| Brightwell-cum-Sotwell | |
|---|---|
| Villages andcivil parish | |
 St Agatha's parish church | |
  Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Location withinOxfordshire | |
| Area | 13.17 km2 (5.08 sq mi) |
| Population | 1,538 (2011 census)[1] |
| • Density | 117/km2 (300/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | SU5890 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Wallingford |
| Postcode district | OX10 |
| Dialling code | 01491 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Website |
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Brightwell-cum-Sotwell is a twin-village andcivil parish in the UpperThames Valley inSouth Oxfordshire. It lies betweenDidcot to the west and the historic market town ofWallingford to the east. In 1974 it was transferred fromBerkshire to the county ofOxfordshire, and fromWallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire.
Brightwell and Sotwell were originally two separate villages, rural settlements whose inhabitants worked the land.
For thousands of years hunter-gatherers of theThames Valley would have passed this way, stalking wild animals and gathering from the trees that grew on the greens and in this area. This good soil and the abundant water supply may have encouragedIron Age farmers (1500 BC - AD 50) to settle in this area. The ramparts onWittenham Clumps provide enduring evidence of Iron Age settlement in the area.
Evidence of a Roman road dating from about 43 CE, has been uncovered under the playing fields of the local primary school. Other finds include Roman coins and pottery.[2]
The first written evidence of a village here comes from the variousSaxon charters describing ownership of land inBeorhtanville,Suttanwille andMaccanie. In a charter of 854Æthelwulf, King ofWessex grantedSwithun,Bishop of Winchester, an estate of 30hides atBrihtanwylle to help the bishop pay the expenses of entertaining distinguished foreign guests.[3] Subsequently,William the Conqueror's agents recorded in theDomesday Book in 1086 70 families and two mills in Brightwell and Sotwell, but where the mills stood and how they were powered is unknown. Within 50 years of Domesday,Brightwell Castle was involved in thecivil war betweenKing Stephen and his cousinMatilda. The exact site of this castle is unknown, but it probably lay within the moated areas of what later contained St Agatha's/Brightwellmanor house in Brightwell or Stonor Hayes manor house in Sotwell.
| Brightwell Inclosure Act 1811 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for allotting and inclosing Lands in the Parish of Brightwell, in the County of Berks. |
| Citation | 51 Geo. 3. c. lxxxiii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 May 1811 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
For the next 800 years Brightwell and Sotwell parishes only occasionally appear in recorded history. For example:
With the coming of theIndustrial Revolution and theVictorian era, the village had some significant philanthropists who worked hard for the good of the villagers:
TheWar Memorial records the loss of villagers in the armed services in the two world wars. In the middle of the twentieth century, there was significant expansion of the villages and in 1948 the villages of Brightwell and Sotwell were brought together as one civil parish.[5] In 1949 the Greenmere estate was built and later, estates were also built at Kings Orchard, Monks Mead and Datchet Green. There are no immediate plans for any major development, though around 2011 there was some controversy regarding a plan to build some 800 houses between the village andWallingford. The plan to develop on this area was eventually abandoned, in the face of local pressure, in favour of a new development on the Hithercroft.[6]
A walk around the narrow village streets will reveal many houses still standing which date back toTudor times and beyond. The oldest building is probably Woodleys (Old Nursery Lane), with other examples such as Dobson's (Sotwell Street), The Old Priory (Little Lane), Middle Farm and Abbots House (both Church Lane - formerly Great Lane) and Smalls House (Mackney).Brightwell Manor is aGrade II listed building, with a mid seventeenth-century half-timbered structure extended by an eighteenth-century stone frontage.[7]
TheChurch of England parish churches of St Agatha (Brightwell) and St James (Sotwell) would have been at the centre of village affairs, surrounded by many thatched cottages with cob, orwattle and daub, walls. The original building dates back to the twelfth century, the tower was rebuilt in about 1797. The church was restored in the nineteenth century, with an organ chamber added in about 1903.[8]
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