Whitchurch

"WHITCHURCH, a parish in the hundred of Langtree, county Oxford, 6 miles N.W. of Reading, and 10 from Wallingford. The village is situated on a declivity overlooking the Thames, and surrounded by hills. On the opposite bank of the river is the village of Pangbourne in Berkshire, connected with Whitchurch by a bridge rebuilt in 1853. The common was enclosed in the reign of George III. The parish includes the hamlet of Whitchurch Tollhouse, Combe Lodge, the mansion of S.W. Gardiner, Esq., who is lord of the manor; and Hardwick House, the ancient seat of the Hardwick and Powys families, originally built prior to the reign of Richard II. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford, value £456, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains three brasses, the earliest to Sir T. Walysch, bearing date 1430, and several tablets to the Lybbe, Powys, and Gardiner families. There is a free school for boys and girls, founded in 1817." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]