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46-740: One of the first driving clubs was the Bensington Driving Club, founded in February 1807 at Bensington, Oxfordshire , also known as the Benson Driving Club when Bensington became Benson, and commonly referred to as "the B.D.C.". It was disbanded in 1854. The BDC initially met in the White Hart public house. Later the club was relocated to Bedfont , becoming the Bedfont Driving Club with ease (since

92-581: A "whip" long before the founding of the Four-In-Hand Club, where he had driven a phaeton . In Athenaeum one correspondent reported that the verse had been popular in Onslow's younger days, in Surrey, at the start of the 19th century: What can little T. O. do? Drive a phaeton and two. Can little T. O,. do no more? Yes, — drive a phaeton and four. The (friendly) rival Four Horse Club

138-681: A Lancastrian leader in the Wars of the Roses . The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne , France (now Montmorency-Beaufort ). It is the only current dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles . The Dukes of Beaufort descend in the male line from the House of Plantagenet through John of Gaunt , son of Edward III . This statement was challenged after the analysis of

184-503: A blacksmith. The 1844 opening of the Oxford branch of the GWR rapidly reduced coach traffic: within ten years only three Oxford-London coaches a week were still running through. The Henley–Dorchester road ceased to be a turnpike in 1873. The decline in coaching, the enclosures and the agricultural depression explain a fall in population from 1253 in 1841 to 1157 by 1861. Failure to extend

230-522: A brown landaulet carriage, without ornaments; no restrictions upon horse colour; and brass mounted harnesses. The Richmond Driving Club was founded in 1838 by Lord Chesterfield . It only lasted until 1845. It used to meet at Lord Chesterfield's house, and drive, in procession, to dinner at the Castle Hotel in Richmond . It was satirized by Robert Smith Surtees : Following his track succeeds

276-536: A dozen shops, including a supermarket and a dispensing chemist. A garage on the main Oxford road outside the village has an on-site McDonald's with drive-through and a Marks and Spencer food outlet, but the Vauxhall main car dealership there has closed. The village play area reopened in 2021, dedicated to a local teenager, Faye Elizabeth Grundy. Aircraft noise in the area can be marked, which lowers property values compared with many surrounding villages. In 1993

322-700: A mile and a half (2.4 km) north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills , where a chalk stream, Ewelme Brook, joins the River Thames next to Benson Lock . Benson, on the north and east banks of the Thames, was unaffected by the 1974 boundary changes between Berkshire and Oxfordshire. It rests on river silts and gravel, just above surrounding marshy land named in the nearby settlements of Preston Crowmarsh , Crowmarsh Gifford , and Rokemarsh . The fertile land surrounding Benson meant that farming

368-468: A number of roadhouse-type cafes – the early 20th-century equivalents of coaching inns. Benson today is a commuter village, despite its lack of a railway station and distance from the motorways M4 and M40 . It has a Church of England primary school in Oxford Road. A separate infant school was built at the top of Westfield Road in 1972 "to relieve congestion at the Oxford Road school", but early in

414-447: A numerous band, Who vainly drive to work their fours-in-hand. For Richmond bound I view them passing by, Their hands unsteady, and their reins awry. Some scratch their panels, some their horses' knees — Beaufort and Payne, I class you not with these; For who so smartly skins along the plain as Beaufort's Duke? What whip can equal Payne? No matter — dinner comes, when all are able To drive their coaches well about

460-401: A shield divided into quarters, the top left and bottom right quarters are blue with three golden fleurs-de-lys (for France), and the top right and bottom left quarters are red with three golden lions passant with their faces toward the viewer, one above the other (for England); the foregoing quarters are within a border around the shield with segments alternating white and blue. In heraldry,

506-466: Is adjacent to the village, and the aerodrome's construction closed the former "London Road". The RAF buildings are on the opposite side of the airfield to Benson village, adjacent to the village of Ewelme . The church tower was rebuilt in 1794. It has a single clock-face on the east-facing side, with hours displayed in Roman numerals. The clock face erroneously has the nine o'clock marker marked as "XI", as

