EAST HANNEY
The
Roman road from Wantage to Oxford passes through
the edge of East Hanney, although most of the village
lies just off the road to the west. East Hanney is a pleasant
enough village with its share of attractive houses, but
otherwise it is fairly ordinary. Its church is now a private
dwelling house.
East and West Hanney are
often referred to as ´The Hanneys´, and the two villages
are extremely close with just one field separating them.
The Hanneys were built in pre Norman times on a gravel
bed in the Vale of the White Horse. Letcombe brook runs through the villages. The brook used
to power water mills, the last of which closed around
1920. One of The Hanneys claims to fame is to have been
the home of the oldest ever recorded English woman, Elizabeth
Bowles, who died in 1718 aged 124.
East Hanney is threatened with the construction of a new
reservoir. The
area between Steventon, Hanney, Marcham and Drayton is Thames Water's preferred site for a huge reservoir
which will provide water for London, Swindon and Oxfordshire.
East Hanney is about three miles north of Wantage on the A338.