# Sunningwell

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Village in Oxfordshire, England

Human settlement in England

Sunningwell Sunningwell Road with (left) St Leonard's parish church Sunningwell Location within Oxfordshire Population 904 (2011 Census) OS grid reference SP4900 Civil parish Sunningwell District Vale of White Horse Shire county Oxfordshire Region South East Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town Abingdon Postcode district OX13 Dialling code 01865 Police Thames Valley Fire Oxfordshire Ambulance South Central UK Parliament Oxford West and Abingdon Website Sunningwell Parish Council List of places UK England Oxfordshire 51°42′04″N 1°16′59″W / 51.701°N 1.283°W / 51.701; -1.283

**Sunningwell** is a village and [civil parish](/source/Civil_parishes_in_England) about 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) south of [Oxford](/source/Oxford), [England](/source/England). The parish includes the village of [Bayworth](/source/Bayworth) and the eastern part of [Boars Hill](/source/Boars_Hill). The parish was part of [Berkshire](/source/Berkshire) until the [1974 boundary changes](/source/Local_Government_Act_1972) transferred it to [Oxfordshire](/source/Oxfordshire). The [2011 Census](/source/United_Kingdom_Census_2011) recorded the parish population as 904.[1]

## Toponym

In 9th-century Saxon charters Sunningwell's [place-name](/source/Toponymy) is spelt *Sunnigwellan* and *Sunningauuille*. The [Domesday Book](/source/Domesday_Book) of 1086 records it as *Soningeuell*. The name is derived from [Old English](/source/Old_English), meaning "the spring of Sunna's people".[2]

## Manor

The [Domesday Book](/source/Domesday_Book) records that [Abingdon Abbey](/source/Abingdon_Abbey) held the [manors](/source/Manorialism) of Sunningwell and [Bayworth](/source/Bayworth) by 1086, and it assessed Sunningwell manor at five [hides](/source/Hide_(unit)). The abbey retained both manors until 1538, when it surrendered all its properties to [the Crown](/source/The_Crown) in the [Dissolution of the Monasteries](/source/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries).[3] In 1545 the manors of Sunningwell and Bayworth were granted to Robert Browne (a goldsmith), Christopher Edmondes and William Wenlowe. They seem to have been speculators who bought them for a quick profit, as they [alienated](/source/Alienation_(property_law)) the manors in 1546. The buyer was [John Williams](/source/John_Williams%2C_1st_Baron_Williams_of_Thame), later Baron Williams of Thame. Baron Williams died in 1559 without a male heir, and the manors passed to his elder daughter [Margery](/source/Margery_Norris) and her husband [Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys](/source/Henry_Norris%2C_1st_Baron_Norreys). In 1583 Margery sold Sunningwell and Bayworth to her younger sister Isabel and her second husband Richard Huddleston. By 1589 Richard and Isabel were dead and had left the two manors mortgaged to a Richard Martin.[3]

In 1597 Martin sold the manors to the [Elizabethan](/source/Elizabethan_era) general [Sir Thomas Baskerville](/source/Thomas_Baskerville_(general)), but he died on a campaign in [Picardy](/source/Picardy) that year so he probably never lived there. The two manors passed to Sir Thomas's son [Hannibal Baskerville](/source/Hannibal_Baskerville) (1597–1668), grandson Thomas Baskerville and great-grandson Matthew Baskerville, all of whom lived at Bayworth. Matthew Baskerville died in 1720–21 with no legitimate heir, but during his lifetime he had sold Sunningwell and Bayworth in return for an [annuity](/source/Life_annuity) of £80 to [Sir John Stonehouse](/source/Sir_John_Stonhouse%2C_3rd_Baronet), lord of the manor of [Radley](/source/Radley). Sunningwell and Bayworth remained with the Stonehouse family and their successors the Bowyers until about 1884, when an Edgar John Disney of [Ingatestone](/source/Ingatestone) in Essex [foreclosed](/source/Foreclosure) a mortgage on the manor. He retained the manor for the rest of his life, but his son Edgar Norton Disney sold most of it in 1912.[3]

## Parish church

The oldest known record of the [Church of England parish church](/source/Church_of_England_parish_church) of [St Leonard](/source/Leonard_of_Noblac) is from 1246. The nave and parts of the [chancel](/source/Chancel) date from this time, and there is one blocked 13th-century window in the south wall of the nave. The east end of the chancel was rebuilt late in the 13th or early in the 14th century with a [Decorated Gothic](/source/English_Gothic_architecture#Decorated_Gothic) east window. Late in the 15th century the [Perpendicular Gothic](/source/English_Gothic_architecture#Perpendicular_Gothic) south [transept](/source/Transept) and north tower were built and the nave was given Perpendicular Gothic windows and an [embattled](/source/Battlement) parapet. The [Elizabethan](/source/Elizabethan_architecture) [polygonal](/source/Polygon) west porch with [Ionic](/source/Ionic_order) columns is said to have been given by [John Jewel](/source/John_Jewel), [Bishop of Salisbury](/source/Bishop_of_Salisbury), who had been rector of Sunningwell St Leonard's in about 1551.[3][4]

[Samuel Fell](/source/Samuel_Fell) was rector of St Leonard's from 1625 to 1649.[3] The west tower has a [ring](/source/Ring_of_bells) of six bells. Henry II Knight of [Reading](/source/Reading%2C_Berkshire) cast the tenor in the [Commonwealth era](/source/Commonwealth_of_England) in 1653. Charles and George Mears of the [Whitechapel Bell Foundry](/source/Whitechapel_Bell_Foundry) cast the second, third, fourth and fifth bells in 1857. Mears and Stainbank, also of the Whitechapel foundry, cast the treble bell in 1933.[5] In 1877 St Leonard's was restored under the direction of [JP Seddon](/source/John_Pollard_Seddon), a friend of [William Morris](/source/William_Morris), who designed the stained glass in the east window.[4] The church is a [Grade II* listed building](/source/Listed_building#Categories_of_listed_building).[6]

## Notable people

The painter [J. M. W. Turner](/source/J._M._W._Turner) stayed with his uncle and aunt in the village aged 14 and sketched in the area.

