Economic history
The open fields of
Cogges are ill-recorded. North field, in the
north-west part of the parish around the modern
Northfield Farm, was mentioned from the early
13th century. (fn. 68) A deed in 1302 granted 3 a. in
the fields of Cogges, (fn. 69) but except in North field
the strips were located by reference to individual
furlongs. Langefurlonge and Briddeslande were
mentioned in 1242, the first immediately south
of Manor Farm. (fn. 70) Two holdings described in
1407 included pieces on Sumnere, in Longemedlond, in Shortmedlond, in the furlong called
Lyteldoune, in the furlong beneath Lyteldoune,
at Wedefurwemere, and on the north side of
Southwedemere. (fn. 71) There were three open fields
by the late 17th century, when lands were
divided between Cogges Court field, Gill Mill
field, and Down field, and in 1776 the glebe and
tithes showed the usual threefold division between wheat, lenten grain, and fallow. In the
1770s lands were divided between Upper, Middle, and Town fields. (fn. 72)
The arable included a substantial acreage of
old inclosures. In 1212–13 Newland was laid out
over parts of existing closes in the north-west, (fn. 73)
and numerous closes were mentioned between
the late 16th century and the late 18th. In 1656
Goode's farm was leased with 3 yardlands of
arable and 10 named closes, (fn. 74) and in 1701 the
crop of Broad close was valued at £18 and that
of Jordan's close at £1, implying considerable
acreages. (fn. 75) Old inclosures mentioned in 1787 lay
mostly on the Oxford Clay plateau around High
Cogges, where a group of very small, irregularly
shaped fields, including the field-names Winnings, Grubbis, and Breach, suggest 12th- or
13th-century assarting. (fn. 76)
Medieval Cogges contained large areas of
meadow, wood, and waste. River meadows bordered the Windrush along the entire south-western boundary, on the alluvium and floodplain terrace between Manor Farm and Gill
Mill; meadow 11 furlongs by 2 and hay yielding
10s. a year were recorded in 1086. (fn. 77) Manasser
Arsic (d. by 1190) gave to Eynsham abbey 5 a. in
the meadow called Hengstesei next Thegmed. (fn. 78)
The large meadows Grimesmead and Flemingfield were mentioned frequently from 1228; (fn. 79)
Flemingfield was an inclosed pasture of 40 a. in
1602. (fn. 80) Cogges tenants had rights in Langel
common, on the Witney side of the parish
boundary, which in 1658 was said to be worth
£30 a year and was free for all comers. (fn. 81)
Pasture measuring 3 furlongs by 1 was recorded in 1086, (fn. 82) and in 1228 the prior of
Cogges was in dispute with Robert Arsic and
others over common of pasture in Cogges. (fn. 83) In
the 13th and 14th centuries there was, however,
scarcely any several pasture. There was considerable heathland waste on the east boundary
south of Cogges wood, where a group of rectilinear fields, many bearing the name heath, were
laid out at inclosure in 1787; the adjoining areas
of Eynsham and South Leigh were still heathland ten years later. (fn. 84)
Cogges lay on the south edge of Wychwood
forest, and woodland was of major importance
in its economy. Woodland measuring 18 furlongs by 6 was recorded in 1086. (fn. 85) Cogges wood,
within the medieval forest, was once considerably larger and seems to have included the extraparochial area of Osney hill, also called Cogges
wood in 1216–17. (fn. 86) There seems to have been
vigorous assarting in the 12th century, for
Cogges was one of the few local townships for
which large fines from forest pleas were recorded. (fn. 87) In 1242 Archbishop de Grey acquired
the manorial wood, estimated at 200 a., from the
de la Hayes, who were to receive a cartload of
firewood for every week that they spent at
Cogges, and have 20 pigs in the wood quit of
pannage when it was levied. (fn. 88) The archbishop
had the wood freed from the foresters' regard,
even though it remained within the bounds of
Wychwood. (fn. 89) In 1255 the prior of Cogges was
fined 40s. for unlicensed felling, (fn. 90) and further
clearances during the 13th and 14th centuries
seem to have steadily reduced the area of woodland. Forest proceedings throughout the 14th
century recorded fellings, inclosures, purprestures, and waste committed by the de Greys in
Cogges wood, which was estimated at only
100 a. in 1372; (fn. 91) in 1423 the manor included
60 a. of woodland worth nothing. (fn. 92) In the early
17th century there was a protracted dispute
between Sir William Pope and a lessee who had
felled over 1,000 trees. (fn. 93) Thereafter, depletion
seems to have stopped; the lord was receiving
£70 a year from Cogges coppice in 1660, (fn. 94) and
in 1876 the wood covered c. 212 a. (fn. 95)
In 1086 there was land for 8 ploughteams; 2
were worked on the demesne by 3 servi, but no
tenants or tenant ploughteams were recorded.
