Chain Hill
Chain Hill is one of the hills of the Berkshire Downs, located in the civil parish of Wantage in the English county of Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire. It is designated part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty by the Countryside Agency and forms part of the Vale of White Horse.
Chain Hill is the chalk downland hill directly above Wantage and also the name of the road rising from Wantage through the westerly part of the scarp to the Berkshire Downs. It rises steeply south of Wantage towards Wantage Field and back to the Ridgeway and east from Manor Road across to Lark Hill. Chain Hill is also known as the B4494 and is signposted to Newbury.
At the crest of the hill, there is a small community amid copses of beech, fir and chestnut and a reservoir which taps into the chalk water beds and supplies water to Wantage. Apart from this, most of Chain Hill is wide undulating crop plains made up of large fields descending from the ridgeway. At the bottom slopes of Chain Hill is a cemetery and then at the bottom of this, is Ormond Road and former St Mary's School.
Panorama
Along the length of Chain Hill there are elevated 360-degree panoramic views over Wantage, to the Cotswolds, Faringdon Folly, Badbury Hill and the Oxfordshire plains. To the south and west, Chain Hill is encircled by the Wessex hillforts of White Horse Hill, Ram's Hill and Segsbury Camp together with the natural Ridgeway features around the Hackpen Hill. To the east of the Chain Hill scarp there are sunrise views of over 40 miles to Ivinghoe Beacon over Flagstaff Hill, Goldbury Hill, Wittenham Clumps, Brightwell Barrow, the Sinodun Hills and the chalk crosses carved in the Chiltern Hills escarpment at Bledlow and Princes Risborough.The Chain Hill scarp appears on British Library map called Wantage and can be seen to be the closest panoramic viewpoint of both Wantage centre, the Thames Valley basin and the hill forts and beacons around.
History
The plains of Chain Hill were held by the King as part of the Royal Estate in Wantage as referred to by Asser in the opening paragraph of the Life of King Alfred and as also recorded in the Domesday Book. According to the Vale and Downland Museum, the current name most likely is a derivative of the French word, 'Chêne', meaning Oak named by a French speaking settler over the years. It may have been named in Norman times or possibly much earlier by the daughter of Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks; Princess Judith. If so, it would probably have been during a stay at Ælfred's birthplace in Wantage after Æthelwulf's pilgrimage to Rome and return via France with his new bride in 856. Over the years the name became 'Chayne Hill' and then finally the 'y' became an 'i' and the 'e' was dropped, and so the current name, Chain Hill, came into common use.In the mid-19th century, Chain Hill was bought by Edward Ormond; the solicitor and benefactor of Wantage Memorial Park. Prior to being named Ormond Road, the road at the foot of Chain Hill was known as Pidgeon Lane and prior to that, the Icknield Way, one of the oldest roads in Britain. On the T-junction of Chain Hill and what was the Icknield Way, there is a Norman arch leading through the wall to the historic site thought to be used for the meeting of the Witan circa 995. Latterly the site was used by the convent of the Community of St Mary the Virgin as St Mary's School, Wantage.