Broadwell Parish: Broadwell

BROADWELL TOWNSHIP

Broadwell village, which in the early 21st century was a small rural settlement of around fifty houses, (fn. 1) lies some 5 miles (8 km) south of the former market town of Burford, and 7½ miles (12 km) south-west of Witney. The parish's name implies that Broadwell was the primary focus of the late 11th-century estate, and the village retains a medieval parish church of some size and importance, adjoining an abandoned medieval manorial site. (fn. 2) Nevertheless by the late 13th century Filkins was at least as populous, and by the later Middle Ages it had overtaken Broadwell, remaining the larger (and apparently the wealthier) settlement thereafter (see Table 1). (fn. 3) In contrast to Filkins, with its prosperous yeoman and gentry houses, Broadwell has few domestic buildings of note, other than the former vicarage house (now Finial House) and the early 19th-century Manor Farm near the church. The township boundaries between the two settlements were defined at inclosure in 1776, and are described above; otherwise Broadwell's boundaries were those of the ancient parish. (fn. 4)

Communications

In 1320 the king's highway from Lechlade and Langford passed north-eastwards through the lower part of the parish, leading to Kencot and on towards Burford and Witney (Figs 2 and 6). (fn. 5) This was the road along which settlement developed, forming the main street through the village. Several lanes branched south-eastwards into surrounding arable and meadow, among them a 'way' leading to Summerleaze or Summer Leys pasture and to the meadows around Edgerly and Cottesmore. (fn. 6) Possibly that was the later Calcroft Lane, which crosses Broadwell brook at Broadwell mill, and which was described in 1776 as an ancient public road from Broadwell to Clanfield. Other early tracks included Mackige, Mackage, or Maggott's Lane near Lower Farm, and the unidentified Drove Lane. (fn. 7)

Other lanes led northwards and north-westwards towards Filkins, to the Downs and Bradwell Grove, and to Holwell and Burford. King's Lane, leading to Upper Filkins from Broadwell's village street, was so called by 1776, probably from the local King family, who were yeomen in Broadwell in the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 8) A lane linking Filkins with Broadwell church was called 'church way' by 1531, but gradually fell out of use after Filkins church was built in 1855–7. (fn. 9) Wood way, mentioned in the 17th century, (fn. 10) was probably an intersecting lane which ran northwards towards Bradwell Grove, meeting the main Lechlade–Burford road north of Filkins. Possibly this was the road from Broadwell to Bradwell Grove mentioned in 1320, but it seems to have fallen out of use at or soon after inclosure, and thereafter Broadwell was linked to Burford only via Filkins or Kencot. (fn. 11) The road through Bradwell Grove to Holwell was made more direct around 1814, with William Hervey's agreement as landowner. (fn. 12) Broadwell's roads were maintained by the manor courts or by parish officers until 1863, when responsibility passed to the Bampton West Highway District Board. (fn. 13)

No village carriers are recorded, but presumably inhabitants used those operating from Kencot and Langford in the 19th century. (fn. 14) The nearest railway station was two miles east at Alvescot, opened in 1873 on the East Gloucestershire line to Fairford (Glos.), and closed in 1962. (fn. 15) Bus services continued thereafter, and in 2010 Broadwell was served by regular daily services to Carterton and Swindon. Post was delivered through Lechlade (Glos.) from the mid 19th century, and a village letter box was provided on the main street near the vicarage house. A sub post-office was opened near Lower Farm in the early 20th century, and until the mid 1930s was run by Emma Young with the village shop. It continued in the 1970s, but was subsequently closed. (fn. 16)

Settlement and Population

Early Settlement

A Neolithic polished flint axe was found near the Shilton parish boundary close to Bradwell Grove, (fn. 17) and linear and circular features south-east of the present village near Broadwell mill suggest prehistoric or later settlement. (fn. 18) In contrast with neighbouring Filkins no archaeological evidence for Roman or early Anglo-Saxon activity is known, but by the late 10th century Broadwell belonged to a large royal and comital estate which included Langford and several neighbouring settlements. Presumably an emerging settlement existed at Broadwell as at other places within the complex, and by the mid 11th century it had become the focus of a substantial independent estate held probably by Aelfgar (d. 1062), earl of Mercia. Domesday Book implies both a large population and a large demesne farm, run in part by a sizeable body of slaves or servi. The form of the settlement is unknown, although it may already have been concentrated along the Langford-Kencot highway, and around the adjoining sites of the medieval manor house and church. (fn. 19)

Population from 1086

In 1086 Broadwell manor contained 74 tenant households in all, including 14 slaves who were probably housed near the demesne farm. Otherwise there is no indication of how many of the tenants lived in Broadwell itself, as opposed to at Filkins, Holwell or Kelmscott. (fn. 20) By 1279 Broadwell village contained 35 tenant households, of which two were headed by freeholders and the rest by unfree villeins or cottagers; since the demesne farms of all three manors were based in Broadwell, the overall population may have been between 150 and 190. (fn. 21) The 20 or so Broadwell land-holders paying tax in the early 14th century probably each represented a household, and there must have been others too poor to pay tax; nevertheless in 1377 only 46 adults aged over fourteen paid poll tax, which even allowing for evasion implies population loss through plague or emigration. (fn. 22)

The population had probably not fully recovered by the early 16th century, when around 14 householders regularly paid tax. Long before then Filkins had overtaken Broadwell as the largest settlement in the parish (Table 1). (fn. 23) In 1642 the obligatory protestation oath was taken by 121 adult men in the three villages of Broadwell, Filkins, and Holwell, suggesting a total adult population of 240–50; of those, perhaps 70–75 lived in Broadwell. Thirty one Broadwell landholders were taxed the same year, and in 1662 twenty two houses were assessed for hearth tax. (fn. 24) In 1676, when the combined adult population of Broadwell, Filkins, and Holwell was around 300, the total number of people living in Broadwell was presumably well over a hundred. (fn. 25)

Population seems to have risen only slowly during the 18th century. In 1738 Broadwell probably contained around a quarter of the 136 houses noted in the four hamlets, and by the later 18th century it had 30–40 houses and 200 inhabitants. (fn. 26) During the 19th century its population generally remained around 200, with peaks of 234 in 1811, and 255 (the highest recorded figure) in 1881, when there were 54 households. Presumably because of agricultural depression numbers fell to 202 by 1901 and to 177–90 in the early decades of the 20th century, and during the later 20th century, as agricultural jobs disappeared, the population dwindled further. In 2001 the civil parish had 120 inhabitants accommodated in 54 houses. (fn. 27)

Development of the Village

The 'broad stream' to which the place name refers (fn. 28) was almost certainly Broadwell brook, which formed part of the estate and parish boundary, and which from the Middle Ages was powerful enough to drive several corn mills. (fn. 29) Less likely candidates are Langhat ditch and the stream adjoining Broadwell churchyard, which still divides Broadwell from Kencot. The church itself lies at the extreme north-eastern edge of the village, and existed by the mid 12th century. (fn. 30) Some early settlement presumably grew up around there and around the adjacent manor-house site, now partly occupied by Manor Farm: by 1320 the site was divided between two separate Broadwell manors, each of which had neighbouring complexes of farm and domestic buildings there. Abandoned manorial buildings may lie under uneven ground to the north of the church and Manor Farm, with some others under the adjoining vacant field known as 'Burnt Backside' (Fig. 7), where in the 19th century foundations were said to be 'plainly visible' in dry weather. (fn. 31) Medieval embellishments to the church suggest some local prosperity, (fn. 32) and in the 15th century an octagonal cross with five tiers of kneeling places was erected just outside the churchyard (Fig. 13). (fn. 33) Presumably that was the 'high cross' mentioned in 1540, (fn. 34) and it remained a social focus in the 1590s when local women gathered there to gossip about their neighbours. (fn. 35)

The present village consists of a ribbon development of cottages and farmsteads spread out along the single village street, a pattern well established by the 18th century (fn. 36) and probably from the Middle Ages. As elsewhere in the area, surviving buildings are of limestone rubble with stone-slated roofs, and date mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, with a few later alterations and additions. (fn. 37) The cottages are interspersed with a few larger buildings. Finial House (the former vicarage house) is of 16th or 17th-century origin, (fn. 38) while Lower Farm and Broadwell House began as farmhouses probably in the 17th century, before being substantially altered and enlarged over the next two hundred years. The Old Manor, another former farmhouse, was built in the late 18th or early 19th century with a symmetrical three-bayed front, a pedimented door hood, and ashlar dressings. (fn. 39) The only other house of note is Manor Farm (Fig. 9) near the church, built in 1804 by the Lechlade builder Richard Pace for William Hervey of Bradwell Grove, to provide accommodation for Hervey's agent and tenant Joseph Large. (fn. 40) The sole institutional building was the village school built in 1847 (Fig. 11), which in the early 21st century housed a private nursery school. (fn. 41) A war memorial cross was erected in the churchyard c. 1920, commemorating parishioners killed in the First World War. (fn. 42)

By the end of the 20th century most cottages had been amalgamated with their neighbours to make larger dwellings, and as elsewhere many farm buildings were turned into houses. Among them was a former malt house, possibly that owned by the local Turner family in the 18th century. (fn. 43) One or two poor-quality cottages were demolished in the 1950s, but there was very little new building to compensate. Electricity was available by 1939, although in 2011 many houses still lacked mains drainage. (fn. 44)

Bradwell Grove and Other Outlying Sites

Until inclosure in 1776 there was virtually no outlying settlement, and only a few outlying farmhouses (mostly in Filkins township) were built thereafter. (fn. 45) A pre-decessor of Broadwell mill, on Broadwell brook near the parish's south-eastern edge, existed by the 1180s and possibly by 1086; (fn. 46) the surrounding area was called Cottesmore (i.e. Cott's marsh) by the late 10th century, when it was held by Aethelmaer (d. 982), ealdorman of Hampshire, but there is no evidence of settlement there, and in the 14th century it was low-lying meadow and pasture. (fn. 47)

Bradwell Grove, a sizeable woodland area in the northern part of the parish, included a house of gentry status by the mid 17th century. (fn. 48) Settlement around the crossroads with Akeman Street may have originated earlier, and in the 1750s included a short-lived pub or inn. (fn. 49) From the early 19th century the newly built Bradwell Grove House became the centre of William Hervey's extensive Bradwell Grove estate, (fn. 50) and over the following decades lodges and a few scattered houses and cottages were built for estate workers (Fig. 10). (fn. 51) Many of those employed at the house or neighbouring farm came from nearby settlements including Holwell, however, and not until the late 20th century was there larger-scale domestic building a little further north along the Burford road. (fn. 52)

Military activity followed during the Second World War. Bradwell Grove Camp was built in estate woods just over the parish boundary in Shilton around 1942, and in the latter part of the war became a large American army camp, its field hospital used to treat casualties flown in to nearby airfields. Broadwell aerodrome, so called despite actually lying in Kencot parish, was also built on estate land, and played a significant role in the build-up to D-day. (fn. 53) In 1944 there were plans to set it aside for afforestation, but the site was later bought for development as a golf course and remained semi-derelict in the early 21st century, when the runways were still visible. (fn. 54)

The field hospital was used after the war as a music school for the Royal Marines, and in 1947 became a hospital for 'mental defectives', under the supervision first of Wiltshire Health Authority and later of the Oxfordshire Area Health Authority. Staffing problems in such an isolated area, combined with the expense of maintaining the old army huts, led to its closure in the late 20th century, when the services were relocated. (fn. 55) By 1998 the site had been transformed into a new housing development called Bradwell Village, whose design, 'in true Cotswolds tradition', was compared with that of the model village of Poundbury in Dorset. The development acquired its own village hall, although inhabitants relied primarily on amenities in Burford and other neighbouring towns. (fn. 56) By then Bradwell Grove woods also contained a caravan park, along with the Cotswold Wildlife Park in the grounds of the 19th-century mansion. (fn. 57)

MANORS AND ESTATES

In the early 11th century the whole of what became Broadwell, Langford, and Broughton Poggs parishes almost certainly belonged to a single royal estate, which was held by prominent earls perhaps ex officio. (fn. 58) The Langford and Broughton Poggs parts were separated before the early 1060s, when Broadwell manor, assessed at 24¼ hides and apparently including most of Broadwell, Filkins, Holwell, and Kelmscott, was held by Aelfgar (d. 1062), earl of Mercia. (fn. 59) The manor appears to have remained largely intact until the 12th century, when piecemeal grants, followed by an early 13th-century partition between coheirs, resulted in all four of Broadwell's townships becoming divided among three large manors for the remainder of the Middle Ages, one of them under secular lordship, and the others owned by Cirencester abbey and the Knights Templar (later the Hospitallers). Two large freeholds in Filkins became reputed manors during the later Middle Ages. (fn. 60)

