Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs section of the North Wessex Downs about south of Didcot, south of Oxford and west of London. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,581. A number of springs rise at the foot of the escarpment of the downs. Some springs feed a small lake called the Watercress Beds, where watercress used to be grown. From here and elsewhere tributaries feed the Mill Brook which carries the water to the river Thames at Wallingford. The A417 road runs along below the escarpment above the springs and through the south of the village. The Blewbury citizens are often called Blewbarians. Prehistory The southern part of the parish is chalk downland and includes a number of prehistoric sites. The Ridgeway is an ancient trackway that passes just south of the parish. Half of the high Blewburton Hill is in the parish. It is topped by an Iron Age hill fort that may have been occupied from the 4th century BC to the 1st century BC. The parish's highest point is the Churn Hill, southwest of the village. On its northwestern side are two round barrows, the larger of which is Churn Knob. There are other round barrows further south, towards the boundaries with Compton and East Ilsley parishes. During the Roman occupation, a shrine or temple was built near the Ridgeway on Lowbury Hill. A 7th century Anglo-Saxon burial mound, containing a sword and hanging bowl (which were relocated to The Oxfordshire Museum), can be found near to the Roman shrine or temple. Manors The parish was historically divided into three manors. The Great Manor was held by the Crown until the 17th century. The Prebendal Manor was held by the Church. Nottingham Fee was bought by a long-established local family, the Humfreys, in about 1652. They retained some of it including the manor house Hall Barn until recent times. Parish church The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Michael the Archangel are the early Norman 11th-century nave and sanctuary. At least two Norman windows survive. St Michael's was transformed in the late Norman period in about 1190, when the transepts and present chancel were built to make it a cruciform church. At the crossing a central tower