Hanwell, Oxfordshire
Encyclopedia
Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire
, 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Banbury
.
have been found just west of the B4100 main road.
Hanwell village itself is Saxon
in origin, on an ancient minor road linking the villages of Wroxton
and Great Bourton
. The road's Old English name of Hana's weg gave rise to the village's toponym
. Hanwell has a reliable spring
, so its toponym later changed from -weg to -welle.
a Saxon
called Lewin or Leofwine held the manor
of Hanwell, along with those of Chinnor
and Cowley. Whereas the conquering Normans
dispossessed many Saxon landowners after 1066, Leofwine still held Hanwell manor by the time the Domesday Book
was compiled in 1086. The de Vernon family held the manors of Hanwell and Chinnor, and retained Hanwell until 1415 when Sir Richard de Vernon transferred the manor to Thomas Chaucer
, Speaker of the House of Commons of England
. After Chaucer's death in 1434 Hanwell passed to his widow Maud and then their daughter Alice de la Pole
. Alice's second husband was William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
, and Hanwell remained with the Dukedom of Suffolk until almost the end of the 15th century.
In 1498 Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk
conveyed the manor to William Cope, who was Cofferer
to Henry VII
. In 1611 James I
made William's great-grandson Anthony Cope
a Baronet
. Hanwell remained with the Cope Baronets of Hanwell until the death of Sir John Cope, 5th Baronet in 1721. It then passed to another branch of the Cope family, Sir Jonathan Cope, 1st Baronet of Bruern. When Sir Charles Cope, 3rd Baronet died in 1781, Hanwell passed to one of his sisters, Catherine. In 1790 Catherine's daughter Arabella was married to John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset
and received Hanwell from her mother. In 1825 Hanwell was inherited by the Duke and Duchess's younger daughter, Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr
, wife of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
. Hanwell manor has remained with the Earls De La Warr
: in 1946 Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr
passed the manor to his son Lord Buckhurst, the future William Sackville, 10th Earl De La Warr.
of Saint Peter
is from 1154, but only the Norman
font
survives from this time. The north and south doorways are 13th century, the east window of the south aisle are late 13th century, and all are in the Early English style. In the first half of the 14th century St. Peter's was almost entirely rebuilt in a Transitional style between Early English and Decorated, and north and south aisles and the Decorated style bell tower
were added. The arcades
linking the aisles with the nave
have capitals decorated with carved figures and the chancel
has a frieze
of carved people and monsters. Both sets of carvings were made in about 1340 and are the work of a school of masons whose work can be seen also in the parish churches of Adderbury
, Bloxham
and Drayton
. Around 1400 a clerestorey was added to the nave in the Perpendicular Gothic style. In the Tudor
period new side windows were inserted in the north aisle.
Monuments in St. Peter's include a 14th century effigy of a woman in the south aisle and effigies of Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet
(d. 1614) and his wife in the chancel. In 1776 the floor of the chancel was raised to accommodate a burial vault
for the Cope family, but in the 19th century the floor was restored to its former level In 1671 Sir Anthony Cope, 4th Baronet had a clock made for St. Peter's by a George Harris of Fritwell
. It is at the west end of the nave below the bell tower. The bell tower has a peal
of six bells, five of which were cast in 1789 and 1791.In 2008 the bells were re-hung and the newly cast sixth bell, the Beecroft Bell cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry
, was added.
Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet (1550-1615) was a puritan
, and in 1584 the Church of England
excommunicated his choice of curate
at Hanwell, Jonas Wheler for refusing to hold church services on Fridays and Saturdays. Instead therefore Sir Anthony presented John Dod, another puritan, who was accepted. Dod was a friend of the puritan divine Thomas Cartwight, who at Dod's invitation preached at Hanwell. Sir Anthony was MP for the Banbury constituency for most of the period 1571-1601. In 1587 he was jailed for introducing to the House of Commons
a puritan prayer book and a bill
for abrogating ecclesiastical law. John Dod was a hardworking and popular preacher who served as Hanwell for 20 years, but by 1607 the Church of England had deprived Dod of his living and Sir Anthony appointed Robert Harris
to take over the curacy. During the English Civil War
Royalist
troops had expelled Harris from Hanwell by the end of 1642. In 1648 he was made a Doctor of Divinity
and President of Trinity College, Oxford
. Puritan influence at Hanwell was ended in 1658 with the appointment of a Royalist curate, George Ashwell, who was as pious, hardworking and scholarly as his predecessors.
St. Peter's is now one of eight ecclesiastical parishes in the Ironstone Benefice.
