SOURCES
The following note highlights the chief primary and
secondary sources used for this volume, but is not
comprehensive. It should be read in conjunction with
the List of Abbreviations.
UNPUBLISHED SOURCES AND MAPS
PUBLIC REPOSITORIES
A broad range of manuscript sources for the area
survives in Oxfordshire Record Office and the Bodleian
Library in Oxford; in the National Archives (formerly
the Public Record Office) and British Library in London;
and in several other county record offices and private
archives.
Material in Oxfordshire Record Office (ORO)
includes tithe and inclosure awards; diocesan and archidiaconal records (including church terriers and visitation returns); nonconformist records; quarter sessions
records (including 18th- and 19th-century land taxes
and victuallers' recognizances); miscellaneous private
deeds; and locally proved wills and probate inventories.
Collections especially relevant to this area include
miscellaneous Alvescot deeds (e.g. E 8 and Misc. Cr.
1–9); an abstract of title for Kencot manor (SL9/
12/D/1); 18th- and 19th-century manorial deeds for
Minster Lovell (in CH XV); and parish records,
including some 19th- and 20th-century vestry minutes.
Material in the Bodleian Library includes miscellaneous
topographical drawings and photographs (e.g. MSS Top.
Oxon. a 64–9); miscellaneous sale catalogues; medieval
court rolls and deeds for Black Bourton (among MSS
Oseney Rolls and MSS Ch. Oxon.); deeds for Alvescot
manor and Shield Farm in Alvescot (among MSS dd
Harcourt); miscellaneous Minster Lovell deeds (e.g. in
MS Top. Oxon. d 170, 16th and 17th century); Kencot
manorial and miscellaneous deeds (e.g. MS Dodsworth
143, and among MSS Ch. Oxon.); and a detailed survey
of Clanfield c. 1700 (MS Top. Oxon. e 279). The Centre
for Oxfordshire Studies (COS), in Oxford Central
Library, holds parish register transcripts, fiche copies of
census returns (from originals in PRO), and important
photographic collections. Its extensive printed ephemera,
chiefly of the 19th and 20th centuries, include sale catalogues, pamphlets, planning reports, and newspaper
cuttings, which were especially valuable for tracing the
20th-century development of Carterton. The Oxfordshire Sites and Monuments Record (SMR), located in
COS, holds archaeological and some buildings data.
Extensive material in The National Archives (PRO)
includes legal records (e.g. C 1–5, REQ 2, E 134, JUST 1,
STAC 8); inquisitions post mortem (C 132–142); feet of
fines (CP 25); lay subsidies and other taxation records (E
179); sales and grants of Crown lands (E 318); wills and
inventories proved at Canterbury (PROB 3–4, PROB
11); and the hundred roll survey of 1279 (SC 5, Tower
Series, published in Bampton Hund. and Rot. Hund.). A
survey of Wychwood Forest in 1609, containing information on Asthall, is in LR 2/202 (now printed in
Schumer, Oxon. Forests), and a survey of Minster Lovell
manor in 1552–3 is in LR 2/189, ff. 112–18. Some medieval court rolls for Clanfield are in WARD 2/34/
121/1–13, and views of frankpledge for Clanfield and
Brize Norton are in SC 2/212. Later PRO records used
include places of worship (RG 31/3), records of friendly
societies (FS 2/9), tithe records (IR 18), and 20th-century farm surveys and maps (MAF 32, 68, 73).
Miscellaneous material in the British Library includes
charters relating to Asthall and Asthall Leigh (among
Harleian Charters) and Clanfield (among Additional
Charters); a valuation of Minster Lovell priory lands in
1294 (Add. MS 6164, p. 14); a fragmentary manor court
roll for Brize Norton (Add. Ch. 872); notes on lands held
in chief in Bampton hundred c. 1625 (Harl. MS 843);
and topographical drawings and church notes. The
Church of England Record Centre at Bermondsey
holds 19th- and 20th-century Ecclesiastical Commission records relating to property at Asthall, Clanfield,
and Kencot.
