DRAYTON ST. LEONARD

This is an attractive small village of about 100 houses on a minor road which winds through the village. The fields around Drayton St. Leonard are very flat and it is known that this area used to be a marsh. By day Drayton St. Leonard is a sleepy, quiet village but nowhere is quiet all the time so is Drayton St.Leonard a rat-run at certain times of the day?

The name 'Drayton' meant 'a farmstead near a slope for dragging down loads' or 'where drays or sledges were used'. There is a ford on the track from the village leading to Newington on the opposite side of the river, so could this be a reference to a slope down to the this ford? St. Leonard is one of the saints after whom the parish church is dedicated.

The parish Church of St Leonard & St Catherine has been used for worship for over 800 years. Much of the Nave of the church is Norman although the Chancel was added later. Its most striking feature is the free-standing clapboard tower built of massive oak and chestnut beams standing within the main building and rising through the roof to a height of 43 feet. For the history and full information about the Church of St Leonard & St Catherine click here.

Drayton St. Leonard lies beside the River Thame, about two miles north west of where it joins the Thames at Dorchester. The village is on a minor road about a mile and a half south of Stadhampton.