Hanwell had a Methodist
congregation by 1822, which built its own chapel
in the latter half of the 19th century. The chapel was still used for worship in 1965.
s, originally called Hanwell House or Hall. William Cope began building it in 1498, the year he had received the manor of Hanwell from the Duke of Suffolk. It is the earliest example of a brick building in north Oxfordshire. It was a large house with west, north and south ranges around a central quadrangle. Sherwood and Pevsner contend that there was an east range but Lobel et al. maintain that there was none. The house has fishponds fed by the village spring. Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet entertained James I
at Hanwell House in 1605 and 1612, and
Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet entertained here James I in 1616 and Charles I
in 1637. Late in the 18th century most of Hanwell Castle was demolished. The western part of the south range was retained as a farmhouse, and in 1902 some restoration and extensions were made to the surviving building.
on the western edge of the parish, presumably on Sor Brook that forms the boundary with the adjoining parish of Horley
. Before 1249 Sir Warin de Vernon granted the mill to the Augustinian canons
of Canons Ashby Priory
in Northamptonshire
, who then rented or leased it out until the dissolution of the monasteries
in 1536. The mill then became Crown
property until it was sold in 1545.
Hanwell rectory
dates from at least the 16th century. There is a record of it being leased in 1549, at which time it had one or more dovecote
s. When it was assessed for hearth tax it was a large house, second in Hanwell only to the manor house. It was reduced in size and the remainder rebuilt in 1843, but parts of the original house survive in the Victorian building.
At the end of the 16th century Hanwell's crops included not only wheat, pease, oats and barley but also at least 100 acres (40.5 ha) of woad. In 1645 during the English Civil War, Parliamentary
troops were billeted in Hanwell for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them. Villagers farmed the parish on a two-field open field system
until 1768, when Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet bought out the rights of copyhold
ers, life- and lease
holders and enclosed
the common lands.
The main road between Banbury and Warwick
runs north-south along a ridge in the western part of the parish. It was made into a turnpike
in 1744 and ceased to be one in 1871. In the 1920's it was classified as part of the A41 road
. After the completion of the M40 motorway
in 1990 this part of the A41 was "detrunked" and reclassified as the B4100.
Hanwell had a public house
, the Red Lion, by 1792. It is now a gastropub
, the Moon and Sixpence, controlled by Wells & Young's Brewery
.
In 1848 George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
gave a cottage to be used as both the schoolroom and schoolmaster's house. In 1868 a National School
was built and the cottage became exclusively the schoolmaster's home. The school must have proved unsatisfactory, for in 1872 it was forced to become a board school
. By 1952 the school had only 17 children and in 1961 it was closed.
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
.
Early history
Remains of a substantial Roman villaRoman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
have been found just west of the B4100 main road.
Hanwell village itself is Saxon
History 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...
in origin, on an ancient minor road linking the villages of Wroxton
Wroxton
Wroxton is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire about west of Banbury.-History:Wroxton is recorded as having a church in 1217, but the present Church of England parish church of All Saints is early 14th century. A Perpendicular Gothic clerestory and porch were added early in the...
and Great Bourton
Great Bourton
Great Bourton is a village about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Bourton.-History:...
. The road's Old English name of Hana's weg gave rise to the village'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...
. Hanwell has a reliable spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
, so its toponym later changed from -weg to -welle.
Manor of Hanwell
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...
a 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...
called Lewin or Leofwine 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 Hanwell, along with those of Chinnor
Chinnor
Chinnor is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Thame. The village is a Spring line settlement on the Icknield Way below the Chiltern escarpment...
and Cowley. Whereas the conquering Normans
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...
dispossessed many Saxon landowners after 1066, Leofwine still held Hanwell manor by the time 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...
was compiled in 1086. The de Vernon family held the manors of Hanwell and Chinnor, and retained Hanwell until 1415 when Sir Richard de Vernon transferred the manor to Thomas Chaucer
Thomas Chaucer
Thomas Chaucer was the Speaker of the English House of Commons and son of Geoffrey Chaucer and Philippa Roet.-Life:...
, Speaker of the House of Commons of England
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
. After Chaucer's death in 1434 Hanwell passed to his widow Maud and then their daughter Alice de la Pole
Alice de la Pole
Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk was an English Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.Alice was born Alice Chaucer, daughter to Thomas Chaucer and Matilda Burghersh. Her grandfather was the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. When she was 11 she married Sir John Philip. The couple lived briefly at...
. Alice's second husband was William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, KG , nicknamed Jack Napes , was an important English soldier and commander in the Hundred Years' War, and later Lord Chamberlain of England.He also appears prominently in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 1 and Henry VI, part 2 and other...
, and Hanwell remained with the Dukedom of Suffolk until almost the end of the 15th century.
