COMPTON BEAUCHAMP AND KNIGHTON

Compton Beauchamp is at the foot of the Berkshire Downs on the southern edge of the Vale of White Horse, about a mile west of White Horse Hill.

At the entrance to the village is the entrance to Compton House, an old moated manor house. Nearby is the small attractive chalk-stone Church of St Swithun. For the history and full information about St. Swithun's Church click here.

A quarter of a mile from the village of Compton Beauchamp is the tiny hamlet of Knighton.

A mile to the south of Compton Beauchamp, and a short walk along the Ridgeway from Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle, is Wayland's Smithy, one of the finest chambered long barrows in Britain. Parts of the long barrow date from 3700BC. Its name was given some 4,000 years later by the Saxons who, imagining it was the work of one of their gods, Wayland the Smith, named it Wayland's Smithy. Later, a legend grew that Wayland would re-shoe any passing traveller's horse left along with a silver penny beside the tomb.

Compton Beauchamp is just off the B4507 Wantage to Ashbury Road, about a mile west of White Horse Hill.