Sales and grants after the Dissolution produced several new estates and freeholds, of which one (in Holwell) became a reputed manor. From the early 17th century, however, the core of the three medieval manors was reunited under the Hampson family, passing eventually to William Hervey (d. 1863). During the early 19th century Hervey built up an estate of over 2,000 a. centred on Bradwell Grove (in Broadwell), which included the remains of the manors together with several smaller estates, and which extended into surrounding parishes. The Bradwell Grove estate survived in the early 21st century when it was owned by the Heyworth family, though by then much of the former Broadwell parish was in private ownership. (fn. 61)

Broadwell Manors

Descent to c. 1223

By 1086 the 24¼-hide Broadwell manor (including most of Broadwell, Filkins, Holwell, and Kelmscott) was held by Eadgar Aetheling's sister Christina. (fn. 62) Following her brother's rebellion her lands were granted to Ralph de Limesy (d. 1093), who gave land in Filkins to Hertford priory. The rest of the manor passed to his son Ralph (d. c. 1129) and grandson Alan (d. by 1162), who further endowed Hertford priory, and who gave 5 hides in Broadwell to the Knights Templar. (fn. 63) From Alan, the rest of the manor passed presumably to his son Gerard (d. by 1185) and grandson John (d. 1193), who in 1190 owed the king 1 mark for the right to hold Broadwell in preference over Ralph of Worcester. (fn. 64)

John de Limesy's heirs were his sisters Basile and Eleanor, both minors. (fn. 65) A third sister, Amabel, was later alleged to have held the manor for life by force with her first husband Hugh Bardolf (d. 1203), the chief justiciar, and her third husband Robert of Ropsley, constable of Bristol. (fn. 66) Certainly Bardolf was granted custody of John's heirs in 1193, (fn. 67) while in 1212 Ropsley held the Limesy barony in wardship, (fn. 68) and in 1215 custody of Broadwell manor, lately held by Robert of Ropsley, was granted to Thomas Mauduit. (fn. 69) Before 1223 the manor was nevertheless divided between the surviving heirs, half passing to Basile and her husband Hugh d'Oddingseles, and the rest to Eleanor and her husband David de Lindsay. (fn. 70) The two halves descended separately thereafter, becoming regarded as separate manors.

Bradwell Odyngsell Manor (c. 1223–1655)

The d'Oddingseles' half of Broadwell manor, known from the 16th century as Bradwell (or Broadwell) Odyngsell, included land in all four townships. (fn. 71) During the 13th century it was assessed (like the Lindsays' share) at 1 knight's fee, and was held in chief, (fn. 72) although in 1301 Henry de Pinkeny (as lord of the Lindsay part) unsuccessfully claimed overlordship. (fn. 73) The manor was sometimes still assessed at 1 knight's fee in the 14th and earlier 15th century, (fn. 74) but at only one fifth of a fee in 1336 and 1347 and at half a fee in 1404, perhaps following its reduction by late 13th-century land grants. (fn. 75) In the late 16th century it was again alleged to be held of the former Lindsay manor, to which the lord was said to owe suit of court. (fn. 76)

From Hugh d'Oddingseles (d. 1239) the manor passed through the male line to Gerard (d. 1267), Hugh (d. 1305), and Sir John d'Oddingseles (d. 1336). (fn. 77) John was succeeded under an earlier settlement by his widow Emme (d. 1347) and son Sir John, who in 1349 granted the manor to Richard de Hastang for life, and whose lands were briefly seized by the Crown c. 1351. (fn. 78) The younger John died in possession in 1352, to be succeeded by his widow Amice (d. 1361) and son Sir John (d. 1380), (fn. 79) whose lands were briefly seized for felony in 1358; (fn. 80) his son John (later Sir John) came of age c. 1386 and died in 1403, (fn. 81) to be followed by his son Sir Edward, who was of age by 1415. (fn. 82) In 1446 Edward settled most of the manor on his son Gerard and daughter-in-law Margaret, who in 1485 settled the rest on themselves and their heirs. (fn. 83) Thereafter the manor passed apparently through the male line to Edward (fl. 1502–9), Edmund (d. 1523), Edmund (d. 1558), and John, who fell into serious debt and sold his estates piecemeal. (fn. 84)

Most of the manor, with lands in Broadwell, Filkins, and Kelmscott, was conveyed in 1563 to Peter Hyde (who was probably a trustee), and in 1570 to John Thompson (d. 1591), who had already bought a part in 1562–3. (fn. 85) The land in Holwell was sold separately, and remained a distinct estate until the 19th century. (fn. 86) Before 1589 (and possibly by 1585) two thirds of Thompson's lands were seized by the Crown because of his Roman Catholicism, and in 1590 it was alleged that he had let all or part to Sir Laurence Tanfield in order to defraud the Crown. (fn. 87) The seizure was cancelled in 1593 when the Crown restored ownership to John's son Robert (d. 1601), who in 1603 was succeeded by his brother John, another recusant. (fn. 88) In 1627–30 John and his wife Anne sold the manor to Thomas Hampson (d. 1655) of Taplow (Bucks.), whose brother Nicholas had already acquired the other two Broadwell manors. (fn. 89) Following Nicholas's death in 1637 all three manors were effectively reunited as a single estate, with lands in all of the Broadwell townships except for Holwell. (fn. 90)

Bradwell Cirencester Manor (c. 1223–1655)

Following the division of Broadwell manor in the early 13th century (fn. 91) the Lindsays' half, known from the 16th century as Bradwell Cirencester, passed successively from Eleanor de Limesy and her husband David de Lindsay (d. by 1219) to their children David (d.s.p. 1241), Gerard (d.s.p. 1246), and Alice, who married Henry de Pinkeny (d. 1254). (fn. 92) There were, however, complex subdivisions among the family. A ploughland was reportedly given by the younger David to Alice and Henry, who c. 1242 enfeoffed Laurence de Brok, while another ploughland was given to David's relative Richard de Bickerton. Both those holdings were acquired by Peter of Ashridge, who gave them to his brother Jordan; he in turn gave them to Cirencester abbey (Glos.), (fn. 93) which by 1279 held all or most of the Lindsay manor of Robert de Pinkeny (d. 1296), Henry de Pinkeny's grandson. (fn. 94) The manor (assessed at 1 knight's fee) still included lands in Broadwell, Holwell, and Filkins, (fn. 95) and a further ten yardlands in Kelmscott, Filkins, and Holwell (subinfeudated by David de Lindsay to Roland d'Oddingseles) were acquired by the abbey after Roland's death c. 1316. (fn. 96) The Pinkenys' over-lordship continued until 1301, when Robert's brother Henry (d. 1315), Lord Pinkeny, surrendered his lands to the Crown. (fn. 97) A separate knight's fee, reportedly still held by Peter of Ashridge, was mentioned in the early 14th century and again (probably in error) in 1401–2. (fn. 98)

Following Cirencester abbey's dissolution in 1536 the manor passed to the Crown, which in 1542 sold it with the former Hospitallers' manor of Bradwell St John to Sir Thomas Pope (d. 1559) of Wroxton. (fn. 99) He was succeeded by his brother John (d. 1583) and nephew William, later earl of Downe, (fn. 100) who in 1599 sold both manors to Sir Robert Hampson (d. 1607), a citizen and alderman of London; Hampson's family had been lessees of the demesne farm since the early 16th century. (fn. 101) The manors passed from Sir Robert to his elder son Nicholas (d. 1637) and younger son Thomas (d. 1655), purchaser of Bradwell Odyngsell manor; (fn. 102) thereafter all three manors descended together. (fn. 103)

Bradwell St John Manor (c. 1223–1655)

The manor of Bradwell St John, so called from the 16th century, (fn. 104) originated in Alan de Limesy's grant to the Knights Templar in the mid 12th century of five hides in Broadwell, together with the church and rectory estate, and meadow at Cottesmore. (fn. 105) During the 13th century the Templars repeatedly sought warranty for six hides or 13 librates of land against owners of the other manors. (fn. 106) In 1279 they held over 24 yardlands in Broadwell, and another hide was held for 4 marks' rent of Brimpsfield priory (Glos.), whose right is otherwise unrecorded. (fn. 107) Following the Templars' dissolution the manor was seized by Edward II, (fn. 108) who gave it to Hugh le Despenser (d. 1326) with other lands formerly belonging to the Templars' preceptory of Temple Guiting (Glos.). In 1328, after Despenser's fall, Edward III granted the Temple Guiting estates to his clerk Master Pancius de Controne, (fn. 109) who in 1340 granted them to Sir William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon. (fn. 110) Longstanding claims by the Knights Hospitaller, who counted Bradwell St John among their possessions in 1338, (fn. 111) seem to have been vindicated soon after, and the Hospitallers' preceptory of Quenington (Glos.) retained the manor until the Dissolution. (fn. 112) In 1542 the manor was granted to Sir Thomas Pope, whose nephew sold most of it to the Hampsons in 1599 with Bradwell Cirencester. (fn. 113)

The Reunited Manor and the Bradwell Grove Estate (1655–2011)

Thomas Hampson, a baronet from 1642, died in 1655, and under a settlement of 1650 his combined manors of Bradwell Odyngsell, Bradwell Cirencester, and Bradwell St John passed to his son Sir Thomas Hampson (d. 1670) and grandson Sir Dennis Hampson (d. 1719), both baronets. (fn. 114) By 1673 Dennis was in debt, and in 1696, following numerous mortgages, he appears to have lost control of his property to various creditors. In 1703 they sold the estates to George Hamilton (d. 1737), 6th earl of Orkney, who freed the Broadwell estate from incumbrances only in 1719. (fn. 115) In 1723 Hamilton added lands centred on Bradwell Grove House, which John and Anne Thompson had separately sold to Sir Laurence Tanfield (d. 1626), and which had subsequently passed to Tanfield's grandson Sir Lucius Cary (d. 1643), Viscount Falkland, by sale to William Lenthall (d. 1662), and through the male line to Lenthall's great-grandson John (d. 1763). (fn. 116) Hamilton also acquired the 490-a. Oxleaze farm in Broughton Poggs parish. (fn. 117)

Under his will Hamilton was succeeded by his eldest daughter Anne (d. 1756), styled countess of Orkney. In 1753 she and her husband William O'Brien (d. 1777), 4th earl of Inchiquin, settled their Broadwell lands on their only surviving daughter Mary (d. 1790), a deaf mute who in 1756 became countess of Orkney. Her husband Murrough O'Brien (d. 1808), 5th earl of Inchiquin from 1777 and marquis of Thomond from 1800, acquired a life interest, and from 1776, although the estate was entailed on their children, they gained outright control. (fn. 118) O'Brien fell heavily into debt: in 1765 he was in the Marshalsea debtors' gaol in London, (fn. 119) and he continued to charge his inheritance with various annuities. (fn. 120) In 1777, with the agreement of his wife and daughter, he mortgaged the estate, resulting in litigation to safeguard his grandson's inheritance. (fn. 121) O'Brien, his daughter Mary (d. 1831), countess of Orkney, and her son John Hamilton Fitzmaurice, Viscount Kirkwall, were all parties to the sale of the combined Broadwell manor to William Hervey in 1804. (fn. 122)

Hervey's initial purchase of over 2,300 a. in Broadwell, Filkins, Broughton Poggs, and Kelmscott, thenceforth called the Bradwell Grove estate, was encumbered by O'Brien's debts until 1815. (fn. 123) Hervey greatly increased the estate, buying all of Holwell (some 970 a.) in 1838–9, the Filkins Hall estate in 1849, and other smaller parcels. (fn. 124) He died in 1863 leaving his estate to Henry William Vincent, who was succeeded in 1865 by his daughter Susan Anne, wife of Lt.-Col. John Henry Bagot Lane. (fn. 125) Under Hervey's will the remaining Kelmscott land was sold in 1864, (fn. 126) and in 1871 Lane sold the rest of the Bradwell Grove estate, then 3,690 a. in Broadwell and neighbouring parishes, to William Henry Fox (d. 1920), son of a Yorkshire industrialist and umbrella manufacturer. (fn. 127) In 1875 Fox added the rectory estate in Broadwell and Filkins, (fn. 128) and despite the sale of 170 a. in Filkins in 1914 (fn. 129) the estate totalled 5,114 a. by 1921, when it was sold after Fox's death. (fn. 130) Most, including Bradwell Grove House, was bought by Lt.-Col. Cecil Heyworth-Savage (d. 1949), whose grandson John Heyworth retained some 3,000 a. in 2001. (fn. 131)

Manorial Sites and Manor Houses

Manor houses for all three Broadwell manors existed probably by the late 13th century, when each of the manors included home farms held in demesne. (fn. 132) Houses for Bradwell Odyngsell and Bradwell Cirencester manors adjoined each other close to the church, on what was probably the divided site of an earlier, 11th- or 12th-century manor house. (fn. 133) The site of the Templars' house for Bradwell St John manor is unknown, though a 'capital mansion' called Templars' Farm still existed in the early 17th century, when it was let to local tenants with the demesne farm. (fn. 134) Surviving buildings on the Bradwell Odyngsell site were replaced in 1804 by the existing Broadwell Manor Farm, William Hervey having adopted Bradwell Grove House, in woodland to the north, as his main residence. (fn. 135)

