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D IR EC T OR V.]

BERKSHIRE.

Abl.NGDON.

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A li I N (ji I) O N
ABINGDON is a municipal borough, a m arket and the U niversity of Oxford, obtained for the town a
union town and the head of a petty sessional division charter of incorporation, under which it was governed
and county court district, on the righ t bank of the by a mayor, two bailiffs and nine aldermen. The
river Tham es at its confluence with the Ock, and is 56 corporate body, acting also as the Urban Sanitary
miles from London by road, 103I by the river and 59 A uthority, now consists of a mayor, four aldermen and
by the Great W estern railway, with which it is con­ twelve councillors. The borough boundary was ex­
nected by a single line about a m ile and a half in ex­ tended in 1890. Abingdon returned one member to a
tent, joining the main Oxford line at Radley station ; single parliam ent in 1337, and continued to return one
it is 25 miles north-west from Reading, 6 south from member from the date of its incorporation until the
Oxford, 10 north-west from Wallingford, 14 east from passing of the “ Redistribution of Seats A ct, 1885” (48
Faringdon and 21 north from Newbury, in the Northern & 49 Viet. c. 23), by which it was disfranchised as a
division of the county, hundred of Hormer, rural borough, and the representation merged in th at of the
deanery of Abingdon, archdeaconry of Berks and diocese co u n ty; among its representatives m ay especially be
mentioned Sir Simon Harcourt kt. of Stanton Harcourt,
of Oxford.
The name is derived in legendary history from A.ben, Oxon, recorder of Abingdon, 1688, and M.P. for the
a noble herm it, who is said to have built on this site a borough in 1702 and 1708, Lord Chancellor 1710, and
dwelling house and a chapel in honour of the Holy created 1st Baron Harcourt, 3 Sept. 17 11; also Sir
V ir g in ; according to other writers the town was Frederick Thesiger M.P. for Abingdon, 1844-52, Lord
originally called “ Seovechesham ” or “ Seusham, and Chancellor in 1858, and created 1st Baron Chelmsford,
some identify it with “ Cloveshoe,” a place famous in 27th Feb. in th a t year.
The Drainage works and farm , erected and laid out
the annals of English Church Councils, but it no doubt
owes both its name and historical im portance to its in 1877, are situated some distance south of the town ;
abbey, form erly one of the Avealthiest m itred abbeys in the drainage scheme was carried out in 1877-78, under
England. Seovechesham was at a very early period a the direction of Mr. Bailey Denton, at a cost of nearly
royal residence, but was subsequently deserted by the ¿30,000; water works have since been completed at,
Saxon kings, until Offa, king of the Mercians and W est a further outlay of ¿9,000; the sewage farm is in the
Saxons, while accidentally visiting the spot, was so occupation of the Corporation.
The water supply is obtained from the coral rag and
charmed with the beauty of the Isle of Andersey, a
district lying south-west of the town, and between the calcareous grit of the oolitic formation overlying the
Oxford
clay; the borough waterworks, at Wootton, 3
monastery and St. H elen s church, that he prevailed
on the monks to exchange it for the manor of Goosey, m iles distant, have an underground reservoir, from,
and built for him self on the island a royal residence, which, by the aid of a syphon half a mile in length,
which was there m aintained until Kenwulf, his suc­ water is obtained at a depth of ten feet below the out­
cessor, resold Andersey to Abbot Uthem us for the le t of the reservoir and supplied to the consumers by
manor of Sutton and ¿120 in silver: at this place his m e te r; the reservoir has a capacity of 125,000 gallons,
son Egfrid died in 793; the site, called in Leland’s and is im m ediately over the bore hole from which the
tim e “ The Castle of the Rhe,” is now indicated by a water rises from the fissures and hollows of the rocky
large tract of land encircled by the Thames and a tribu­ strata below. Numerous hydrants are fixed at various
tary inlet. W illiam the Conqueror, in 1084, kept his points of the town in such a m anner as to be able to*
Easter at Abingdon, being splendidly entertained by ■reach with hose any part without the aid of a fire
his powerful adherent, Robert D’Oyley, to whose charge ! engine. On the north side of Ock street, near Tom ­
he entrusted his younger son, afterwards Henry I. while kins's almshouses, is a well within a brick recess, in ­
receiving his education at this abbey. During the civil closed by pilasters supporting a pediment, and erectedwar Abingdon was garrisoned for the king, who, on 17th by Richard Eley in 1719; the Old Conduit house, whereApril, 1644, arrived here wuth the queen and attended i the spring rose from which it was supplied, stands in
