Cottisford
Encyclopedia
Cottisford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire
, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of Brackley
in neighbouring Northamptonshire
. The parish's northern and northwestern boundaries form part of the boundary between the two counties. The parish includes the hamlet
of Juniper Hill
about 1 miles (1.6 km) northwest of Cottisford.
The village stands beside Crowell Brook, which is a stream that passes the villages of Hethe
, Fringford
and Godington
before entering Buckinghamshire
where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of the Great Ouse
. Cottisford's toponym
refers to a former ford across Crowell Brook. In the 13th century the village was called "Wolfheysford" or "Urlfesford".
records that in 1086 Hugh de Grandmesnil
was feudal
overlord of Cottisford Manor
and his son-in-law Roger d'Ivry
was the lord of the manor. After d'Ivry's death his widow Adeline gave Cottisford to the Benedictine
Abbey of Bec
in Normandy
. Bec Abbey owned Ogbourne Priory
in Wiltshire
, which administered many of the abbey's English manors including Cottisford.
Ogbourne was an alien priory, i.e. it belonged to an abbey outside the English realm. In 1404 Henry IV
was planning a military campaign in France so he granted Ogbourne Priory and all its manors jointly to his son John of Lancaster
, the churchman Thomas Langley
and the Prior of Ogbourne: William de Saint Vaast
. The Prior died soon afterwards; in 1414 Henry V
suppressed the priory and by 1422 Thomas Langley had surrendered his share of the rights to the manors to John of Lancaster, whom Henry V had made Duke of Bedford
. In 1435 the Duke died and in 1438 Henry VI
granted Cottisford to his uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
. However, in 1440 Henry VI founded Eton College
and the following year he granted Cottisford to the new school. For several centuries the school leased out the manor to successive tenants who were lords of the manor
. In 1885 the school sold the manor house and Warren Farm, and in 1921-22 it sold the remainder of its Cottisford estate.
By the late part of the 14th century Ogbourne Priory was leasing out Cottisford Manor. Eton College continued the practice, commonly granting leases of 21 or 20 years. Richard Eyre, a son of the Reverend Richard Eyre
, Prebendary
of Salisbury Cathedral
1710-1745, obtained a lease on the manor in 1739 and renewed it in 1752. The younger Richard had spent 28 years working for the East India Company and became "a power in the village life" at Cottisford. In 1760, the year before Richard junior died, the school granted a lease to Thomas Bramston from Skreens
in Essex and Richard junior's nephew Sir James Eyre
. Bramston was a barrister
at the Middle Temple
in London; Sir James was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
. However Richard Eyre's widow Martha Eyre remained at the manor house until her death in 1772, and the following year the lease was sold by order of her executors. The buyer was the Reverend John Russell Greenhill
, Rector of Fringford
, who held the lease until his death in 1813. His son Robert Greenhill-Russell
, Member of Parliament for Thirsk
, inherited the lease but gave it up in 1825. A succession of tenants then owned the lease until 1885, when the school sold the freehold of the manor house and Warren Farm to its tenant, Edwards Rousby. His son F.R. Rousby inherited the estate but later sold it to Robert Brooke-Popham
.
Manor Farm is 14th century manor house
built of rubble masonry
. Surviving 14th century details include two windows and an octagonal chimneystack. Four more windows date from the 15th century. The house has a solar
and originally had a mediaeval hall, but in the 16th century an intermediate floor was inserted to create upstairs rooms. Also in the 16th century a south wing containing a parlour was added. The house was enlarged again in the 19th century. A 12th century window in the north gable of the house is not original to the house and must have been salvaged from a building elsewhere. On Crowell Brook just below Manor Farm is a set of fishponds, the earliest record of which is from 1325.
Cottisford House is a newer manor house built before 1707. It is of coursed
rubble with ashlar
quoin
s and has a hipped roof
with attic dormer
s. William Turner, who leased the house from 1825, had the house altered and enlarged in about 1830. In its grounds is a square dovecote.
owned one hide
of land at Cottisford until 1237, when it granted the estate to the Cistercian Biddlesden Abbey
in Buckinghamshire
. Some time after 1266 Biddlesden quitclaimed
the hide to the Abbey of Bec, which continued to let it separately from the main manor that it controlled through Ogbourne Priory.
