Berrick Salome
Encyclopedia
Berrick Salome is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire
, England
, about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Wallingford. The parish includes the hamlets of Berrick Prior, Roke and Rokemarsh.
. Successive changes have been Berrick Sallome (1571), Berwick Sallome (1737, 1797) and finally, by the time of the 1863 Enclosure Act, Berrick Salome. Berrick Prior means the corn farm belonging to the Prior of Canterbury
.
. Except for a narrow strip of greensand
on the upper edge of the parish, the subsoil nearly all consists of bluish-white gault
, enclosing thin streaks of gravel. Close to the junction of gault and greensand are springs. The most important of these springs is that by Grove Barn that flows down Hollandtide Bottom. It ran past the village pond and the front of the Chequers Inn. Those households that did not have their own well depended upon this flow for their water.
. This supposition is likely because the church is dedicated to Saint Helen, who was the favourite saint of King Ethelbald of Mercia
who took the Benson
area from Wessex
early in the 8th century. St. Helen's parish church is well outside the village, near Hollandtide Bottom - evidently a route since before the Romans came. An archaeological dig northeast of the church on the other side of Hollandtide Bottom might possibly bring to light the remains of ancient buildings that were more than cottage
s.
The church is about 65 feet (19.8 m) long including the bell tower
, which has no access from the nave and rises only about three feet higher than the roof ridge. Part of the fabric has been claimed to be pre-Norman and so has the font, with its interlacing ornament
introduced into Anglo-Saxon
work from Northumbria
in early missionary times. It is unlikely that the little building ever had much stained glass
; all that exists is a single diamond-shaped pane, each side about 4 inches (10 cm) long, on which is depicted a golden-yellow butterfly
or moth
.
In 1615 the roof of the nave
was replaced by one of typical queen-post type with a complex timber truss. In 1676 accommodation was increased by erecting a simple wooden gallery at the west end of the nave, with a dormer window opening at each end of it in order to give it light. The tower is remarkable for being framed in timber. A photograph taken just before the restoration in 1890 shows it had then merely been faced with simple weather-boarding carried nearly to the top, whereas now horizontal apertures have been inserted to release the sound of the bells. The tiny wooden tower houses a peal
of six bells. Two were cast in 1621, three more were added in 1692 and the treble bell was added in 1836.
The architect A. Mardon Mowbray
restored the church in 1890. The architectural historians Jennifer Sherwood and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
condemned this as "a hideous application of all the applications of fashionable late C 19 architecture to a church."
On Christmas Eve, Church Lane is illuminated by candles all along the side. This is traditionally done by families living on the lane.
). The history that follows is largely about Berrick Salome itself.
the parish was returned as worth £5 a year, with £30 and £15 respectively for the neighbouring parishes of Bensingtone (Benson) and Neutone (Newington). Its population was 4 serfs, 10 villeins and 6 bordars who with their families would probably total more than 50.
The eastern boundary of the village follows the shallow valley of Hollandtide Bottom. Certain authors have identified this valley with the "Aculfes Dene" mentioned as a boundary in a land grant by Aethelred II in 996. The present boundary along the valley apparently follows that between two ancient pre-Norman manors. The northern of them fell into the hands of King Canute "through forfeiture of a certain thegn
". It was begged of the King by his wife, Emma, who passed it to the monks of Canterbury. This transaction swelled the neighbouring parish of Newington which was a peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury
. Berrick Prior thereafter acquired an administrative status quite different from that of Berrick Salome, for even in the present century directories referred to it as the "liberty of Berrick Prior" which reflected a sometime exemption from the jurisdiction of the Sheriff
of Oxfordshire.
in 1738, "there is no family of note".
Alcoholic refreshment
could be found in five locations. The Chequers in Berrick Prior, the Home Sweet Home in Roke and the Horse and Harrow in Rokemarsh were all public house
s, while the Plough and Harrow in Berrick Salome, now Plough Cottage, and The Welcome in Roke were off-licenses. Only the first two survive today. There were several shops and post office
s, and a petrol pump at Woodbine Cottage in Roke, now all closed. It also appears that there was once an infant school
at Roke, which had already closed by 1884, but within living memory infant classes were held in the Band Hut.