Bradwell Odyngsell and Bradwell Cirencester Manor Houses

In the early 14th century Cirencester abbey's manor house or 'court', presumably comprising agricultural buildings and accommodation for bailiffs or other officials, stood immediately west of the d'Oddingseles' house, their interlinked curtilages and gardens divided by ditches and boundary stones. In 1320 John d'Oddingseles agreed to allow access for repair of the abbey's stables and other buildings. (fn. 136) Medieval evidence for the houses' location is lacking, but their 17th- and 18th-century successors appear to have stood close to the church, partly within a large, now mostly vacant close fronting the village street (Fig. 7). (fn. 137) Presumably the division of the curtilage followed the manor's partition in the early 13th century, suggesting that this was also the site of the earlier manor house. The Limesys had numerous lands elsewhere, however, and are unlikely to have been resident permanently. (fn. 138)

In 1305 the d'Oddingseles' manor house included a garden, dovecot, and fishpond (vivario), (fn. 139) and in 1320 John d'Oddingseles and the abbot reached agreement over rabbit-hunting in the manorial warren. (fn. 140) The house was worth only 2s. a year in 1347 and nothing in 1361, however, and it was dilapidated in 1380, when it still included a hall and chambers, a fishpond, a grange, and other agricultural buildings, also in disrepair. (fn. 141) The family was presumably resident in 1356 when Amice d'Oddingseles, her son John, and others allegedly attacked Cirencester abbey's property in Broadwell, (fn. 142) and in 1358 John dated a grant there, (fn. 143) but subsequent generations apparently lived elsewhere, (fn. 144) and the buildings were probably let. Cirencester abbey's house apparently survived in the 1540s, when the 'site' of its manor was let with buildings, a dovecot, and the demesne to the Hampson family. (fn. 145)

The Thompsons, purchasers of Bradwell Odyngsell in 1570, were mostly resident until c. 1630, (fn. 146) and although the Hampsons' main residence from 1635 was Taplow Court in Buckinghamshire, (fn. 147) several family members continued to live in Broadwell. (fn. 148) In the early 17th century there was evidently still a manor house for each manor, (fn. 149) probably on the adjoining sites by the church; one of them may have been the richly furnished house occupied by Thomas Hampson (d. 1640), lessee of the 'site' of Bradwell Cirencester, which at his death included at least seven bedrooms, a hall and parlour, a study of books, and numerous service rooms and outbuildings. (fn. 150) In 1665 Sir Thomas Hampson (d. 1670) occupied a house taxed on four hearths, possibly the d'Oddingseles' manor house, and his brother George one of nine hearths, the second largest in the parish. (fn. 151) Thereafter the reunited manor seems to have included only one house presumably on the same site, which was let to local gentry or farmers. (fn. 152) The house reportedly burned down in the late 17th or early 18th century, (fn. 153) leaving farm buildings and a surviving pair of 17th-century roadside gate piers, which lead into a large close named Burnt Backside (Figs 7–8). (fn. 154) If so it must have been rebuilt, since manorial deeds continued to mention a manor house with barns and stables. In the late 18th and early 19th century it was let with 300 a. to the farmer Joseph Large, the occupant in 1802. (fn. 155)

Broadwell Manor Farm

In 1804 Large's house was replaced with Broadwell Manor Farmhouse on the close's north-eastern edge, designed and built for William Hervey by Richard Pace of Lechlade (Glos.). (fn. 156) Built on a square three-bay plan with later extensions at the north-west corner, the house is two-storeyed with attics, and has a hipped, stone-slated roof (Fig. 9). Like the area's other high-quality farmhouses it is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; the main west front has a slightly projecting central bay with moulded cornice and shaped pediment, and its central double doors are set within an elegant 20th-century ironwork porch, which replaced an earlier wooden one. In 1921 the house and its farmland were sold to the tenant, thus separating them from the rest of the Bradwell Grove estate. The following year the farm was bought by F. C. Goodenough (d. 1934) of Filkins Hall, whose descendant F. R. Goodenough occupied the house in 2011. (fn. 157)

Agricultural buildings, ranged around the edge of Burnt Backside south-west of the farmhouse, include a late 18th- or early 19th-century granary and a 19th-century stable, both of limestone rubble. A stone barn on the close's south-west side, with dressed quoins and a dovecot loft in the porch, may be of 16th- or early 17th-century origin, and was perhaps associated with the Bradwell Cirencester manor house; a 16th- or 17th-century hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned window survives in the porch, set under a Tudor hoodmould. The triple-purlin roof is pegged but has timbers of modest proportions, and is probably 18th- or 19th-century. (fn. 158) Ponds mentioned in 1802 were presumably the large ornamental lake with islands which survives immediately south-west of the present house. The lake existed by 1881, having perhaps been adapted from the medieval fishponds. (fn. 159)

Bradwell Grove House

A small woodland estate at Bradwell Grove was separately owned by the Tanfields and Lenthalls from c. 1630 to 1723, (fn. 160) and by the mid 17th century included a house of gentry status. The occupants (presumably as lessees) were John Huband (d. 1668) and Ann Walford (d. 1681), and though nothing is known of the building it may have been of moderately high quality, judging from Huband's mural monument in Broadwell church with its classical detailing and bracketed scroll pediment. (fn. 161) William Lenthall's widow Catherine Hamilton (d. 1723), countess of Abercorn, may have occasionally occupied the house, (fn. 162) and presumably this was the 'hunting seat' in Bradwell Grove owned by Murrough O'Brien in 1759. (fn. 163) From the 1760s the house was let to tenant farmers, and in 1802 it was described as a mansion house with barns, stables, and out-buildings. (fn. 164) Soon after, William Hervey adopted Bradwell Grove as his principal seat, and in 1804 he rebuilt and probably enlarged the house in gothic style, to designs by William Atkinson. The builder was Richard Pace. (fn. 165)

The house (Plate 6) lies in parkland laid out by Hervey, (fn. 166) and is two-storeyed with a U-plan. Long, low and irregular, it is mostly ashlar-built and includes an embattled parapet and pinnacles, while the interior, too, retains simple early 19th-century gothic detailing. A contemporary orangery in matching style survives at the house's south-west corner, towards the garden. The north service wing, at the rear, incorporates part of an 18th-century extension to an earlier house, perhaps that occupied by Huband. (fn. 167) After Hervey's death in 1863 the house was briefly let to various gentry, (fn. 168) followed in the 1870s by W. H. Fox, who in 1891 lived there with his mother and twelve servants. Later occupants included Col. Heyworth-Savage, who moved there after acquiring Fox's estate in 1923. (fn. 169) Minor additions and alterations for Fox and his successors included new bay windows to the south front, (fn. 170) and a keeper's lodge was designed by William Wilkinson in the early 1870s. (fn. 171) Piped water was supplied from a stream at Signet in the earlier 20th century, pumped to a raised tank near the house. (fn. 172)

From the 1950s the house was leased to the Oxford Regional Hospital Board, until in 1970 John Heyworth opened the surrounding parkland to the public as an exotic wildlife park. The house itself was converted into offices and staff flats, and the stables and outbuildings into a reptile house and aquarium. A large cafeteria extension was later built along the house's west side, and in 1989 a garden terrace was constructed along its south front. (fn. 173)

Rectory Estate (College Farm)

Broadwell rectory estate comprised glebe and tithes from all four townships, and throughout the Middle Ages formed part of the Templars' (and later Hospitallers') manor of Bradwell St John. (fn. 174) Fountains abbey (Yorks.) received two thirds of the demesne tithes in the early 13th century, presumably following a grant by one of the Limesys, and in 1313 Edward II ordered keepers of Bradwell St John manor to pay the abbey 60s. a year for tithes and a yardland in Broadwell. (fn. 175) Neither the land nor the payment was mentioned among the abbey's possessions later, however. (fn. 176)

In 1542 the glebe and tithes in Broadwell and Filkins were granted with Bradwell St John manor to Sir Thomas Pope (d. 1559), (fn. 177) who gave them to Trinity College, Oxford, soon after its foundation in 1555. (fn. 178) The estate was let to local gentry including, in the 18th century, owners of Filkins Hall. (fn. 179) In the mid 18th century it appears to have included great tithes, 5 yardlands mostly in Upper Filkins, and another 24 a. bought with two cottages in 1713, although there was evidently some confusion with freehold land belonging to the Filkins Hall estate, which was exacerbated by exchanges of land in the early 18th century. (fn. 180) At inclosure in 1776 Trinity College received 457 a. in Broadwell and Filkins, of which 345 a. was for commuted tithes. (fn. 181) From 1805 the college's lessee was William Hervey of Bradwell Grove, whose successor W. H. Fox bought the freehold in 1875. (fn. 182) Thereafter the land formed part of the Bradwell Grove estate.

College Farm

A farmhouse for the newly inclosed estate was built in 1777–9 on an outlying site in the north of Filkins township. (fn. 183) Its main three-bayed part, built of coursed limestone rubble with brick quoins and window-dressings, has two storeys with attics and a central entrance; at the rear is a former stair projection, and attached at the north-east is a lower two-storey range with a mid 19th-century cottage extension. The house faces into a large square farmyard flanked by ranges of farm buildings, including a 7-bay barn-range built of similar materials, and a stone cart-shed and stabling; most are probably broadly contemporary with the house. (fn. 184)

ECONOMIC HISTORY

Until recent times Broadwell was a predominantly agricultural village, which until inclosure in 1776 shared an open-field system with Filkins. Post-inclosure farms and estates were also intermixed between the two townships, and in the following account their agricultural history is treated together. (fn. 185)

As well as extensive open fields Broadwell contained substantial woodland around Bradwell Grove, which local lords often exploited directly. Pasture was available on the upland downs, which extended into Holwell and neighbouring parishes, and meadow adjoined the streams in Broadwell's southern part. In the late 16th century the combined manors were reckoned to include around 1,300 a. of arable, 450 a. of pasture, 140 a. of meadow, 110 a. of wood, and 140 a. of furze and heath; the figures are not accurate, but probably give a general indication of the spread of resources. (fn. 186) Medieval demesne farms were focused on Broadwell, and from the 16th and 17th centuries formed the basis of some relatively large leasehold farms there. Filkins, by contrast, was characterized from the Middle Ages by a significant number of freeholds, which perhaps reflected its distance from the manorial centre. Those in turn formed the basis of substantial yeoman farms in the post-medieval period. From the 19th century Broadwell's agricultural development was conditioned in part by the policies of the Bradwell Grove estate, which turned Holwell into an estate village and created local employment for estate workers.

Rural crafts and trades (including commercial malting) were recorded at both Broadwell and Filkins, but were far less significant in Broadwell than in the latter township, with its quarrying and stone masonry and, by the 19th century, its higher concentration of shops. Both villages experienced 20th-century decline, but only in Filkins was this was balanced by the establishment of new craft-based industries in the latter part of the century.

The Agricultural Landscape

Open-Field Arable

By 1086 some 30 ploughlands of arable were cultivated on Broadwell manor, six of them in demesne, and 24 by tenants based in the four townships. (fn. 187) A century later the Templars' manor alone included 20 yardlands (5 ploughlands) in Broadwell, and in 1279 over 90 yardlands (22½ ploughlands) were recorded in Broadwell and Filkins together. (fn. 188) Since yardlands here seem to have measured around 25 a. each, some 2,000 a., more than half the total area of Broadwell and Filkins, may have been under cultivation. (fn. 189)

The townships' shared fields (Fig. 6) were concentrated on the lighter stonebrash soils, and seem to have covered much of the area north and south-east of Filkins, excluding the woodland at Bradwell Grove, the downs in the extreme north, and an area of common in the vicinity of the later College Farm. (fn. 190) In 1347 and 1361 the fields were rotated on a two-course system, (fn. 191) but a three-course rotation was introduced before 1380, perhaps following changes brought about by the Black Death. (fn. 192) The fields' later organization is not entirely clear. Fields and commons belonging to Broadwell and Over Filkins were generally mentioned together, and in the early 18th century still seem to have been divided into two large units called East and West fields. The former lay in the north-east near Bradwell Grove (including the area called Redlands), and the latter further west, including the area around Stanmoor and Red Herring (or Earing Green) Bottom. (fn. 193) Grove field, mentioned in 1599 and 1723, may have been the same as East field. (fn. 194) Nether Filkins's fields and commons were sometimes mentioned separately, (fn. 195) though whether they were ever independently administered is uncertain. An estate described around 1750 was divided among Broadwell Near field (where it included 81 a.), Broadwell Far field (66 a.), and Filkins field (15¾ a.); (fn. 196) by then, however, the earlier arrangements were becoming obscured, as landowners embarked upon exchanges to concentrate their lands in Broadwell, Upper Filkins, or Lower Filkins, presumably in preparation for inclosure. (fn. 197) Whatever the formal disposition of the fields, by the early 18th century there were complex subdivisions for cropping. In 1713, for example, furlongs in East field were variously planted with barley, wheat, and oats, while those in West field were fallow or planted with peas. (fn. 198)

