
and Alluvium, the soil clay and chalk; in the hills
clay and sand rest on traces of the lower chalk. About
five-eighths of the present parish is arable land, twoeighths permanent grass, and one-eighth woods and
plantations. (fn. 5) The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats
and beans; the woods contain flora and fauna of
exceptional interest. (fn. 6)
Little Wittenham: A View in The Village
The village, on high ground on the south bank of
the Thames, is quite small, with a few thatched
cottages. The church stands close to the Thames,
about half a mile from Day's Lock, near which is an iron
bridge connecting the village with Dorchester (Oxon.).
To the south-west of the church is a substantial early
18th-century farm-house of red brick. The village
street runs south-west from the church, close to which
still remain the terraces and yew tree walk of the old
manor-house, 'in great decay' in 1784, (fn. 7) and pulled
down shortly afterwards. An old half-timbered barn
belonging to this house has been turned into stables (fn. 8) ;
the park is now pasture. (fn. 9) A shooting-box known as
the Round House in a meadow south of the church,
was destroyed about 1838, when weapons and a
leaden chest were found under the floor. (fn. 10)
Christmas mummers continued to act until 1862, (fn. 11)
and Shrove Tuesday and May Day celebrations are
still kept up.
Matthew Prior is said to have written his poem
'Henry and Emma,' descriptive of this place, under
an oak tree here, (fn. 12) and Thomas Ravis, who was
Bishop of London in 1607, was incumbent here in
1598. (fn. 13)
The Wittenham or Dorchester Clumps south of
the village are two bold chalk hills capped by beech
trees. The higher is known from its shape as the
Harp, or Round Hill, and in 1716 as the Welsh
Harp. It was then stated that human bones had
been found there. (fn. 14) The other, Sinodun, (fn. 15) has a
hill fort. (fn. 16) There is a local tradition of a battle
on Castle Hill, and a fosse, known as the Money
Pit, on its eastern side, is supposed to contain
buried treasure guarded by a phantom raven. (fn. 17) On
a beech tree at this end of the hill twenty lines of
verse, now illegible, were inscribed by Joseph Tubb
of Warborough Green in praise of the surrounding
landscape. (fn. 18)
A stone-paved way, supposed to be Roman, has
been traced from the backwater near the bridge to
the road opposite the south-east angle of the church
yard, and, following this road, past the farm-house on
the west side of the churchyard, Bronze Age and
Roman objects have been found. (fn. 19) The nuns of
Helenstow in Abingdon are said to have removed at
the end of the 7th century to Witeham (Wittheham),
probably Little Wittenham. (fn. 20)
A present name of interest is Trottamere, the
landing-place on the river bank in the wood; it is
corrupted into Trotman's, or Devil's, Stairs. The
east, south, south-west and north-west slopes of
Sinodun are known respectively as Buttings Furlong,
Pecks Furlong, Port or Putt Furlong, and Warren
Pecks. Other names are Upper and Under Shinnel
(where Little Town stood), Old Oxford, Town Furlong,
Hop Garden, Hardwells Furlong, Wollens Field, Raw
Meadow and Mare Furlong.
Manors
Siward, Bishop of Upsala and coMANORS adjutor-Archbishop of Canterbury, who
succeeded Æthelwine as Abbot of Abingdon in or about 1030 and died in 1048, (fn. 21) gave LITTLE
WITTENHAM to Abingdon Abbey. (fn. 22) The abbey
continued in possession until the dissolution of the
monasteries. (fn. 23)
The fishery was appropriated to the kitchener at
the abbey, whither a definite quantity of wood, fowls,
eggs and lentils was sent from this manor. (fn. 24) Among
the issues of the manor in the 14th century were
payments for pannage, 'tolcestre,' 'faldgabul,' and
wood silver. (fn. 25)
The abbot surrendered the manor with the advowson
of the church in the spring of 1538, (fn. 26) and in 1546
Henry VIII granted it to
Lord Wriothesley in fee. (fn. 27)
In the same year he alienated
it to Sir Edmund Peckham, (fn. 28)
kt., treasurer and master of the
Mint, (fn. 29) who sold it in 1552 to
William Dunch of London, (fn. 30)
to whom the reserved rent
was released and the manor
confirmed by Edward VI. (fn. 31)
Dunch. Azure a cheveron between three castles or.
William Dunch, auditor of
the Mint to Henry VIII and
Edward VI, esquire extraordinary of the body to Queen
Elizabeth and Sheriff of Berkshire in 1570, (fn. 32) died at Little Wittenham in 1597,
leaving a son and their Edmund, (fn. 33) Sheriff of Berkshire
in 1587. (fn. 34) Edmund's eldest son, William, knighted
in 1603, married Mary daughter of Sir Henry
Cromwell and aunt of the Protector, (fn. 35) and died in
January 1610–11; his son Edmund, born in February
1602–3, (fn. 36) was heir of his paternal grandfather on his
death in 1623. (fn. 37) Edmund was Sheriff of Berkshire in
1633, (fn. 38) and in 1658 was summoned to Cromwell's
House of Lords as Lord Burnell of East Wittenham,
he having married the co-heir to the Burnell barony. (fn. 39)
The title, however, was not confirmed at the Restoration,
although he had joined the Committee of Safety in
1659. His son Hungerford succeeded in 1678 and
died two years later. (fn. 40) His son and heir Edmund
staked and lost this manor to James II, but received
it again on condition that the abandoned cards. (fn. 41)
He was successively master of the household to
Queen Anne and George I, and married a niece of
the Duke of Marlborough. At his death, in 1719,
he left three daughters and co-heirs, Elizabeth wife
of Sir George Oxenden, bart., of Dean in Wingham,
Kent; Harriet, who married Robert Montagu, who
succeeded as Duke of Manchester in 1739; and
Arabella, who married Edward Thompson of
Marsden, Yorkshire, died in 1734, and left an only
daughter, who died a few months later. (fn. 42) By conveyances of 1765 and 1766 Lord Charles Greville
Montagu, second son of Robert and Harriet, conveyed a moiety of the manor to Sir George Oxenden,
who thus became possessed of the whole. (fn. 43) Sir
George died in 1775, Elizabeth in 1779, leaving
a son and heir, Sir Henry, who lived at Little
Wittenham and acquired the whole of the estate. (fn. 44)
He sold the manor in 1788 to William Hallet (who
pulled down the old manor house of the Dunches and
built a shooting box), (fn. 45) of whom it was purchased by
Nathaniel Dance (fn. 46) ; he, by royal licence, took the
name of Holland in 1800, 'out of his great respect
to Charlotte Holland, of Wigmore Street, Cavendish
Square, spinster.' In the same year he was created a
baronet, but died childless in 1811. (fn. 47) In 1813 the
manor was acquired by Robert Earl of Cardigan, (fn. 48)
after whose death, in 1837, (fn. 49) it was purchased by
George Henry Cherry of Denford in Kintbury. (fn. 50) It
has since descended with Denford (q.v.), and now
belongs to Mr. Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard. (fn. 51)
Cherry. Argent three fleurs de lis fesseways within two bars engrailed all between three rings gules.
Garrard. Argent a fesse sable with a lion passant argent thereon.
The reputed manor of BRYLLES seems to have been
in the possession of the family of Bryll in the 16th
century. Alice daughter of William and Margery
Bryll married William Yonge, who died seised of the
manor in 1531 (fn. 52) ; no further mention of it has been
found.
For the property of Nutley Abbey see Long
Wittenham.
Church
The church of ST. PETER (fn. 53) consists
of a chancel with north vestry and organ
chamber, nave, west tower and south
porch.
With the exception of the 14th-century west tower
the church was entirely
rebuilt in 1863, but
preserved in the vestry
are two water-colours
of the old church.
They show a pointed
chancel arch dying on
to the responds, a
three-light east window and a four-centred
plastered chancel roof.
There was an Elizabethan south chapel
opening into the chancel by a wooden arcade, and containing
the monuments of the
Dunch family. The
nave had a flat plaster
ceiling. The modern
work of the nave and
chancel is Gothic of
late 13th-century type
with a three-light east
window and a pointed
chancel arch. A vestry and organ chamber were
added on the north side in 1902.
The west tower is four stages high with diagonal
western buttresses and embattled parapet; at the
south-east angle is a projecting turret finished with
an embattled parapet and an octagonal pyramidal
stone roof. The tower arch is two-centred and of
two chamfered orders dying into the side walls.
The 14th-century west window is of two lights and
the second stage has cruciform loops. The third
stage is lighted by pointed single-light windows and the
bell-chamber by two-light windows of early 15thcentury date. The 15th century font is octagonal,
with a moulded base.
