Hinton Waldrist

The small village of Hinton Waldrist (whch was at one time a market town) lies about six miles east of Faringdon on a quiet lane that runs parallel with the busy A420 Oxford to Swindon road. About a mile and a half north of the village is the River Thames.

The village has its origins in Saxon times but the suffix Waldrist is a corruption of the Latin name Walericus, the name of the family that held one of the two local estates, the St. Valory family. In Roman times there was a fort here which defended the ford at Duxford.

The St. Valorys were cousins of William the Conqueror and they built a motte and bailey castle on the site of what is now Hinton Manor. The wooden castle was rebuilt in stone in medieval times when it came into the hands of the Bohun Earls of Hereford. Little now remains of this building, but the moat is still visible in the grounds of the manor. The moat is more than half full.

In Norman times when Hinton Waldrist was the centre of a vast estate known as the Honour of St. Valory the church must have been an important one. The present church, St. Margaret's, still stands just outside the old moat. The first building mostly dates from the late 13th century, the tower perhaps being slightly earlier (c.1240). The building was heavily restored in Victorian times.