The manor retained its pre-Conquest value of
£10. (fn. 96) The apparent under-stocking and the
absence of tenants seem best attributed to scribal omission, though it is possible that the whole
manor was managed as a demesne. There were
agricultural tenants c. 1225, when the vicar was
to receive the rents of 4 cottars and the tithe of
sheaves from 3 villein hides. (fn. 97)
In the 1150s a monk of Fecamp described the
dismal condition of the priory manor: the house
was ruinous; pigs and horses had been killed by
a falling building, and oxen and sheep by pestilence; bad weather prevented cultivation; there
were insufficient ploughs; and the lay lord
sought to repossess all the land which his grandfather had given to Fecamp. (fn. 98) The comments
suggest that Cogges had been seriously disrupted by the Anarchy.
In 1279 the smaller (de Gardinis) moiety of
the main manor had ½ ploughland in demesne.
Seven free tenants were named whose holdings
varied considerably, from 2/3 yardland for 5s. a
year to 4 a. for 2s. Two bondmen held 1 yardland jointly at the lord's will; they owed works 5
days a week except Saturday, between the feast
of St. John the Baptist and Michaelmas, commutable at the lord's will for 3s. 9d.; works in the
rest of the year were commutable for 3s. 9d. (fn. 99)
Only two years earlier free rents had been
assessed at 40s. (compared with 24s. in 1279),
other rents at only 5s.; the demesne was given as
30 a. of arable worth 10s. a year and 6 a. of
meadow worth 6s. a year. (fn. 1)
In 1279 the larger moiety of the manor included two demesne ploughlands with meadow
and adjoining pasture. There were 11 villeins,
10 of whom held ½ yardland and owed works at
the lady's will commutable for 2s. 6d.; the other
villein held 1 yardland, was tallaged at will, and
owed works commutable for 5s. Five cottagers
each held a yardland, could be tallaged at will,
and owed the same service as the villeins. Of 15
named freemen, 6 held between ½ yardland for
10s. 6d. and 1 yardland for 5s. and suit of court
every three weeks; the two tenants of Gill Mill
held ¼ yardland, paying a total of 30s. yearly and
owing suit. The other 7 free tenants held 1 a.
