Caversham, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Caversham, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on the river Thames, in the vicinity of the G.W.R., 1 mile N of Reading, under which it has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 4879; population of the civil parish, 5441; of the ecclesiastical, 4966. It is a long straggling place, partly mean, partly well-built, partly winged with neat new villas. A bridge connects it with Reading; was the scene of a sharp skirmish in 1643; and was rebuilt in 1869. The manor belonged, at the Conquest, to the Giffords; passed to the Marsacs and the Cadogans; and belongs now to the Crawshay family. The mansion, called Caversham Park, occupies a commanding site, amid fine grounds laid out by Brown; and was destroyed by fire in the time of George I., and again in 1850, and each time immediately rebuilt. Queen Anne of Denmark was splendidly entertained in the original edifice; and Charles I. was for some time kept prisoner in it, and allowed to have interviews with his children. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £228 with residence. Patron, Christ Church, Oxford. The church is partly Norman, partly later styles; lost its north side and its tower in the civil wars; and was partly restored in 1847, and again in 1879, when the tower was rebuilt. There are Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Wesleyan, and Free Nonconformist chapels. A county police station was built in 1884, and here the petty sessions for the Henley division are held fortnightly. Cane End, Emmer Green, and Lower Caversham are hamlets in this parish. There is a church at Lower Caversham, erected in 1888, and attached to Caversham.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Caversham from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Caversham (St. Peter))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Caversham are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Oxfordshire newspapers online:

• Oxford Journal
• Banbury Advertiser
• Banbury Guardian
• Oxford University and City Herald
• Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
• Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
• Oxford Times
• Banbury Beacon
• Ossett Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.