Avington, Berkshire

Avington

Parish church of SS Mark and Luke
Avington
Avington shown within Berkshire
OS grid reference SU3768
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Hungerford
Postcode district RG17 0
Dialling code 01488
Police Thames Valley
Fire Royal Berkshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK Parliament

Avington is a hamlet and former civil parish on the River Kennet in West Berkshire, England. It is now part of the parish of Kintbury.

The village is just under 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of Kintbury village and 2 miles (3 km) east of the town of Hungerford. The Kennet and Avon Canal follows the river and passes the village.

Toponym

The toponym is derived from Old English and means "the enclosure (tūn) of Afa's people". The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Avintone and a pipe roll from 1167 records it as Avintona.[1]

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of SS Mark and Luke is an 11th-century Norman building. It consists of only a nave, chancel and late 19th-century north transept. The font is a notable piece of Romanesque sculpture and may be Saxon.[2] The south doorway is a Norman arch. The chancel has Norman vaulting and a Norman arch, both with "beakhead" ornament.[3]

A few early Gothic additions to the church were made in the 13th century, including two doorways and a "low-side" window.[3] The church is a Grade I listed building.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Ekwall 1960, Avington
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Church of St Mark and St Luke  (Grade I) (1319539)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 Pevsner 1966, p. 75.

Bibliography

  • Ditchfield, PH; Page, William, eds. (1924). "Avington". A History of the County of Berkshire. Victoria County History. IV. assisted by John Hautenville Cope. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 21–24.
  • Ekwall, Eilert (1960) [1936]. Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Avington. ISBN 0198691033.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 75.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.