plots, almost certainly houses in Newland, for
12d. each. (fn. 2) In 1311 there were 28 unfree tenants
recorded on the same moiety, and 43 free tenants paying rent of £7 6s. 3 ½d., suggesting
serious omissions in the 1279 survey. Services
owed by seven cottagers and another tenant in
1311, worth 4s. 10 ½d. a year and confined to light
mowing and harvest works, show that commutation had progressed since 1279. The demesne in
1311 comprised the house, 300 a. of arable
worth 100s., 40 a. of meadow worth 66s. 8d., and
several pasture worth 3s. a year. (fn. 3)
The priory lands, not described in 1279,
included in 1294 80 a. of arable worth 1d. an
acre, 22 a. of meadow worth 1s. 3d. an acre, and
9 a. of land held by free tenants paying 5s. 10d. a
year. In 1324 there were 60 a. of arable, 20 a. of
meadow, and rents of 8s. 10d. from free tenants. (fn. 4)
The size of the medieval yardland is unknown,
but in the late 18th century yardlands on the
Wenman estate were estimated at c. 21 ½ field
acres or c. 17 statute acres. (fn. 5)
In 1316 there were 26 contributors to the lay
subsidy, and in 1327 there were 35, including
Wilcote tenants whose numbers, though small,
are uncertain. (fn. 6) The largest contributor to both
subsidies was Robert de Morby, life-tenant of
the de Grey estate, assessed on goods worth £22
in 1316, and £15 in 1327. The second highest
contributor in 1316, Hugh of Standlake, assessed on goods worth 94s. 8d., was perhaps
undertenant of the smaller portion of the manor,
although in 1327 Thomas de Gardinis was only
the fourth highest contributor. At least 17 and
possibly 20 paid less than 2s. in 1316, and 19 in
1327; Alice Jordan, who held 2 yardlands in
villeinage in 1311, (fn. 7) paid 3s. 7d. in 1316. Overall
the value of movables assessed rose from £53
12s. to £98 10s., falling to £70 in 1334. (fn. 8) A
number of peasant families were recorded both
in 1279 and in the subsidy rolls, including the
villein families of Jordan, le Roke, Alriche, and
Grobias, and the freeholding families of Brown
and Hall.
The effects of the Black Death in Cogges seem
to have been limited. (fn. 9) In 1387 rents from tenants on the priory estate totalled 5s. 6d.; there
were then 26 a. of pasture besides common
pasture for 200 sheep and 12 other animals, and
the priory held 1 ploughland containing 75 a. of
arable valued at c. 7d. an acre. The priory house
and dovecot had fallen into disrepair. (fn. 10) The
emphasis on sheep is not unexpected, but the
greatly increased arable value seems at variance
with other evidence; in 1423–4 the main manor
included 180 a. of arable worth 2d. an acre
yearly, with 64 a. of pasture worth 1s. an acre,
114 a. of pasture worth 2d. an acre, and 60 a. of
woodland worth nothing. (fn. 11) The figures suggest
that the arable was losing ground to pasture.
Some customary holdings first listed in 1412
were evidently former demesne; they included
inclosed land called Prior's field in the North
field with a croft, a piece of land called Borehull,
30 a. taken from the demesne, and crofts called
Prior's croft, and Prior's garden; Prior's field
was Priory close in 1776. The land, excluding
the crofts, for which no acreages were given,
totalled c. 77 ½ a., suggesting that the 75 a. demesne ploughland of 1387 had been broken up
into copyholds. Other priory copyholds, mentioned in 1429, were closes called Cogges Hill,
Tofts, Lye field, Middle field, Middle lands,
and Oumphrey. By 1412 the priory meadow of
Grimesmead had also been let out as 7 customary parcels amounting to 13 a., at a total rent of
£1 6s. 4d.; there were other meadows called
Twelveacres and Sydenale. (fn. 12) Both arable and
meadows, including some former open-field
land in North field, had clearly undergone
piecemeal inclosure, again suggesting increased
pastoral farming, and in 1500–1 William
Newman of Cogges converted 20 a. of arable. (fn. 13)
The prosperous Witney merchant Richard
Wenman, who leased the priory manor from
1493, may have done so for the grazing: his will
of 1533 mentions cattle and sheep in Cogges. (fn. 14)
In 1524 there were 25 contributors to the
subsidy, of whom 13 paid 1s. or less. The
highest contributor was Maud Bryan, lessee of
the manor, assessed at 20s. William White,
whose family lived at Cogges for over 200 years
and provided several stewards or bailiffs of
Eynsham abbey, paid 6s. 8d., Richard Bryan 6s.,
and the remaining seven between 5s. and 2s.; the
total contribution was £3 7s. 6d. (fn. 15) Ten tax-payers from Cogges and Wilcote were assessed
on goods ranging from £10 to £3 in 1578, and
one person was assessed on 20s. worth of land.
