Place names ending in “-ey” (“island”, commonly used of higher ground in a marshy area) are of early formation, probably names bestowed by the first English farmers who tackled the area.
[3] Hinksey Stream runs past the west of Oxford, a branch of the River Thames.
[8] The art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) used to walk between Abingdon, where he stayed at the Crown and Thistle, and Oxford.
[9] He found the path muddy and organized a party of undergraduates to improve the roadway in the Hinksey area.
[11] Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) mentions Hinksey in his poems Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy.