Asthall
Encyclopedia
Asthal or Asthall is a village and civil parish on the River Windrush
in Oxfordshire
, about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Witney
. It includes the hamlets
of Asthall Leigh, Field Assarts
, Stonelands, Worsham
and part of Fordwells.
Asthall village lies just south of the River Windrush
, which also forms the south-eastern part of its boundary. The remainder of the parish including all of its hamlets lie north of the river. A minor road through Fordwells forms most of the parish's northern boundary. Most of the remainder of the parish's boundary is formed by field boundaries.
that may date from the Bronze Age
.
The course of Akeman Street
Roman Road
that linked Watling Street
with Fosse Way
passes through the parish just south of the village and through the middle of Windrush Farm. The road crossed the Windrush about 0.5 miles (804.7 m) east of the village. Traces of a Roman
setlement have been found on both sides of the course of the road on low-lying land between Windrush Farm and the site of the Roman river crossing. It was occupied from the middle of the first century AD to the lattter part of the fourth century.
0.8 miles (1.3 km) south of the village, beside the main Witney - Burford
road (now part of the A40 trunk road
) is an early 7th century Saxon
barrow that contained the cremated remains of a man. Objects from the barrow are now in the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford
.
of Asthall was extended into Wychwood
Forest after 1154. The name of Field Assarts in the north-east of the parish refers to assarting
: the mediaeval process of clearing any uncultivated land to convert it to agriculture. The north-eastern parts of Asthall parish remained purlieu
s of the Wychwood until it was disafforested in 1857.
of Saint Nicholas
was enlarged in about 1160, when the north aisle and north transept
were added to an earlier church. The north transept arch and the arcade
between the nave
and north aisle are in the Transitional style between Norman architecture
and Early English Gothic. The chancel
was rebuilt in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style. The west window of the north aisle is in the early Decorated Gothic style of the late 13th century. There is another Decorated style window on the south side of he nave. In about 1350 the north transept was remodelled and its roof height increased above that of the nave. After this the remaining windows were added in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The bell tower
was built in the 15th century. The church was restored in 1885, and the chancel arch was probably rebuilt at this time.
The tower has a ring
of six bells. The Wokingham foundry cast the two largest, including the tenor bell, in about 1499. John Taylor & Co cast a bell for the ring in 1859, presumably at the foundry they then had in Oxford. Whitechapel Bell Foundry
cast three more in 2005. St Nicholas' has also a Sanctus bell, which was cast in 1640 by James Keene, who had foundries at Woodstock
and Bedford
.
of 110 gold angel
and half-angel coins were found during building work at Asthall. The coins were minted at dates from 1470 to 1526, most of them in the brief second reign of Henry VI (1470-71) or the reign of Richard III
(1483-85). The hoard is believed to have been buried in the latter half of the reign of Henry VIII
(1509-47).
In April 2010 a coroner found the hoard to be treasure as defined by the Treasure Act 1996
, and in August the Treasure Valuation Committee
valued the hoard at £280,000. The Ashmolean Museum acquired the hoard in December 2010 and will put the coins on display from March 2011.
is an H-shaped house built in about 1620 for Sir William Jones. In 1810 the 1st Baron Redesdale
(of the first creation) bought the house, which then remained in his family until 1926. In 1916 the architect Charles Bateman altered and enlarged the house for the 2nd Baron Redesdale
(of the second creation). Lord Redesdale's daughters were the six Mitford sisters, of whom Deborah
, the youngest, was born at Asthall Manor in 1920. In 1926 the Mitford family left Asthall and moved to a new country house
that Lord Redesdale had had built at Swinbrook
.
River Windrush
The River Windrush is a river in the English Cotswolds, forming part of the River Thames catchment.The Windrush starts in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire northeast of Taddington, which is north of Guiting Power, Temple Guiting, Ford and Cutsdean...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Witney
Witney
Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....
. It includes the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
of Asthall Leigh, Field Assarts
Assarting
Assarting is the act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes. In English law, it was illegal to assart any part of a Royal forest...
, Stonelands, Worsham
Worsham, Oxfordshire
Worsham is a hamlet on the River Windrush about west of Witney. east of Worsham on the north side of the Windrush are the remains of a small Roman house. In later history Worsham was the site of a water mill. The area also has two Cotswold stone quarries, both now disused....
and part of Fordwells.
Asthall village lies just south of the River Windrush
River Windrush
The River Windrush is a river in the English Cotswolds, forming part of the River Thames catchment.The Windrush starts in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire northeast of Taddington, which is north of Guiting Power, Temple Guiting, Ford and Cutsdean...
, which also forms the south-eastern part of its boundary. The remainder of the parish including all of its hamlets lie north of the river. A minor road through Fordwells forms most of the parish's northern boundary. Most of the remainder of the parish's boundary is formed by field boundaries.
Archaeology
On Leigh Hale Plain there are two barrowsTumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
that may date from the Bronze Age
Bronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain refers to the period of British history that spanned from c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the era of Iron Age Britain...
.
The course of Akeman Street
Akeman Street
Akeman Street was a major Roman road in England that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way. Its junction with Watling Steet was just north of Verulamium and that with the Fosse Way was at Corinium Dobunnorum...