Walter King, whose family was prominent in
Cogges throughout the 17th century was assessed on £6, two members of the Bryan family
on £4, and Elizabeth White on £3. (fn. 16)
Seventeenth-century inventories confirm that
a small group of families, notably the Whites
and the Constables, were exceptionally prosperous. Jacob White (d. 1662), yeoman, left a total
estate of £570, and Henry White (d. 1677),
gentleman, £923. (fn. 17) Richard Constable (d. 1627)
left £101, Lawrence Constable (d. 1632) £192,
and Lawrence Constable (d. 1668) £136. (fn. 18)
Edward Kearse, who lived in a house of at least
12 rooms, left an estate of over £225 in 1640. (fn. 19)
William Harman (d. 1697) left goods and chattels to the value of £224, Hester Holt £104, and
Sampson Horne, yeoman, £136. (fn. 20) Among
craftsmen William Brooke (d. 1621), weaver, left
£129, but John Lawton, blanket weaver, only
£22 in 1716. (fn. 21)
In 1662 there were 25 contributors to the
hearth tax in Cogges, and six, all assessed on one
hearth, in Newland. (fn. 22) At least 12 farmhouses in
Cogges had 3 or more hearths: Thomas Collier,
lessee of the manor house, had 16, Edward Wise
had 5, and James White had 4, and 9 others,
including members of the Constable, Brinkfield,
Andrews, and Horne families, had 3 hearths.
Nine paid on 2 hearths, and 4 on one. Amongst 4
people discharged tax on account of poverty in
1665 was John Brookes, who at his death four
years later had goods and chattels worth £44. (fn. 23)
Figure 7:
Cogges 1870
In 1517 the demesne of Cogges was let with
the manor house and a dovecot. (fn. 24) In 1542-3 the
lord received its rent of £13 6s. 8d., additional
rents of £24 4s. 10d., and 5s. from perquisites of
court; the unstocked rabbit warren rendered
nothing. (fn. 25) In 1660 the demesne rents amounted
to £382, of which £257 was for the home farm
and £70 for Cogges coppice. Rents from 25
copyholders yielded £17 3s. 5d.; copyholders
owed poultry once a year at Michaelmas,
amounting to 13 capons and 11 hens, valued in
all at 23s. 7d. Sixteen freeholders paid a total
rent of £9 17s. 3d. a year. (fn. 26)
Copyhold grants continued on Cogges manor
throughout the 17th century, although tenants
also held by lease. (fn. 27) In 1718 it was stated that
copyholders but not their widows were to pay
heriot, and that when copyholds became vacant
tenants were to have first refusal. Tops, lops,
and underwood were the tenant's but other
timber for repairs or building was to be had by
application to the court. (fn. 28)
Sheep were kept in large numbers by the
more prosperous farmers in the 17th century.
Jacob White (d. 1662) had a flock valued at
£102; the 96 sheep owned by Laurence Constable (d. 1632) were valued at £20. (fn. 29) Another
Constable had a flock of 60, and William Harman (d. 1697) had 85 sheep. (fn. 30) The average
number of cattle listed in inventories was c. 8
and the highest number 18, including 2 bulls,
kept by William Harman. (fn. 31) Most farmers kept a
few pigs, horses, and some poultry, but only
Jacob White had many, his livestock being valued at £240; he was also a considerable arable
farmer. (fn. 32) The stint in the late 18th century was
40 sheep and 4 cows to a yardland, and there was
unlimited sheep commoning on the heath; in
1735 the cattle commons were said to be sound
enough for good farmers to make up almost half
their income from them. (fn. 33) In the early 18th
century the Hayes, North field, and Cagehills
were common for great cattle from Michaelmas
to Candlemas, the Berrymeads for all cattle, and
Tenacres and the common closes according to
custom. Grimesmead was common at Lammas,
and Burrell when the corn was off. Power's
meadow and other grounds belonging to Gill
Mill on the far side of the river were common
from Lammas to Lady Day. (fn. 34)
Arable farming was varied; corn, wheat, barley, pulse, and hay were the most common
crops. Only one farmer is known to have grown
oats, (fn. 35) and another grew some rye; (fn. 36) vetches,
too, were rare. A typical farmer, Richard Constable (d. 1627), had winter corn, barley, beans,
pulse, and hay, and like most Cogges farmers
seems to have balanced arable with pastoral
farming. (fn. 37)
By 1735 there seems to have been some amalgamation of holdings. John Kearse's two farms
together comprised over 200 a.; the manorial
farm, held by Thomas Beconsale, comprised
400 a., and two others over 100 a. each. There
were some farms of c. 40 a. or less, and c. 500 a.