In 1498 Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk
Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk
Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk , Duke of Suffolk, was a son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth of York.-Family:...
conveyed the manor to William Cope, who was Cofferer
Cofferer
In the history of the royal household of England, a cofferer was a principal officer in the court, next under the Comptroller of the Household. In the counting-house, and elsewhere at other times, he had a special charge and oversight of other officers of the house, for their good demeanor and...
to Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
. In 1611 James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
made William's great-grandson 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...
a Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
. Hanwell remained with the Cope Baronets of Hanwell until the death of Sir John Cope, 5th Baronet in 1721. It then passed to another branch of the Cope family, Sir Jonathan Cope, 1st Baronet of Bruern. When Sir Charles Cope, 3rd Baronet died in 1781, Hanwell passed to one of his sisters, Catherine. In 1790 Catherine's daughter Arabella was married to John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset
John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset
John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset was the only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. He succeeded to the dukedom in 1769 on the death of his uncle, Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset...
and received Hanwell from her mother. In 1825 Hanwell was inherited by the Duke and Duchess's younger daughter, Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr
Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr
Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr and 1st Baroness Buckhurst was a British peeress.-Biography:...
, wife of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl de la Warr PC , styled Viscount Cantelupe until 1795, was a British courtier and Tory politician.-Background:...
. Hanwell manor has remained with the Earls De La Warr
Earl De La Warr
Earl De La Warr is a title created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1761.In the United States, Thomas West, 3rd baron is often named in history books simply as Lord Delaware. He served as governor of the Jamestown Colony, and the Delaware Bay was named after him...
: in 1946 Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr
Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr
Herbrand Edward Dundonald Brassey Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, GBE, PC, DL, JP , styled Lord Buckhurst until 1915 , was a British politician. He was the first hereditary peer to join the Labour Party and became a government minister at the age of 23...
passed the manor to his son Lord Buckhurst, the future William Sackville, 10th Earl De La Warr.
Churches
The earliest record of 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 Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
is from 1154, but only the Norman
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...
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 from this time. The north and south doorways are 13th century, the east window of the south aisle are late 13th century, and all are in the Early English style. In the first half of the 14th century St. Peter's was almost entirely rebuilt in a Transitional style between Early English and Decorated, and north and south aisles and the Decorated style 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...
were added. The arcades
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....
linking the aisles with 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...
have capitals decorated with carved figures and 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...
has a frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
of carved people and monsters. Both sets of carvings were made in about 1340 and are the work of a school of masons whose work can be seen also in the parish churches of Adderbury
Adderbury
Adderbury is a large village and civil parish in northern Oxfordshire, England. It is about south of Banbury and from Junction 10 of the M40 motorway. The village is divided in two by the Sor Brook. The village consists of two neighbourhoods: West Adderbury and East Adderbury...
, Bloxham
Bloxham
Bloxham is a village and civil parish in northern Oxfordshire on the edge of the Cotswolds, southwest of Banbury.-Early settlement:Under Roman rule between the 1st and 5th centuries there were several farms and a burial site in the Bloxham area....
and Drayton
Drayton, Cherwell
Drayton is a village and civil parish in the valley of the Sor Brook in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Tesselated tiles and Roman coins found near the parish church indicate that there was a Roman villa in the area of what later became Drayton village.Drayton village is...
. Around 1400 a clerestorey was added to the nave in the Perpendicular Gothic style. In the Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
period new side windows were inserted in the north aisle.
Monuments in St. Peter's include a 14th century effigy of a woman in the south aisle and effigies of Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet
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...
(d. 1614) and his wife in the chancel. In 1776 the floor of the chancel was raised to accommodate a burial vault
Burial vault (tomb)
A burial vault is a structural underground tomb.It is a stone or brick-lined underground space or 'burial' chamber for the interment of a dead body or bodies. They were originally and are still often vaulted and usually have stone slab entrances...
for the Cope family, but in the 19th century the floor was restored to its former level In 1671 Sir Anthony Cope, 4th Baronet had a clock made for St. Peter's by a George Harris of Fritwell
Fritwell
Fritwell is a village and civil parish about northwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The parish's southern boundary is a stream that flows eastwards through Fewcott and past the villages of Fringford and Godington before entering Buckinghamshire where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of...
. It is at the west end of the nave below the bell tower. The bell tower has 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, five of which were cast in 1789 and 1791.In 2008 the bells were re-hung and the newly cast sixth bell, the Beecroft Bell cast by 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...
, was added.
Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet (1550-1615) was a puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
, and in 1584 the Church of England
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...
excommunicated his choice of curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
at Hanwell, Jonas Wheler for refusing to hold church services on Fridays and Saturdays. Instead therefore Sir Anthony presented John Dod, another puritan, who was accepted. Dod was a friend of the puritan divine Thomas Cartwight, who at Dod's invitation preached at Hanwell. Sir Anthony was MP for the Banbury constituency for most of the period 1571-1601. In 1587 he was jailed for introducing to the House of Commons
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
a puritan prayer book and a bill
Bill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
for abrogating ecclesiastical law. John Dod was a hardworking and popular preacher who served as Hanwell for 20 years, but by 1607 the Church of England had deprived Dod of his living and Sir Anthony appointed Robert Harris
Robert Harris (President of Trinity)
Robert Harris was an English clergyman, known as a Puritan preacher, member of the Westminster Assembly, and President of Trinity College, Oxford.-Life:...
to take over the curacy. During the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
troops had expelled Harris from Hanwell by the end of 1642. In 1648 he was made a Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
and President of Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
. Puritan influence at Hanwell was ended in 1658 with the appointment of a Royalist curate, George Ashwell, who was as pious, hardworking and scholarly as his predecessors.
St. Peter's is now one of eight ecclesiastical parishes in the Ironstone Benefice.
Hanwell had a Methodist
Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...
congregation by 1822, which built its own chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
in the latter half of the 19th century. The chapel was still used for worship in 1965.
Hanwell Castle
Hanwell Castle was not a castle but a house with ornamental battlementBattlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...
s, originally called Hanwell House or Hall. William Cope began building it in 1498, the year he had received the manor of Hanwell from the Duke of Suffolk. It is the earliest example of a brick building in north Oxfordshire. It was a large house with west, north and south ranges around a central quadrangle. Sherwood and Pevsner contend that there was an east range but Lobel et al. maintain that there was none. The house has fishponds fed by the village spring. Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet entertained James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
at Hanwell House in 1605 and 1612, and
Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet entertained here James I in 1616 and Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
in 1637. Late in the 18th century most of Hanwell Castle was demolished. The western part of the south range was retained as a farmhouse, and in 1902 some restoration and extensions were made to the surviving building.
Social and economic history
By the 13th century Hanwell had 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 :...
on the western edge of the parish, presumably on Sor Brook that forms the boundary with the adjoining parish of Horley
Horley, Oxfordshire
Horley is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire about north-west of Banbury.-Parish church:The Church of England parish church of Saint Etheldreda was built in the 12th century. It was remodelled in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and thus incorporates a mixture of Norman,...
. Before 1249 Sir Warin de Vernon granted the mill to the Augustinian canons
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
of Canons Ashby Priory
Canons Ashby Priory
Canons Ashby Priory was an Augustinian monastic establishment in Northamptonshire, England.The Priory was founded by Stephen La Leye on a site to the south of the present church between 1147 and 1151, during the reign of Henry II....
in 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,...
, who then rented or leased it out 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 1536. The mill then became 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...
property until it was sold in 1545.
Hanwell 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...
dates from at least the 16th century. There is a record of it being leased in 1549, at which time it had one or more dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
s. When it was assessed for hearth tax it was a large house, second in Hanwell only to the manor house. It was reduced in size and the remainder rebuilt in 1843, but parts of the original house survive in the Victorian building.
At the end of the 16th century Hanwell's crops included not only wheat, pease, oats and barley but also at least 100 acres (40.5 ha) of woad. In 1645 during the English Civil War, Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
troops were billeted in Hanwell for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them. Villagers farmed the parish on a two-field 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 1768, when Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet bought out the rights of copyhold
Copyhold
At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....
ers, life- and lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
holders and 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...
the common lands.
The main road between Banbury and Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
runs north-south along a ridge in the western part of the parish. It was made into a turnpike
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
in 1744 and ceased to be one in 1871. In the 1920's it was classified as part of the A41 road
A41 road
The A41 is a formerly-major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now largely been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton,...
. After the completion 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 1990 this part of the A41 was "detrunked" and reclassified as the B4100.
Hanwell had a 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...
, the Red Lion, by 1792. It is now a gastropub
Gastropub
Gastropub or Gastrolounge refers to a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food.The term gastropub, a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub, originated in England in the late 20th century. English pubs were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food. If...
, the Moon and Sixpence, controlled by Wells & Young's Brewery
Wells & Young's Brewery
Wells & Young's Brewery was formed in October 2006 from the merger of the brewing operations of Charles Wells Ltd and Young's Brewery. Charles Wells have a 60% stake and Young's 40%. Wells & Young's is now responsible for brewing, distributing and marketing Charles Wells' and Young & Co's brands...
.
In 1848 George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl de la Warr PC , styled Viscount Cantelupe until 1795, was a British courtier and Tory politician.-Background:...
gave a cottage to be used as both the schoolroom and schoolmaster's house. In 1868 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...
was built and the cottage became exclusively the schoolmaster's home. The school must have proved unsatisfactory, for in 1872 it was forced to become a board school
School board (England & Wales)
School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools.School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaigning by George Dixon, Joseph Chamberlain and the National...
. By 1952 the school had only 17 children and in 1961 it was closed.