Pasture and Meadow

The townships' commons were concentrated around the two villages and on the downs adjoining Holwell, with a smaller area in the fields north of Filkins. (fn. 199) Those immediately south-east of Broadwell village included Summer Leys (originally a summer pasture), Horse Leys, and Cottelake in or near Cottesmore, where Bradwell Odyngsell and Bradwell Cirencester manors had pasture rights in 1320. (fn. 200) Filkins or Nether Filkins common lay between the villages, and evidently included small greens within Filkins itself: one such was the Gassons, which remained commonable until inclosure. (fn. 201) Further north, a common pasture in the vicinity of College Farm was known as the Marsh and (probably) as Upper Filkins common, and included the area laid out as furze grounds for the poor in 1776. (fn. 202) A 19th-century account claimed that up to 500 cows had formerly been pastured close to Filkins, and that cow keepers' cottages had stood by the bridge and at the Hades, on the village's northern edge. (fn. 203) The downs themselves, extending into Holwell and neighbouring parishes, covered the higher ground towards Akeman Street, (fn. 204) and were an important shared resource used by sheep farmers and others from neighbouring parishes. (fn. 205) In 1320 the lords of Bradwell Odyngsell and Bradwell Cirencester also had sheep folds in the copse (spineto) at Bradwell Grove, and pastures belonging to Bradwell Cirencester and to the Templars lay in the west of the parish at St John's Leys and 'Fishpol'. (fn. 206) Additional pasture was available in the fields after harvest. (fn. 207)

Much of the 185 a. of meadow recorded on Broadwell manor in 1086 probably lay in Kelmscott adjoining the river Thames, where Broadwell Odyngsell manor had demesne meadow until the 19th century. (fn. 208) Another sizeable area lay south-east of Broadwell village between the two boundary streams, in Cottesmore (Cott's marsh) and Edgerly (Ecgheard's island). Presumably this narrow corridor of land was intentionally included in Broadwell manor in the 11th century, in order to increase its access to meadow. (fn. 209) Some of it may have been inclosed demesne: the Templars' manor included meadow at Cottesmore in the 12th century, (fn. 210) while the two other manors had meadow in Edgerly and Hasses (adjoining Clanfield) in the 14th century and later. (fn. 211) Even so at least 95 a. in Edgerly was still common meadow in the 18th century, and there was lot meadow presumably nearby or elsewhere along the boundary streams. (fn. 212)

Elsewhere in the townships there was probably little meadow, and for some smaller farmers it may have remained in short supply. Two 16th-century tenants apparently occupied only 1–2 a. with holdings of up to 2½ yardlands, although that could have been in addition to their allowance in the common meadows. (fn. 213) Some Broadwell and Filkins farmers acquired meadow outside the parish (including at Radcot), (fn. 214) while others retained small parcels in Kelmscott, a pattern which continued following Kelmscott's inclosure in 1798–9. (fn. 215)

Given the relatively scattered nature of the commons and meadows, the carting of hay and droving of animals across the parish must have been commonplace from the Middle Ages until inclosure. Its importance is reflected in an agreement of 1320 between John d'Oddingseles and the abbot of Cirencester, by which right of access was confirmed along the chief roads and lanes linking Broadwell village with the pastures and meadows to the south (as far as Kelmscott), and with the downs, pastures, and woodland in the parish's northern and western parts. (fn. 216)

Early Inclosures

Though much of the medieval common and meadow remained uninclosed until 1776, a few areas were inclosed early on as part of the demesne farms (Fig. 6). In 1347 the Bradwell Odyngsell demesne included 12 a. of inclosed meadow, much of it by the Thames in Kelmscott; the rest (4 a.) lay in Edgerly and Horse Pool and was worth 1s. an acre, (fn. 217) while the manor's inclosed pasture increased from 6½ a. in 1305 to 24 a. (worth 8s.) in 1361. (fn. 218) A Broadwell freeholder seems to have had 18 a. of probably inclosed meadow as early as 1251, (fn. 219) while Goodfellows had 24 a. of inclosed meadow in Nether Filkins in 1479. (fn. 220) Piecemeal inclosure by the abbot of Cirencester and other lords (presumably for sheep farming) continued in the early 16th century, when two 30-a. holdings in Broadwell were reported as recently inclosed and their houses were left derelict. (fn. 221)

By the 1620s Bradwell Odyngsell included around 100 a. of old inclosures, many of them taken from the commons and meadows south-east of the village. Others lay north of the village street, close to the manor house: of those, Morleys and the Hursts were later described as commonable grounds, and were presumably thrown open for grazing at specified times of year. Closes at Burden Hill (in the far north-west) and Hill mead furlong had perhaps been taken from the arable, and the manor's other inclosures still included 18–20 a. of Thames-side meadow in Kelmscott. (fn. 222) Even so some 2,670 a. in Broadwell and Filkins (75 per cent of the total) remained uninclosed on the eve of parliamentary inclosure. (fn. 223)

Woodland

Wood and wood-pasture at Bradwell Grove in the north-east of the parish is recorded from the 14th century, when eight inhabitants were prosecuted for taking timber worth 100s. belonging to the abbot of Cirencester. (fn. 224) Its medieval extent is uncertain, but probably it did not extend west of the Holwell road, where later field names suggest the presence of open-field arable and (further north) of commonable downland (Fig. 6). In 1320 there was also a 'field' (campum) to the east of the 'spinney': possibly that was the tongue of land between the later Bradwell Grove and the parish boundary, although the field name Crooked Oak suggests that the area was wooded at some point. (fn. 225) The woodland was apparently divided between the three principal manors, and was kept in demesne. Bradwell Odyngsell manor included 10 a. in 1305, when profits from sale of underwood totalled 2s. a year; in 1353 the manor had 20 a. of thick wood, although shade from the trees was said to make the pasture worthless, and there were then no profits from underwood. (fn. 226) A part of the woods may have been imparked before 1320, when hunting rights were mentioned in an agreement between John d'Oddingseles and Cirencester abbey. (fn. 227) Coppicing was mentioned from the 16th century, presumably reflecting earlier practice. (fn. 228)

In the later 16th century Bradwell Odyngsell's demesne still included Austin coppice, a 3-a. inclosure south of Akeman Street, (fn. 229) and in 1599 three further coppices at Bradwell Grove were leased by William Pope, the owner of Bradwell Cirencester and Bradwell St John manors, who had an estimated 40 a. of woodland in demesne. (fn. 230) By 1673 the reunited manor included an estimated 100 a. of woodland still kept in hand, which in 1777 produced an annual income of nearly £120, less £10 in woodward's charges and parish tax. (fn. 231) In 1785 the woodland was taxed at £7 8s. 4d. (fn. 232) By then the Bradwell Grove estate included additional woodlands in Shilton and Broughton Poggs, the whole being valued at over £3,211 in 1802. (fn. 233) Trees elsewhere on the Broadwell manors were usually reserved to the lord on leasehold properties, and 16th-century rents habitually included an obligation to plant at least one oak, ash, and elm tree a year, presumably in the hedgerows of closes adjoining tenants' houses. (fn. 234)

By the 18th and 19th centuries Broadwell's landlords were evidently trying to maximize the profitability of their timber resources: fifty trees on the glebe were carefully recorded, (fn. 235) and there was a nursery on Trinity College's lands. (fn. 236) Regular wood sales were held at Broadwell, (fn. 237) and new plantations were made on the Filkins Hall and Bradwell Grove estates. (fn. 238) William Hervey, who acquired the Bradwell Grove estate in 1804, made extensive plantations around the new mansion house and smaller plantations between fields, roughly trebling the amount of woodland: an oration at his funeral in 1863 recalled that 'when he came nearly sixty years ago into this neighbourhood he found it bleak and barren, and he has left it clothed with woods'. (fn. 239) Forestry continued to be important, and in the later 20th century Hervey's successor John Heyworth planted over 300,000 trees, half hardwood and half softwood. In 2002 the estate retained 387 a. of woodland in Broadwell, Filkins, and adjacent parishes, managed by one woodman from a yard near Aston Coppice. (fn. 240)

By the later 18th century Bradwell Grove was a 'hunting seat' of Murrough O'Brien, (fn. 241) who employed gamekeepers and advertised that poachers would be prosecuted. (fn. 242) From then on Broadwell and Filkins were frequently said to be in 'fine sporting country', and hunting and shooting continued throughout the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. (fn. 243)

Tenants and Farming to c. 1540

In 1279 most peasant holdings in Broadwell were yardlands or half yardlands, each yardland probably containing around 25 a. of arable. A few cottagers had smaller holdings of 6 a. (perhaps ¼ yardlands), and a single freeholder (excluding the miller) had 1½ yardlands. Landholding at Filkins was both more complex and more varied, perhaps reflecting its distance from the manorial centres at Broadwell. There 22 out of 36 tenants (over 60 per cent) were freeholders, and holdings ranged from a few acres to 2 yardlands, with one freeholder holding a ploughland. (fn. 244)

All three manors included a large demesne farm centred on Broadwell, each of them reckoned at 2 ploughlands and containing up to 200 a. of arable. Unfree tenants, including those at Filkins, owed light labour services on the demesnes mostly at sowing and harvest times, although some owed only a few days' work throughout the year. (fn. 245) Labour services seem to have been commuted into money rents by 1361, perhaps reflecting difficulties following the Black Death, and by 1381 the d'Oddingseles' demesne arable was reduced to 120 a., 40 a. having lain uncultivated for forty years. (fn. 246) The demesne farms of the two ecclesiastical manors were probably leased out soon after, and certainly by the later Middle Ages. (fn. 247)

The size of the open fields implies the arable-based mixed farming typical of the area, (fn. 248) but as in neighbouring parishes there was also some large-scale sheep rearing, which attracted outsiders and which probably increased from the late 14th and early 15th centuries. In 1347 Reginald Bryan, a clearly prosperous freeholder possibly living near Oxford, had at least 150 sheep, 80 lambs, and 18 oxen in Broadwell parish, where he also grew crops. (fn. 249) Two centuries later three prominent local farmers were taxed on a total of 560 sheep (400 in Broadwell and 160 in Filkins), and six people living outside the parish kept a total of 1,700 on Holwell Downs. (fn. 250) Stints were closely regulated, as elsewhere. In the mid 14th century the d'Oddingseles' 2-carucate demesne carried common rights for 16 oxen and 300 sheep, (fn. 251) while the average stint on the common pastures in the 16th to 18th centuries (perhaps reflecting earlier custom) was around 50 sheep and 8 oxen or horses for each yardland. (fn. 252) By then there was considerable variety, however, presumably following the sale and purchase of pasture rights. (fn. 253) The demesnes included additional inclosed pasture and meadow by the 14th century, and piecemeal inclosure probably for sheep farming continued in the early 16th. (fn. 254) Nothing is known of the townships' arable farming during the Middle Ages, but as in neighbouring parishes it was presumably based on wheat and barley, together with some dredge and oats. (fn. 255)

Farms and Farming c. 1540–1776

From the 16th century, the medieval demesne farms centred on Broadwell continued to form the basis of large leasehold farms. Both the monastic demesnes were being leased at the Dissolution, the Hospitallers' farm (previously let to Steven Bagot) to John Forty and his sons, and Cirencester abbey's to Harry Hampson; in addition a large farm at Holwell was let to the abbey's former bailiff Richard Symons or Symonds, together with a small inclosed estate at Puttes in Alvescot. (fn. 256) John Whiting, who was of comparable wealth, perhaps held the Odyngsell demesne. (fn. 257) After the Pope family acquired the monastic estates in 1542 they continued to lease the demesne farms, the Goodenough family taking over from the Fortys during the later 16th century. (fn. 258)

In Broadwell the demesne farmers were among the most prosperous of a group of around ten leading farming families who were still mostly manorial tenants. Bradwell St John manor had customary tenants only, all living in Broadwell, although Bradwell Cirencester had some free tenants in Filkins and Kelmscott and customary holdings of varying sizes in Over and Nether Filkins, Broadwell, and Holwell. (fn. 259) As earlier, freeholders were concentrated in Filkins, where there was a slightly larger group of prosperous farmers with holdings based on the former medieval freeholds and larger leaseholds. Around 30 landholders in the two townships together were rich enough to pay lay subsidies and parish tax in the 16th and 17th centuries, of whom the majority had 1–2 yardlands. A small handful of yeomen and gentlemen had over 4 yardlands, while conversely some cottagers had less than a yardland. (fn. 260)

Farming at all levels was still mixed, with an important pastoral element. Harry Hampson of Broadwell had around 200 sheep in 1549, as did his contemporary Robert Turner, by far the wealthiest taxpayer in Filkins. (fn. 261) Most tenants farmed on a more modest scale, keeping animals in closes or backsides attached to their homesteads. Many possessed small numbers of sheep, milk cows, and draught animals (both oxen and horses), along with poultry and one or two store pigs for bacon. Most grew barley as their main arable crop, while the wealthier also grew wheat and owned a variety of carts and other agricultural implements. (fn. 262)