by Prince Rupert and the Duke of York, and after hold­ Albert Park.
ing a council of war, returned to O xford ; on the follow­
To the excellent system of drainage and the supply
ing day, May 25th, the Royalist general deserted the of water furnished by gravitation from B o a rs Hill may
town, and the Earl of Essex, arriving with his troops, ; be attributed the very low death rate in Abingdon, viz.
plundered it, and placed there a Parliam entary garrison, from 12 to 14 per 1,000.
under the command of General Browne; on the 31st
The town is lighted with gas by a company formed
of May, a new Parliam entary force under General in 1834, whose works are situated in the Vineyard.
Waller, which had been quartered at Wantage, entered
Abingdon, at an early period of its history, possessecT
the town and demolished the beautiful cross which then a Benedictine abbey of great wealth and high d is­
stood in the m arket p lace ; various attem pts ^ere made tinction, whose mitred abbot was summoned with the
by the king’s party during the years 1644-6 to recover barons to parliament. Cissa, father of K ing Ina, whose
the town, but in the main with little success, although rule extended over W iltshire and a large part of Berk­
in 1646 Prince Rupert gained possession of the abbey shire, is said to have founded it (A.D. 675), on a site
buildings, and it eventually passed into the hands of described in the abbey chronicle as a “ table land sur­
the Parliament.
m ounting a rising ground of delightful aspect, in a.
Abingdon w'as much increased, both in population retired spot, inclosed within two most pleasant
and wealth, by the building of Burford or Boroughford stream s.” About A.D. 866-71, the Danes overran the
bridge, a structure of seven arches, near the town, and country, and coming to Abingdon, destroyed th e
by another bridge at Culhamford, about half a mile monastery, leaving only the bare w a lls ; but on their
east of it, the erection of which has been attributed by extermination by Alfred, it was rebuilt, and subse­
some to Henry V. who, however, only granted his licence quently, between A.D. 946-55, re-constructed under
and protection: of these works, begun in 1416, John King Edred. On the arrival in England of W illiam the
Houchon and John Banbury were zealous p rom o t°rs; Conqueror (A.D. 1066), Abbot Aldred took the oath of
and among the chief of those who contributed to the allegiance to him , but was displaced, and the abbacy
building and preservation of the bridges and inter­ bestowed upon Ethelhelm , a N orm an; at the general
mediate road w-'re Sii Peter Besils, of Besilsleigh ; dissolution of the monasteries the abbey was sur­
Geoffrey Barbour, a m erchant, and William Hales and rendered to the king by the abbot. Thomas Rowland
Maud his wife, who, in 1453, added three arches to B D . sometimes written and called “ Rowland PentiBurford bridge.
cost,” and 25 monks, under the common seal of th e
The town is connected by Culham ford bridge with the convent, on the 29th May, 1537, the value of the yearly
parish of Culham , in O xfordshire; and a high and revenue being returned as ¿1,8 76 10s. 9d. the abbot
broad causeway, constructed in the 15th century by the himself being allowed to retain the manor of Cumnor,
munificence of Geoffrey Barbour, unites the two with an annual pension of ¿200; the existing remains
bridges.
comprise the Perpendicular gate-house, a vaulted
The town consists of a spacious market place at the structure, adjacent to the church of St. Nicholas, with
east end, from which several streets diverge to the central and side arches, and rooms above occupied by
north, south and w e s t; the chief of these, High street, the Corporation, and some other buildings situated
was formerly m uch contracted at its western extrem ity, eastward of it, on the backwater of the Thames, readily
but has beeq widened since 1890; tributary streets run accessible, and principally consisting of a long twoto the righ t and left, and it then expands into a smaller storeyed building, partly stone and partly tim ber­
square, from which the wide thoroughfare, called Ock framed, the upper floor of which appears to have been
street, extends to the western lim it of the borough.
a dormitory for gu ests; at the west end of this, placed
In the year 1555, in the reign of Queen Marv, Sir transversely, is another block, rebuilt in the Decorated
John Mason, a native of Abingdon, and chancellor of I period, w ith walls of great thickness, traceried win­
BERKS.

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