## Amenities

In the 19th century a cottage opposite St Leonard's parish church was made the home for a schoolteacher, and a schoolroom was built next to it. In the 20th century it became Sunningwell Church of England Primary School and moved to new premises in Dark Lane at the west end of the village.[7] The 19th-century school building is now Sunningwell School of Art.[8] Sunningwell has a [public house](/source/Public_house), the Flowing Well.[9]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [UK Census](/source/2011_United_Kingdom_census) (2011). ["Local Area Report – Sunningwell Parish (E04008244)"](https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2011_ks/report?compare=E04008244). *Nomis*. [Office for National Statistics](/source/Office_for_National_Statistics_(United_Kingdom)). Retrieved 7 December 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEkwall1960Sunningdale_2-0)** [Ekwall 1960](#CITEREFEkwall1960), Sunningdale.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Ditchfield_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Ditchfield_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Ditchfield_3-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Ditchfield_3-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Ditchfield_3-4) [Ditchfield & Page 1924](#CITEREFDitchfieldPage1924), pp. 423–427

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Pevsner_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Pevsner_4-1) [Pevsner 1966](#CITEREFPevsner1966), p. 234

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Davies, Peter (5 October 2017). ["Sunningwell S Leonard"](https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?DoveID=SUNNINGWEL). *[Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers](/source/Dove's_Guide_for_Church_Bell_Ringers)*. [Central Council for Church Bell Ringers](/source/Central_Council_for_Church_Bell_Ringers). Retrieved 7 December 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [Historic England](/source/Historic_England). ["Church of St Leonard (Grade II*) (1182736)"](https://HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1182736?section=official-list-entry). *[National Heritage List for England](/source/National_Heritage_List_for_England)*. Retrieved 27 August 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Sunningwell Church of England Primary School](http://www.sunningwell.oxon.sch.uk/)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** [Sunningwell School of Art](http://www.artschool.org.uk/)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [The Flowing Well](http://flowingwellabingdon.co.uk/)

## Sources

- [Ditchfield, PH](/source/Peter_Ditchfield); [Page, William](/source/William_Page_(historian)), eds. (1924). [*A History of the County of Berkshire*](https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol4/pp423-427). [Victoria County History](/source/Victoria_County_History). Vol. IV. assisted by John Hautenville Cope. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 423–427.

- [Ekwall, Eilert](/source/Eilert_Ekwall) (1960) [1936]. *Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names* (4th ed.). Oxford: [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0198691033](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0198691033). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date))

- [Pevsner, Nikolaus](/source/Nikolaus_Pevsner) (1966). *Berkshire*. [The Buildings of England](/source/Pevsner_Architectural_Guides#Buildings_of_England). Harmondsworth: [Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books). pp. 234–235.

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Sunningwell](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sunningwell).

- [Sunningwell Parish Council](https://www.sunningwell-pc.gov.uk/)

- [St Leonard's Sunningwell](https://www.rskbenefice.org/st-leonard-sunningwell.html)

v t e The District of the Vale of White Horse Oxfordshire County Council elections District Council elections Didcot and Wantage County Constituency Oxford West and Abingdon County Constituency Witney County Constituency Towns Abingdon-on-Thames Caldecott Faringdon Wantage Belmont Large villages Blewbury Cumnor Chilswell Cumnor Hill Dean Court Farmoor Swinford Drayton East Challow East Hendred Great Western Park Grove Harwell Kennington Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Kingston Bagpuize Southmoor Marcham Cothill Milton North Hinksey Botley Harcourt Hill Radley St. Helen Without Dry Sandford Shippon Shrivenham Stanford in the Vale Bow Steventon Sunningwell Bayworth Boars Hill Sutton Courtenay Watchfield Wootton Boars Hill Henwood Other civil parishes (component villages and hamlets) Appleford-on-Thames Appleton-with-Eaton Appleton Eaton Ardington West Ginge Ashbury Idstone Baulking Besselsleigh Bourton Buckland Gainfield Buscot Charney Bassett Childrey Chilton Coleshill Compton Beauchamp Knighton Denchworth East Hanney Eaton Hastings Fernham Frilford Fyfield and Tubney Fyfield Tubney Netherton Garford Goosey Great Coxwell Hatford Hinton Waldrist Duxford Kingston Lisle Letcombe Bassett Letcombe Regis Little Coxwell Littleworth Lockinge East Lockinge West Lockinge Longcot Longworth Lyford Pusey Shellingford South Hinksey Hinksey Hill Sparsholt Uffington Upton West Challow West Hanney West Hendred East Ginge Western Valley Woolstone Wytham Seacourt Former districts and boroughs Municipal Borough of Abingdon Abingdon Rural District Faringdon Rural District Wantage Urban District Wantage Rural District Former constituencies Oxfordshire County Constituency Abingdon Borough Constituency Berkshire North or Abingdon County Constituency Abingdon County Constituency Wantage County Constituency List of parliamentary constituencies in Oxfordshire List of places in Oxfordshire List of civil parishes in Oxfordshire

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sunningwell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunningwell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunningwell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.