South Hinksey

South Hinksey
Tower of St Laurence's parish church
South Hinksey Location within Oxfordshire
Population	383 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SP5004
Civil parish	South Hinksey
District	Vale of White Horse
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Oxford
Postcode district	OX1
Dialling code	01865
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Oxford West and Abingdon
Website	This is South Hinksey, Oxfordshire England

South Hinksey is a village and civil parish just over 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the centre of Oxford. The parish includes the residential area of Hinksey Hill about 0.5 miles (800 m) south of the village. The parish was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.

Geography

The Southern By-Pass Road (part of the A34) passes through the parish. The only road access to the village is via the bypass. It is on the inside of the ring road and close to the Hinksey Stream, a branch of the River Thames at Oxford. Pedestrian and cycle access to the village from Oxford is via the Devil's Backbone; a historic raised pathway across the neighbouring flood plains that features in Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy.

History

It has always been difficult to get between North Hinksey to the north-west and South Hinksey. In the 19th century John Ruskin tried to organize the making of a road between the two villages, as the ground between them was very boggy. Since the 1930s they have been connected by the Southern By-Pass Road. Until the middle of the 18th century South Hinksey was in the parish of Cumnor. When it was first created, the parish extended to the River Thames, but in 1889 the new suburb of New Hinksey, between the Thames and Hinksey Stream, was transferred to the City of Oxford. However, the ecclesiastical parish continues to include New Hinksey.

South Hinksey had two pubs, the Cross Keys which closed in 1993,^[2] and the General Elliot, which finally closed in 2016.^[3]

See also

Cottages in South Hinksey. In the centre is the former Cross Keys pub.

• Hinksey
• Hinksey Stream
• New Hinksey
• North Hinksey

References

1. "Area selected: Vale of White Horse (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
2. "The Lost Pubs Project". Retrieved 24 January 2024.
3. Hughes, Pete (8 November 2018). "Oxford pub set to be converted into house after long battle". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 24 January 2024.

Sources

• Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 408–410.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 222.

External links

• Berkshire History website information