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Drayton is two miles from Abingdon on the old A34, once
in Berkshire, now in Oxfordshire. It is the centre of an agricultural area, and
was once famous for its walnuts. On the village green stands a stone cross in
commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
Drayton has several fine houses, including Lime Close, parts of which are
Elizabethan, which was visited by the diarist James Woodforde in 1763. Other
houses of note are the Grange, Sutton Wick House, Gothic House and the Manor,
opposite which is a cruck cottage.
Gothic House has a mural on the gable-end of St George killing the Dragon
painted by Charles Sykes in 1949, the design taken from the original, smaller
mural inside the house. Drayton people used to perform a mummer’s play of St
George and the Dragon annually at one time. Charles was an artist and sculptor,
and in 1911 he designed the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ for the Rolls Royce motor
company.
St Peter’s church contains some fine carving done by Rev F. E. Robinson, who
worked on it each day from 5.30 am until his parochial duties took over. He was
also a renowned campanologist, and was the first Master of the Oxford Diocesan
Guild of Bellringers, and claimed to have rung in every belfry in England. A
brass plaque above the pulpit states ‘In every work that he began, he did it
with all his heart’.
In 1959 the church roof was badly damaged by fire, but a village wedding went
ahead as planned, after willing helpers had cleaned up and decorated the church
with flowers and branches, after which it was closed for repairs for a while.
In 1780 the casual act of throwing away hot ashes started ‘The Great Fire of
Drayton’ which wiped out half the village and caused a national appeal to be
launched. Drayton bricks made of Kimmeridge clay, dug, shaped and fired behind
the Wheatsheaf, were used to rebuild the village.
In 1957 a Beverley aircraft came down near the village with some loss of life.
More recently in 1989 a Tornado jet crashed on the outskirts of the village
after flying into a flock of starlings.
There is reputed to be a ghost of a white lady on horseback, riding down Gypsy
Lane, but she has not been seen recently!
One well known village lady was Mrs Marion Caudwell. Mrs Caudwell died in 1987
at the age of 93, after a lifetime of community work as area organiser of the
WRVS, 25 years on the Abingdon RDC and eight years as a County Councillor. She
gave a piece of land and raised money for housing and a day centre for the
elderly which bear her name, and opened her garden each year for the church
fete, an idyllic setting.
The busy Abingdon—Steventon road passing the green follows the line of the old
toll road through Drayton used by the Oxford—Southampton stage coach in the 18th
century. Whatever transport you use, Drayton is worth a visit!
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