BAMPTON
BAMPTON, (fn. 1) the centre of an Anglo-Saxon royal
estate and hundred, site of a late Anglo-Saxon
minster, and formerly a market town, lies close
to the river Thames c. 12½ miles (20 km.) west
of Oxford and 4½ miles (7½ km.) south-west of
Witney. (fn. 2) The ancient parish, part of a much
larger parochia dependent on Bampton minster, (fn. 3)
was the largest in Oxfordshire, comprising
11,238 a. in 1877 (fn. 4) and including the townships
or hamlets of Bampton, Weald (from an early
date physically part of Bampton), Lew, Aston
and Cote, Shifford, Chimney, and Lower
Haddon, the last three all shrunk or deserted
settlements. All those townships are treated
below, and Brighthampton, divided between
Bampton and Standlake until the 20th century,
is treated under Standlake. Bampton, Weald,
and Lower Haddon, called townships in the
Middle Ages (fn. 5) and each with their own fields,
were combined for most civil purposes from the
17th century, and in the 19th became a civil
parish of 4,491 a. (fn. 6) Shilton meadow (36 a.) by the
Thames, a detached part of Shilton parish (formerly Berks.), seems to have been included in
Bampton for civil purposes by the early 19th
century, (fn. 7) and detached meadows belonging to
Brize Norton (12 a.) and Black Bourton (27 a.)
were added in 1886 under the Divided Parishes
Act, bringing the total acreage to 4,530 a. (1,832
ha.). (fn. 8) Aston and Cote, a single township with a
shared field system, became in the 19th century
a civil parish of 2,997 a.; Lew (1,642 a.), Shifford
(775 a.), and Chimney (668 a.), all independent
townships, became separate civil parishes. In
1931 Aston and Cote was united with Chimney
to form a new civil parish of Aston Bampton,
enlarged to 4,440 a. (1,797 ha.) in 1954 by the
addition of Shifford. Lew (664 ha.) remained
unaltered in 1981. (fn. 9) Burroway, an area of meadow
by the Thames also treated below, was artificially delineated in 1851 as an extraparochial
area of 31 a., evidently less than its earlier extent.
It was added to Clanfield c. 1886. (fn. 10)
The boundaries of Bampton's perhaps already
diminished parochia were described in 1318,
when they coincided only partly with later parish
boundaries and included Clanfield, Black
Bourton, parts of Alvescot and Ducklington,
Yelford, Standlake, part of Northmoor, and a
small area later in Stanton Harcourt. Presumably
those boundaries reflected earlier arrangements, though they departed in some details
from known pre-Conquest estate boundaries,
and by 1318 seem to have been tendentious; by
then some later parish boundaries within the
former parochia were already hardening. (fn. 11) The
later ancient parish of Bampton (fn. 12) was bounded
on the south and south-west by the Thames, as
in 1318, and by Burroway, Sharney, and Black
Bourton brooks; at the south-west corner the
boundary through intermixed meadows between
the brooks was defined by the inclosure commissioners in 1839 and 1851, and was revised in
1886. (fn. 13) The rest of the western boundary followed furlongs and old inclosures, and, further
north, Norton ditch, evidently the Marsh Haddon brook mentioned in the boundaries of
1318. (fn. 14) The ancient parish's northern boundary
followed part of an ancient route called Abingdon Lane, and, by 1767, a zig-zag line between
Lew and Curbridge heaths, which ran to Elm
Bank ditch; in 969, however, the boundary
seems to have run from the lane (then called the
'old way') to the ditch along a lost branch road,
which continued across a stone bridge or ford
mentioned in 10th-century charters. (fn. 15) That part
of the boundary may have been adjusted before
1044 when an account of Witney's contiguous
boundaries ignored both the ford and the road
and mentioned only a 'new ditch', but the
account seems to have omitted several boundary
points (fn. 16) and it seems more likely that the later
parish boundary resulted from a post-medieval
division of common pasture. Horninga maera
(the boundary of the Horningas), mentioned in
descriptions of Witney's bounds both in 969 and
1044, was preserved in the medieval name Horningmere, denoting land apparently in Lew; Lew
slade, also mentioned in 1044, may have been an
alternative name for Norton ditch. (fn. 17) 'Annieslou',
mentioned in 1318 and referring probably to a
marshy place (O.E. sloh), was apparently at the
intersection of Norton ditch and Abingdon
Lane. (fn. 18)
Elm Bank ditch formed the north-eastern
boundary as far as the southern edge of Barley
Park wood (in Ducklington parish) in the 10th
century and later, (fn. 19) though in 1318 deponents
alleged that the boundary of Bampton's parochia
followed a path, apparently Abingdon Lane,
which met the ditch (then called 'Bernelesdych'
or Barley ditch) apparently also near the wood.
The boundary described may thus have excluded the north-eastern corner of the later
parish, but there is no further evidence for
boundary changes in that area, and deponents
may, as in Ducklington, have cited a convenient
road merely as an approximate landmark. (fn. 20)
From Elm Bank ditch, called the brook of
Aegel's spring in 958, the boundary of the
ancient parish followed a complex series of field
boundaries between the later Claywell and
Newhouse Farms, partly described in a 10th-
century account of Ducklington's boundaries; (fn. 21)
from there it followed the line of early roads
towards Shifford and Brighthampton, preserved
in a notably straight stretch of Aston township's
eastern boundary near Yelford, and in Shifford
township's straight northern boundary. (fn. 22) The
ancient parish's eastern boundary with
Standlake remained ill defined until the 19th
century except through Brighthampton hamlet,
where it followed tenurial divisions; a new
boundary was established at Standlake's inclosure c. 1853, and detached parts of Bampton
parish defined at that date were transferred to
Standlake or Hardwick c. 1886. (fn. 23) Combe Hill,
in Lew township's southern part, was said in
1708 to be tithable to Yelford, but remained part
of Bampton and later of Lew parish. (fn. 24)
The ancient parish was mostly flat and low
lying (c. 65-70 m.), though a steep rise near
Lew's southern boundary, reflected in early
furlong names, (fn. 25) attains over 80 m., and Lew
barrow stands at 107 m. There are smaller hills
south of Lower Haddon Farm, north of Bampton town, and south-east of Weald Lane. Much
of the parish's southern part lay on alluvium, (fn. 26)
which flooded frequently but provided some rich
meadow and pasture; a large tongue of alluvium
between Aston and Cote, used as commons until
inclosure, reaches the parish's north-eastern
edge. Along the southern boundary, the Thames
splits into numerous small streams, a feature
which has prompted comparison with the Dutch
polderlands, and which was reflected in medieval
fieldnames such as Rowney, described with adjoining meadows in the 13th century as an
'island'. (fn. 27) The parish's northern part, including
most of Lew and Lower Haddon townships, lay
chiefly on Oxford Clay, which caused drainage
problems but provided some 'strong corngrowing land', (fn. 28) and there are smaller areas of
Oxford Clay around Weald Lane, north of Aston
village, and immediately north of Old Shifford.
Lew village, Lower Haddon Farm, and houses
along Weald Lane lie on clay, though most
settlements, including the core of Bampton town
and the outlying sites of the castle and the Beam,
are sited on gravel terraces composed of
Summertown-Radley or Flood Plain Terrace
deposits. Gravel also underlay some of Weald's
and Aston and Cote's open fields, and in the 19th
century provided soils of varying quality. (fn. 29)