Thorpe Mandeville is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire

South Northamptonshire

South Northamptonshire is a local government district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in Towcester.The district is rural and sparsely populated with just over 79,293 people in 2000 and 91,000 in 2008, a 14.8% increase. The largest town in the district is Brackley, which has a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 about 6 miles (10 km) northeast 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...

 in neighbouring Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. The hamlet of Lower Thorpe lies just north of the village.

The population of the parish has grown slowly over the centuries: the 1801 census recorded it as 137, the 1991 census recorded it as 178 and the 2001 census recorded it as 194.

Manors

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...

 of 1086 records the village as Thorp. "Mandeville" is a corruption of Amundeville. Richard de Amundeville was lord 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...

 during the thirteenth century.

In 1346 a house and 9 acres (3.6 ha) of land at Thorpe Mandeville were listed amongst the estates of the Augustinian

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 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...

 at Chacombe

Chacombe

Chacombe is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, about northeast of Banbury in neighbouring Oxfordshire. It has sometimes been spelt Chalcombe...

.

The Kirton family lived at Thorpe Mandeville 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...

 from 1554 to 1685. The current ironstone 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...

 house dates from about the 1770s, replacing an old house that stood west of the church. The south front of the house is of five bays and is in the style of Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Archer was born at Umberslade Hall in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire, the youngest son of Thomas Archer, a country gentleman, Parliamentary...

.

Parish church

By the end of the 11th century Thorpe Mandeville had a 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....

, which was included in the early endowments to a Cluniac

Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries....

 priory of the Abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of La Charité-sur-Loire

La Charité-sur-Loire

La Charité-sur-Loire is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-History:The town began as the first of the Cluniac priories on an island site in the Loire....

 that had been founded at Preston Capes

Preston Capes

Preston Capes is a village and civil parish in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire in England. The population at the 2001 census was 188.-External links :*...

 in 1090 and moved to Daventry

Daventry

Daventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...

 shortly thereafter.

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 John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

, built of local ironstone

Ironstone

Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...

, dates largely from the early part of the 14th century. The north aisle has Decorated Gothic windows and an arcade

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....

 of three bays

Bay (architecture)

A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...

. 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 windows dating from about 1300, the middle of the Decorated Gothic period. The architect Albert Hartshorne restored the chancel in 1872. The 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...

 has a saddleback

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

 roof and three bells. The parish is now part of the benefice of Culworth

Culworth

Culworth is a village and civil parish about north of Brackley in South Northamptonshire, England. Culworth is also about northeast of the north Oxfordshire town of Banbury....

 with Sulgrave

Sulgrave

Sulgrave is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England, about north of Brackley.-Parish church:The Church of England parish Church of St James the Less is part of the benefice of Culworth with Sulgrave and Thorpe Mandeville and Chipping Warden with Edgcote and Moreton Pinkney.By...

 and Thorpe Mandeville and Chipping Warden

Chipping Warden

Chipping Warden is a village in Northamptonshire, England about northeast of the Oxfordshire town of Banbury. The parish is bounded to the east and south by the River Cherwell, to the west by the boundary with Oxfordshire and to the north by field boundaries....

 with Edgcote

Edgcote

Edgcote is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell in south-west Northamptonshire. The parish is bounded by the river to the north and by one of its tributaries to the east...

 and Moreton Pinkney

Moreton Pinkney

Moreton Pinkney is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, about north of Brackley.-Parish church:The earliest evidence of Christianity in the parish is a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon stone cross in the churchyard of the Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin...

.

The church has a monument to Thomas Kirton (1537-1601), who was Common Serjeant of London

Common Serjeant of London

The Common Serjeant of London is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1317, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.The Common...

, and his wife (died 1597).

Social and economic history

Thorpe Mandeville had a Church of England school

Voluntary controlled school

A voluntary controlled school is a state-funded school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in which a foundation or trust has some formal influence in the running of the school...

 that was built in 1864 and enlarged in 1898. It was closed in 1967 and the building has been the village hall

Village hall

In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...

 since 1970.

The Hill, about 1 miles (1.6 km) west of Thorpe Mandeville village, is a house designed by C.F.A. Voysey

Charles Voysey (architect)

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style, but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses...

 and built in 1897-98.

In 1900 the Great Central Railway

Great 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...

 (GCR) completed a line linking its new 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...

 at Culworth Junction with the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 at Banbury Junction. The link line passed through the northern part of Thorpe Mandeville parish. In 1911 the GCR opened 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Thorpe Mandeville and in 1913 it added at Culworth 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Thorpe Mandeville. 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 both halts in 1956 and closed the line between Culworth Junction and Banbury Junction in 1966.

Amenities

The village has 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 Three Conies

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

, that belongs to the Hook Norton Brewery

Hook Norton Brewery

Hook Norton Brewery is a regional brewery in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England, founded in 1849. The brewing plant is a traditional Victorian "tower" brewery in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor; mashing at the top, boiling in the middle, fermentation...

. Thorpe Mandeville is on an important former drovers' road called Banbury Lane. The Three Conies

Three hares

The three hares is a circular motif appearing in sacred sites from the Middle and Far East to the churches of southwest England , and historical synagogues in Europe....

was built in the 17th century as a drovers' inn, providing overnight accommodation for the drovers and their stock.