Cholsey
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Cholsey is a large village in Oxfordshire (previously Berkshire), England, two miles from Wallingford. It has a population of over 4,000. The village green is known as The Forty.
[edit] History
The prehistoric road, the Icknield Way, crosses the River Thames at Cholsey.
The village was originally founded on an island (Ceol's Isle) in marshy ground close to the Thames. There is evidence that the Wessex Royal family owned land in Cholsey in the 6th and 7th century.
A royal nunnery, Cholsey Abbey, was founded in the village in 986 by Queen Aelfrith, on land donated by her son, King Ethelred the Unready. The nunnery is thought to have been destroyed by invading Danes in 1006 when they camped in Cholsey after setting nearby Wallingford ablaze. However, Anglo-Saxon masonry still survives in the present village church of St. Mary. Most of this flint and stone building was erected in the 12th century. The novelist Agatha Christie's grave can be found in the churchyard.
In the 13th century, a tythe barn was built in the village. It was, at the time, the largest aisled building in the World, being 51 feet high, 54 feet wide and over 300 feet long. The barn was demolished in 1815.
[edit] Education
Cholsey Primary School, on Church Road, was built in 1971.
[edit] External links
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