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Clifton Hampden in Oxfordshire

Friday, 9 January 2026 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Clifton Hampden is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over 3 miles (5 km) east of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Since 1932 the civil parish has included the village of Burcot, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Clifton Hampden. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 662.

The toponym was originally simply “Clifton”, meaning “tun on a cliff” in Old English. There is no documentation for the “Hampden” part of the name from before 1726. In the Anglo-Saxon era Clifton belonged to the Bishop of Dorchester. After the Norman conquest of England William the Conqueror transferred the see to Lincoln, with its properties including Clifton.

The Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels was a chapel of Dorchester parish until the 19th century. The oldest parts of the church include the arcade of the south aisle, which was built in about 1180. Elsewhere in the church are three 13th century Early English lancet windows. The south aisle ends in a Decorated Gothic chapel that was added in the 14th century. The Perpendicular Gothic arcade of the north aisle is later. In 1843–44 the church was rebuilt to the designs of George Gilbert Scott, who ornamented the chancel as a memorial to the benefactor who funded the restoration.

Clifton Hampden Manor was originally the parsonage, and was designed by Scott in about 1843-46 for Henry Hucks Gibbs, who in 1896 became Hucks Gibbs, 1st Baron Aldenham.

In 1941, the Fleet Air Arm opened Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Hornbill, between Culham railway station and Clifton Hampden village. Most of the airfield is in Clifton Hampden parish, but Hornbill was generally called RNAS Culham. The Admiralty closed the airfield in 1956 and transferred it to the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 1960. The former airfield is now the Culham Science Centre, an 800,000 square metre scientific research site that includes two nuclear fusion experiments: JET and MAST. The START Nuclear Fusion Experiment was also conducted on the site until MAST succeeded it in 1999.

Clifton Hampden has a village shop and sub-post office and a GPs’ practice, Clifton Hampden and Burcot have a Women’s Institute. Clifton Hampden Cricket Club play in the Oxfordshire Cherwell League. The village also has a longbow archery society. A pedigree herd of alpacas, the “Lost City Alpacas”, is kept at the village.

Read more on Wikivoyage Oxfordshire and Wikipedia Clifton Hampden (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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