| West Hanney | |
|
West Hanney
West Hanney shown within Oxfordshire |
|
| Population | 496 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU4192 |
| Parish | East Hanney |
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Abingdon |
| Postcode district | OX12 |
| Dialling code | 01235 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wantage |
| Website | TheHanneys |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
West Hanney is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) north of Wantage. Historically West and East Hanney were formerly a single ecclesiastical parish of Hanney.[2] East Hanney was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire.
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In September 2009 a metal detecting club held its annual rally at a site in the parish.[3][4] One detectorist found a Saxon grave from early in the 7th century AD[4] containing the skeleton of a young woman with grave goods including one spindle whorl, two iron knives and two ceramic pots that may have contained food.[5]
Near the grave the detectorist found an ornate circular Saxon metal brooch inlaid with gold,[4][6] garnets[4][5] and coral.[5] This type of brooch was previously known from Kent, East Anglia, Essex and Bedfordshire[7] but the one from West Hanney is further west than all previously found examples,[7] making it "a find described as of national importance".[5] It has yet to be determined where the brooch may have been made.[7]
Also yet to be determined is whether the young woman belonged to the local Saxon Gewisse tribe.[7] She was about 25 years old when she died,[5][7] and shortly after her grave was discovered an osteologist said that her skeleton would be examined to try to determine her cause of death.[5]
The village had a parish church by the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 but the earliest part of the present Church of England parish church of Saint James the Great dates from about 1150.[2]
The tower has a ring of six bells.[8] Abraham I Rudhall of Gloucester[9] cast five of them in 1702,[8] but Charles and George Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry[9] cast the other in 1856.[8] St. James' has a Sanctus bell that Robert I Wells of Aldbourne[9] cast in about 1760.[8] There is another small bell that Charles and George Mears cast in 1858, but this is currently unused.[8]
A Georgian rectory was completed in 1724.[10] It is now West Hanney House.[10]
West Hanney has a public house, the Plough Inn[11] free house. It had another called The Lamb, until it closed in 2008.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:West_Hanney West Hanney] at Wikimedia Commons