were let out to small tenants for lives. Several
tenants were in arrears, which on the Harcourts'
Oxfordshire estates generally was blamed on
dull management and old-fashioned farming
methods; (fn. 38) in 1738 Beconsale had to sell up in
order to pay off arrears of over £900, and for a
time part of the manorial farm was kept in
hand. (fn. 39) The priory manor in 1776 comprised c.
101 a. of inclosed arable and meadow worth £78
6s. 2d. yearly, and 26 a. of open-field land worth
£15 1s. 6d. a year; the open fields were said to be
in a very bad state of husbandry, producing on
average only 8 or 9 bu. of wheat an acre and c. 16
bu. of lenten grain. The common meadows were
described as 'exceeding poor land'. (fn. 40) Such
returns presumably encouraged Simon, Earl
Harcourt (d. 1777), and his son George (d. 1809)
to press for inclosure, and in 1777 Simon negotiated to buy the Wenman estate, then comprising
three farms totalling c. 200 a., principally to
enable him to inclose the parish without opposition. (fn. 41)
The parish was inclosed in 1787 under an Act
of the same year. (fn. 42) The total area allotted was
1,489 a., of which 250 a. were former waste;
another 785 a. of land in the parish presumably
comprised old inclosure. (fn. 43) The provost and fellows of Eton were allotted c. 112 a. for glebe and
c. 327 a. for tithe, mostly in the north-west
around Northfield Farm, with a few meadows in
the south-west. Earl Harcourt received c. 977 a.
A member of the family later noted that the
benefits of inclosure had exceeded the most
sanguine hopes. (fn. 44)
In 1786 Cogges was farmed largely by tenants: there were only four owner-occupiers in
the parish, all of them small landowners. Earl
Harcourt had nine tenants, the total assessment
for his land being £ 121 6s. out of £ 169 12s.. for
the parish. (fn. 45) By 1831 there were eight owner-occupiers, (fn. 46) of whom Samuel Taylor, assessed at
£26 15s., had probably bought the lease of the
priory manor in the 1820s. (fn. 47) The total assessment of the parish was then c. £ 194, of which
the Harcourt estate accounted for c. £ 128. Most
of the small owners of 1786 had left by 1831,
perhaps because inclosure had caused them
difficulties.
Inclosure accelerated amalgamation of holdings by successful tenant farmers, and by
1809 the Harcourt estate included six farms of
over 100 a., amongst them Manor farm and
Great High Cogges farm, each over 300 a., and
High Cogges (later Lindsey) farm of 230 a.;
Clementsfield farm was 168 a. (fn. 48) Eton College's
Northfield farm comprised over 400 a. by the
later 19th century. (fn. 49) By 1832 the later farm
pattern was well established. (fn. 50) Most farms were
fairly evenly divided between arable and pasture
or meadow, and land use changed little before
the late 19th century: in 1871 Clementsfield
farm was 64 per cent arable, Great High Cogges
farm was 62 per cent, Lindsey farm 57 per cent,
and Springhill farm and Manor farm c. 40 per
cent. Gill Mill farm, by the Windrush, was
entirely pastoral in 1832, but acquired c. 41 a. of
arable land before 1871, when it remained 75
per cent pastoral. (fn. 51)
Most farms on the Harcourt estate were in a
reasonable state of cultivation in 1871, although
William and Thomas Hollis at Springhill farm
and Manor farm were described as indifferent
farmers, and High Cogges or Lindsey farm, held
by the Lindseys for several generations, was in a
'disgraceful' state and needed draining. (fn. 52) From
c. 1876 several Cogges farmers suffered severely
from the agricultural depression, (fn. 53) their problems being blamed by Frederick Mair, the Harcourts' local agent, on appalling weather,
American competition, and in some cases poor
management. William Hollis was bankrupt by
1877, and Springhill farm was leased to John
Marriott Clinch of Great High Cogges farm on a
separate tenancy; in 1884 Clinch was forced by
debt to give it up, and by 1886 he owed over
£1,500 to the Harcourt estate. In 1877 Harcourt
offered 10 per cent rebates to tenants paying on
time, and in 1881 the rents, which had been
raised c. 1871, were reduced; in 1883, however,
only two tenants were able to pay on time, and
by 1886, despite repeated allowances, only one
of the eight tenants on the two estates in 1876,
Richard Castle of Gill Mill farm, was still in
possession.
