OTHER ESTATES.
Land and a fishery in
Weald granted to Osney abbey c. 1170 descended with the abbey's estate in Lew, and are treated
below. (fn. 15) The Hospitallers held an estate in
Weald and Burroway, attached to their preceptory at Clanfield, by 1279, when they owed 40s.
a year and suit of court to the lord of Bampton
Earls. (fn. 16) In 1575 the Crown granted the land in
Burroway to speculators; (fn. 17) a house and two
freehold yardlands in Weald which owed quitrent to the Hospitallers in 1513 were owned in
1565 by Christopher Cheverell and his wife
Isabel, who leased them, (fn. 18) but no further references have been found.
The Laundels family had land in Bampton by
1302, (fn. 19) and in the earlier 14th century a freehold
and leasehold estate in Bampton, Weald, Lew,
and elsewhere was built up probably by John
Laundels (d. 1361), sheriff and escheator of
Oxfordshire, and his son John, a commissioner
of the peace. (fn. 20) Following Nicholas Laundels's
death his lands passed to his relict Eleanor and
her second husband John Hill of Burford and
later of Bampton, who were in dispute with
Laundels's trustees in 1421-2 and 1433. (fn. 21) The
estate was acquired before 1455 by the Levels
of Minster Lovell, passing on Francis, Lord
Level's forfeiture in 1485 to Jasper Tudor (d.
s.p. 1495), duke of Bedford; (fn. 22) his lands reverted
to the Crown, which probably in 1514 granted
a part, including land in Lew, to Thomas
Howard (d. 1524), duke of Norfolk, but that
estate has not been traced further. (fn. 23) Laundels or
Landells farm (58 a.) in Weald, acquired by John
Dudley (d. 1553), earl of Warwick, may have
been the house and 54 a. which John Laundels
held of Bampton Earls manor in 1361 for service
of a rose, though its location suggests that it was
taken originally from Exeter cathedral's rectory
manor. (fn. 24) Following Dudley's forfeiture the
Crown granted it in 1557 to Thomas Vavasour
of Copmanthorpe (Yorks. W.R.) with 72 a. in
Aston, and in the later 16th century and the 17th
it changed hands frequently, passing by 1645,
without the Aston land, to John Loder of Hatford (Berks.) (fn. 25) and later to the Dewe family of
Bampton and their successors the Hawkinses,
lessees of the parsonage estate. The farm was
sold after Charles Hawkins's death in 1813, and
was split up. (fn. 26) The homestead, which in the 18th
century and early 19th lay on both sides of
Landells Lane west of Bampton Manor, was
presumably the site of Laundels' court mentioned in 1465, (fn. 27) associated perhaps with late
13th-century fortifications excavated on the
lane's north side. (fn. 28) The buildings, of unknown
date, were demolished after 1899. (fn. 29)
In 1687 Jesus College, Oxford, acquired from
the Wood family of Oxford a freehold of c. 4¼
yardlands in Bampton and Weald, built up
during the 17th century by John Palmer (d.
1650) and Bartholomew Coxeter (d. 1664), and
by Coxeter's son-in-law John Gower (d. by
1684). (fn. 30) In the later 19th century and early 20th
the college's estate was increased to c. 650 a. by
the acquisition of, in particular, Backhouse,
Castle, and Ham Court farms, formerly part
of Bampton Earls manor, and of several cottages; (fn. 31) all except Ham Court farm and some of
the cottages was sold in the later 20th century. (fn. 32)
College Farm, at the junction of Clanfield road
and Weald Lane, was the house for the original
college estate, and is a U-shaped building of
limestone rubble with stone-slated roofs. It was
apparently that held in the late 16th century with
Roger Cook's 2 yardlands, and seems to have
been inhabited successively by Palmer, Coxeter,
and Gower. (fn. 33) In 1695 it was let with a kiln and
malthouse to a Bampton mercer, reserving the
great parlour, the dining room, the little room
over the parlour, and use of the kitchen; (fn. 34) about
that time it was rebuilt or entirely remodelled,
re-using or retaining earlier features, (fn. 35) and by
the late 18th century it was let to tenant farmers. (fn. 36) The north range, of two storeys, contained
the parlour and hall, and the west wing the
kitchen, with beyond it a broad passage entry
from the road into the central courtyard. The
east wing, attached only at its north-west corner,
has a large ground-floor fireplace, and in the mid
19th century was used as a brewhouse. (fn. 37)