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552-402: Is partly ancient. John Marius Wilson described it: "variously late pointed Norman and decorated; has a modern tower; contains a Norman font and two [monumental] brasses; and is very good." The church parish includes the hamlets of Fifield and Crowmarsh-Battle or Preston-Crowmarsh. The village is often confused with RAF Benson , which is a well-known RAF station and airfield. The airfield boundary

598-581: Is the eleven o'clock marker correctly. This mistake gained fame in the Second World War when Germany's English-speaking propaganda broadcaster, William Joyce ( Lord Haw Haw ) promised an air raid on "an airfield near the village whose clock had two elevens". RAF Benson was bombed soon afterwards. The bell tower has a ring of eight bells. Six, including the tenor and treble, were cast in 1781 by Thomas Janaway of Chelsea . The current second and third bells were added by Whitechapel Bell Foundry :

644-404: Is uncertain. The name is thought to derive from a personal name Benesa , combined with the suffix - ing (here indicating Benesa's possession of the place), and the word tūn (meaning 'estate'). Thus it once meant "farmstead of Benesa". In the period 1140–1315 the name appears as Besinton (and similar forms), and Benston in 1526. The present form of the name, Benson , appears early in

690-597: The Battle of Chalgrove Field (18 June 1643) and Wallingford Castle. It was reputedly the last Royalist stronghold to surrender, being close to the Royalist cities of Oxford and Newbury . A building at Benson is still known as the Court House from the time King Charles I held court there on his way to Oxford. A flash lock was installed on the Thames at Benson in 1746. Benson weir collapsed in 1783, necessitating

736-486: The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway to Watlington , via a station at Benson on an embankment north of Littleworth Road and close to the junction with Oxford Road, left the village increasingly isolated, as passenger transport between London and Oxford largely followed a railway line that ran nowhere near the once-prominent coaching stop. The village recovered as motor coaches and private cars became more important, leading to

782-590: The River Thames at Benson was one of the primary filming locations for Episode 7 of Series 3 of the BBC sitcom Keeping up Appearances . Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort ( / ˈ b oʊ f ər t / BOH -fərt ) is a title in the Peerage of England . It was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester , a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester , legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset ,

828-598: The Y chromosomal DNA of the remains of Richard III . Most living male heirs of the 5th Duke of Beaufort were found to carry a relatively common Y chromosome type, which is different from the rare lineage found in Richard III's remains. The instance of false paternity could have occurred anywhere in the numerous generations separating Richard III from the 5th Duke of Beaufort. The break also could have occurred with Richard III's grandfather Richard of Conisburgh , whose paternity has been called into question although he

874-513: The Badminton Estate. The heir apparent is the present holder's son, Henry Robert FitzRoy Somerset, Marquess of Worcester (b. 20 January 1989). The heraldic blazon for the coat of arms of the dukedom is: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, azure three fleurs-de-lys or (for France ); 2nd and 3rd, gules three lions passant guardant in pale or (for England ) , all within a bordure compony argent and azure . This can be translated as:

920-578: The Conquest. Domesday rates that manor at £85 a year, although it comprised only 11.75 hides , while the Bishop of Lincoln 's 90 hides at Dorchester were valued at only £30. Benson itself was clearly the most valuable part of the manor. The map shows Benson parish as only about a tenth of the area of Benson manor, but Domesday values it alone at £30, compared with £5 for the neighbouring parish of Berrick. The Church of England parish church of St Helen

966-444: The Roman period, although Benson's written history dates back only to 571 CE Recent excavation for a housing site at the junction of St Helen's Avenue and Church Road revealed evidence of early Neolithic (3500 BCE) and later Bronze Age or early Iron Age (11th – 8th centuries BCE) pits and post holes, with a possible later Bronze Age roundhouse and three early or mid- Saxon (5th – 6th centuries CE) sunken-floored buildings. In 779

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1012-683: The South End Driving Park. The most famous of these clubs, the Metropolitan Driving Club, conducted races for several decades, until the rise in popularity of the motor car caused carriage driving to lose its appeal. A 2002 estimate by the USTA was that there were over 500 members of the various registered driving clubs in the United States. Most of these driving clubs are small, holding driving contests at

1058-432: The construction of Benson pound lock in 1788. The lock was rebuilt in 1870. The road between Henley-on-Thames and Dorchester on Thames became a turnpike in 1736 and in the 18th and early 19th centuries Benson was an important staging post for coaches between London and Oxford via Henley. Its broad open square was surrounded by coaching inns . At its peak the village had four large inns, ten smaller alehouses and

