Hanney was an ancient ecclesiastical parish about 3 miles (5 km) north of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. It included the villages of East Hanney and West Hanney (known collectively as "The Hanneys") and Lyford.[1] Hanney was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire.
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The villages were formerly islands in marshland, hence the Old English "-ey" ending of their toponyms. Charney Bassett, Childrey and Goosey are other nearby examples.
The parish church of Saint James the Great, West Hanney was the mother church of the parish.[1] The church of St. Mary, Lyford was built in the middle ages as a dependent chapel.[1] East Hanney had a dependent chapel of St. James by 1288 but it was dissolved in the 16th century.[1] A new chapel of St. James the Less was built in the 1850's but then made redundant in the 20th century.[2]