Some local history

 

Benson is a picturesque Thames-side village, situated on the A4074 (mid-way between Reading and Oxford).  1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills at the confluence of a chalk stream (Ewelme Brook) and the River Thames, next to Benson Lock.  Benson has a great quintessential English village atmosphere, which attracted the producers of Midsomer Murders, to film in and around the Crown Inn in 2014.

 

Benson has had a settlement dating back to the Palaeolithic period - around 10,000 BC. With evidence of early Neolithic (3500 BC) and later Bronze Age or early Iron Age (11th–8th centuries BC) pits and post holes.

 

The village itself occupies the site of an ancient British town known to have been occupied during the Roman period. The toponym was originally Villam Regiam, "The King's Town". Later it was Bensington, from the Old English Bænesingtun meaning "farmstead of the people of [a man called] Benesa". The village is reputedly the site of the Battle of Bensington. The present name, Benson, can be found early in the 19th century but Bensington continued in use.
 
In the 18th and early 19th centuries Benson became an important staging post for coaches running between London and Oxford via Henley. Its broad, open square was surrounded by coaching inns and at its peak the village had four large inns, ten smaller alehouses and a blacksmith.
 
The Benson locks on the River Thames dates back to the late 1300s when a mill and a weir were recorded. The first timber lock was built in 1877, being replaced by a stone lock in 1870.
 
The village is home to RAF Benson a front line support helicopter base working within the Joint Helicopter Command, located in South Oxfordshire.  Committed to operations and supporting operations throughout the world since the Station opened in 1939, RAF Benson is currently home to the Puma Force and 28 Squadron, the Support Helicopter Operational Conversion Unit. 845 Naval Air Squadron, who operate the Merlin helicopter as part of the Commando Helicopter Force, also reside at RAF Benson.