> Marshalls Home
Roughly in the centre of the triangle formed by Abingdon, Faringdon and Wantage,
lies the village of Charney Bassett, nestling on the north bank of the river Ock.
It is believed that the river, in Celtic times, was called the Chain, from which
the name Charney is derived, and Bassett from Ralph Bassett who held land
hereabout and died in 1127.
A small compact village, its dwellings number just about 100, the only large
house being the manor, which since 1947 has belonged to the Society of Friends
and is used by them as a Meeting House, and also a guest house and conference
centre. In the Middle Ages the manor, or Grange as it was then called, belonged
to the Benedictine Abbey of Abingdon and it contains some fine examples of
medieval building, still in constant use. Village organisations are encouraged
to use the manor, and such events as the harvest supper and biennial church
fete, to name just two, are always held there.
Hard by the manor stands the church of St Peter, plain and simple, built mainly
in Norman times but probably on the foundations of an earlier Saxon place of
worship. Its main attraction is a very fine example of a Norman carved tympanum,
re-set in the north wall of the chancel above the entrance to a squint passage;
there are only a very few of such examples to be found in the country. Another
original Norman carved archway is over the main doorway. The unusual bellcote
houses two bells which are uninscribed but believed to be medieval.
Close by the manor and the church is a water mill and records show a mill was
here when the monks occupied the manor. Obviously rebuilt over the centuries,the
present day structure was in constant use for grinding corn until the First
World War, when the miller’s son, James Douglas, went off to war and his father
eventually had to cease milling. The building stood almost intact until visited
by a local industrial archaeological group in the 1970s, who were so fascinated
by their find, they have toiled to restore it to working condition and open it
to the public.
On the village green, which is opposite the Chequers Inn, stands another
medieval relic — a stone shaft on three steps. It is thought this may have been
a market cross, where goods could be offered for sale at certain times of the
year. A sundial was added to the top later and this would have been used as the
village time-piece. After the First World War the centre step was replaced with
a dressed stone as a memorial to those whose names are carved thereon.
One mile to the north of the village, but still in the civil parish of Charney
is Cherbury Camp, believed to have been built about the beginning of the 1st
century AD. It is similar to the better known Uffington Castle on top of White
Horse Hill, although slightly larger, but unfortunately is not protected so
well, and consequently is being quite considerably eroded. There is a legend
that the tribe or army camped in Uffington Castle moved out towards Cherbury to
do battle, but a shepherd boy lying out in the fields saw them coming and
sounded his horn, so warning the Cherbury occupants, who were then able to go
out and meet their enemy and win the battle. Hence it is said the area around
the crossroads midway between Charney and Buckland is where they ‘gained the
field’ and it became known as Gainfield. The shepherd boy was supposedly given
all the land within the sound of his horn for his part in this, and this
eventually became the Pusey estate.
True or legend, there is a Pusey Horn in the British Museum, and another inn in
the village, which was closed during the Second World War, was known as the Horn
Inn. Cherbury Camp and other land to the north-west of the parish is still the
property of Pusey estate, but in 1908 a large portion of the houses and many
hundreds of acres east, south and west of Charney were sold to Berkshire County
Council, who divided it into many smallholdings, of about 40 acres, which were
worked by tenants. Today the ownership has passed to Oxfordshire County
Council, who have sold off a majority of the dwellings, and the dozen or so
smallholdings in Charney parish have been converted into just three large farms.
The village school, which closed in the early 1980's, was always known as the Bouverie Pusey School. It was built in 1871 by the Pusey family of Pusey House,
probably at the same time as the New Road was made and the six pairs of houses
were built on the east side of the road. These houses are of a most unusual
design with stone mullioned and arched windows and high pitched roofs, often
described as similar to small churches. The only other houses similar to these
are to be found at Black Bourton on the road from Faringdon to Burford, probably
by the same architect.
Many more dwellings have been built in the last 40 years or so, just about
doubling the number which existed at the turn of the century, but it is fair to
say the character of the village has not altered unduly; it remains very compact
still within its original confines, with a close-knit, caring and friendly
community.
Click here
for a quote and to instruct your survey online
> Marshalls Home