Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ENSHAM, or Eynesham

ENSHAM, or Eynesham, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Witney district, Oxford. The village stands on the river Isis, adjacent to the Witney railway, 4¾ miles E by S of Witney; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Oxford. It was known to the Saxons as Egonesham; is said to have been a British town before the times of the heptarchy; was a seat of royalty, and the scene of a wittenagemot, in the time of Etheldred the Unready; had a Benedictine abbey, founded in 1005 by Ethelmar or Aylmar, Earl of Cornwall; and figured, at later periods, as a market-town. The abbey was given, at the dissolution, to the Stanleys; and the only part of it now remaining is a window in the parsonage garden. The parish comprises 5, 060 acres. Real property, £10, 262. Pop., 2, 096. Houses, 457. Ensham Hall is a principal residence. The parish is a meet for the Heythrop hounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £176.* Patron, Mrs. W. S. Bricknell. The church is ancient, and has a monument of Dr. Rogers; and near it is an ancient cross. There are three dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £36, and other charities with £147.—The sub-district contains also five other parishes. Acres, 17, 571. Pop., 5, 237. Houses, 1, 138.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Eynsham AP/CP       Eynsham SubD       Witney RegD/PLU       Oxfordshire AncC
Place names: EGONESHAM     |     ENSHAM     |     ENSHAM OR EYNESHAM     |     EYNESHAM
Place: Eynsham

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