Until the Enclosure Act of 1863, most of Berrick Salome was farmed on the ancient open-strip system and field enclosures were few. Nevertheless, village life was apparently not affected badly by the disruption. The probable reason for this is that the proportion of common land abolished was so small, only one ninth of the parish. But the Berrick Salome Inclosure Award did establish two things that were of great importance to the local people. Firstly, 3 acres (12,140.6 m²), 2 rods and 25 poles were allotted "unto the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as a place for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants". To this day the annual cricket
match is held there, but it was of far more importance in the 19th Century and early 20th Century when every Saturday afternoon there would be a cricket match and Berrick Salome "never got beat".
The Enclosure Award also resulted in the allocation of another 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) and 10 perches of land to "the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as an allotment for the labouring poor of the said parish". All the Berrick plots were eagerly taken up in those days, for the cottager's bulwarks against privation were his pig, his garden and his allotment
. Over many centuries in Berrick there was virtually no alternative to working on the land.
. As farms became more mechanised, young men sought other employment. In the 1930s, many young men in Berrick got jobs at the Cowley car works where they earned three times as much as a farm labourer. They went to work on motor-bikes and purchased their petrol from the shop next to the Chequers which at that time met most of the needs of the villagers. After the Second World War, indoor plumbing was first introduced.
Although surrounded by land from peripheral farms, there is now only one working farm left in Berrick - Manor Farm - and that is simply run by the farmer himself and his wife. Today the cottages of Berrick Salome are more likely to be owned and inhabited by bankers or businessmen.
Instead of dying out, Berrick Salome's population increased over the 20th Century. In 1900, the population was 104. In 1991, the figure was 162. The number of households between 1971 and 1981, the number of households increased from 35 to 53. There is a likely correlation between the increase and the building of the M40 motorway
in 1974, because roads had been historically terrible—someone had actually been killed in 1894 because her tricycle had hit parts of the unsatisfactory road. But in 1974, London was roughly an hour's journey away because of the highway.
By the 1980s, the inhabitants of Berrick Salome could consider working from home using information technology including telephone
s, fax machines
and modem
s.
Many village events and activities have become popular recently, particularly those centred around the Berrick Church Restoration fund. These include a Fête
in June held in the garden of the Malthouse, and the Village Show (which alternates with the Fête) held on the recreation ground in September and jovially rounded off with a barbecue and dance in the evening. The Village Hall, erected in 1979 on the edge of the recreation ground, is always the venue for the cricket tea after the annual match between Berrick Salome and Berrick Prior in September. There is also the night of the Progressive Dinner, an opportunity for entertainment and fund-raising. It was introduced into the village by Mr. Norman Willifer of Crickhollow and is generally enjoyed.
South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire is a local government district in Oxfordshire, England. Its council is based in Crowmarsh Gifford, just outside Wallingford....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Wallingford. The parish includes the hamlets of Berrick Prior, Roke and Rokemarsh.
Toponym
Berewic means "corn farm". "Salome" is a corruption of a family name. In the 13th century, Aymar de Sulham held the manor; Sulham itself is near ReadingReading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
. Successive changes have been Berrick Sallome (1571), Berwick Sallome (1737, 1797) and finally, by the time of the 1863 Enclosure Act, Berrick Salome. Berrick Prior means the corn farm belonging to the Prior of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
.
Location
There can be no doubt that the location of Berrick Salome was determined in the earliest times by the accessibility of waterWater
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
. Except for a narrow strip of greensand
Greensand
Greensand or Green sand is either a sand or sandstone, which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment, that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called glauconies and consist of a mixture of mixed-layer clay...
on the upper edge of the parish, the subsoil nearly all consists of bluish-white gault
Gault Clay
Gault is a clay formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period...
, enclosing thin streaks of gravel. Close to the junction of gault and greensand are springs. The most important of these springs is that by Grove Barn that flows down Hollandtide Bottom. It ran past the village pond and the front of the Chequers Inn. Those households that did not have their own well depended upon this flow for their water.