In 1527 a member of the Fermor family of Somerton bought six yardlands
of land at Cottisford. The land was later sold but Thomas Fermor (died 1580), lord of the manor of Hardwick
retained grazing rights on the land after its sale. Anthony Cope
of Hanwell Castle owned the estate by 1606, in which year he also bought another 360 acres (145.7 ha) of land at Cottisford. At some point the Cope Baronets
sold their land at Cottisford, and by the early part of the 18th century the Fermors, now living at Tusmore Park, owned 23 yardlands at Cottisford including the former Cope estate. When Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
bought the Fermors' Tusmore estate in 1857 it included the land at Cottisford. His heir Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham
died in 1898, and between then and 1920 Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham
broke up and sold the estate at Cottisford.
by 1081, when Hugh de Grandmesnil gave it, along with its tithe
income and a hide
of land, to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche
. In 1167 St. Evroul Abbey transferred its property, tithes and land at Cottisford to Bec Abbey, which by then owned the manor of Cottisford.
The present Church of England parish church
of Saint Mary the Virgin
was built in the 13th century. It is a small building with only a nave
, chancel
and south porch. The porch is Early English Gothic and has a sundial
. The east window of the chancel dates from about 1300. The Gothic Revival architect
Charles Buckeridge
restored the building in 1861 and the present font
was added at the same time. There is no bell tower but there is a belfry in the apex of the roof. The church had two bells in the 16th century. These have not remained but the church now has two bells cast in 1710 and 1858 and a small 17th century sanctus bell. In the churchyard are the base and shaft of a mediaeval stone cross.
St. Mary's is now part of the Shelswell
group of parishes.
was built in about 1230, presumably on Crowell Brook. In 1292 the parish had both the watermill and a windmill
. Neither mill's fate is clear, but by the second half of the 18th century the estate seems to have been using a mill at Fringford instead.
An open field system
of farming prevailed in the parish until 1854. Attempts by successive lords of the manor to get Parliament to pass a bill to enclose Cottisford's common land
s were defeated in 1761, 1777 and 1809. Parliament finally passed an enclosure
act for the parish in 1848 but the enclosure award to redistribute the land was not settled until 1854.
The enclosure award included setting aside a plot of land for a village school. In 1856 the school and adjoining schoolmistress's cottage were built with funds provided by Eton College. The parish church ran it as a National School
until it closed in 1920. Oxfordshire County Council
reopened it as a county school in 1924 and reorganised it as a junior school in 1929. It was still open in 1954 but has since been closed.
The author Flora Thompson
(1876–1947) grew up in Juniper Hill and was a pupil at Cottisford School. She wrote the "Lark Rise to Candleford
" trilogy of novels, in which she modelled the village of "Fordlow" on Cottisford.
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
in neighbouring Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. The parish's northern and northwestern boundaries form part of the boundary between the two counties. The parish includes the hamlet
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 Juniper Hill
Juniper Hill
Juniper Hill is a hamlet in the civil parish of Cottisford in Oxfordshire. Juniper Hill is just over south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire....
about 1 miles (1.6 km) northwest of Cottisford.
The village stands beside Crowell Brook, which is a stream that passes the villages of Hethe
Hethe
Hethe is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire.-Manor:The village's toponym comes from the Old English hæp meaning "uncultivated ground"....
, Fringford
Fringford
Fringford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded to the east by the Roman road that linked Alchester Roman Town with Roman Towcester, to the south by a brook that joins the River Bure, to the north mostly by a brook that is a tributary of...
and Godington
Godington
Godington is a village and civil parish northeast of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The parish is bounded on all but the west side by a brook called the Birne, which at this point forms also the county boundary with Buckinghamshire.-Manor:...
before entering Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of the Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
. Cottisford's toponym
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
refers to a former ford across Crowell Brook. In the 13th century the village was called "Wolfheysford" or "Urlfesford".
Manor
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...
records that in 1086 Hugh de Grandmesnil
Hugh de Grandmesnil
Hugh de Grandmesnil , also known as Hugh or Hugo de Grentmesnil or Grentemesnil, is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Subsequently he became a great landowner in England.He was the elder son of Robert of...
was feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
overlord of Cottisford Manor
Manorialism
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...
and his son-in-law Roger d'Ivry
Roger d'Ivry
Roger d'Ivry or d'Ivri was an 11th century nobleman from Ivry-la-Bataille in Normandy. He took part in William of Normandy's conquest of England in 1066 and founded the Abbey of Notre-Dame-d'Ivry in 1071...
was the lord of the manor. After d'Ivry's death his widow Adeline gave Cottisford to the Benedictine
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
Abbey of Bec
Bec Abbey
Bec Abbey in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, once the most influential abbey in the Anglo-Norman kingdom of the twelfth century, is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure département, in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay.Like all abbeys, Bec maintained annals...
in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. Bec Abbey owned Ogbourne Priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, which administered many of the abbey's English manors including Cottisford.
