The ancient earthwork of Grim's Ditch has its main section north of the village, a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1] In order to provide a level climb up to the first major hill of the long Chiltern Hills range to the east and northeast, this has embankments and cuttings, with thousands of tonnes of earth displaced perhaps in the Bronze Age in order to facilitate access by foot.
The place-name 'Mongewell' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon will circa 966–75, where it appears as Mundingwillæ. It appears as Mongewel in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Mungewell in the Book of Fees in 1242. The name means 'the spring or stream of Munda's people'.[2]
Mongewell Park was once home to Shute Barrington, Bishop of Llandaff (1769–1782). Replacing the original Georgian Mongewell House of Barrington, a large brick mansion in William and Mary style was built in 1890 for Alexander Frazer whose initials can be seen on the lodge gates (Pedgley and Pedgley, 1990). After Fraser died in 1916, the house became a hospital for wounded officers in World War I. In 1918, it was sold to the American millionaire Howard Gould.[citation needed]
^Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.329.
^L. F. Salzman, ed. (1939). "The Domesday survey: The text". A history of the County of Oxford: Volume 1. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
Braham, J.R.D. (1984) Night Fighter, Specially illustrated edition, New York : Bantam Books, p. 186–195, ISBN0-553-24127-3
Pedgley, B. and Pedgley, D. (1990) Crowmarsh – A history of Crowmarsh Gifford, Newnham Murren, Mongewell and North Stoke, Crowmarsh History Group, p. 50–54, ISBN0-9516305-0-4