Drayton St. Leonard

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Drayton St. Leonard
Drayton St. Leonard shown within Oxfordshire
OS grid reference	SU597963
Parish	Drayton St. Leonard
District	South Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WALLINGFORD
Postcode district	OX10
Dialling code	01865
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Henley
List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°39′46″N 1°08′15″W / 51.6629, -1.1376

Drayton St. Leonard is a small village and civil parish adjacent to the River Thame in the English county of Oxfordshire.

It consists of nearly 100 houses, and has a population of about 290.

Of the present 100 houses about half have been built this century with the rest being older. There are several interesting old thatched cottages which nestle next to more modern ones.

St Catherine and St Leonard's church

The village church, St Catherine and St Leonard, is built mainly of stone, though now pebbledashed with most of it being several hundred years old. The church tower is a timber structure thought to be older than the main part of the church. There are six bells in the tower, regularly rung for services and on Wednesday evening practice nights.

The village can be traced back several hundred years in its present form. It can actually be traced back to medieval settlements.

The village pub is the Catherine Wheel. This is now a free house though for many years it was owned by Morrells of Oxford. The present structure dates from the 1930s, and replaced an earlier building that was destroyed by fire. This is the only pub left in the village and almost faced closure in 1996 but was saved when the present owners bought it and turned it into a free house.

The village hall, formerly the original two-room school, is now used for local functions.

There are two working farms in the village. There is also an agricultural machinery repair and sales workshop but otherwise there is no major source of employment.