During the 16th century the number of yeoman farmsteads in Broadwell and Filkins was roughly equal, but from the 17th century, as the Hampsons consolidated their estates in the parish and became the dominant landowners, lands in Broadwell seem to have been consolidated into larger leasehold units. (fn. 263) Manor, Lower, and Grove farms, leased to major tenants, may have originated around this period, and by 1762 Grove farm included some 289 a. of inclosed arable and pasture, together with 140 a. in the common fields and commons for 300 sheep. (fn. 264) Filkins remained dominated by independent yeomen, of whom some took advantage of an active land market to consolidate substantial holdings, and to lease out smaller parcels of land and houses to other inhabitants. (fn. 265) In the 17th century there was occasional encroachment on the wastes and commons in Filkins to make way for new cottages and inclosures, (fn. 266) and in the 18th and early 19th centuries many buildings were renovated and new ones erected. (fn. 267)

From the early 18th century Filkins was increasingly dominated by the Filkins Hall estate, built up by the Bristol lawyer Thomas Edwards (d. c. 1743) from around 1704, when he first acquired the lease of Trinity College's estate (by then some 6½ yardlands). Edwards and his son-in-law Alexander Ready (later Colston, d. 1775) augmented the leasehold by purchasing lands and common rights in Filkins and surrounding places, and by 1839 the estate totalled nearly 600 acres. (fn. 268) Nevertheless Filkins retained some wealthy freeholding farmers into the 19th century, among them such long-established yeoman families as the Purbricks and Bassetts. (fn. 269) The former were among the wealthiest yeomen in Filkins from the later 16th century, and in the 18th acquired several other holdings (including Maverleys, Burbiges, and Packers) through inheritance and purchase. By 1776 James Purbrick was the wealthiest member of the family, with extensive lands and a homestead on Filkins village street, (fn. 270) possibly that now called Peartree Farmhouse. (fn. 271) The family remained prominent in Filkins's farming and social life throughout the 19th century. (fn. 272) The Bassetts were both farmers and fellmongers in the late 17th and early 18th century, enabling Simon Bassett (d. 1742) to build a new house, possibly the one which his grandson Jonah Bassett (d. 1821) refronted in 1759. (fn. 273)

Parliamentary Inclosure to 1900

In the mid 18th century owners of the Filkins Hall and Broadwell estates began exchanging lands in the common fields, concentrating Broadwell holdings in Broadwell field, and Filkins Hall lands in Upper Filkins. (fn. 274) Alexander Ready (later Colston) of Filkins Hall had already shown himself an 'improving' landlord at Coln Rogers (Glos.), where, after purchasing the manor in 1727, he had acquired most of the copyholds and inclosed the parish by 1746. (fn. 275) In Filkins he inclosed several acres of common land near his house before 1750, prompting his fellow commoners to pull down the wall several times. (fn. 276) Possibly he was already contemplating a full inclosure, although if so his intentions were clearly frustrated.

An Act for inclosing Broadwell and Filkins and for commuting the tithes was finally obtained in 1775, and when inclosure took place in 1776 Murrough O'Brien and the Colstons were the chief beneficiaries. (fn. 277) O'Brien, as lord of the manor, received 1,200 a. mostly in Broadwell, where by 1785 he owned around 77 per cent of the land. He was swift to capitalize on the increased value of his estate, using it to secure further mortgages in 1776 and 1777. Alexander Colston's widow Sophia received 340 a. mostly in Filkins, where she became the single largest landowner. Trinity College, Oxford, owner of the rectory estate, received 457 a. in lieu of tithes and glebe, split between Broadwell and Filkins and run thereafter from the newly-built College Farm north of Filkins village. Owners of the major yeoman freeholds in Filkins also received substantial acreages. James Vincent, gentleman, was allotted c. 130 a., and so too was Ann Brooks for Moat (or Goodfellows) farm. James Purbrick and Jonah Bassett, both described as yeomen, received 119 a. and 65 a. respectively. Out of a total of 17 proprietors named in the inclosure award, the rest received between 12 a. and under an acre as compensation for common rights. (fn. 278)

Inclosure did not universally lead to agricultural improvement. Trinity College had already lost some of its lands to its lessees the Colstons, apparently through poor management, and at inclosure it was allotted some of the poorest farmland in the parish, on the northern edge of the limestone band running through Filkins common. Unlike Sophia Colston and Murrough O'Brien the college failed to invest sufficiently in planting hedges around the newly inclosed fields, causing more expense in the long run. Some of its hedging plants died in the poor soils, and the process was not helped by thefts of plants and fencing, which occurred on some other farms too. (fn. 279) The vicar of Broadwell and his successors were similarly awarded poor-quality land in lieu of tithes, comprising 120 a. of former common pasture. (fn. 280)

A 19th-century inhabitant claimed that before inclosure there were up to 40 small farms in Broadwell and Filkins, (fn. 281) but inclosure reinforced the consolidation of farmland into larger units. In Broadwell, where there were very few owner-occupiers, (fn. 282) the lands still belonging to the manor were leased as three large farms, some parts of which were already inclosed before 1776. Of those, Manor farm was around 300 a. for most of the 19th century, Lower Farm around 240 a., and Grove or Home farm (partly in Filkins and Shilton) was 600 a. in 1802. (fn. 283) Until 1776 the latter was farmed by John Godfrey, the owner of Holwell rectory estate, (fn. 284) who in the late 18th and early 19th century was succeeded by the Ilotts. They were prominent yeomen who owned various properties in Filkins (including three pubs), and in 1802 another of the family was lessee at Lower farm. (fn. 285) Manor Farm was rebuilt in 1804 for William Hervey's agent Joseph Large, a local man and an important sheep breeder, who by 1822 held Manor and Lower farms together; before 1861 he was succeeded by Henry Kleeves, who employed 13 men and 7 boys. (fn. 286) Rather smaller was Vicarage or Furzey Hall farm, made up of land granted to the vicar at inclosure, and lying partly in Filkins. While the vicar was a member of the Colston family it was run as part of the Filkins Hall estate, and in 1839 it totalled 139 acres. (fn. 287) Edgerly farm, based on a 34-a. allotment to Sophia Colston, was increased to 68 a. by 1839 and to twice that by the later 19th century, when it included lands in Clanfield and Alvescot. (fn. 288)

In Filkins landholding remained more complex after inclosure, with over twenty proprietors, and several farmers renting land from more than one owner. (fn. 289) Nevertheless a few large commercial farms emerged. Trinity College's farm, centred on its newly-built farmhouse and barns by 1779, was 400–450 a. in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and in 1861 was farmed by Edward Lord with eight men. (fn. 290) Filkins Down farm, carved from former downland pastures, belonged to the Bradwell Grove estate, and was of similar size; at first it was leased to Thomas Gardner with Hockstead (or Oxleaze) farm in Broughton Poggs, and by 1861 to Henry Glover, who employed nine men and five boys. (fn. 291) Filkins (or Filkins Manor) farm, made up of lands allotted to the Colstons, lay north and south of Filkins Hall, and totalled 194 a. in 1839; it grew to c. 400 a. by the end of the 19th century, and in 1861 was farmed by John Garne with 13 men and six boys. (fn. 292) Moat farm, based on a medieval freehold, (fn. 293) was 140 a., lying along Thrupp Lane to the north of Nether Filkins village. The lessee in 1809 was Robert Purbrick, succeeded by the Wheelers and Glovers. (fn. 294)

In the parish as a whole, 19th-century changes in agriculture were initiated mainly by owners of the Bradwell Grove estate and their agents, to increase efficiency and profitability. Throughout the period, William Hervey and W. H. Fox expanded the estate by leasing and purchasing additional lands: Hervey's original purchase of some 2,000 a. had increased to over 3,600 a. when sold to Fox in 1871, and from 1805 Hervey also held the lease of College farm, which Fox bought in 1875. The Filkins Hall estate was added in 1849, pre-empting a bid by the Chartist Feargus O'Connor. (fn. 295) From the mid 19th century Manor and Lower farms were generally farmed together to make a larger unit, (fn. 296) and by 1831 Grove farm had been taken in hand, to be farmed directly by Hervey under a series of bailiffs. (fn. 297) By 1895 Filkins Down farm was also under direct management. (fn. 298)

Hervey also made improvements to farm buildings. Broadwell Manor and Filkins Down farmhouses were rebuilt to attract a better sort of tenant, (fn. 299) while Filkins Manor Farmhouse was refurbished for Hervey's tenant John Garne, and a new cow-house range was provided to bring dairying operations up to higher standards. (fn. 300) Barns, stables, and cow- and cart sheds were improved on other of the estate's farms, (fn. 301) and in the mid 19th century extensions were possibly made to College farm's buildings. (fn. 302) All Hervey's farms were registered for fire insurance, to guard against both accidents and arson, as he introduced innovations such as steam threshing machines which took jobs from agricultural labourers. (fn. 303) The diminution in size of Manor, Lower, Grove, and Filkins Down farms by 1910 resulted from reorganization of the Bradwell Grove estate, and because Squire Fox had set lands aside for sporting activities. (fn. 304)

Despite such intensification, types of farming remained much the same as earlier. Mixed agriculture continued on all of Broadwell's estate farms and on Downs farm in Filkins, where wheat, barley, and oats were grown, and sheep, cattle, pigs, and poultry reared. Smaller farms in Broadwell followed a similar pattern, although Edgerly farm's rich pasture and meadow (65 per cent of the acreage in 1839) made it more suitable for rearing horses and cattle, (fn. 305) while John Garne of Filkins Manor farm was a noted breeder of Cotswold sheep and Shorthorn cattle in the mid 19th century, and also made cider. (fn. 306) By contrast some other estate farms in 1871 (notably Filkins Down and College farms) were almost entirely arable, although the great agricultural depression encouraged an increased emphasis on pastoral farming later in the century. (fn. 307) Changes in land use also occurred on smaller farms. Peacock farm in Filkins was mainly pasture in the later 18th century, which suited the Bassetts' trade as fellmongers, but by 1901 it also grew crops. (fn. 308) Moat or Goodfellows farm, mainly arable in 1898, was reckoned a good sheep farm by the early 20th century. (fn. 309)

Farms and Farming From 1900

The large estates in Broadwell and Filkins were better able to survive the economic problems which affected agriculture from the late 19th century, and expanded without reference to parish boundaries as smaller farms were bought up. The trend towards centralized operations continued: increased mechanization meant that farms needed less labour, and diversification into other activities helped to subsidize agriculture.

Some Bradwell Grove lands were sold off after the deaths of respective tenants, while others were purchased to make the estate more compact. By c. 1900 the estate included lands not only in Broadwell, Filkins, and Holwell, but in the adjacent parishes of Kencot, Shilton, Upton-and-Signet, Broughton Poggs, and Eastleach (Glos.). It was managed by Fox's steward Thomas Kilbee from the estate office at Bradwell Grove, and at Fox's death in 1921 incorporated 16 farms with a total of over 5,000 acres. The bulk of the estate continued to be managed as a large commercial operation, comprising 3,850 a. in 1949 and 3,000 a. in the early 21st century, (fn. 310) although in the 1940s the estate's Filkins Down, College, and Furzey Hall farms were all leased to tenants. (fn. 311)

In 1917 the banker Frederick Crauford Goodenough bought Filkins Hall and began building up another large estate, adding Manor and Lower farms in Broadwell in 1922. In 1939 the Broadwell land was farmed under a bailiff, Frank Walker. As smaller farmers went bankrupt during the depression of the 1920s and 1930s, Goodenough and his son William added Peartree farm in Filkins and other farms in Langford, Kencot, Alvescot, and Shilton, bringing the estate to 1,204 a. by 1941, when parts were still farmed by tenants. Filkins Hall was sold in 1987, and in the early 21st century Broadwell Manor farm, as the estate was then known, comprised 1,458 a. (590 ha.) in Filkins, Broadwell, Kencot, and Langford. (fn. 312) Another significant estate was built up by Sir Stafford Cripps of Goodfellows in Filkins, who expanded his initial purchase to create the 410-a. Filkins farm, which in 1941 was run by tenants. (fn. 313) The only small independent holding to survive in Broadwell in the early 20th century was Broadwell Mill farm, which in 1920 contained around 40 a. lying partly on the heavy soils of Edgerly. (fn. 314)