Ogbourne was an alien priory, i.e. it belonged to an abbey outside the English realm. In 1404 Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
was planning a military campaign in France so he granted Ogbourne Priory and all its manors jointly to his son John of Lancaster
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, KG , also known as John Plantagenet, was the third surviving son of King Henry IV of England by Mary de Bohun, and acted as Regent of France for his nephew, King Henry VI....
, the churchman Thomas Langley
Thomas Langley
Thomas Langley was an English prelate who held high ecclesiastical and political offices in the early to mid 1400s. He was Dean of York, Bishop of Durham, twice Lord Chancellor of England to three kings, and a Pseudocardinal. In turn Keeper of the King's signet and Keeper of the Privy Seal before...
and the Prior of Ogbourne: William de Saint Vaast
Saint Vaast
Saint Vaast can refer to the Frankish bishop Vedast , or to any of numerous places named after him. Those listed below are in northern France.*Saint-Vaast-d'Équiqueville in Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy...
. The Prior died soon afterwards; in 1414 Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
suppressed the priory and by 1422 Thomas Langley had surrendered his share of the rights to the manors to John of Lancaster, whom Henry V had made Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford
thumb|right|240px|William Russell, 1st Duke of BedfordDuke of Bedford is a title that has been created five times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 in favour of Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of France. He was made Earl of Kendal at the same time...
. In 1435 the Duke died and in 1438 Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
granted Cottisford to his uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, KG , also known as Humphrey Plantagenet, was "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of king Henry IV of England by his first wife, Mary de Bohun, brother to king Henry V of England, and uncle to the...
. However, in 1440 Henry VI founded Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and the following year he granted Cottisford to the new school. For several centuries the school leased out the manor to successive tenants who were lords of the manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
. In 1885 the school sold the manor house and Warren Farm, and in 1921-22 it sold the remainder of its Cottisford estate.
By the late part of the 14th century Ogbourne Priory was leasing out Cottisford Manor. Eton College continued the practice, commonly granting leases of 21 or 20 years. Richard Eyre, a son of the Reverend Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre (disambiguation)
Richard Eyre is an English director.Richard Eyre is also the name of:*Richard Eyre , American author*Richard Eyre , English football player*Richard Eyre , Anglican priest...
, Prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
1710-1745, obtained a lease on the manor in 1739 and renewed it in 1752. The younger Richard had spent 28 years working for the East India Company and became "a power in the village life" at Cottisford. In 1760, the year before Richard junior died, the school granted a lease to Thomas Bramston from Skreens
Roxwell
Roxwell is a village and a parish in the Chelmsford District, in the English county of Essex.The parish church is St Michael & All Angels. There is a primary school and a public house...
in Essex and Richard junior's nephew Sir James Eyre
James Eyre
Sir James Eyre was an English judge, the son of the Rev. Thomas Eyre, of Wells, Somerset.-Biography:He was educated at Winchester College and at St John's College, Oxford, which he left without taking a degree. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1755, Thomas Parker, chief baron of the...
. Bramston was a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
at the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
in London; Sir James was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
The Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, was the second highest common law court in the English legal system until 1880, when it was dissolved. As such, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was one of the highest judicial officials in England, behind only the Lord...
. However Richard Eyre's widow Martha Eyre remained at the manor house until her death in 1772, and the following year the lease was sold by order of her executors. The buyer was the Reverend John Russell Greenhill
John Russell Greenhill
John Russell Greenhill was an English vicar who owned Chequers, Bucks. He was the son of Samuel Greenhill, Esq. of Swyncombe, Oxon of the East India Company and Elizabeth Russell. Elizabeth belonged to the Russell of Chequers Court family and was descended from Oliver Cromwell.John inherited...
, Rector of Fringford
Fringford
Fringford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded to the east by the Roman road that linked Alchester Roman Town with Roman Towcester, to the south by a brook that joins the River Bure, to the north mostly by a brook that is a tributary of...