Among other county record offices, Gloucestershire
Record Office holds 18th- and 19th-century deeds and
estate papers relating to Asthall (D 1447, Batsford Park
estate records). Berkshire Record Office and
Lincolnshire Record Office hold a few 17th- to 19th-century deeds for Clanfield (some relating to Friars
Court), and Lincolnshire Record Office also holds the
medieval registers of the bishops of Lincoln, in whose
diocese Oxfordshire lay until the 16th century; the registers are available on microfilm in the Bodleian Library
and elsewhere. Hampshire Record Office holds late
medieval court rolls of Southwick priory (Hants), some
relating to Clanfield (49M84/1–6).
PRIVATE AND COLLEGE ARCHIVES
Several private archives contain extensive unpublished
collections for some parishes. Among the most important are those of Christ Church, Oxford, which
acquired substantial estates in Black Bourton and Brize
Norton and which holds extensive material from the
16th to 20th centuries, including deeds, surveys, maps,
and estate correspondence (e.g. MSS Estates 63–4);
deeds for Brize Norton were unavailable when this
volume was being researched. The muniments of The
Queen's College, Oxford, contain deeds and miscellaneous material on Asthall and Asthall Leigh from the
13th century to early 20th, and those of Eton College
(Bucks.) include similar material for Asthall and
Minster Lovell, where the college acquired property
(including the possessions of Minster Lovell priory) in
the 15th century. Much of the Queen's material is calendared in Arch. Queen's Coll. II and IV, and the Eton
material in Eton Coll. Recs. University College, Oxford
(Estates Bursary) holds deeds and leases for Manor
Farm, Minster Lovell, from 1875 to the late 20th
century.
Among non-collegiate archives, the muniments of
the duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace,
Woodstock, contain extensive material for Black
Bourton, including surveys, deeds, and estate papers
from the 16th century to the late 19th. Only parts of the
collection are catalogued. Muniments of the earl of
Leicester at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, contain similarly
voluminous material for Minster Lovell from the 16th
century to the early 19th, including surveys of 1700 and
1824, leases, accounts, and correspondence. Some
16th- and 17th-century court rolls at Holkham are
available on microfilm in the Bodleian Library (MSS
Films 14 and 704), and some other parts of the archive
were consulted in transcripts made by the late W.O.
Hassall, which were kindly made available by Mr T.G.
Hassall; those will be deposited at Holkham. The muniments of the dean and chapter of Exeter Cathedral
contain information on medieval parochial rights in the
Bampton area (e.g. MS 648, MS. 3672, p. 33), on a
holding in Clanfield (formerly St Leonard's chapel),
and on tithes in Marsh Haddon (in Brize Norton),
including correspondence published in I.M.W. Harvey,
'Some Bampton Letters of the late 15th and early 16th
Century', Oxoniensia 56 (1991), 116–17. Sandbeck
Park (Yorks.) has a survey of Asthall manor in 1673
(MTD/A60/23), while hundredal court records at
Longleat House, Wilts. (NMR 3315, court book
1667–73) and at Arundel Castle (M 535, view of
frankpledge 1500) include references to Alvescot, Black
Bourton, Clanfield, and Kencot. Carterton Town
Council holds useful 20th-century material on the
town in Carterton Town Hall, and the deeds of several
significant houses in the area were consulted by kind
permission of the owners.
MAPS
The earliest reliable maps of the area are Jefferys, Oxon.
Map (1767) and (less accurate) Davis, Oxon. Map
(1797). The first 1" Ordnance Survey maps (sheets 13,
34, and 44–5) were published between 1828 and 1833;
later OS maps include 6", Oxon. XXV, XXX–XXXI,
XXXVI–XXXVII (1883–5 and later edns); 1:2500 (1876
and later edns, indexed in OS Area Bk); and 1:25000,
sheets 45,170, and 180 (1998 and 1999 edns). Copies of
the first edition 6" in Bodl. C 17:49a (Manning collection) include details of changes under the Divided
Parishes Acts, and a few MS annotations.
