South Moreton
| South Moreton | |
|---|---|
 St. John the Baptist parish church |
|
 South Moreton
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| South Moreton shown within Oxfordshire | |
| Area | 5.46 km2 (2.11 sq mi) |
| Population | 350 (2001 census) |
| • Density | 64/km2 (170/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | SU561881 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Didcot |
| Postcode district | OX11 |
| Dialling code | 01235 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | South Moreton village website |
South Moreton is an Oxfordshire village and civil parish in England about 3 miles (5 km) east of Didcot and 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Wallingford. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the parish to Oxfordshire and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.
Moretune in the Domesday book is ambiguous but four of the five manor houses are identifiable:
The largest house in South Moreton is none of these, but is The Hall, very close to the Huse, and the last farm in the village.
Much Victorian history of the village is recorded in The Rector's Book, handwritten around 1905 from memories stretching back to 1845, and now deposited in the Berkshire County Archives at Reading.
At the time of the South Moreton Inclosure Act, 1818 c.18, the dominant landlord was Henry Hucks Gibbs, 1st Baron Aldenham and many of the inclosures were allotted to him. Later in the century a London butcher of the name of Hedges (by coincidence, also the surname of another powerful and extensive Wallingford-based family) used Rich's Sidings of the new Great Western Railway, two miles to the west by Didcot station, to supply much of the London meat trade; Hedges amassed a large fortune and much local land, including the inclosures at Hall Farm and Fulscot Manor, both of which are still owned and farmed by his descendants.
South Moreton has a public house, a school, and a chapel, but not a shop or a village hall, and the church is closed except for three services a year. There are a few large old houses on the High Street, some newer cottages at the east of the village, modern social housing to the West, and some seventeenth century cottages in between, many thatched.
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Wikipedia