In 1914 around 30–50 per cent of the cultivated land in Broadwell and Filkins was under crop, including wheat, barley, and oats. Another 40–50 per cent was permanent pasture, supporting 40–50 sheep per 100 acres and a smaller number of cattle. The remaining cultivated land produced root crops as animal fodder and potatoes for human consumption. (fn. 315) By 1941 over 1,000 a. of the Bradwell Grove estate was successfully run as a single farm with a bias towards livestock, supporting a pedigree herd of Red Poll dairy cattle, sheep which contributed to the fertility of the arable land, and some poultry. Crops were wheat, barley, oats, and root vegetables for animal feed, and forestry remained important. The Goodenoughs' farm, too, was in good condition, having been much improved since its purchase, when some of the land was in a neglected state following the agricultural depression. Around 40 per cent was arable in 1941, with 17 per cent root crops and 44 per cent pasture; livestock comprised over 250 cattle (including a dairy herd) and over 1,000 sheep, together with some pigs. The estate had 17 full-time workers and, as on the Bradwell Grove estate, there were two tractors. Similar agriculture was practised on smaller farms, encompassing dairying, pig- and poultry rearing, and the growing of wheat, oats and fodder crops. Cripps's Filkins farm (let to A. V. Arkell) had a herd of 95 cows including 33 dairy cattle, while at Ivy House in Broadwell the aptly named Charles Bird raised poultry for the war effort. (fn. 316) Moat Farm or Goodfellows, used as a Land-Army hostel in the Second World War, burnt down in 1947, and the garden was cultivated as a market garden. (fn. 317)

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as British agriculture declined, some farmers diversified. On the Bradwell Grove estate outlying lands in Eastleach and Upton-and-Signet were sold off, estate cottages and farmhouses were sold as private dwellings, and the site of the Second World War hospital at Bradwell Grove was sold for redevelopment as Bradwell Village. The prize herd of Red Poll dairy cattle was sold in 1969, and the estate was converted entirely to arable and woodland. In the early 21st century around 2,300 a. of arable and 400 a. of woodland were farmed from the centre of operations at Filkins Down farm by only five employees: three tractor drivers, a woodman, and a cowman who managed a recently acquired herd of Limousin beef cattle. (fn. 318) John Heyworth further diversified in 1970 by opening the Cotswold Wildlife Park, which by 2000 housed some 200 species of exotic animals in the park around Bradwell Grove House and in converted agricultural buildings. The zoo participates in international conservation schemes, and by the early 21st century attracted over 300,000 visitors a year. In contrast with the farming operation it then employed about 50 full-time staff, rising to 100 in the summer season. Adjacent is a caravan site which Heyworth started around the same time, and which is now franchised to the caravan club. (fn. 319)

Broadwell Manor farm remained mixed in the early 21st century, reflecting the variety of soil types. The main crops were then wheat, rye, barley, oilseed rape, beans, and linseed, and there were 185 dairy cows and 300 breeding ewes. The farm was a demonstration farm for LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), and followed a careful system of crop rotation, taking environmental issues into account. (fn. 320) Broadwell Mill farm, part of the Walker family's land, was farmed from Kencot. (fn. 321) At Filkins farm arable farming continued in the 1960s, though sheep replaced dairy cows; in 1968 the Filkins bypass separated the farmyard from the land, and in 1981, as part of the pattern of economic diversification in the parish, the proceeds from the sale of Filkins Farmhouse financed the conversion of the farm buildings into craft workshops. By 1987 these included the Cotswold Woollen Weavers and other enterprises, employing around 12 full-time and 12 part-time workers. In the early 21st century the farm covered just under 500 a., run as a one-man operation rearing organic beef. (fn. 322)

Rural Trades and Crafts

Throughout its history Broadwell was primarily an agrarian community. (fn. 323) Most inhabitants in the Middle Ages were peasant farmers, though the surnames Miller, Baker, Croc (or potter), Smith, and Chapman suggest that some tenants also practised rural trades and crafts. (fn. 324)

Broadwell usually had a resident blacksmith, (fn. 325) and by the 18th century there were wheelwrights, tailors, (fn. 326) and (at Bradwell Grove) a victualler. (fn. 327) Quarrying, the most important non-agricultural activity from at least the 16th century, was concentrated mostly in Filkins. (fn. 328)

Commercial malting developed from the mid 17th century. (fn. 329) By then the manor-house complex included a kiln house where malt and bacon were matured, and the yeoman John Bartlett (d. 1670) had a malt house. (fn. 330) In the 18th century three generations of the Turner family were maltsters and had a malt house attached to their house; probably they were related to the Turners of Burford, who were maltsters and licensed victuallers during the same period. (fn. 331) Malting continued into the 19th century, when a malt house was said to stand near the church. (fn. 332) In the 18th century prosperous yeoman or gentry families such as the Turners seem to have used their capital to diversify into other industrial activities as well. Henry Willett (d. 1702) apparently had a bell foundry, and may have used church connections to acquire customers. (fn. 333)

In the 19th century Broadwell's occupational structure remained largely unaltered: in 1861 nearly all of the village's 41 households relied primarily on agriculture, while the rest included smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, tailors, and butchers. (fn. 334) In 1881 a few estate servants had more diverse occupations including those of game-keeper, woodman, coachman, and engine driver for a steam plough, and the community remained much the same in 1910. (fn. 335) With the mechanization of agriculture employment opportunities declined, and with them the population; the process accelerated in the later 20th century, despite the employment created by ventures such as the Cotswold Wildlife Park or Filkins craft workshops. (fn. 336)

Mills and Fisheries

In 1086 there were two mills on Broadwell manor, and by 1279 there were at least four within the parish as a whole. (fn. 337) All of them apparently continued in the 1680s, (fn. 338) and in the 1790s three lay along Broadwell brook.

Broughton Poggs mill, despite its name, stood on the Filkins side of the stream, while Filkins mill lay further south by the Langford road. Broadwell mill stood further south again, adjoining meadows south-east of Broadwell village. All three produced flour until the mid 20th century. (fn. 339)

Broadwell Mill

Broadwell mill was acquired from Ralph of Wigginton by the Templars some time before 1185, when it was leased for 10s. a year. (fn. 340) In 1279 it was held in villeinage by William of Cottesmore, (fn. 341) and in 1318 it may have been known as Cottesmore mill (Cotmormylle). (fn. 342) At the Dissolution it passed with Bradwell St John manor to the Pope family, who in 1598 granted it with half a yardland to Thomas Woodward, gentleman, on a 1,000-year lease. (fn. 343) The mill was sublet to tenants. (fn. 344)

In the mid 17th century the 1,000-year lease passed to the Turner family through marriage, and in the early 18th century Martha Turner, widow of Adam Turner of Kencot, gave half shares in the property to each of two daughters. The shares descended to a series of non-resident owners until the early 19th century when Henry Smith, described as mealman of Broadwell mill, acquired both parts, and mortgaged the property to Timothy Stevens and Thomas Price. In 1875 the mill was bought by the resident tenant Walter Galloway, and remained in his family until 1920; (fn. 345) by 1941 it was owned by Vaisey Davis of Home Farm in Kelmscott, who leased it to J. E. Parker. (fn. 346) The mill ceased working around 1950, and in 2002 belonged to the Walker family, farmers of Kencot, whose tenants Mr and Mrs Smith (neé Parker) were the last millers. (fn. 347)

The mill was rebuilt or substantially remodelled c. 1827, as recorded in a badly weathered datestone which probably carries Henry Smith's initials. (fn. 348) The attached house, which may originally have been two separate buildings, is 16th-century at both ends, but has a 17th-century section in the centre and a contemporary stair tower at the rear, still with its original stairs. Extensive restorations were undertaken in 2000, when the machinery, including the wheel and two pairs of French stones, was still in place. The water-level in Broadwell brook had dropped, however, and was three feet too low for the mill to work. (fn. 349)

Filkins Mill

Filkins mill was granted to the Templars by Alan de Limesy (d. by 1162), and in 1185 was leased to Ralph Long for 5s. a year. (fn. 350) In 1279 it was held in villeinage by Thomas of Filkins. (fn. 351) By 1526 it had become a leasehold property, held with half a yardland by Thomas Tailor, who was still tenant when Thomas Pope acquired the mill with Bradwell St John manor. (fn. 352) In the mid 16th century Ambrose Endoll was miller, succeeded before 1558 by Geoffrey Hamlyn; (fn. 353) the Hamlyns were one of the most prominent yeoman families in Filkins, and retained a 1,000-year lease of the mill until the mid 18th century, when other members of the family were maltsters. (fn. 354) Other 18th-century millers included Robert Cockhead and Edward Clack, paying £25 a year, (fn. 355) and by 1802 the Cook family were tenants, continuing as millers until the early 20th century. (fn. 356) The freehold passed with the manor to Murrough O'Brien and to William Hervey, who both mortgaged it, and before 1910 it was acquired by Captain Campbell of Filkins Hall. (fn. 357) The mill remained in use in the 1950s, but by 1970 was a private house. (fn. 358)

In 1802 the mill was said to be small, with two pairs of stones and an indifferent dwelling house. (fn. 359) It was rebuilt as a substantial stone building probably by William Hervey in the early 19th century, and around 1880 the house was rebuilt using stone from the ruins of Filkins Hall. On conversion to a dwelling house the mill was gutted and the machinery removed, though the waterways and some stones remained on site. (fn. 360)

Ragged Mill and Broughton Poggs Mill

A mill in Nether Filkins was called the Ragged Mill by 1279, when it belonged to Bradwell Cirencester manor and was held in villeinage with 12 a. by Walter of Ragged Mill (Raggedemulle) for 18s. a year. (fn. 361) In 1306 the tenant was Alice at Ragged Mill, (fn. 362) and by 1541 the mill and 1 yardland, with other parcels of land, were leased to the Burdock family for 16s. a year. (fn. 363) Ownership passed with Bradwell Cirencester manor to the Pope and Hampson families, and the Burdocks continued as tenants until the mid 17th century. (fn. 364) Presumably this was one of two mills in Filkins recorded in the 1750s, (fn. 365) although the name Ragged Mill was not recorded after the early 17th century.

Broughton Poggs mill may have been the same mill, though when it first becomes clearly identifiable (as Filkins mill) in 1824 it belonged to Broughton Poggs manor. The Burnaby and later the Thickens families of Broughton Poggs leased the mill to the Purbricks, who in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were among the wealthiest inhabitants in Filkins. (fn. 366) By 1831 the property was leased to Thomas Wheeler, who employed three men in 1841 and who was listed as a baker and miller in 1847; his successor by 1861 was Thomas Lock, who employed four men. (fn. 367) By 1910 the mill (then called Bridge Mill) was owned by John Hardcastle of Broughton Hall, whose lessee James Clack had worked there under Lock. (fn. 368)

The mill is alleged to have been rebuilt in 1580, although the present building dates from the mid 18th century, and the attached mill house to the mid 17th and mid 18th. Both formed part of a complex of stone buildings which included adjacent cottages, a stable, and a barn dated 1883, where corn for milling was stored. In the 1950s the mill was derelict, and both it and the house were subsequently restored as a private dwelling. (fn. 369) In 2000 some machinery remained on display through a glass panel within the house, and the mill wheel was still in place. (fn. 370)

Other Mills and Fisheries

Some other medieval mills in the parish, presumably on Broadwell brook, have since disappeared. One, apparently in Broadwell, belonged in 1279 to Bradwell Odyngsell manor, and was a freehold leased with 6 a. for 14s. 11d. a year. Though possibly still functioning in 1685 it had gone by 1797. (fn. 371) Another mill was granted to Hertford priory by Ralph de Limesy (d. 1093), but has not been traced further. (fn. 372)

A fishery attached to the lordship of Broadwell in 1086 was probably in the Thames at Kelmscott. Fishing rights there descended with Bradwell Odyngsell manor until at least the 17th century. (fn. 373)

SOCIAL HISTORY

Social Structure and the Life of the Community

From the Middle Ages Broadwell remained a small agrarian community, and though the village contained the medieval manorial centre and the parish church it experienced the attentions of resident gentry for only relatively short periods, most notably during the late 16th and 17th centuries. A substantial proportion of its inhabitants were relatively low-status farmers and agricultural workers, comprising unfree peasants in the Middle Ages, small yeomen and tenant farmers in the 16th and 17th centuries, and agricultural labourers and village craftsmen in the 19th century. A few wealthier farmers, some of them with pretensions to gentry status, ran the three or four large farms consolidated at inclosure, but seem to have played a very limited role in promoting any communal village life, while vicars, too, tended to live at the more thriving settlement of Filkins for much of the 17th and 18th centuries. Like the rest of the parish Broadwell benefited during the 19th century from the paternalistic attentions of William Hervey and his successors at Bradwell Grove, in particular through the building of a village school which continued into the mid 20th century. Apart from the church and a single public house there were no other public buildings, however, and few notable houses, an indication of the extent to which Broadwell remained eclipsed by the larger and more prosperous neighbouring settlements of Filkins and Kencot. (fn. 374)

The Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages Broadwell was predominantly a village of unfree peasant farmers, and was presumably dominated by the three large demesne farms which were run from substantial manorial centres in or near the village. In 1279 there were 27 villein households, six of them headed by women (probably widows); of those, 20 occupied a yardland each, and five half a yardland, and there were six households of cottars with 6 a. each, including two millers on the Templars' manor. Two tenants were freeholders, one with 1½ yardlands and the other with a mill and 6 acres. Like the other inhabitants, however, they held their property from the main Broadwell manors, and may not have been sharply distinguished in either wealth or social status. (fn. 375) Around 20 landholders were wealthy enough to be assessed for tax in the early 14th century, one or two of them on moveable goods worth £2 to £3. By far the wealthiest, however, were the lords, who paid substantial amounts of tax on their demesne stock in Broadwell, and who in their absence presumably ran their farms through resident bailiffs. (fn. 376) The village's division among separate manors may (as at Langford) have led to occasional conflict between tenants over commons or other rights. In 1356 the abbot of Cirencester complained that members of the d'Oddingseles family had attacked his servants at Broadwell and stolen his goods, assisted by family retainers and by the vicar of Broadwell and the chaplain of Kelmscott. (fn. 377) A few years earlier some of the same people drove away livestock belonging to a prosperous (and probably non-resident) sheep farmer. (fn. 378)

