Sources

A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 15, Bampton Hundred (Part Three). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2006.

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Citation:

Christina Colvin, Carol Cragoe, Veronica Ortenberg, R B Peberdy, Nesta Selwyn, Elizabeth Williamson, 'Sources', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 15, Bampton Hundred (Part Three), ed. Simon Townley( London, 2006), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol15/pp253-256 [accessed 10 December 2024].

Christina Colvin, Carol Cragoe, Veronica Ortenberg, R B Peberdy, Nesta Selwyn, Elizabeth Williamson, 'Sources', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 15, Bampton Hundred (Part Three). Edited by Simon Townley( London, 2006), British History Online, accessed December 10, 2024, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol15/pp253-256.

Christina Colvin, Carol Cragoe, Veronica Ortenberg, R B Peberdy, Nesta Selwyn, Elizabeth Williamson. "Sources". A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 15, Bampton Hundred (Part Three). Ed. Simon Townley(London, 2006), , British History Online. Web. 10 December 2024. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol15/pp253-256.

In this section

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UNPUBLISHED SOURCES AND MAPS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)