Eynsham

Coordinates: 51°46′52″N 1°22′30″W / 51.781°N 1.375°W / 51.781; -1.375

Eynsham /ˈɛnʃəm/ is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Oxford and about 5 miles (8 km) east of Witney, in Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 4,648.

History

Eynsham grew up near the historically important ford of Swinford on the River Thames flood plain. Excavations have shown that the site was used in the Bronze Age for a rectilinear enclosure on the edge of the gravel terrace.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records Eynsham as Egonesham and describes it as one of four towns that the Saxons captured from the Britons in AD 571. Evidence has been found of 6th and 7th century Saxon buildings at New Wintles Farm, about ³⁄₄ mile (1.2 km) north of the present parish church. There is some evidence that Eynsham had an early minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th centuries. The name is recorded in AD 864 (in the dative) as Egenes homme = "Ægen's enclosure or river-meadow".