Beckley, Oxfordshire

Description
Beckley, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on the line of the Roman road from Alcester to Wallingford, on an eminence overhanging the south side of Ottmoor, 3 miles SE of Islip station on the L. & N.W.R., and 5 NE of Oxford, under which it has a post office; money order and telegrapli office, Headington. It was the burial-place of the British saint Donanverdh,and the hereditary property of King Alfred. The parish includes also the hamlets of Studley and Horton-cum-Studley, and by the Divided Parishes Act of 1882 Stowood, formerly a distinct parish, was made a hamlet of Beckley. Area, 3620 acres; population of the civil parish, 345; of the ecclesiastical, 395. A Benedictine priory was founded at Studley in the time of Henry II. by Bertrand de St Walery, passed at the dissolution to the Crokes, and was converted into a dwelling-house in 1587. the living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £148 with residence. The church is an interesting structure of the 14th century, and has remains of very curious frescoes, a font with ancient stone desk, and tombs of the Crokes.