page_title: East Hagbourne
section_title: Economic and social history
hierarchical_section_title: East Hagbourne / Economic and social history
caption_attribution_description: Picture of Coscote Manor extracted from Quiet roads and sleepy villages (1913) by Fea, Allan, 1860- captured in the Internet Archive Book Images project
context_page_description: East Hagbourne is a village and civil parish about 1 mile south of Didcot and 11 miles south of Oxford. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,882.
context_section_description: In the English Civil War in 1644, the Parliamentarian army billetted 6,000 horsemen in East Hagbourne. During this time it is believed the parish church and Upper Cross were damaged. A tiny window, only three inches square, in a house on Main Road, is said to have been used to spy on the Parliamentarian troops.
  On 10 March 1659 fire spread through the village, burning down a considerable number of thatched houses. In 1661 Charles II issued a proclamation requesting aid for the village. A sum was received from Londoners and, in return, East Hagbourne sent money to London after the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Hagbourne fire could explain the number of well-preserved houses from after this era. The village has numerous old timber-framed houses, both around the village cross and along the main street. Coscote Manor, about ¹⁄₂ mile (800 m) west of the village, is a timber-framed 17th-century house with fretwork bargeboards and an Ipswich window.
  Hagbourne Church of England Primary School is in East Hagbourne and was built in 1874.
  For centuries Hagbourne parish extended north as far as the main road linking Wallingford and Wantage. After the Great Western main line reached Didcot Junction in 1844, a new settlement was built in Hagbourne parish next to the boundary with Didcot. This was initially called Newtown or North Hagbourne, but later its name became Northbourne.
  In the 20th century both Didcot and Northbourne continued to grow. Eventually Northbourne was transferred from Hagbourne to Didcot civil parish, and St Peter's church was given its own ecclesiastical parish.
  The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway was built through the parish, passing west of the village and east of Coscote on the still extant Hagbourne Embankment – one of the line's most notable civil engineering features, built upon chalk dug from the route of the line through the Berkshire Downs. The line opened in 1881. There was no station in the parish; the nearest were at Upton and Didcot.
  In 1911 the Great Western Railway renamed Upton station Upton and Blewbury. In 1942–43 the track was doubled to carry increased war traffic, and the bridges over the West Hagbourne Road and Lake Road were rebuilt. British Railways closed the line to passenger traffic in 1962 and freight in 1967.
  Since December 2006 a South Didcot bypass road has been proposed. This would have required the demolition of part of East Hagbourne, particularly houses in the New Road area. The proposal is in abeyance.
  In 2014 the parish boundary with Didcot was moved and the land locally called Fleet Meadow was made part of the Millbrook ward of Didcot.
  In 2015 Grainger plc proposed a high-density housing estate of 170 homes on land south of this new boundary. East Hagbourne Parish Council and many Didcot and East Hagbourne residents oppose the development, as does local MP Ed Vaizey. The Mind the Green Gap Campaign formed in July 2015 to campaign against this and other proposals that are contrary to South Oxfordshire District Council's Core Strategy.
caption: Coscote Manor as pictured in Allan Fae's 1913 travel journal Quiet roads and sleepy villages[18]
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