, who held the lease until his death in 1813. His son Robert Greenhill-Russell
Robert Greenhill-Russell
Sir Robert Greenhill-Russell, 1st Baronet was a British politician.He was born in 1763 to the Rev. John Russell Greenhill and Elizabeth Noble...
, Member of Parliament for Thirsk
Thirsk
Thirsk is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The local travel links are located a mile from the town centre to Thirsk railway station and to Durham Tees Valley Airport...
, inherited the lease but gave it up in 1825. A succession of tenants then owned the lease until 1885, when the school sold the freehold of the manor house and Warren Farm to its tenant, Edwards Rousby. His son F.R. Rousby inherited the estate but later sold it to Robert Brooke-Popham
Robert Brooke-Popham
Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham, GCVO, KCB, CMG, DSO, AFC, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During World War I he served in the Royal Flying Corps as wing commander and senior staff officer...
.
Manor Farm is 14th century manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
built of rubble masonry
Rubble masonry
Rubble masonry is rough, unhewn building stone set in mortar, but not laid in regular courses. It may appear as the outer surface of a wall or may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or cut stone....
. Surviving 14th century details include two windows and an octagonal chimneystack. Four more windows date from the 15th century. The house has a solar
Solar (room)
The solar was a room in many English and French medieval manor houses, great houses and castles, generally situated on an upper storey, designed as the family's private living and sleeping quarters...
and originally had a mediaeval hall, but in the 16th century an intermediate floor was inserted to create upstairs rooms. Also in the 16th century a south wing containing a parlour was added. The house was enlarged again in the 19th century. A 12th century window in the north gable of the house is not original to the house and must have been salvaged from a building elsewhere. On Crowell Brook just below Manor Farm is a set of fishponds, the earliest record of which is from 1325.
Cottisford House is a newer manor house built before 1707. It is of coursed
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
rubble with ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
quoin
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
s and has a hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
with attic dormer
Dormer
A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
s. William Turner, who leased the house from 1825, had the house altered and enlarged in about 1830. In its grounds is a square dovecote.
Other estates
The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-DivesSaint-Pierre-sur-Dives
Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.The Abbey Church, was rebuilt in the 12th century and 13th centuries and restored and modified in the 16th and 17th centuries, replacing the former abbey church built in 1011 by...
owned one hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
of land at Cottisford until 1237, when it granted the estate to the Cistercian Biddlesden Abbey
Biddlesden Abbey
Biddlesden was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by Arnold de Bosco , steward to the Earl of Leicester. An abbot was deposed for now unknown reasons in 1192 and in the 14th to 15th centuries there was a long running dispute with the parish of Wappenham concerning the collection of tithes...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. Some time after 1266 Biddlesden quitclaimed
Quitclaim deed
A quitclaim deed is a legal instrument by which the owner of a piece of real property, called the grantor, transfers his interest to a recipient, called the grantee. The owner/grantor terminates his right and claim to the property, thereby allowing claim to transfer to the...
the hide to the Abbey of Bec, which continued to let it separately from the main manor that it controlled through Ogbourne Priory.
In 1527 a member of the Fermor family of Somerton bought six yardlands
Virgate
The virgate or yardland was a unit of land area measurement used in medieval England, typically outside the Danelaw, and was held to be the amount of land that a team of two oxen could plough in a single annual season. It was equivalent to a quarter of a hide, so was nominally thirty acres...
of land at Cottisford. The land was later sold but Thomas Fermor (died 1580), lord of the manor of Hardwick
Hardwick, Cherwell
Hardwick is a village about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire.-Manor:The village's toponym comes from the Old English for a farm or dwelling place for sheep. After the Norman Conquest of England Walter Giffard held the manor of Hardwick, but the Domesday Book records that by 1086 he had given it to...
retained grazing rights on the land after its sale. Anthony Cope
Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet
-Life:He was a grandson of Anthony Cope the author. He was member of Parliament for Banbury in seven parliaments , and then represented Oxfordshire from 1606 until 1614...
of Hanwell Castle owned the estate by 1606, in which year he also bought another 360 acres (145.7 ha) of land at Cottisford. At some point the Cope Baronets
Cope Baronets
Ther have been four Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Cope.The Baronetcy of Cope of Hanwell, Oxfordshire was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for Anthony Cope of Hanwell Castle. He was a descendant of William Cope, to whom the manor of Hanwell was granted in...
