Culham, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Culham, a parish in Oxfordshire and Berks, on the river Thames, adjacent to the Didcot and Oxford section of the G.W.R., 1½ mile S by E of Abingdon. It has a station on the railway, and its post town is Abingdon; money order and telegraph office, Abingdon. Acreage, 2052 in Oxford, and 11 in Berks; population, 474. The manor belonged to Abingdon Abbey, and an old seat on it, converted into a farmhouse, was a residence of the abbots. Culham College, built in 1853, at a cost of nearly £20,000, is a training school for schoolmasters of the dioceses of Oxford and Gloucester, and contains accommodation for 100 students. A bridge on the Thames here was built in 1416 by Geoffrey Barbour. There is also a lock. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £234 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford. The church was mainly rebuilt in 1852, in the Early English style. The chancel was rebuilt in 1872-the tower alone remains of the older church. Culham House is a chief residence.

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 Culham from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Culham 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.