Most unfree tenants owed labour services on the demesnes, and in 1305 yardlanders holding of Bradwell Odyngsell manor apparently fell into two groups: those who performed labour services at sowing and harvest times but paid a lower rent, and those who paid a higher rent but only worked a few days a year. (fn. 379) Commutation of labour services in the later Middle Ages presumably affected social relations, but evidence is lacking, and the large demesne farms continued, thereafter let to local tenants. (fn. 380) The only other indications of communal life are embellishments to the church and establishment of chantries or obits; the circumstances and patrons' identities are unknown, however. (fn. 381)

1500–1800

By the early 16th century the dominant farming and landholding families in Broadwell were those renting the former demesnes, among them the Fortys, Goodenoughs, Hampsons, and (probably) Whitings. Some, like Harry Hampson (fl. 1549), were sheep farmers on a large scale, and were presumably prosperous and well connected. (fn. 382) A few wealthy outsiders also retained interests in the parish, among them sheep farmers, Witney merchants, and neighbouring gentry. (fn. 383) By contrast most Broadwell farmers were still copyholders with holdings of only 1–1½ yardlands, and few approached the demesne farmers in wealth. In 1544 Hampson and John Whiting were each taxed on goods worth £20, the next wealthiest inhabitants being Thomas Burdock (£8), Thomas Morris (£6), and Richard Goodenough (£5 6s. 8d.). Presumably such people employed the landless labourers and servants who in the 1520s paid the minimum 4d. tax levied on wages. (fn. 384) Later wills and probate inventories suggest the usual rise in wealth and standards of comfort among better-off inhabitants, indicated by greater quantities of household goods including metal cooking pots. (fn. 385) Even so, in the mid 17th century over half those assessed for the hearth tax still paid on only one or two hearths, compared with nine hearths at the manor house and five at the vicarage. In 1665 two householders were judged too poor to pay the tax. (fn. 386)

A major change during the late 16th century and the 17th was the arrival of resident gentry, replacing the non-resident monastic lords and the d'Oddingseles family (who by then lived mostly in Warwickshire). Following his purchase of Bradwell Odyngsell manor in the 1560s John Thompson (d. 1591) became by far the wealthiest inhabitant, taxed in 1577 on goods worth more than twice those of his most prosperous neighbours. (fn. 387) Since most inhabitants were his tenants and owed attendance at the manor court he must have been a dominant figure, though his influence was undermined by his recusancy and subsequent imprisonment, which culminated in the loss of his estates. (fn. 388) The Thompsons were succeeded by the Hampsons, relatives of the 16th-century demesne farmers. Sir Robert Hampson (d. 1607) was an alderman and sometime sheriff of London who had prospered through a career in trade, and though the family's main seat was at Taplow in Buckinghamshire family members lived at Broadwell for much of the 17th century, where they eventually built up an estate of almost 2,000 acres. (fn. 389) Surviving 17th-century gate piers suggest that Broadwell manor house may have been fashionably remodelled in a style similar to the Hampsons' Taplow property, and it appears to have contained at least sixteen rooms, all comfortably furnished with wooden furniture, textiles, and luxury items such as rugs, plate, and a mirror. (fn. 390) The family's local dominance is suggested by their monuments in the church, and two of the church's bells (cast in 1653 and 1663) bear Thomas Hampson's name, suggesting that both Thomases were local benefactors. (fn. 391)

By the mid 17th century there were also resident gentry at Bradwell Grove, where a house built before 1668 became, in the 18th century, a 'hunting box' for the mostly non-resident lord Murrough O'Brien. The surrounding woodland was reserved for the lord's profit and recreation, exploited for its timber and, in the 18th century, patrolled by gamekeepers, while poachers were publicly threatened with prosecution. (fn. 392) Other gentlemen with interests in Broadwell parish included William Henshall (mentioned in the 1640s) and Edmund Gregory, who inhabited a substantial house in the 1660s. (fn. 393)

During the 18th century, following the Hampsons' departure, Broadwell again lacked a resident lord, and vicars, too, lived increasingly at the larger and more fashionable village of Filkins, often on their own property. In 1754 the only Broadwell landholder wealthy enough to vote was the vicar Henry Whitfield (d. 1762), who lived at Hall Place in Filkins. (fn. 394) Consolidation of large leasehold farms both before and after inclosure in 1776 nevertheless produced a few leading farming families who played a prominent role in parish affairs. (fn. 395) Among them were the Allens, Bartletts, Burdocks, Goodenoughs, Kings, Whitings, and Winterbournes, who regularly filled manorial and parochial offices such as those of tithingman or churchwarden. (fn. 396) Even some smaller farmers had pretensions to gentility, the Oxford Journal recording Thomas Banting's marriage in 1772 to Arabella Bouchier of Langford, 'a young lady possessed of every accomplishment ... [and] with a genteel fortune'. (fn. 397) Farming at this social level was nevertheless precarious, as illustrated by the Banting family's subsequent decline and by recorded bankruptcies and sales of stock when tenants moved on. (fn. 398)

The 19th and 20th Centuries

During the 19th century the most significant social developments arose from the expansion of the Bradwell Grove estate and the arrival, as resident squires, of William Hervey and his successor W. H. Fox, who both displayed strongly paternalistic attitudes. In Broadwell the impact was more muted than at Holwell, which effectively became an estate village. (fn. 399) Even so Hervey built a village school at Broadwell in 1847, (fn. 400) and was attentive to his duties as lay rector, keeping the chancel and churchyard walls in repair. (fn. 401) His influence as a landlord was felt throughout the estate, where he renewed farm buildings, modernized agriculture, and took some farms in hand, in some cases bringing in his own men as tenants. At Broadwell a new architect-designed farmhouse for his agent Joseph Large was built on part of the ancient manor-house site in 1804, while Bradwell Grove itself was transformed by the building of Hervey's new Gothic-style mansion and of scattered estate cottages. (fn. 402) Fox, renowned as a generous landlord, created allotments for poor tenants in Broadwell, and gave a church clock as a war memorial in 1920. (fn. 403)

The consolidation of large commercial farms completed Broadwell's transformation into a community made up mostly of agricultural labourers, and in 1837 most inhabitants were characterized as 'poor'. (fn. 404) Hervey and Fox aside, leading farmers such as the Illotts and Larges consequently became the dominant figures in village society, alongside the vicars who from the 19th century once again lived mostly at Broadwell vicarage. (fn. 405) T. E. Colston (vicar 1796–1845) reported on parish celebrations to mark Queen Victoria's coronation in 1837, which were held in Charles Large's field and barn next to the church. Colston and his wife entertained over a hundred poor children to lunch, and later a band led a procession of all the 'respectable inhabitants' to a dinner, where more than 400 poor and their families were feasted on roast and boiled beef, plum pudding, ale, and tobacco. The evening continued with fireworks and dancing in the barn until five in the morning. (fn. 406) Parochial officers such as churchwarden or parish clerk were often drawn from the village's less prestigious inhabitants, however. George Compton, who served frequently as warden and clerk from the 1840s to 1890s, was a tailor, while Henry Dring, churchwarden in 1847, was a Filkins publican and farrier. (fn. 407)

School and church apart, the only public building in Broadwell was the Five Bells public house, which was licensed by the mid 18th century. (fn. 408) The Five Bells Club or friendly society (founded in 1847 with Hervey as president) held its annual club feast there from 1854, festivities in 1871 including a perambulation of the village by Burford brass band, followed by dancing on the green. The club catered for several local villages and continued until 1878, when it was disbanded with 22 members. (fn. 409) A second pub or alehouse, at Moss's or Morse's homestead near Bradwell Grove, was mentioned in the 1750s but apparently closed soon after. (fn. 410)

During the late 19th and early 20th century Broadwell's population fell steadily as agriculture contracted. In the 1890s there was still a grocer, tailor, bootmaker, slater, and miller alongside the farmers, vicar, and broad run of agricultural labourers, but by 1939 the village had only the pub and one shop, with Heyworth-Savage's estate steward, farm bailiff, gamekeeper, and head gardener all based at Bradwell Grove. A number of wealthier professionals and private residents (including an RAF squadron leader) were already occupying some of Broadwell's better houses, presaging a trend which became more pronounced as the century progressed. (fn. 411) In 2001 some 43 per cent of those in employment worked in managerial or professional occupations, and 76 per cent in service industries, the average distance travelled to work being over 15 km. (fn. 412) Even so there was local agricultural and forestry employment on the Bradwell Grove estate, and Manor Farm by the church remained associated with a major farming operation. (fn. 413) The Five Bells (latterly renamed the Chilli Pepper) closed in the early 21st century, leaving the church and the former village school (closed in 1946) as the only public buildings. (fn. 414)

Education

Until the foundation of an endowed elementary school in 1847, educational provision in the village was based largely on Sunday schools and small private dame schools. Henry Whitfield (vicar 1691–1727) used a room in the vicarage house as a schoolroom, (fn. 415) and in 1793 a 'flourishing' Sunday school at Broadwell taught 80 children to read the scriptures. It closed before 1815, when the Sunday school at Filkins taught reading and the catechism to children from both villages. (fn. 416) Two small day schools in Broadwell or Filkins were mentioned in 1808, but closed by 1815; neither was endowed, and only reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught. Two girls' schools with 40 pupils each and a mixed school for 30–40 children, both mentioned in 1819, may have been in Filkins rather than Broadwell, where in 1835 there was only a day school with three boys and seven girls, all taught at their parents' expense. Even so, a few years earlier the vicar claimed that there were sufficient schools in the parish for all its children to be educated, should their parents so wish. (fn. 417)

A new school and teacher's house (Fig. 11) were built in 1847 at the expense of William Hervey of Bradwell Grove, who part-endowed the school with a rent-charge of £3 10s. a year. (fn. 418) Another £8 was added in 1856, when Hervey increased the endowment of all his schools at Broadwell, Filkins, and Holwell. (fn. 419) By the 1870s Broadwell school also received a government grant of just over £19, supplemented by voluntary subscriptions (£19 2s.) and school pence (c. £6); total receipts were around £53, marginally in excess of expenditure, although by 1893 there was a deficit. (fn. 420) Average attendance in 1854 was 47, (fn. 421) and by 1871 there was accommodation for 65, though only 30 attended on inspection day. By 1877 accommodation had risen to 80, but average attendance was still only 31 and by 1893 it had sunk to 18. (fn. 422) During these years economies were rigorously applied: children were excluded from school if they did not bring their pence, and several changes of mistress during 1892 suggest that the salary was less than might have been expected. One new teacher found the children to be highly rebellious and expelled several, while inspectors, too, considered the school to be unsatisfactory until 1895, when it passed a fair examination. (fn. 423) An evening school for men and lads, presumably held in the school, was mentioned in 1872, (fn. 424) but seems to have lapsed soon after.