The church contains numerous brasses and monuments. In the chancel is an altar tomb with a
Purbeck marble slab and brass to Geoffrey Kidwelly
(d. 1483) with a well-executed figure in civilian
costume and two shields, party palewise a leaping
wolf. On the front of the tomb are four panels with
as many stone shields with the same arms, the wolves
being placed 'regardant' in pairs. Above the tomb
is a low depressed and cusped canopy flanked by
embattled pinnacles with iron prickets at the top;
the soffit has a sloping vault and the back of the
tomb has quatrefoil panels with blank shields. On
the chancel floor is a brass to John Churmound,
rector (d. 1433), with a small figure in mass vestments and indents of two shields. Near it is another
to David Kidwelly (d. 1454), 'hostiarius aule regis
Henrici VI,' with a small figure in civilian dress,
with an obliterated quarterly coat of arms. A fairsized figure of a lady commemorates Cecily wife of
Geoffrey Kidwelly (d. 1472), and a rudely engraved
figure on a plate is to Anne daughter of Henry
Dunch and Anne his wife (d. 1683). On the west
wall of the nave is a brass commemorating Anne wife
of Edmund Dunch (d. 1627).
Under the tower is another brass inscription to
William Winchcombe (d. 1614), with his arms, a
cheveron engrailed with three cinquefoils thereon
between three lapwings and a chief charged with
a fleur de lis between two spear-heads, all impaling
Norreys. Against the north wall, in a Jacobean stone
frame, is a brass plate with kneeling figures of William
Dunch and his wife Mary (Barnes); the date is blank,
and there are two enamelled shields of Dunch and
Dunch impaling Barnes, two bars between six voided
lozenges. Above are two Jacobean stone arches, the
first inclosing a long epitaph to Mary Barnes, and the
second with a kneeling figure, in armour, of John
Barnes, with his arms above. Against the west wall is
placed a handsome alabaster monument to Sir William
Dunch (d. 1611), Mary his wife, and William his son
(d. 1594). The male effigy reclines on one elbow
Purbeck marble slab and brass to Geoffrey Kidwelly
and is dressed in rich armour, the female figure below
it is recumbent with a ruff and stomacher; both have
been coloured and gilt. On the front of the altar tomb
are figures of four sons, three daughters and two chrisom
children. On the wall at the back are two shields, both
bearing Dunch quartering Barnes, Fettiplace and Kenwarde, all impaling the arms of Cromwell, with six
quarterings. The broken remains of the canopy of
this monument are stored in the vicarage barn. On
the tower floor is a slab to Mary (Dunch) wife of
William Winchcombe and Sir Edward Clarke (d. 1646),
with a shield of Clarke, a fesse with three roundels
thereon between three crosses paty, impaling Dunch.
Little Wittenham Church From The South
There is a ring of five bells.
The plate consists of a silver flagon (c. 1640) inscribed 'the gift of Lady Mary Clarke widow'; a silver
gilt chalice with three rubies (c. 1696–7) and a silver
gilt cover paten inscribed 'R.C. 1714' (Robert
Cooke, rector).
The registers begin in 1538.
Advowson
There was a church in the manor
in 1086, (fn. 54) and the advowson descended with the manor until the
sale of the latter to William Hallet in 1788. (fn. 55) It
was sold by William Hallet to Edward Hilliard. (fn. 56)
Litigation followed, and the matter was not settled in
1802, (fn. 57) but finally the advowson was retained by the
Hilliards; Edward gave it to his son the Rev. John,
who bequeathed it to his son William. William
sold it in 1884. (fn. 58) It was held in 1885 by Frederick
Bodenham, from 1886 to 1895 by trustees, and from
1896 to 1900 by the Rev. S. C. Hayward. In
1900 it was purchased by Mrs. M. F. Howland of
Doddington Vicarage, Northumberland, the present
patron. (fn. 59)
Charity
In 1640 Lady Mary Clarke, by her
will, left £10 to be lent to two poor
inhabitants, and the interest paid to the
poor, to which £7 was subsequently added by 'the
butler and the brewer.' The principal sum, with
accumulations, is now represented by £34 3s. 7d.
consols with the official trustees. The annual dividends, amounting to 17s., are accumulated until they
amount to about £5, which is distributed in coals
and other articles in kind.