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Lew, Oxfordshire

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Lew
File:Lew, Oxfordshire.JPG
Holy Trinity parish church
Population65 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid referenceSP3206
Civil parish
  • Curbridge and Lew
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWitney
Postcode districtOX18
Dialling code01993
PoliceThames Valley
FireOxfordshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire

Lew is a small village within the civil parish of Curbridge and Lew, located about 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of Witney in West Oxfordshire.

History

Evidence of early human habitation in the parish includes a tumulus, probably Anglo-Saxon, on a 350 feet (110 m) high hill west of the village.[2] The name of the village, recorded as Hlæwe in 984, means "tumulus" in Old English.[3]

Until the 19th century Lew was a township in the parish of Bampton.[4] It became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1857, known as Bampton Lew. The parish was united with Bampton in 1917,[5] and since 1976 has formed part of the benefice of Bampton with Clanfield.[6]

Lew was made a separate civil parish in 1866.[7]

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of the Holy Trinity was designed in a 13th-century style by the architect William Wilkinson and built in 1841.[8]

Natural history

The parish is a mix of arable land and pasture with small woodlands such as Lew Gorse. There are species of mammal in the area including roe deer, muntjac deer, badger, fox, hare and rabbit. Amongst bird species, the kestrel, common buzzard, barn owl, and tawny owl are the predominant predators. Other birds include greater spotted woodpecker, European green woodpecker, lapwing and goldfinch. Game birds include red-legged partridge, common pheasant and wood pigeon.

References

  1. ^ "Area selected: West Oxfordshire (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  2. ^ Blair, J. Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire pp.45-46, cited in Crossley & Currie 1996, pp. 90–93
  3. ^ Mills & Room 2003, p. not cited.
  4. ^ Crossley & Currie 1996, pp. 6–8
  5. ^ Crossley & Currie 1996, pp. 97–98
  6. ^ Archbishops' Council. "Bampton Lew Holy Trinity". A Church Near You. Church of England.
  7. ^ "unit history of LEW". A Vision of Britain Through Time. University of Portsmouth. 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  8. ^ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, pp. 682–683.

Sources