CHURCH.
Masonry of the 12th century or
earlier re-used in the church porch may be from
the chapel in existence at Yelford by 1221. (fn. 99) In
the later 13th century Yelford's incumbents
were called rectors (fn. 1) and the living remained a
rectory until 1976, when it was absorbed with
Northmoor, Standlake, and Stanton Harcourt
in the united benefice of Lower Windrush. (fn. 2)
Bampton, to whose large pre-Conquest parochia
Yelford belonged, evidently surrendered certain
parochial rights in return for a pension (fn. 3) but was
still claiming Yelford as a dependent chapel in
1318. (fn. 4) That residual dependency probably
concerned burial rights, for, although Yelford
was not named when the mother church claimed
such rights over a wide area in 1405-6, (fn. 5) there
were no known medieval burials in Yelford; (fn. 6) in
the 16th century the Hastings family, despite
rebuilding Yelford church, had its tomb at
Bampton and at least one resident rector was also
buried there. (fn. 7) In the 18th century Bampton was
the usual burial place, (fn. 8) but there were also
burials at Shifford, Standlake, and Ducklington,
the last becoming the favoured place in the 19th
century. (fn. 9) An isolated burial at Yelford, recorded
in the Bampton registers in 1700, apparently
caused controversy because of fears that the
ground might be unconsecrated. (fn. 10) In the 20th
century most Yelford burials were at Standlake.
The advowson, held by Philip Hastings in
1221, descended in the Hastings family with
Yelford manor until 1651; (fn. 11) John Bablake, who
presented in 1368, was an associate and possibly
guardian of Bartholomew Hastings, a minor, (fn. 12)
and a Crown presentation in 1637 was also
during a minority. The Lenthalls held the advowson with the Hastings manor from 1651 until
1949, when it was sold to F. E. Parker. (fn. 13) In 1952
Parker sold it with the manor house to B.
Babington Smith, whose family retained it when
the house was sold in 1984. (fn. 14)
In 1254 the living was valued at 20s. (corrected
to 26s. 8d.), (fn. 15) in 1291 at £2, and in 1341 at only
24s. after allowance for the exempt glebe and hay
tithe. (fn. 16) In 1535 the net value was £4 3s. 5d. after
deductions which included a pension of 5s. to
Bampton; (fn. 17) a 'pension tithe' of 20d., possibly
related to the pension, was still paid from
Yelford in 1848. (fn. 18) In the early 18th century
Yelford was a discharged living valued at £29
10s. net and its stated value changed little until
it was augmented from the Bounty in 1793. (fn. 19) In
1808 its value was £103 and in 1831 £108, which
rose after commutation of tithes in mid century
to nearer £150. (fn. 20) By the late 19th century it had
fallen below £100. (fn. 21)
The tithes from ½ a. of demesne corn and from
3 a. and another piece of land in Yelford field
were payable to Bampton parish in the Middle
Ages. (fn. 22) The rector had the remaining tithes,
which in 1818 comprised those from W. J.
Lenthall's estate (estimated at 315 a.), from
Wadham College's Yelford farm (160 a.), and
from another 80 a. in the open fields of Hardwick. (fn. 23)
In 1708 part of Combe hill in Lew was said to
be tithable to Yelford, but no later reference to
that connexion has been found. (fn. 24) In 1848 the
rector was awarded a rent charge of £65 for
tithes of Lenthall's land, and in 1852 a further
£50 rent charge for the tithes of c. 213 a. in
Hardwick's fields. (fn. 25)
A house and yardland held from the lord by
the rector in 1279 as a freeholder for 10d. a year
was probably additional to the glebe. (fn. 26) In 1625
the rectory house stood south of the church on
the site of the surviving Rectory Cottage, surrounded by a small piece of glebe. (fn. 27) The house
was in disrepair in 1742, (fn. 28) and the rector's
intention to rebuild in 1811 was presumably
unfulfilled, since it was later declared unfit for
clerical residence. (fn. 29) In 1818 it was a cottage with
two ground-floor rooms, and the glebe comprised
its garden and a 4½ a. close let to a farmer. (fn. 30) In
the mid 19th century the glebe was claimed to
be c. 7 a., but only the cottage garden remained
in the mid 20th. (fn. 31) From the 18th century Rectory Cottage was usually let; the tenant for much
of the later 19th century was a farm labourer
who also served as parish clerk and in 1869 held
an alehouse licence. (fn. 32) One room was used as a
vestry until 1958 when the cottage was sold by
the Church Commissioners. The building is
mostly 18th-century with earlier features, including a fireplace with a 4-centred head. There
are foundations, perhaps of the medieval rectory
house, immediately to the south. (fn. 33)
After the parish was depopulated in the 14th
century the living offered an income and few
duties, and many rectors were probably nonresident. No presentations have been found
between 1382 and 1455. (fn. 34) Distinguished latemedieval incumbents included Nicholas West
(1489-98), later a prominent royal envoy and
bishop of Ely. (fn. 35) John Latham (d. 1567) seems
