About the village
Drayton St Leonard is a small village in south Oxfordshire (UK) adjacent to the River Thame. Currently it consists of nearly 100 houses, and has a population of about 290.
The village can be traced back several hundred years in its present form. Indeed it can actually be traced back to medieval settlements.
Of the present 100 houses about half have been built this century with the rest being older. There are several interesting old thatched cottages which nestle next to more modern ones.
The village church, St Catherine and St Leonard, is an interesting building built mainly of stone, though now pebbledashed with most of it being several hundred years old. (Click here for more information). The church tower is even more interesting. This is a timber structure thought to be older than the main part of the church. There are 6 bells in the tower and these are regularly rung for services and on Wednesday evenings which is practice night.
The village pub is the Catherine Wheel. This is now a free house though for many years it was owned by Morrells of Oxford. The present building dates from the 1930’s. It replaced the old thatched Catherine Wheel that was destroyed by a fire. This is the only pub left in the village and almost faced closure in 1996 but was saved when the present owners bought it and turned it into a free house.
We have a village hall which was formerly the original two roomed school. This is used for many local functions.
There are two working farms in the village. There is also an agricultural machinery repair and sales workshop but otherwise there is no major source of employment.
The river Thame passes by the South east corner of the village. Only a few of the houses have direct river frontage, but it also passes by the land of both farms. The river as it passes Drayton St Leonard is near the end of its journey, as two miles downstream it joins with the River Thames at Dorchester.
It is interesting to note reference in old historic documents to deliveries to the village being made by river and landing stages shown on old maps so perhaps it once was navigable to some extent.
There is a ford across the river in Drayton St Leonard. Not normally used by cars but used regularly by farm vehicles and horses. For the past two Easter Mondays a procession of old tractors has used the ford on a parade through South Oxfordshire.
The river is prone to flooding in winter. One of the characteristics of this river is that it is often prone to very rapid changes in level, as some of the residents near the river know only too well as they have to move their cars to higher ground when the river is in flood. The river also flows very fast when in flood.
The Environment agency have mapped all rivers prone to flooding and a map is available on their web site. To see the flood prediction map for the river Thame where it passes through Drayton St Leonard, follow this link to the Environment Agency web site. You will see that only the south east corner of the village is thought to have any risk of flooding. However, in spite of what this map may suggest, it is rare for any of the houses in the village to flood. A couple of the older cottages next to the river regularly have their gardens flooded, sometimes coming very close to the houses, but normally not flooding the houses themselves. This shows that all those years ago when they were built, they knew the lie of the land, and built on the higher points only. Modern planners could learn something from this.
However January 2003 saw the worst floods the village has seen for at least 18 years. The flood level rose right up to the village war memorial, and the appropriately named Water Lane (the loop road round the southern half of the village) was impassable by car. However even with this extreme flood, only 4 houses were actually flooded inside, and the village was never cut off though at one point the Dorchester road was flooded, but passable with care.
The road into the village from Stadhampton to the north crosses the river over Haywards Bridge. Again the Environment agency's map suggests this is liable to flooding. This indeed is the case. The road immediately south of the bridge floods at some time most winters so we all have to use the other road via Berinsfield to the west. It is expected that this road will flood regularly and that section has a raised boardwalk footpath, so that at least pedestrians can cross without getting wet feet.
This is a rewrite of the DSL website and as such, some information may not be online yet. The old website is still visible on http://www.dsl.iofm.net