In 1878 Mair admitted that nearly all the land
on Clementsfield farm needed draining, and in
1877 John Clinch's wheat was under 3 ft. of
water. Gill Mill farm was flooded in 1872, in
1875, and particularly badly in 1877. In 1878
funds for cleaning the river were raised from
local landholders likely to benefit by the Thames
Valley Drainage Board, with which Mair was
involved, and although in 1879 Gill Mill farm
was again flooded, the scheme was said to have
been generally successful. The Harcourts
undertook piecemeal drainage on several farms
during the 1870s and 1880s, particularly on the
poor clay soil of the former heath around Cogges
wood, and on Manor farm systematic drainage
continued into the 1890s.
In Cogges as elsewhere the depression
prompted a shift from arable to pastoral farming, and between c. 1882 and 1894 c. 400 a. of
arable were converted to permanent pasture,
most of it presumably on the ill-drained Oxford
Clay in the east. By 1917 c. 72 per cent of
agricultural land in the parish was permanent
pasture, compared with c. 38 per cent in 1870,
and the number of cattle had doubled. Most,
particularly on the new clayland pastures, were
beef cattle, although dairying continued on
Cogges and Manor farms which included significant amounts of meadowland by the Windrush. Gill Mill farm was primarily a dairy farm
in 1871 and so remained. Sheep farming continued during the 1880s but declined thereafter;
there were said to be c. 20 or 30 pigs on Manor
farm in the 1910s, but there were apparently
none by 1916. Wheat and barley continued to be
the most important crops, with some swedes,
turnips, and vetches, formerly grown as feed for
sheep, and a small quantity of potatoes.
During the 1880s and 1890s several farms
became amalgamated under the Mawles of
Manor farm, the only family apparently to
weather the depression. Joseph Mawle held
Clementsfield farm from 1887 and Springhill
farm from 1888, bringing the Mawle holding to
682 a., which included much of the better farmland; both Manor and Springhill farms were
sold to the Mawles in the 1920s. Gill Mill farm
was amalgamated probably with Lindsey farm
in the 1890s; Robbins farm, 80 a. farmed with
Northfield farm during the 1870s, was dismembered in 1883. In 1939 the largest farms were
Manor farm, Springhill farm, and High Cogges
and Lindsey farms. (fn. 54)
From the 13th century some inhabitants
found work associated with Witney, especially
in the cloth industry. Newland tenants in
1212-13 included Geoffrey the napper and
Ralph the fuller, and John Milford, a webber of
Cogges, was mentioned in 1400. (fn. 55) Not all the
weavers and broadweavers mentioned in the
17th and 18th centuries worked in Witney; John
Lawton of Newland, for example, described as a
blanket-weaver, worked his own loom and sold
his blankets in Witney. (fn. 56) Also mentioned in the
17th and 18th centuries were carriers, masons,
wheelwrights, and in 1711 a lime burner and
brickmaker, Thomas Lardner, who supplied
bricks for the kitchen garden at Blenheim in
1705 and who seems to have made a good
living. (fn. 57) John Harwood of Cogges, brickmaker,
was mentioned in 1693; in the later 18th century
one of his descendants had a limekiln, still used
in 1803, at Hill Houses on the South Leigh
boundary, and there may formerly have been a
brick kiln on Cogges hill. (fn. 58)
Probably some parishioners were employed
full-time in Witney, and although the employment in the blanket industry declined after the
introduction of new machines in the late 18th
century (fn. 59) the effect in Cogges was mitigated by
the setting up at Newland of Early's blanket
factory and Pritchett's (later Pritchett and Webley's) glove factory by the early 19th century. (fn. 60)
Between 1801 and 1831 the proportion of
inhabitants involved in trade, manufacture, and
handicrafts rose from c. 7 per cent to over 30
per cent, (fn. 61) and in 1841 there were 20 weavers
and 13 glovers at Newland, besides 9 carpenters,
6 stonemasons, 6 shoemakers, 4 bakers, a
butcher, a fuller, a plumber, and a plasterer.
