Cuddesdon

Village in South Oxfordshire, England

Cuddesdon is a mainly rural village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cuddesdon and Denton, in the South Oxfordshire district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. centred 5.5 mile (9 km) ESE of Oxford. It has the largest Church of England clergy training centre, Ripon College Cuddesdon. Residents number approximately 430 in Cuddesdon's nucleated village centre and about 70 in the hamlets of Denton and Chippinghurst (2001 census).

Cuddesdon's toponym is derived from the Old English Cuddes Dune meaning "Cudde's Hill" or the "Hill of Cuthwine". When Oxfordshire was administered in the hundreds, Cuddesdon parish was in the hundred of Bullingdon. Cuddesdon was an Anglo Saxon linear village along in what is now the High Street, but since the 19th century Church of England additions on the northern edge of the village and 20th century residential developments (principally Bishop's Wood and Parkside), it has become a nuclear settlement centred on The Green. Since the 1950s many facilities and businesses in Cuddesdon, have closed, and most have been converted into housing. These include the petrol station, the shop, the school, the mill, the second public house and various farm buildings. Thus, the village has turned into a dormitory village. In 1961 the parish had a population of 342. On 1 April 1962 the parish was abolished and merged with Denton to form "Cuddesdon and Denton".

The parish is bounded by the River Thame to the east and southeast, its tributary Cuddesdon Brook to the north, by the road between Wheatley and Garsington to the west and by field boundaries to the southwest. The village is on a hill that overlooks south Oxfordshire, northern Berkshire, the Aylesbury Vale in central Buckinghamshire and a small part of west Bedfordshire. There are views of both the Chiltern Hills and the North Wessex Downs AONB stretching from Ivinghoe Beacon in the east to Didcot Power Station in the west.

A free monthly parish newsletter is combined with social venues and events in the village, such as the annual Guy Fawkes Night fireworks, a summer fête and various groups that meet regularly such as the film club. Most social activities are organised or coordinated by the Parish Council or its subsidiaries. The Church of England parish church of All Saints, the Bat and Ball inn, the Village Hall, Ripon College Cuddesdon and the farms are economically active.

In November 2007 a public consultation was held on the proposed Parish Plan, a strategic document aiming to chart the hopes of the village for twenty years to come. Formal encouragement exists in civil parish and district planning policy to reopen a village shop, as yet unforthcoming.

Abingdon Abbey founded the Church of England parish church of All Saints in Cuddesdon in about 1180. All Saints' parish belongs to the Aston and Cuddesdon Deanery of the Diocese of Oxford.

Cuddesdon Palace was completed by 1634 for John Bancroft, who was Bishop of Oxford from 1632 until 1641. In 1644 during the English Civil War Royalist forces burned the palace to render it unusable by the Parliamentarian forces besieging Oxford.

After his retirement in 1991, Robert Runcie, former archbishop of Canterbury, a former vicar of Cuddesdon and college principal, was granted a peerage as Baron Runcie of Cuddesdon to remain in the House of Lords.