Godington
Encyclopedia
Godington is a village and civil parish 5 miles (8 km) 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
.
. Its toponym
is derived from Old English: either Gōdan dūn (the hill of Goda) or Gōdinga dūn (Goda's people).
Before the Norman conquest of England
two Saxons, Siward and Siwate, held the Manor
of Godington, but the Domesday Book
records that by 1086 it belonged to a Norman
called Richard Puingiant. He also owned the manor of Middleton Stoney
, and Godington was held as part of the latter manor for some centuries thereafter.
By the middle of the 12th century the manor of Godington belonged to Richard de Camville, who gave Poodle Farm in the parish to the Augustinian
Missenden Abbey
in Buckinghamshire. The Abbey retained Poodle Farm until the dissolution of the monasteries
in the 16th century. By 1541 William Fermor of Somerton had bought the farm. By the time of his death in 1552 Fermor also owned Godington Manor, thus reuniting Poodle with the other former de Camville lands. Godington remained with the Fermors until the last direct heir, another William Fermor, died without a direct successor in 1828.
There is a rectangular mediaeval moat
next to the parish church
. The present Moat Farm house inside the moat was built in the 17th century.
By 1535 Magdalen College, Oxford
held three hay meadows in the parish. It still held them in 1817, when the duty to pay tithes was commuted. Most of the parish was farmed under the open field system
until 1603, when it was enclosed
by agreement between Sir Richard Fermor, the Rector and one of the local farmers.
Elstow Abbey
in Bedfordshire
disputed with a later Richard de Camville which one of them held the advowson
of the parish. The Abbey won, and retained the right until its dissolution in 1539. After this the Crown
held the advowson until 1608, when it was sold to Sir Henry Fowkes who immediately sold it on to Corpus Christi College, Oxford
.
The Fermors were recusants
and with their support the majority of Godington parishioners remained Roman Catholic
. In 1739 Roman Catholics still outnumbered Anglicans
in the parish, and a Roman Catholic priest lived in the parish to serve them. Early in the 19th century it was recorded that the farming families were Catholic but their labourers were Protestant. Until 1900 in the roof of the farmhouse at Moat Farm there was a Roman Catholic chapel that was served by a priest from Hethe
. In 1759 it was also recorded that recusants from Godington worshipped at the Fermor family chapel at Tusmore Park
.
By 1790 the mediaeval Church of England parish church
of the Holy Trinity
was in disrepair and in danger of collapse, and in 1792 William Fermor employed a fellow-Roman Catholic to rebuild it. In 1852 the church was restored and rectangular Georgian
windows were converted to lancets
, and in 1905 the building was restored again. The mediaeval font
survives and some mediaeval masonry remains in the bell tower
. The tower used to have three bells, but in 1792 two of them were sold to pay for rebuilding the church. The surviving bell was cast in 1717, and there is also a Sanctus
bell cast in 1793.
By 1665 the Rectory
was a large house, assessed at six hearths for hearth tax. By 1787 it was "ruinous and decayed" and Corpus Christi College loaned £200 to rebuild it. In 1867 it was replaced with a new parsonage on a different site, designed by the architect William Wilkinson
. In 1928 the ecclesiastical parish of Godington was combined with that of Stratton Audley
, and in the 1930s the "new" parsonage was sold as a private house, now called the Old Vicarage. The parish of Stratton Audley with Godington is now part of the benefice of Stratton Audley with Godington, Fringford
with Hethe
and Stoke Lyne
. The benefice is part of the Shelswell
group of parishes.
extended its main line
from the Midlands to London
. It passes through the east of Godington parish on an embankment, crossing in and out of the parish (and county) on bridges over the Birne. Godington was too small to have its own railway station, and the nearest Great Central ones were and , 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the village in either direction. British Rail
ways closed Finmere in 1963, Calvert in 1964 and the main line between Calvert and in 1966.
Godington was nearer to station, 2 miles (3.2 km) miles to the south on the Varsity Line
. The London and North Western Railway
opened this station in 1880 and BR closed it in 1968.
. In the 1950s its coverts were favoured by the Bicester Hunt. Since the 1980s Godington Stud has bred Trakehner
warmblood
horses for sports.
Bicester
Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. 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
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....
.
Manor
The village was first settled by the SaxonsHistory of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
. Its 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...
is derived from Old English: either Gōdan dūn (the hill of Goda) or Gōdinga dūn (Goda's people).
Before the Norman conquest of England
Norman 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...
two Saxons, Siward and Siwate, held the 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...
of Godington, but the Domesday Book
Domesday 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 by 1086 it belonged to a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
called Richard Puingiant. He also owned the manor of Middleton Stoney
Middleton Stoney
Middleton Stoney is a village and civil parish about west of Bicester, Oxfordshire.-History:Aves ditch is pre-Saxon and may have been dug as a boundary ditch...
, and Godington was held as part of the latter manor for some centuries thereafter.