The earliest known estate map (with accompanying
survey) is one of Black Bourton, made for the duke of
Marlborough after inclosure in 1770 and preserved in
Blenheim Palace muniments (shelf B1, box marked
'1901 schedule, bundle 12 continued'). Maps of parts of
Black Bourton in 1772 and 1827 are in Christ Church,
Oxford (Black Bourton 1 and 2): the later map relates in
part to an 18th-century survey in MS Estates 63, ff. 8–18.
Maps of Asthall before inclosure in 1814 survive in
Gloucestershire Record Office (D 1447/3/15 and D
1447/5/28), together with a map of Lord Redesdale's
estate in Asthall, Swinbrook, and Widford in 1815 (D
1447/5/28). A map of the Friars Court estate in Clanfield
in 1803 (with accompanying schedule) is in BL, Egerton
MS 3021 X, and a survey of 1818 in Exeter Cathedral
(MS Ch. Comm. 13/74363a) shows the nearby Friars
Court Cottages, formerly St Leonard's chapel.
Oxfordshire Record Office holds inclosure maps of
Alvescot (1796), Asthall (1814 and 1862), and Clanfield
(1839), and tithe maps of Clanfield (1839), Minster
Lovell (1840), and part of Black Bourton (1845). Tithe
and inclosure maps of Burroway, Charney (or Sharney)
meadow, Norton meadow, and Bourton meadow show
Thames-side meadows formerly partitioned among
several parishes in the area, and include useful information on boundaries. Inclosure maps of Wychwood
Forest (1857 and 1861–2) include parts of Asthall and
Minster Lovell, as does the printed map in Forest of
Whichwood: Declaration of the Boundaries of the Forest
and Purlieus (1854). Later maps in ORO include those
accompanying valuations under the Finance Act of 1910
(reference DV); particularly valuable are those of
Carterton (DV VIII/336, VIII/340), which depict the
settlement at an early stage in its development. Sale catalogues in ORO, COS, and Bodleian also include several
useful printed maps with schedules (e.g. Sale Catalogue,
Outlying Portions of Blenheim Estates (1894), preserving
early field- and furlong names). No maps of Kencot or
Brize Norton are known before the earliest OS maps.
PRINTED SOURCES
Primary Sources
The most important printed primary sources, including
calendars of major classes in The National Archives
(PRO) and publications of the Oxfordshire Record
Society, are noted in the List of Abbreviations. Those
especially relevant to this area include Bampton Hund.;
Carterton Guide; Earldom of Cornwall Accts; Edington
Cart. (especially for Alvescot); Eynsham Cart. (especially
Brize Norton and Minster Lovell); Oseney Cart. (especially Black Bourton and Clanfield); Rot. Hund. (for
Minster Lovell); Schumer, Oxon. Forests (especially
Asthall); Southwick Cart. (especially Clanfield); and
Thame Cart. (especially Brize Norton). Other printed
sources, besides Oxfordshire trades directories and
miscellaneous sale catalogues in COS, include:
Anon., Forest of Whichwood: Declaration of the Boundaries of the Forest and Purlieus (1854): copy in Bodl.
