Brightwell-cum-Sotwell is a twin-village and civil parish in the Upper Thames Valley in South Oxfordshire. It lies between Didcot to the west and the historic market town of Wallingford to the east. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire. History Brightwell and Sotwell were originally two separate villages, rural settlements whose inhabitants worked the land. Prehistory For thousands of years hunter-gatherers of the Thames Valley would have passed this way, stalking wild animals and gathering from the trees that grew on the greens and in this area. This good soil and the abundant water supply may have encouraged Iron Age farmers (1500 BC - AD 50) to settle in this area. The ramparts on Wittenham Clumps provide enduring evidence of Iron Age settlement in the area. Then came the Romans, and there seems little doubt that the road from Dorchester to Silchester passed along what is now the Mere and Mackney Lane. Medieval times The first written evidence of a village here comes from the various Saxon charters describing ownership of land in Beorhtanville, Suttanwille and Maccanie. In a charter of 854 Æthelwulf, King of Wessex granted Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, an estate of 30 hides at Brihtanwylle to help the bishop pay the expenses of entertaining distinguished foreign guests. Subsequently, William the Conqueror's agents recorded in the Domesday Book 70 families and two mills in Brightwell and Sotwell, but where these stood and how they were powered is unknown. Within 50 years of Domesday, Brightwell Castle was involved in the civil war between King Stephen and his cousin Matilda. The exact site of this castle is unknown, but it probably lay within the moated areas of what later contained St Agatha's/Brightwell manor house in Brightwell or Stonor Hayes manor house in Sotwell. Early modern times For the next 800 years Brightwell and Sotwell parishes only occasionally appear in recorded history. For example: 1330 (circa) Thomas de Brayles, later Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, appointed parish priest. 1500 (circa) Prince Arthur (eldest son of Henry VII) stayed at Sotwell House. 1507 Clerk in Holy Orders murdered in St Agatha's. 1649 Edward Hyde DD ejected from his living for being a Royalist. 1666 Church collection for victims of the Great Fire of London. 1726 Mrs Frances Riggins leaves a legacy "for bread and ye schooling