Roman Road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
that linked Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
with Fosse Way
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road in England that linked Exeter in South West England to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath , Cirencester and Leicester .It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at Venonis south...
passes through the parish just south of the village and through the middle of Windrush Farm. The road crossed the Windrush about 0.5 miles (804.7 m) east of the village. Traces of a Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
setlement have been found on both sides of the course of the road on low-lying land between Windrush Farm and the site of the Roman river crossing. It was occupied from the middle of the first century AD to the lattter part of the fourth century.
0.8 miles (1.3 km) south of the village, beside the main Witney - Burford
Burford
Burford is a small town on the River Windrush in the Cotswold hills in west Oxfordshire, England, about west of Oxford, southeast of Cheltenham and only from the Gloucestershire boundary...
road (now part of the A40 trunk road
A40 road
The A40 is a major trunk road connecting London to Fishguard, Wales and officially called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road in all legal documents and Acts...
) is an early 7th century Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
barrow that contained the cremated remains of a man. Objects from the barrow are now in the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
Wychwood Forest
The parish is elongated north-eastwards. A record of 1300 states that the manorManorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Asthall was extended into Wychwood
Wychwood
The Wychwood, or Wychwood Forest, is an area now covering a small part of rural Oxfordshire. In past centuries the forest covered a much larger area, since cleared in favour of agriculture, villages and towns. However, the forest's area has fluctuated...
Forest after 1154. The name of Field Assarts in the north-east of the parish refers to assarting
Assarting
Assarting is the act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes. In English law, it was illegal to assart any part of a Royal forest...
: the mediaeval process of clearing any uncultivated land to convert it to agriculture. The north-eastern parts of Asthall parish remained purlieu
Purlieu
Purlieu is a term used of the outlying parts of a place or district. It was a term of the old Forest law, and meant, as defined by John Manwood, Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest Purlieu is a term used of the outlying parts of a place or district. It was a term of the old Forest law, and meant,...
s of the Wychwood until it was disafforested in 1857.
Parish church
The Church of England parish churchChurch of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...
was enlarged in about 1160, when the north aisle and north transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
were added to an earlier church. The north transept arch and the arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
between the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and north aisle are in the Transitional style between Norman architecture
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
and Early English Gothic. The chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
was rebuilt in the 13th century in the Early English Gothic style. The west window of the north aisle is in the early Decorated Gothic style of the late 13th century. There is another Decorated style window on the south side of he nave. In about 1350 the north transept was remodelled and its roof height increased above that of the nave. After this the remaining windows were added in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
was built in the 15th century. The church was restored in 1885, and the chancel arch was probably rebuilt at this time.
The tower has a ring
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
of six bells. The Wokingham foundry cast the two largest, including the tenor bell, in about 1499. John Taylor & Co cast a bell for the ring in 1859, presumably at the foundry they then had in Oxford. Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
cast three more in 2005. St Nicholas' has also a Sanctus bell, which was cast in 1640 by James Keene, who had foundries at Woodstock
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a small town northwest of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. It is the location of Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and is buried in the nearby village of Bladon....
and Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
.
Asthall hoard
In the summer of 2007 a hoardHoard
In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
of 110 gold angel
Angel (coin)
The Angel is a gold coin introduced into England by Edward IV in 1465 as a new issue of the Noble, thus is was first called the "angel-noble". It is based off the French coin known as the Angelot or Ange, which had been issued since 1340. It varied in value between that period and the time of...
and half-angel coins were found during building work at Asthall. The coins were minted at dates from 1470 to 1526, most of them in the brief second reign of Henry VI (1470-71) or the reign of Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
(1483-85). The hoard is believed to have been buried in the latter half of the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
(1509-47).
In April 2010 a coroner found the hoard to be treasure as defined by the Treasure Act 1996
Treasure Act 1996
The Treasure Act of 1996 is an Act of Parliament designed to deal with finds of treasure in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; it does not apply in Scotland. It legally obliges finders of objects which constitute a legally defined term of treasure to report their find to their local coroner...
, and in August the Treasure Valuation Committee
Treasure Valuation Committee
The Treasure Valuation Committee is an independent body based in London, which offers expert advice to the government on items of declared treasure finds in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that museums may wish to acquire from the Crown...
valued the hoard at £280,000. The Ashmolean Museum acquired the hoard in December 2010 and will put the coins on display from March 2011.
Asthall Manor
Asthall ManorAsthall Manor
Asthall Manor is a gabled Jacobean Cotswold manor house in Asthall, Oxfordshire. It was built in about 1620 and altered and enlarged in about 1916The house was the childhood home of the Mitford sisters.-History:...
is an H-shaped house built in about 1620 for Sir William Jones. In 1810 the 1st Baron Redesdale
John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale
John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale PC, KC, FRS , known as Sir John Mitford between 1793 and 1802, was a British lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1801 and 1802 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1802 and 1806.-Background:Born in London, Mitford was the...
(of the first creation) bought the house, which then remained in his family until 1926. In 1916 the architect Charles Bateman altered and enlarged the house for the 2nd Baron Redesdale
David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale
David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, , was an English landowner and was the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.-Ancestry:...
(of the second creation). Lord Redesdale's daughters were the six Mitford sisters, of whom Deborah
Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVO , née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted Mitford sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s...
, the youngest, was born at Asthall Manor in 1920. In 1926 the Mitford family left Asthall and moved to a new country house
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
that Lord Redesdale had had built at Swinbrook
Swinbrook
Swinbrook is a village on the River Windrush, east of Burford in Oxfordshire, England. The village is in the civil parish of Swinbrook and Widford.-History:...
.