GA Oxon b 115 (1–2)
W.O. Hassall, 'Minster Lovell in 1602', Oxoniensia 10
(1945), 101–4 (transcript of survey in Holkham
Archives)
L.B. Larking (ed.), Knights Hospitallers in England
(Camden [1st ser.] 65,1857) (Friars Court, Clanfield)
Oxford Journal (formerly Jackson's Oxford Journal)
(1753–1909)
C.D. Ross (ed.), Cartulary of St Mark's Hospital, Bristol
(Bristol Rec. Soc. 21, 1959) (for Alvescot)
Sale Catalogue, Freehold Estate [in Minster Lovell]
(1874): copy in COS
Sale Catalogue, Outlying Portions of Blenheim Estates
(1894): copy in COS
Sale Catalogue, Kencot Manor (1923): copy in Bodl. GA
Oxon. c 224 (12)
Sale Catalogue, Asthall and Swinbrook Estates (1925):
copy in COS
J. Sykes, Carterton, Report and Policy Statement (West
Oxfordshire District Council, 1976): copy in COS
J. Sykes, Carterton Road Industrial Development:
Planning Brief (West Oxfordshire District Council,
1981): copy in COS
J. Sykes, Carterton, Planning Brief for Land off Swinbrook
Road (West Oxfordshire District Council, 1985):
copy in COS
West Oxfordshire Standard
Witney Express (1861–88)
Witney Gazette (1882–)
Books and Articles
Significant secondary works in the List of Abbreviations
include Benson and Miles, Upper Thames; Blair, A-S
Oxon.; Fisher, Hist. Kencot; Lupton, 'Hist. Black
Bourton'; Schumer, Wychwood; Timms and Hicks, Brize
Norton; and DoE, Revised Hist. Bldgs List. Other
secondary works cited (published in London except
where stated) include:
Anon., 'The Oldest-Established Farm Implement
Manufacturers in Britain?' [L.R. Knapp & Co. of
Clanfield]: copy in COS, reprinted from Farm Implement and Machinery Review, 1 Apr. 1962
J.Y. Akerman, 'Ancient Limits of Wychwood Forest',
Archaeologia 37 (1857), 424–40
A.W. Ashby, Allotments and Small Holdings in Oxfordshire (Oxford, 1917), esp. 110–18 (Charterville),
137–40 (Carterton)
R.P. Beckinsale, 'The Shill Brook', Proceedings of the
Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club 38 parts 3 & 4
(1980–2), 71–80
J. Blair, 'St Leonard's Chapel, Clanfield', Oxoniensia 50
(1985), 209–14
P.M. Booth, Asthall, Oxfordshire: Excavations in a
Roman 'Small Town', 1992 (Oxford, Thames Valley
Landscapes Monograph No. 9, 1997)
J.R. Clarke and D. A. Hinton, The Alfred and Minster
Lovell Jewels (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1979 edn)
P.M.M. Cook, 'A Roman Site at Asthall', Oxoniensia 20
(1955), 29–39
P.W. Davis, Brize Norton: the Story of an Oxfordshire
Airfield (Airfield focus series, Peterborough, 2004)
T.M. Dickinson and G. Speake, 'The Seventh-Century
Cremation Burial in Asthall Barrow, Oxfordshire: A
Reassessment', in M.O.H. Carver (ed.), Age of Sutton
Hoo: The Seventh Century in North-Western Europe
(Woodbridge, 1992), 95–130
J.W. Dossett-Davies, 'A West Oxfordshire Village
School [Kencot]', Record of Witney, vol. 3, no. 1 [n.d.,
c. 1998], 2–10: copy in COS
R.L. Edgeworth, Memoirs, ed. M. Edgeworth (3rd edn,
1844) (for Black Bourton)
F.R.L. Goadby, 'An Early "Maternity Home" at Stonelands', Top. Oxon. 21 (1976–7), 14–16
E.A. Greening Lamborn, 'The Lovel Tomb at Minster
Lovell', OAS Rep. (1937), 13–20
J. Guinness, The House of Mitford (1984), esp. chapter
22 (Asthall)
A.M. Hadfield, The Chartist Land Company (Newton
Abbot, 1970), 152–78 (Charterville)
T. Hadland, Thames Valley Papists: from Reformation to
Emancipation (n.p., 1992)
S. Hastings, Nancy Mitford: a Biography (1985) (for
Asthall)
R.C. Hoare, Hungerfordiana, or Memoirs of the Family of
Hungerford (Shastoniae, 1823) (for Alvescot and
Black Bourton)
R. Holgate, Neolithic Settlement of the Thames Basin
(Oxford, BAR British Ser. 194, 1988)
C. Hussey, 'Asthall Manor, Oxon.', Country Life 97
(1945), 1124–7
S.C. Jenkins, 'Minster Lovell Hall', Record of Witney, vol.