Newland was by then effectively a part of Witney rather than of the rural community, although there was also a blacksmith, a saddler, 2
horsekeepers, and many agricultural workers,
whose number declined in the later 19th century. (fn. 62) By 1883 the Cantwell family, stone-masons in the 1840s and 1850s, were established
as builders on Abingdon Lane at Cogges, and
William Hollis, a blacksmith in 1854, had set up
on South Leigh Lane at High Cogges as Hollis
and Son, wheelwrights and agricultural implement manufacturers and agents. (fn. 63)
During the 1910s and 1920s there was a shop
and carpentry business at High Cogges, and the
agricultural implement business continued in
the 1930s; near Cogges there was still a shop and
a small dairy on Stanton Harcourt Road in the
1940s. (fn. 64) In the 1970s the extension of large
housing estates with shops and other amenities (fn. 65)
effectively absorbed Cogges village into Witney;
in 1988 High Cogges remained a separate, scattered farming community, but most of the rural
trades had disappeared.
Mills and Fisheries
In 1086 there was a mill
at Cogges, worth 10s. (fn. 66) The manorial mill, at the
southern tip of the parish, was called Gold Mill
(later Guilden, Guild, and finally Gill Mill) by
1279. (fn. 67) Gill Mill formed a small freehold estate
within the manor in 1423–4 (fn. 68) and 1660. (fn. 69) In
1550 it was held by Richard Curson, gentlesman. (fn. 70) In 1564, when Vincent and Elizabeth
Curson granted it to Richard Wright, the mill
had a house and garden attached, with 3 a. of
land, 6 a. of wood, 16 a. of meadow, and 20 a. of
pasture. (fn. 71) Another Richard Wright and his son
of the same name were owners and millers in
1638. (fn. 72) The mill was sold in 1639 to William
Stonehouse of Cokethorpe, (fn. 73) in 1642 to Edward
Perrott of North Leigh, and in 1670 to Sir
Thomas Gore, the owner of South Leigh. (fn. 74) The
Wrights may have remained tenants, for a
Richard Wright held land in Cogges in 1660. (fn. 75)
From 1670 the mill was leased separately from
the house and garden to John Carter of Witney,
fuller; in 1704 and 1712 there were two fulling
mills there. (fn. 76) Gill Mill was apparently still
worked c. 1803, but by 1832 was part of the
farm. (fn. 77)
The priory mill, (fn. 78) on the Windrush north of
the priory, existed by 1242. (fn. 79) It was worth 20s.
in 1294 and the same value as a fulling mill with
adjoining croft in 1387. (fn. 80) It was demised in 1406
to John Brayne, who held it as a customary
tenement at 20s. rent in 1429. (fn. 81) The mill, with
the adjoining meadow called Mullenham, was
regularly leased by Eton College between 1457
and 1702, but seems to have ceased working
before 1704. (fn. 82)
In 1279 the de Greys held a free fishery in the
Windrush between their manor house and Gill
Mill. In the 18th century it was let to tenants for
£3 a year. (fn. 83)