1104-414: The drivers. They required a drab coat that reached down to one's ankles, decorated with large mother-of-pearl buttons, and three tiers of pockets; a blue waistcoat with inch-wide yellow stripes; knee-length breeches with strings and rosettes, made of plush; and a hat that was at least 3.5 inch deep in the crown. The Club regularly drove as a group to Salt Hill , where they spent a convivial evening and

1150-501: The dukedom. The Earl of Glamorgan's eldest son is known as Viscount Grosmont . The Earldom of Glamorgan and Viscountcy of Grosmont derive from an irregular creation in 1644 by Charles I in favour of Edward Somerset, who later succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Worcester. Although the Earldom of Glamorgan and Viscountcy of Grosmont were not recognised as substantive titles at the restoration of Charles II, because of irregularities in

1196-494: The early 19th century. The place-name Benson is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which took its present form in the latter half of the ninth century, in the forms Bænesingtun and Benesingtun . Instances where the name is mentioned include the Battle of Bedcanford , which supposedly took place in 571 and led to Britons ceding Benson to someone called Cuthwulf, but the historicity of this event

1242-553: The estate was, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . taken from Wessex by Offa of Mercia following the Battle of Bensington . It was certainly a royal manor by the 880s. At the time of the 1086 Domesday Book , Benson was "the richest royal manor in Oxfordshire". The manor boundaries ran from the borders of Stadhampton in the north to include Henley in the south-east and were probably set long before

1288-654: The fifth duke. The family seat was once Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire , but as of 2017 was Badminton House near Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire . The principal burial place of the Dukes and Duchesses of Beaufort is St Michael and All Angels' Church , Badminton . Following the creation of the dukedom, each successive duke has served as Master of the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt , a foxhound pack kenneled on

1334-510: The home tracks before the regular horse races on the racing card. There are additional organizations dedicated to the sport of combined driving . Still others focus on the driving of draft horses and other non-racing breeds for primarily recreational purposes. Benson, Oxfordshire Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire , England. The 2011 Census gave the parish population as 4,754. It lies about

1380-626: The initials remained the same), and met in the Black Dog public house. As a consequence it was also known by the informal name the Black and White Club. Its first president was Charles Finch. Finch's successor as president was Thomas Onslow, 2nd Earl of Onslow , a.k.a. "Tommy" Onslow. The members of the club were illustrated in Holcroft's comedy The Road to Ruin in Goldfinch . Tommy Onslow

1426-556: The new millennium, the infant department returned to Oxford Road, allowing the Westfield Road site to be sold for a housing development known as Millar Close. There is also a pre-school. The village has a doctor's surgery and two public houses : an 18th-century coaching inn, The Crown Inn , and the Three Horseshoes . The pub number is down from five in 1990, those closed having become private homes. There are about

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1472-459: The night, before driving back to London. The FHC encountered difficulties in 1820, revived in 1822 with slightly different club rules, but only lasting until 1826. An 1820 joke went the rounds, of a person addressing a FHC member, saying "I hear that you men have broken up." To which, the reply was "No. We've broken down; the FHC had not enough in hand to keep on with." The modified rules called for

1518-572: The nineteenth century, but Bensington continued in use, at least in formal documents, into the second half of the century. The 1866 Working Agreement made by the Great Western Railway for its Wallingford–Watlington line used the older form. Evidence of human presence has been found dating back to the Mesolithic period – about 10,000 BCE. The village occupies the site of an ancient British town known also to have been occupied in

1564-520: The patent of creation, they have nevertheless continued to be used as convenient courtesy titles in order to distinguish the bearer from the Marquess of Worcester as heir apparent, the Earldom of Worcester not being distinctive enough for this purpose. All subsidiary titles are in the Peerage of England. Field Marshal The Lord Raglan , born Lord FitzRoy Somerset (1788–1855), was the youngest son of

1610-499: The poem, did take part in the processions, but was not actually a member of the RDC. Mr Angerstein , also named, was a particularly reckless driver, whose reputation led no-one to want to ride with him. An anecdote relates that on one occasion someone unwittingly climbed into Angerstein's carriage after dinner for the ride home. Angerstein, so excited that someone had actually chosen to ride with him, set off immediately, without waiting for