2, no. 8 (1997), 137–59
S.C. Jenkins, The Fairford Branch: the Witney and East
Gloucestershire Railway (2nd edn, 1985)
C.E. Keyser, 'Notes on the Churches of Brize Norton and
Black Bourton', Jnl British Archaeol. Assoc. n.s. 21
(1915), 1–12 and 89–96
E.T. Leeds, 'An Anglo-Saxon Cremation-burial of the
Seventh Century in Asthall Barrow, Oxfordshire',
Antiq. Jnl 4 (1924), 113–26
G. Lohmann, Brize Norton County Primary School:
Centenary 1876–1976 (1976): copy in COS
K. Mair, 'The Cornwall Chapel of St Nicholas Church,
Asthall', Oxoniensia 62 (1997), 241–67
B.J. Marples, 'Some Capped Tombs', Oxoniensia 47
(1982), 139–40
A. Mudd, 'Round Barrows of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds',
South Midlands Archaeology 14 (1984), 48–58
C. Paine, 'Working-Class Housing in Oxfordshire',
Oxoniensia 43 (1978), esp. 206–12 (Charterville)
H. Paintin, Three Oxfordshire Churches: Kencot,
Broadwell, and Langford (Oxford, 1911)
W.D. Pereira, RAF Brize Norton: Gateway to the World
(Wellingborough, 1993)
A. Plummer and R.E. Early, The Blanket Makers,
1669–1969 (1969)
E.A. Pocock, History of Clanfield (Clanfield, priv. print.
1999)
E.A. Pocock, 'First Fields in an Oxfordshire Parish',
Agric. Hist. Review 16 (1968), 85–100
D. Postles, 'The Oseney Abbey Flock', Oxoniensia 49
(1984), 141–52 (for Black Bourton)
B. Rodgers, Minster Lovell: A Historic Guide to this
Ancient Village (n.d.)
B. Schumer, 'More on the Origins of Fordwells', Oxon.
Local Hist. 2, no. 2 (Spring 1985), 56–9
P.R. Seldon, The Carterton Story (Carterton Town
Council, 2000)
F. Sharpe and K. Betteridge, 'The "Pre-history" of
Asthall Leigh Memorial Hall', Oxon. Local Hist. 1, no.
8 (Spring 1984), 26–30
J. Steane, 'Asthall Farm', CBA Group 9 Newsletter 9
(1979), 86
J. Steane, 'Roman Road, Asthall', CBA Group 9, Newsletter 9 (1979), 82
C.G. Stevens and J.N.L. Myres, 'Excavations on the
Akeman Street, near Asthall, Oxon.', Antiq. Jnl 6
(1926), 43–53
A.J. Taylor, Minster Lovell Hall (English Heritage, 1985
edn)
A.J. Taylor, 'The Alien Priory of Minster Lovell',
Oxoniensia 2 (1937), 103–17
F.S. Thacker, Thames Highway (Newton Abbot, 1968
edn, in 2 vols)
K. Tiller, 'Charterville and the Chartist Land Company',
Oxoniensia 50 (1985), 251–66
K. Timms, A Family Affair: The Development of A.K.
Timms & Sons of Brize Norton (Brize Norton, 1999)
K. Timms, Stone Upon Stone (n.p., 1991)
T. Worley, Witney District in Old Photographs (Stroud,
1992)
THESES AND UNPUBLISHED MATERIALS
Anon., handwritten history of Minster Lovell in 4
volumes (c. 1953), in Centre for Oxfordshire Studies
A. Davidson, 'Roman Catholics in Oxfordshire' (Bristol
Univ. PhD thesis, 1970)
W.H. Godwin, 'Some of the Memories of Kencott'
(typescript 1962), in Centre for Oxfordshire Studies,
ORCC file 69
J.M. Kaye, unpublished typescript history of estates of
The Queen's College, Oxford (consulted by kind permission of the author, formerly College archivist)
M. Roberts, 'Minster Lovell Hall Access Road, Minster
Lovell: Archaeological Evaluation Report' (Oxford
Archaeological Unit, unpubl. report, 1996)