Bensington, Oxfordshire

Description
Bensington or Benson, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on the river Thames, 1 1/2 mile NNE of Wallingford station on the G.W.R.; it is a considerable place, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office of the name of Benson, under Wallingford. It occupies the site of a town of the ancient Britons, which was taken from them in 572 by the West Saxons; held by the latter till 777, and surrendered then to the Mercians. The parish includes the hamlets of Fifield, Roke, Roke Marsh, Little-worth, Crowmarsh-Battle, and Preston-Crowmarsh. Acreage, 2922 ; population of the civil parish, 1121; of the ecclesiastical, 1113. A manor-house, part of which is very ancient, with a window-head of the 13th century, is in the hamlet of Fifield. A Maison Dieu was founded there in the time of Henry VI. by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and given to the University of Oxford. Crowmarsh-Battle was bestowed upon Battle Abbey by William the Conqueror. The parish of Bensington was formerly of very great extent; Henley, 11 miles distant, having been one of its chapelries as late as the reign of Edward I. It continued to be a royal manor until the manorial rights were sold by Charles I. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £215 with residence, in the gift of Christ Church, Oxford. The church is chiefly ancient, variously late pointed Norman and Decorated; has a Georgian tower, contains an Early English font, and is very good. There are a Free Church, erected in 1879, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, and some small charities.