sold their land at Cottisford, and by the early part of the 18th century the Fermors, now living at Tusmore Park, owned 23 yardlands at Cottisford including the former Cope estate. When Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham , styled Lord Howard of Effingham from 1837 to 1845, was a British peer and Member of Parliament....
bought the Fermors' Tusmore estate in 1857 it included the land at Cottisford. His heir Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham was an English peer, styled Lord Howard of Effingham from 1845 to 1889.He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, and served as a cornet in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry....
died in 1898, and between then and 1920 Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham
Henry Alexander Gordon Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham was an English peer and member of the House of Lords, styled Lord Howard of Effingham from 1889 to 1898. He inherited the earldom from his father, Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham in 1898.Effingham was a deputy lieutenant of the West Riding...
broke up and sold the estate at Cottisford.
Parish church
Cottisford had a parish churchParish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
by 1081, when Hugh de Grandmesnil gave it, along with its tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
income and a hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
of land, to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche
Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche
The Abbey of Saint-Evroul or Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche is a former Benedictine abbey in Normandy, located in the present commune of Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois, Orne, Basse-Normandie...
. In 1167 St. Evroul Abbey transferred its property, tithes and land at Cottisford to Bec Abbey, which by then owned the manor of Cottisford.
The present Church of England parish church
Church 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 Mary the Virgin
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
was built in the 13th century. It is a small building with only a 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...
, 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...
and south porch. The porch is Early English Gothic and has a sundial
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...
. The east window of the chancel dates from about 1300. The Gothic Revival architect
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
Charles Buckeridge
Charles Buckeridge
Charles Buckeridge was a British Gothic Revival architect who trained as a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He practiced in Oxford 1856–68 and in London from 1869. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861.-Work:Much of Buckeridge's work was for parish...
restored the building in 1861 and the present font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
was added at the same time. There is no bell tower but there is a belfry in the apex of the roof. The church had two bells in the 16th century. These have not remained but the church now has two bells cast in 1710 and 1858 and a small 17th century sanctus bell. In the churchyard are the base and shaft of a mediaeval stone cross.
St. Mary's is now part of the Shelswell
Shelswell
Shelswell is a hamlet in Oxfordshire about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire.-Manor:Shelswell's toponym comes from Old English and suggest's that the settlement may originally have been the well belonging to Scield, a Saxon settler. The spring that gave rise to this well is no...
group of parishes.
Social and economic history
A watermillWatermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
was built in about 1230, presumably on Crowell Brook. In 1292 the parish had both the watermill and a windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
. Neither mill's fate is clear, but by the second half of the 18th century the estate seems to have been using a mill at Fringford instead.
An open field system
Open field system
The open field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe from the Middle Ages to as recently as the 20th century in some places, particularly Russia and Iran. Under this system, each manor or village had several very large fields, farmed in strips by individual families...
of farming prevailed in the parish until 1854. Attempts by successive lords of the manor to get Parliament to pass a bill to enclose Cottisford's common land
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...
s were defeated in 1761, 1777 and 1809. Parliament finally passed an enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
act for the parish in 1848 but the enclosure award to redistribute the land was not settled until 1854.
The enclosure award included setting aside a plot of land for a village school. In 1856 the school and adjoining schoolmistress's cottage were built with funds provided by Eton College. The parish church ran it as a National School
National school (England and Wales)
A national school was a school founded in 19th century England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education.These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor.Together with the less numerous...
until it closed in 1920. Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council, established in 1889, is the county council, or upper-tier local authority, for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire, in the South East of England, an elected body responsible for the most strategic local government services in the county.-History:County Councils...
reopened it as a county school in 1924 and reorganised it as a junior school in 1929. It was still open in 1954 but has since been closed.
The author Flora Thompson
Flora Thompson
Flora Jane Thompson was an English novelist and poet famous for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, Lark Rise to Candleford.-Early life and family:...
(1876–1947) grew up in Juniper Hill and was a pupil at Cottisford School. She wrote the "Lark Rise to Candleford
Lark Rise to Candleford
Lark Rise to Candleford is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. They were written by Flora Thompson and first published together in 1945...
" trilogy of novels, in which she modelled the village of "Fordlow" on Cottisford.