1656-506: The rest of the procession, and so suddenly that his passenger was thrown head-over-heels. The passenger, realizing whose carriage he had embarked upon, saying nothing jumped straight off. The Four-In-Hand Driving Club was founded in 1856. The earliest coaching club was the Four-in-hand Club (New York). Active in the 1860s, they drove to Jerome Park Racetrack each year to watch the horse racing. The Coaching Club (New York)

1702-469: The second was cast by Charles and George Mears in 1852 and the third by Mears and Stainbank in 1922. In October 2009 White's of Appleton replaced the original oak bell frame of 1794 with a modern steel frame. White's refurbished the bells and fitted new headstocks for the new steel frame. Benson is one of several key South Oxfordshire sites of the English Civil War , lying between the site of

1748-827: The sport in France, organizing the Reunion Road Club of Paris. In 1890, Philadelphia started their own Four-in-Hand Club. Enthusiasts in Boston, Massachusetts formed several driving clubs (also called "gentlemen's driving clubs"), and so-called trotting associations, in the second half of the 19th century. They would race in three locations: the Readville Race Course, the Riverside Riding Park in Allston (later to be named Beacon Park), and

1794-400: The table. Ricardo then can driving feats relate, And Batthyany swear he'd clear the gate; Till midnight closes o'er the festive scene, Then who so bold as ride with Angerstein? He who aloft can mark with unmoved nerve The wheelers jibbing while the leaders swerve, And sit, al careless, 'mid the wordy war To lose a pinch-pin, break a splinter-bar. The Duke of Beaufort , named in

1840-501: Was acknowledged by his father. The Beaufort Castle was in possession of John of Gaunt, and the surname Beaufort was given to Gaunt's four legitimised children by his mistress and third wife, Katherine Swynford . This was the foundation of the House of Beaufort , Dukes of Somerset . A descendant of the Beauforts through his mother was Henry VII of England . Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester , KG (c. 1460 – 15 March 1526),

1886-423: Was after a type of horse carriage called a barouche , which was driven by its members. The club rules dictated that a barouche should have silver mounted harnesses, rosettes at their heads, yellow bodies, "dickies", and bay horses. However, the final requirement was relaxed. Club members Sir Henry Peyton and Mr Annesley drove roan horses. The Four Horse Club rules also had strict dictates about clothing for

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1932-457: Was established in 1875. They organized annual long distance drives, the first in 1878 between New York and Philadelphia, 98 miles each way. Other drives were organized to cities around New York state, as well as to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The club's membership operated 46 drags, and the club itself owned the coach Pioneer which made daily runs between Holland House and Ardsley, New York for three years. Several members introduced

1978-761: Was founded the year after the BDC, in April 1808, but did not last as long. It was founded because the membership of the BDC was limited to 25 people. Charles Buxton, the inventor of the Buxton bit , along with some friends therefore founded the Four Horse Club. It was also informally known by various other names, as the Four-In-Hand Club (after four-in-hand ), the Whip Club, and the Barouche Club. The third name

2024-432: Was ridiculed in two epigrams, the first of which was: What can Tommy Onslow do? He can drive a coach and two! Can Tommy Onslow do no more? He can drive a coach and four. The second was a variation: Say, What can Tommy Onslow do? Can drive a curricle and two! Can Tommy Onslow do no more? Yes, — drive a curricle and four. In fact, these were variants of a rhyme that had followed Onslow from his days as

2070-410: Was the bastard son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset by his mistress Joan Hill. The Duke of Beaufort holds two subsidiary titles – Marquess of Worcester (created 1642) and Earl of Worcester (created 1514). The title of Marquess of Worcester is used as a courtesy title by the duke's eldest son and heir. The title of Earl of Glamorgan is used by the eldest son of the heir apparent to

2116-479: Was the main source of employment until the 20th century. The brook through the village is home to trout and to the invasive American signal crayfish . The village lies in a well-known frost-pocket, sometimes recording the lowest night-time temperatures in the UK. This climatic quirk may have led to the village playing a part in the development of modern meteorology, with a meteorological observatory being located there in

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