Swyncombe or Swincombe, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Swyncombe or Swincombe, a parish, with three hamlets, in Oxfordshire, among the Chiltern Hills, 5 miles E of Wallingford station on the G.W.R. It has a post office under Henley-on-Thames; money order and telegraph office, Nettlebed. Acreage, including Cookley, 2708; population, 308. There is a parish council consisting of five members and a chairman. The manor, with Swyncombe House, a mansion of brick in the Elizabethan style, pleasantly situated in a park of 110 acres, belongs to the Ruck-Keene family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, dedicated to St Botolph, is a small but ancient building of flint in mixed styles, but chiefly of Norman date, and has been restored. It consists of apsidal chancel, nave, and a modern S porch and bell-cote. It has some good modern stained glass windows and a partly restored Norman font. Cookley Green, Park Corner, and Russell's Water are adjacent hamlets.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Swyncombe or Swincombe from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

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.