Childrey is a village and civil parish about west of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The parish was part of the Wantage Rural District in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 582. Geography Childrey is a spring line settlement on the escarpment of the Berkshire Downs. The parish measures just over north – south but less than east – west at its widest point. Its highest point is a chalk hill on The Ridgeway about south of the village, which is at least high. In 1924 the parish covered an area of just over . Childrey village is on the B4001 road, which joins the A417 road about to the north. The B4507 road passes east – west through the parish just south of the village, and forms a crossroads with the B4001. Archaeology On the Berkshire Downs about south of the village are two Bronze Age bowl barrows. One is west of Hackpen Hill. It is in diameter and high. In the 19th century it was excavated and one cremation was found. The other barrow is just west of the B4001 road and about west of Hackpen Hill barrow. It is about in diameter and up to high. Each barrow is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The Thames Water company workers and experts from Cotswold Archeology discovered 26 skeletons belong to Iron Age from graves found in Childrey in 2019. The site called Childrey Warren dates back to the Iron Age of England and is about 3,000 years old. According to CNN, Cotswold archaeologists have found a woman skeleton with her feet cut off and her arms attached behind her back. Based on the remains, it is believed that these people may have been the victims of human sacrifice. “The discovery challenges our perceptions about the past, and invites us to try to understand the beliefs of people who lived and died more than 2,000 years ago,” Neil Holbrook, head executive of Cotswold Archaeology stated about Childrey graves. Toponyms The earliest known records of Childrey Brook are as Cillarīþ in Anglo-Saxon charters from 940 and 944, now reproduced in the Cartularium Saxonicum. The name is derived from the Old English Cillan-rīþ or Cilloan-rīþ, meaning "Cilla's stream". This became the toponym for the manor and village, which an Anglo-Saxon will from 950 records