By the middle of the 12th century the manor of Godington belonged to Richard de Camville, who gave Poodle Farm in the parish to the Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
Missenden Abbey
Missenden Abbey
Missenden Abbey was an Augustinian monastery founded in 1133 in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. It was ruined in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the ruins later incorporated into a Georgian mansion.The abbey has been owned by Buckinghamshire New University since the mid...
in Buckinghamshire. The Abbey retained Poodle Farm until the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in the 16th century. By 1541 William Fermor of Somerton had bought the farm. By the time of his death in 1552 Fermor also owned Godington Manor, thus reuniting Poodle with the other former de Camville lands. Godington remained with the Fermors until the last direct heir, another William Fermor, died without a direct successor in 1828.
There is a rectangular mediaeval moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
next to the parish church
Parish 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....
. The present Moat Farm house inside the moat was built in the 17th century.
By 1535 Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
held three hay meadows in the parish. It still held them in 1817, when the duty to pay tithes was commuted. Most of the parish was farmed under the 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...
until 1603, when it was enclosed
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...
by agreement between Sir Richard Fermor, the Rector and one of the local farmers.
Church and chapel
The earliest written record of the parish church is from 1221, when the Abbess of the BenedictineBenedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Elstow Abbey
Elstow Abbey
Elstow Abbey was a monastery for Benedictine nuns in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. It was founded c.1075 by Judith, Countess of Huntingdon, a niece of William the Conqueror, and therefore is classed as a royal foundation...
in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
disputed with a later Richard de Camville which one of them held the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
of the parish. The Abbey won, and retained the right until its dissolution in 1539. After this the Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
held the advowson until 1608, when it was sold to Sir Henry Fowkes who immediately sold it on to Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...
.
The Fermors were recusants
Recusancy
In the history of England and Wales, the recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants"...
and with their support the majority of Godington parishioners remained Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. In 1739 Roman Catholics still outnumbered Anglicans
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
in the parish, and a Roman Catholic priest lived in the parish to serve them. Early in the 19th century it was recorded that the farming families were Catholic but their labourers were Protestant. Until 1900 in the roof of the farmhouse at Moat Farm there was a Roman Catholic chapel that was served by a priest from 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"....
. In 1759 it was also recorded that recusants from Godington worshipped at the Fermor family chapel at Tusmore Park
Tusmore, Oxfordshire
Tusmore is a settlement about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is the location of the Tusmore Park country house and estate.-Manor:Tusmore was settled in Saxon times...
.
By 1790 the mediaeval 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 the Holy Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
was in disrepair and in danger of collapse, and in 1792 William Fermor employed a fellow-Roman Catholic to rebuild it. In 1852 the church was restored and rectangular Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
windows were converted to lancets
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
, and in 1905 the building was restored again. The mediaeval 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:...
survives and some mediaeval masonry remains in 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...
. The tower used to have three bells, but in 1792 two of them were sold to pay for rebuilding the church. The surviving bell was cast in 1717, and there is also a Sanctus
Sanctus
The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
bell cast in 1793.
By 1665 the Rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...
was a large house, assessed at six hearths for hearth tax. By 1787 it was "ruinous and decayed" and Corpus Christi College loaned £200 to rebuild it. In 1867 it was replaced with a new parsonage on a different site, designed by the architect William Wilkinson
William Wilkinson (architect)
William Wilkinson was a British Gothic Revival architect who practised in Oxford, England.-Family:Wilkinson's father was a builder in Witney in Oxfordshire. William's elder brother George Wilkinson was also an architect, as were William's nephews C.C. Rolfe and H.W. Moore .-Career:Wilkinson...
. In 1928 the ecclesiastical parish of Godington was combined with that of Stratton Audley
Stratton Audley
Stratton Audley is a village and civil parish northeast of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.-Manor:The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Robert D'Oyly held five hides of land at Stratton. Like many D'Oyly manors, Stratton later became part of the Honour of Wallingford...
, and in the 1930s the "new" parsonage was sold as a private house, now called the Old Vicarage. The parish of Stratton Audley with Godington is now part of the benefice of Stratton Audley with Godington, 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...
with 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"....
and Stoke Lyne
Stoke Lyne
Stoke Lyne is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester, Oxfordshire.-Manor:Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria owned the manor of Stoke Lyne before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066...
. The benefice is 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.
Railways
Between 1895 and 1899 the Great Central RailwayGreat Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
extended its main line
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
from the Midlands to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It passes through the east of Godington parish on an embankment, crossing in and out of the parish (and county) on bridges over the Birne. Godington was too small to have its own railway station, and the nearest Great Central ones were and , 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the village in either direction. British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways closed Finmere in 1963, Calvert in 1964 and the main line between Calvert and in 1966.
Godington was nearer to station, 2 miles (3.2 km) miles to the south on the Varsity Line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...
. The London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
opened this station in 1880 and BR closed it in 1968.
Modern economy
The parish has been associated with equestrianismEquestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
. In the 1950s its coverts were favoured by the Bicester Hunt. Since the 1980s Godington Stud has bred Trakehner
Trakehner
Trakehner is a light warmblood breed of horse, originally developed at the East Prussian state stud farm in the town of Trakehnen from which the breed takes its name...
warmblood
Warmblood
Warmbloods are a group of middle-weight horse types and breeds, primarily originating in Europe, registered with organizations that are characterized by open studbook policy, studbook selection, and the aim of breeding for equestrian sport...
horses for sports.