Parish church
A church was established at Berrick long before the Norman conquest of EnglandNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. This supposition is likely because the church is dedicated to Saint Helen, who was the favourite saint of King Ethelbald of Mercia
Ethelbald of Mercia
Æthelbald was the King of Mercia, in what is now the English Midlands, from 716 until 757. During his long reign, Mercia became the dominant kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, and recovered the position of pre-eminence it had enjoyed during the seventh century under the strong Mercian kings Penda and...
who took the Benson
Benson, Oxfordshire
Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It is about north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills at the confluence of a chalk stream and the River Thames, next to Benson Lock...
area from Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
early in the 8th century. St. Helen's parish church is well outside the village, near Hollandtide Bottom - evidently a route since before the Romans came. An archaeological dig northeast of the church on the other side of Hollandtide Bottom might possibly bring to light the remains of ancient buildings that were more than cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s.
The church is about 65 feet (19.8 m) long including 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...
, which has no access from the nave and rises only about three feet higher than the roof ridge. Part of the fabric has been claimed to be pre-Norman and so has the font, with its interlacing ornament
Interlace (visual arts)
In the visual arts, interlace is a decorative element found in medieval art. In interlace, bands or portions of other motifs are looped, braided, and knotted in complex geometric patterns, often to fill a space. Islamic interlace patterns and Celtic knotwork share similar patterns, suggesting a...
introduced into Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England, and parts of Wales, from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing...
work from Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
in early missionary times. It is unlikely that the little building ever had much stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
; all that exists is a single diamond-shaped pane, each side about 4 inches (10 cm) long, on which is depicted a golden-yellow butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
or moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
.
In 1615 the roof of 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...
was replaced by one of typical queen-post type with a complex timber truss. In 1676 accommodation was increased by erecting a simple wooden gallery at the west end of the nave, with a dormer window opening at each end of it in order to give it light. The tower is remarkable for being framed in timber. A photograph taken just before the restoration in 1890 shows it had then merely been faced with simple weather-boarding carried nearly to the top, whereas now horizontal apertures have been inserted to release the sound of the bells. The tiny wooden tower houses a peal
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. Two were cast in 1621, three more were added in 1692 and the treble bell was added in 1836.
The architect A. Mardon Mowbray
Alfred Mardon Mowbray
-Career:Mowbray was articled to Charles Buckeridge 1865–70 and assistant to architects including Joseph Clarke and J.W. Hugall 1870–72. He practiced in Oxford 1872–77, then in Eastbourne until after 1880. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1881 but lapsed in 1896....
restored the church in 1890. The architectural historians Jennifer Sherwood and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
condemned this as "a hideous application of all the applications of fashionable late C 19 architecture to a church."
On Christmas Eve, Church Lane is illuminated by candles all along the side. This is traditionally done by families living on the lane.
Introduction
Berrick Salome's boundary was extended in 1993 to include the whole of Roke and Rokemarsh (previously largely in Benson parish) and Berrick Prior (previously part of the parish of NewingtonNewington, Oxfordshire
Newington is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford.The Church of England parish church of Saint Giles was built in the 12th century, its transepts were added about 1200 and the west tower and spire were added early in the 14th century.Gilbert Sheldon held the...
). The history that follows is largely about Berrick Salome itself.
Medieval period
In the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
the parish was returned as worth £5 a year, with £30 and £15 respectively for the neighbouring parishes of Bensingtone (Benson) and Neutone (Newington). Its population was 4 serfs, 10 villeins and 6 bordars who with their families would probably total more than 50.
The eastern boundary of the village follows the shallow valley of Hollandtide Bottom. Certain authors have identified this valley with the "Aculfes Dene" mentioned as a boundary in a land grant by Aethelred II in 996. The present boundary along the valley apparently follows that between two ancient pre-Norman manors. The northern of them fell into the hands of King Canute "through forfeiture of a certain thegn
Thegn
The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
". It was begged of the King by his wife, Emma, who passed it to the monks of Canterbury. This transaction swelled the neighbouring parish of Newington which was a peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. Berrick Prior thereafter acquired an administrative status quite different from that of Berrick Salome, for even in the present century directories referred to it as the "liberty of Berrick Prior" which reflected a sometime exemption from the jurisdiction of the Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of Oxfordshire.
