OS grid reference SP5112 Country England Post town Kidlington Local time Sunday 7:55 AM Dialling code 01865 | Region South East Sovereign state United Kingdom Shire county Oxfordshire District Cherwell District | |
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Civil parish Gosford and Water Eaton Weather 8°C, Wind SE at 6 km/h, 87% Humidity | ||
Water Eaton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Gosford and Water Eaton, between Oxford and Kidlington in Oxfordshire.
Contents
Map of Water Eaton, Oxford, UK
History
The toponym Eaton is Old English, and "Water Eaton" means "farm by a river", referring to the manor's site beside the River Cherwell.
Water Eaton manor house was built for Sir Edward Frere in 1586 but reduced in size at a later date. A square dovecote survives to the northeast of the house. The Gothic Revival architect G.F. Bodley restored the house in 1890 and made it his home. A Perpendicular Gothic Church of England chapel was built to the north of the manor house in 1610 and restored in 1884.
St. Frideswide's Farmhouse is a 16th-century Tudor stone house, and towards the end of that century was a home of the Lenthall family. The house was extended in the 17th or 18th and 20th centuries. It is now a Grade II* listed building.
At the end of the First English Civil War in June 1646 the Articles of Surrender for the siege of Oxford were finally agreed in Water Eaton. They were signed on 20 June in the Audit House of Christ Church, Oxford.
In 1850 the Buckinghamshire Railway between Bletchley and Oxford was opened through the parish. In 1905 Oxford Road Halt was opened 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the manor house. The halt was short-lived, being closed down in 1926.
Water Eaton was a separate civil parish until 1932, when it was merged with its neighbour Gosford.
In 1940 a grain silo and rail siding were built on the south side of the former halt. The silo has been disused since the 1980s but remained a landmark visible over a wide area. The silo was demolished in October 2013.
In the 2000s Oxfordshire County Council opened a Park and ride site just south of the grain silo. In January 2009 Chiltern Railways announced plans to open a new railway station close to the site of the former halt. This station, to be named Oxford Parkway, would serve Kidlington and north Oxford.