Dunsden is located in the civil parish of Eye & Dunsden in South Oxfordshire, about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Reading, Berkshire. Until 1866 it was in the Oxfordshire part of Sonning parish.
Dunsden means “valley of a man named Dyn(n)e”. In 1086 the Domesday Book recorded it as Dunesdene, and a document of 1586 records it as Donsden Grene. The Church of England parish church of All Saints was designed by the architect John Turner and built in 1842. Nearby is the former vicarage. Wilfred Owen lived there from September 1911 to February 1913 when he served as a lay assistant to the parish priest, Rev. Herbert Wigan. Owen taught at the the village school which was built in 1848 and is now the village hall.