18th and 19th centuries
Berrick occupies no strategic position and there is no indication that it ever housed a person or building of great importance aside from the ancient church. The rector reported to his bishopBishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
in 1738, "there is no family of note".
Alcoholic refreshment
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
could be found in five locations. The Chequers in Berrick Prior, the Home Sweet Home in Roke and the Horse and Harrow in Rokemarsh were all public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s, while the Plough and Harrow in Berrick Salome, now Plough Cottage, and The Welcome in Roke were off-licenses. Only the first two survive today. There were several shops and post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
s, and a petrol pump at Woodbine Cottage in Roke, now all closed. It also appears that there was once an infant school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
at Roke, which had already closed by 1884, but within living memory infant classes were held in the Band Hut.
Until the Enclosure Act of 1863, most of Berrick Salome was farmed on the ancient open-strip system and field enclosures were few. Nevertheless, village life was apparently not affected badly by the disruption. The probable reason for this is that the proportion of common land abolished was so small, only one ninth of the parish. But the Berrick Salome Inclosure Award did establish two things that were of great importance to the local people. Firstly, 3 acres (12,140.6 m²), 2 rods and 25 poles were allotted "unto the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as a place for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants". To this day the annual cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
match is held there, but it was of far more importance in the 19th Century and early 20th Century when every Saturday afternoon there would be a cricket match and Berrick Salome "never got beat".
The Enclosure Award also resulted in the allocation of another 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) and 10 perches of land to "the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as an allotment for the labouring poor of the said parish". All the Berrick plots were eagerly taken up in those days, for the cottager's bulwarks against privation were his pig, his garden and his allotment
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
. Over many centuries in Berrick there was virtually no alternative to working on the land.
20th century
At Berrick around 1900 the wages for a full-time adult worker were about 12 shillings a week (60p), a figure that had not increased by much for a long time. However, the rapid spread of mechanisation, beginning with the appearance of the first tractors shortly before the First World War, brought about a steady decline in the number of farm labourers. The first combine harvester was imported from the United States in 1928. Two more came in 1930 and one of these was based in ShillingfordShillingford
Shillingford is a hamlet on the River Thames in Warborough civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It lies on the main road between Oxford and Reading, at the junction with the A329.-History:...
. As farms became more mechanised, young men sought other employment. In the 1930s, many young men in Berrick got jobs at the Cowley car works where they earned three times as much as a farm labourer. They went to work on motor-bikes and purchased their petrol from the shop next to the Chequers which at that time met most of the needs of the villagers. After the Second World War, indoor plumbing was first introduced.
Although surrounded by land from peripheral farms, there is now only one working farm left in Berrick - Manor Farm - and that is simply run by the farmer himself and his wife. Today the cottages of Berrick Salome are more likely to be owned and inhabited by bankers or businessmen.
Instead of dying out, Berrick Salome's population increased over the 20th Century. In 1900, the population was 104. In 1991, the figure was 162. The number of households between 1971 and 1981, the number of households increased from 35 to 53. There is a likely correlation between the increase and the building of the M40 motorway
M40 motorway
The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...
in 1974, because roads had been historically terrible—someone had actually been killed in 1894 because her tricycle had hit parts of the unsatisfactory road. But in 1974, London was roughly an hour's journey away because of the highway.
By the 1980s, the inhabitants of Berrick Salome could consider working from home using information technology including telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
s, fax machines
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
and modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
s.
Many village events and activities have become popular recently, particularly those centred around the Berrick Church Restoration fund. These include a Fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
in June held in the garden of the Malthouse, and the Village Show (which alternates with the Fête) held on the recreation ground in September and jovially rounded off with a barbecue and dance in the evening. The Village Hall, erected in 1979 on the edge of the recreation ground, is always the venue for the cricket tea after the annual match between Berrick Salome and Berrick Prior in September. There is also the night of the Progressive Dinner, an opportunity for entertainment and fund-raising. It was introduced into the village by Mr. Norman Willifer of Crickhollow and is generally enjoyed.