to have been resident for some forty years, and
his bequests to the poor of many neighbouring
parishes suggest that he had been active in a
wide area. (fn. 36) His will implies acceptance of
Reformation changes, but his successor Gregory
Gunnis (resigned 1579) was later arrested at
Henley and imprisoned as a suspected Roman
Catholic priest. (fn. 37) William Wyatt, rector 1579-1624, described as 'sufficient' in 1593, was a local
man, probably resident. (fn. 38) His successor Charles
Hastings (d. 1637) was a younger son of the
patron. (fn. 39)
The rectors presented by the Lenthalls from
the later 17th century were almost all Oxford
graduates and few, if any, were resident. Henry
Newcome (d. 1750), rector for 42 years, resided
elsewhere and seems to have neglected the fabric
of both church and rectory house. (fn. 40) In the later
18th century and the 19th there was a sustained
connexion with Jesus College, of which several
rectors were fellows and two were principals;
W. J. Lenthall, patron 1783-1855, had been
educated at the college. (fn. 41) Yelford was served by
curates, not always local. (fn. 42) One of them, the vicar
of Burford, serving as curate at the patron's
request, was allowed the whole profits of the
living; he argued with the bishop over the need
for weekly services in view of Yelford's remoteness, lack of population, and proximity to other
churches. (fn. 43)
From the 1760s the principal farming family
in Yelford for several generations was nonconformist, reducing the average number of
communicants to 6; services for long continued
fortnightly, becoming weekly in the early 19th
century, by which time curates were paid 30 gns.
or more. (fn. 44) In 1834 there were two Sunday
services, but later in the century only one, with
congregations of fewer than 20, and communion
services at the principal festivals. (fn. 45) From 1899
W. D. Macray, rector of Ducklington, was
licensed to hold Yelford in plurality, which
enabled him to afford an assistant curate to serve
both those churches and Cokethorpe. (fn. 46) From
1912 the living was held with Standlake. (fn. 47)
Services were still held twice monthly in the
1990s.
The church is dedicated to ST. NICHOLAS
AND ST. SWITHUN. (fn. 48) The former dedication
was recorded regularly from 1334; (fn. 49) the latter was
first appended c. 1740 (fn. 50) on the evidence of the will
of Sir John Ardern (d. 1408) which stipulated
burial in St. Swithun's church, Elford, in
fact Elford (Staffs.) but wrongly identified as
Yelford. (fn. 51) The building, only c. 52 ft. long and
16 ft. wide in the interior, comprises a nave and
chancel of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar
dressings, and a south porch of ashlar; the roofs
are stone slated. A carved relief with beaded arcs
reset in the east wall of the porch may be
12th-century or earlier. Otherwise the nave,
chancel, and porch seem to have been rebuilt in
the late 15th century or early 16th, probably
after a period of decay caused by depopulation,
and probably soon after the Hastings family had
returned to residence in the parish. (fn. 52) The
uniform thickness of the walls and standardised
form of window suggest that nave and chancel
were of one build, and the porch was probably
added soon afterwards. A pair of blocked
pointed apertures in the west wall, wrongly
identified as 13th-century lancets, (fn. 53) were bellopenings, probably post-medieval, protected in
the 19th century by a weather-boarded structure
on the exterior. An open bellcote was built over
the west gable in the late 19th century. (fn. 54) The
church, in 'sad disrepair within' in 1869, was
restored and re-seated by 1873; the roofs were
reslated in the 1950s. (fn. 55)
The windows, font, piscina, south door, and
carved wooden screen are all of c. 1500. The
high-pitched roofs of both nave and chancel
retained low-pitched ceilings in 1850; (fn. 56) the
nave ceiling is of c. 1500, oak, with moulded
purlins and cambered tiebeams, and there is a
similar ceiling in the porch; the chancel's higher,
barrel-shaped ceiling was presumably inserted
during the restoration of c. 1870. The lectern
was given in the 1950s and a new pulpit in 1965.
Until 1965 the church was lit by candles or oil
lamps. (fn. 57) There are two bells, one given by
Elizabeth Lenthall in the 1660s, the other,
perhaps originally of the same date, recast for
E. K. Lenthall in 1891. (fn. 58) In 1759 the curate
complained of the lack of communion plate
and in 1792 the rector David Hughes presented a chalice, which was stolen in recent
times. (fn. 59) There were no burials in the church
and the sole memorial is to B. Babington
Smith (d. 1993). The register dates from 1813;
another, dating from 1745, was lost before
1907. (fn. 60) The churchyard shows no sign of
interments, despite the recorded burial there
in 1700. A church repair fund of £80, given
by will of E. K. Lenthall (d. 1907), was
augmented with £500 given by Mrs. E. M. M.
Parker (d. 1969). (fn. 61)