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The Hanneys (East and West) are two of the ‘island’ villages of the Vale of the
White Horse. One reminder of the fact that the Hanneys were once an island is
that the footpath that connects the two villages is a raised causeway, because
until recent years the road soon flooded in the winter months.
The parish church of St James the Great stands in West Hanney on an ancient
Saxon site. The church contains two stone Saxon coffins. The present building
dates back to Norman times (1160), and over the years there have been many
additions and alterations. On the north wall of the church, near the font, is a
commemorative tablet to Elizabeth Bowles, said to have died in 1718 at the age
of 124 (the longest recorded life span of an Englishwoman). There is a
collection of brasses, commemorating 30 people altogether. One of the brasses
commemorates the Ayshcombe family, who had ten sons and four daughters.
In East Hanney is Hanney Mission, an evangelical chapel dating back to 1862,
when it was erected by the ‘Frilford and Longworth Home Mission’. The Mission
closed down for a time between the wars and was almost sold to the British
Legion as a clubhouse. The price was agreed, the plans for alteration were drawn
up, but the sale did not go through. The Mission was reopened as a place of
worship about 1943.
Letcombe brook meanders through East and West Hanney, providing the power for
two (now unused) mills, locally known as the ‘Upper’ and the ‘Lower’ mills.
Earlier in the 20th century, the Upper Mill (correctly known as Dandridge’s
Mill) supplied flour to Boffin’s Bakery in Heading-ton. The horses left Hanney
at 8.30 am, and did not return until 7.00 pm. The flour milling died out in
1920. At the ‘Lower’ mill, near Philberd’s Manor, prisoners of the Napoleonic
wars carried out silk weaving. There is a public footpath along the brook here,
and in the spring it is particularly beautiful, with daffodils growing by the
mill.
At the turn of the 20th century there were a number of shops and farms in the
two villages. There were carpenters, blacksmiths, thatchers, a midwife, a
harness maker, a baker, a coal merchant, a wheelwright, two carriers and an
undertaker. The post office in East Hanney was kept by two sisters, one of whom
delivered letters up the street and the other down! Hanney even boasted a rat
catcher, whose sister-in-law was the village midwife who delivered babies for a
fee of 7s 6d.
In 1916, there was a Missionary Pageant five miles away at Betterton, near
Ardington. Children from local village schools were invited to attend and asked
to wear costumes from other lands. Mr Edwards, the well-respected headmaster of
the Hanney school, hired some Red Indian head-dresses and leggings and purchased
some greasepaint. The children were taken to Betterton in a flour waggon from
Dandridge’s Mill, pulled by two horses. The children enjoyed the pageant and at
the end of the event, they sang ‘God is working His purpose out’, and then piled
into the waggon for the return journey. On the way home a storm broke, the
greasepaint smeared, and the dye from the leggings ran down the children’s legs.
There must have been some hard scrubbing in Hanney that night as apparently the
dye was very difficult to remove.
Most of the organisations using the village hall are prefixed by the name ‘Hanney’,
showing a unity between the two villages, which has not always been there. There
used to be, on occasion, some intense rivalry between the children of the two
villages. One year, the single field that separates East and West Hanney was
planted with turnips, and after school (and after some arguing) the older
schoolboys got into the turnip field, uprooted a lot and threw them at each
other. In the morning there were turnips all over the road. The police were
called but, of course, nobody had seen anything. Today, the two villages live in
harmony with each other, and there have been no turnips thrown in anger for many
a year!
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