After Kencot school closed in 1901 its pupils were transferred to Broadwell school, raising average attendance to 30 in 1902 and to 42 by 1906. From 1923, however, those over ten years old were transferred to Langford school, and attendance at Broadwell fell back to only 13. The school finally closed in 1946, when all the remaining pupils were transferred to Langford. (fn. 425) A private day-care nursery was opened in the former schoolroom in 1992 and continued in 2011, serving Broadwell and surrounding villages. (fn. 426) By then older Broadwell children received primary education at Langford primary or Alvescot infant school, and secondary education at Burford. (fn. 427)

Charities and Poor Relief

During the 16th and 17th centuries several local yeomen and gentry made one-off charitable bequests of food, drink, or money to be distributed around the time of their funeral, by relatives or by the churchwardens. (fn. 428) Some attempted to define who was eligible: in 1577, for instance, the husbandman John Burdock left 4d. each to poor households without a plough. (fn. 429) From the later 16th century donations were sometimes placed in the 'poor men's box', to be distributed at the churchwardens' discretion. (fn. 430) Despite the presence of some wealthy farmers and, in the 16th and 17th centuries, of resident gentry, Broadwell nevertheless received no endowed charities, and from the late 16th century the bulk of the parish's poor relief came from the poor rates, supplemented by offertory money distributed by the clergy and churchwardens under the auspices of the vestry. (fn. 431)

By the early 17th century Broadwell and Filkins each had their own overseer of the poor, and presumably, as later, raised their own poor rates. (fn. 432) Broadwell's overseers seem to have been typically assiduous in controlling costs, refusing, for example, to fund an 'aged and weak' widow and her epileptic daughter, who in 1697 appealed to the justices of the peace. In 1701 they also prosecuted an Asthall man for misappropriating the property of children in his care, who had subsequently become a burden to Broadwell parish. (fn. 433) By the mid 1770s Broadwell's inhabitants paid out almost £24 a year in poor rates, a sum which by 1785 had more than doubled to £58 including county expenses, and by 1802–3, in line with national trends, Broadwell raised £209, at a rate of 3s. in the pound. Twelve adults and 16 children (some 13 per cent of the population) were then receiving permanent out-relief, and another seven (or 3 per cent) needed occasional help. (fn. 434) Neverthless rates and expenditure remained relatively low for the area, presumably reflecting Broadwell's status as a 'closed' parish closely tied to the Bradwell Grove estate. (fn. 435) From 1803 to 1834 costs generally remained around £200 a year, with occasional peaks of over £300 in 1814 and in 1818–19. (fn. 436)

At inclosure in 1776 a 12-a. plot west of the Filkins–Burford road became a furze ground for the poor, to provide fuel in compensation for loss of common rights. The land was subsequently leased to the tenant of the rectory estate, and produced £3 rent for each village by 1831, when the income was spent on coal. (fn. 437) From 1834, under the New Poor Law, responsibility for Broadwell's poor passed from the parish to the new Witney poor-law union, though the furze ground continued as a parish charity, (fn. 438) and owners of Bradwell Grove continued to display a paternalistic regard for their tenants. At his death in 1863 William Hervey was alleged to have been 'greatly mourned by the poor', while Squire Fox, renowned for generosity towards his estate workers, provided allotments where they could grow vegetables. (fn. 439) Despite such initiatives rural poverty persisted, particularly during the agricultural depression of the late 19th century, and in 1872 the poor rate raised for Broadwell alone was £164. (fn. 440) Charitable income from the poor's ground was temporarily increased to £20 in the mid 20th century when Sir William Goodenough (d. 1951) was occupier, and in 1968 John Heyworth of Bradwell Grove increased the rent for Broadwell's share to £4 10s. an acre. Nine parishioners received £3 each the same year. The land was regulated by a Charity Commission Scheme in 1970, (fn. 441) and in 2011 (as the Broadwell Fund) yielded some £375 a year. (fn. 442)

RELIGIOUS HISTORY

Broadwell had an independent church by the mid 12th century and possibly much earlier, serving the outlying settlements of Filkins, Holwell, and Kelmscott as well as Broadwell itself. Dependent chapels were established at Kelmscott and Holwell from the Middle Ages; Filkins, however, acquired its own church only in the 1850s, partly in response to growing Nonconformity. The Broadwell living was a vicarage, but was inadequately endowed until augmentations in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result most medieval incumbents were relatively obscure and sometimes local men, although most probably served the benefice adequately despite some evidence of neglect in the early 16th century. Recusancy was marked in the parish for a century or more after the Reformation, particularly at Broadwell and Holwell, where the chief landowners (respectively the Thompsons and Trinders) were prominent Roman Catholics. Their influence seems not to have outlasted them, however, and only a few Catholics, all obscure tradesmen or farmers, were recorded later.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries Broadwell church was held by successive members of the Whitfield and Colston families, gentlemen clergy and landowners who lived mostly at Filkins, and who delegated daily care to their curates. The 19th century saw improvement under energetic resident vicars such as T. W. Goodlake, encouraged by the paternalistic support of William Hervey of Bradwell Grove. By then, however, Nonconformity was well established in the parish, particularly at Filkins away from the parish centre. (fn. 443)

Parochial Organization

In the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman period Broadwell may have been ecclesiastically dependent on Langford, whose substantial late 11th-century church possibly replaced an earlier building. (fn. 444) No later signs of dependence are known, however, and Broadwell had its own (apparently independent) church by the mid 12th century, when Alan de Limesy (d. by 1162), as lord of Broadwell, gave it to the Knights Templar with its glebe and tithes. (fn. 445) The church adjoined the medieval manor house, (fn. 446) and the most likely founder is one of Alan's 11th- or 12th-century predecessors. The parish was conterminous with the late 11th-century Broadwell manor, encompassing the townships of Filkins, Holwell, and Kelmscott, and the vicarage ordained in the early 13th century regulated provision in the preexisting chapels at Holwell and Kelmscott, as well as at Broadwell itself. (fn. 447) The church's dedication to Saints Peter and Paul was established by 1531. (fn. 448)

In 1850 the chapelry of Holwell and the contiguous Bradwell Grove area of Broadwell became an independent ecclesiastical parish, (fn. 449) and in 1855 Filkins (where a new church was built in 1855–7) became a joint ecclesiastical parish with Broughton Poggs. (fn. 450) Kelmscott remained a chapelry of Broadwell until 1960, when it was annexed to Clanfield. (fn. 451) Thereafter, regular changes incorporated the parishes into ever larger benefices. In 1966 the remainder of Broadwell parish was united with Kencot, and ten years later Kelmscott was added to form the benefice of Broadwell with Kencot and Kelmscott. (fn. 452) In 1980 a single benefice was created incorporating Broughton Poggs, Filkins, Broadwell, Kencot, and Kelmscott, (fn. 453) to which Langford and Little Faringdon were added in 1984. (fn. 454) In 1995 the combined benefice was united with Alvescot, Black Bourton, Holwell, Shilton, and Westwell to form the vast Shill Valley and Broadshire ministry. (fn. 455)

Advowson

The advowson formed part of Alan de Limesy's gift of Broadwell church to the Templars, (fn. 456) although his descendants unsuccessfully disputed the grant in 1244, 1285, and 1307. (fn. 457) Thereafter the advowson descended with the Templars' manor of Bradwell St John until the early 17th century, falling subject (like the manor) to occasional rival claims. Following the Templars' dissolution the king presented in 1312 and 1313, (fn. 458) and subsequently granted the manor and advowson first to Hugh le Despenser (who presented in 1324), (fn. 459) and then to Pancius de Controne. (fn. 460) From c. 1317 the Knights Hospitallers laid claim to both manor and advowson, (fn. 461) and before 1348 vindicated their right of patronage. (fn. 462)

The Hospitallers retained the advowson until the Dissolution, when it became subject to protracted rival claims. In 1542 the king granted manor and advowson to Sir Thomas Pope, who in 1555 was licensed to alienate them to Trinity College, Oxford. (fn. 463) The college later claimed the advowson, (fn. 464) but probably never exercised it: in 1559 the rector of Kencot presented by agreement with the Edmonds family of Deddington (who were associates of the Popes), (fn. 465) and in 1583 the advowson was said to be still owned by the Pope family. (fn. 466) In 1588 John Aylmer, bishop of London, presented on behalf of Dame Elizabeth Paulet, Thomas Pope's widow. (fn. 467)

In 1599 the advowson was allegedly included in William Pope's sale of his Broadwell estate to Sir Robert Hampson, from whom it passed in 1608 to his son Nicholas. (fn. 468) However, Pope was later said to have sold the advowson in 1599 to the vicar Philip Willett (d. 1615), (fn. 469) a relative of the Hampson family; Willett left it to his son Francis, and granted his daughter Margaret the right to the next two presentations if she remained unmarried. (fn. 470) The advowson remained in the Willett family until 1692, when Henry Willett sold it to the vicar Henry Whitfield. (fn. 471) In 1705 he and his son Henry sold it to Thomas Edwards, from whom it passed to the Colstons with Filkins Hall and the lease of the rectory estate. (fn. 472) In 1844 Edward Francis Colston transferred it to a creditor, John Surman, who assigned it to his relative T. W. Goodlake (vicar of Broadwell 1845–55). (fn. 473)

Goodlake took advantage of the subsequent parish reorganization, selling the patronage of the new parish of Holwell to William Hervey in 1850, (fn. 474) that of Broadwell to his curate F. T. Woodman in 1855, (fn. 475) and that of the new parish of Broughton with Filkins probably in 1861. (fn. 476) The new vicar of Filkins subsequently complained to the bishop about the frequent sale of advowsons in the neighbourhood. (fn. 477) The advowson of Broadwell passed before 1872 to Sir William Marriott of Blandford (Dorset), Bt, (fn. 478) before 1913 to W. H. Fox of Bradwell Grove, (fn. 479) and before 1926 to F. C. Goodenough of Filkins Hall, (fn. 480) whose family retained it in 1976. (fn. 481) Following the merging of the various benefices the Goodenoughs retained a share in alternate presentations in the early 21st century, the other patrons including the Church Society Trust, John Heyworth of Bradwell Grove, and Christ Church, Oxford. (fn. 482)

Glebe, Tithes and Vicarage

The church's glebe was given to the Templars in the mid 12th century, but as they received other property as well its size is uncertain. (fn. 483) It may, however, have been fairly substantial, since in the 13th century the church as a whole was valued at the sizeable sum of £20, (fn. 484) including £8 6s. 8d. from glebe and small and hay tithes. (fn. 485) By the 18th century the rectory estate was reckoned to include 5 yardlands (around 125 acres) in Broadwell and Upper Filkins, together with great tithes from all four townships, although not all of it was necessarily ancient glebe. (fn. 486)

A vicarage valued at 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.) a year was ordained or confirmed in the early 13th century, comprising altarage and small tithes from Broadwell and its chapelries, a third of grain and small tithes from the demesne, and tithes from crofts in Broadwell. (fn. 487) In 1526 the vicarage was still worth only £14 a year, from which the vicar paid a curate's stipend of £5 6s. 8d., additional outgoings of 35s. 6d., and (apparently) an additional stipend of £5 6s. 8d. for Kelmscott. (fn. 488) The vicar appears at that date to have also held the rectory estate and probably other land by private lease, although from 1557 the rectory estate was let to laymen. (fn. 489)

In the 1670s the vicarage was still worth less than £30 a year, (fn. 490) derived from lesser tithes, 15 bushels of grain from the four mills, and rent charges of £6 a year given in 1623 by William Cleevely of Holwell for sermons in Holwell chapel. (fn. 491) The income was said to be too small to live on, (fn. 492) and some vicars had difficulty collecting the dues. There were tithe disputes in 1594 (fn. 493) and 1710, when the millers refused payment, (fn. 494) and in 1689 Cleevely's grandson William Godfrey disputed his assessment for tithes and church rates in Holwell. (fn. 495) The family was also reluctant to maintain Holwell chapel (fn. 496) or to pay Cleevely's charity, though judgement was made against them in 1730. (fn. 497) In 1692 the vicar refused to allow a vicar of Shilton to preach in Holwell chapel under the terms of Cleevely's endowment, since it diminished his income. (fn. 498)

In 1707 the living was exempted from payment of first fruits and tenths on account of its poverty, (fn. 499) and in 1722 Queen Anne's Bounty matched a gift of £200 from Thomas Edwards and Edward Colston, the money being used to buy 13½ a. at Lechlade (Glos.). (fn. 500) The land generated an additional £15 a year in 1738. (fn. 501) On the inclosure of Broadwell and Filkins in 1776 the vicar received 138 a. and a rent-charge of £1 1s. 11d., and a further 79 a. were awarded at Kelmscott's inclosure in 1799, all in lieu of small tithes. (fn. 502) At Holwell, tithes were commuted in 1840 for a rent-charge of £41 a year. (fn. 503) By 1850 the gross value of the living was £263 15s. 8d., (fn. 504) though that was reduced to £135 4s. in 1851 by Holwell's separation from Broadwell, (fn. 505) and in 1855 by the transfer of the 13½ a. of glebe in Lechlade to the new parish of Broughton with Filkins. (fn. 506) In 1877 127½ a. of glebe known as Vicarage or Furzey Hall farm was exchanged with W. H. Fox for 25 a. adjacent to the vicarage house, and for £3,000 invested in ground rents; thereafter the glebe totalled 116 acres. (fn. 507) In 1899 the ground rents produced £110 a year out of a total gross income of £250. (fn. 508)

Vicarage House

A vicarage house existed by c. 1520, (fn. 509) although none was mentioned in the 13th-century vicarage ordination. Probably it occupied the site of Finial House on Broadwell's main street (Fig. 12), which lies some way south of the church, and which was the vicarage house certainly by the mid 19th century. (fn. 510) The existing building has two storeys and attics built of coursed stone rubble, with four large gabled dormers on the south-east or garden front. The L-shaped core appears to be 16th-century, and alterations c. 1620 included raising the roof and enlarging the gable of the north-east dormer. (fn. 511) In 1685 the house was probably larger than now, since it was said to have seven bays excluding the barn and stable. Attached were a garden and a ½-a. close. (fn. 512)

Most late 17th- and early 18th-century vicars seem to have lived there, (fn. 513) but from then until the mid 19th century their successors, who included several local land-owners, (fn. 514) were either non-resident or occupied private mansion houses in Filkins. Henry Whitfield (vicar 1727–62) probably lived at Hall Place, (fn. 515) while Alexander Colston (vicar 1765–92) moved to Filkins Hall. (fn. 516) His son-in-law R. B. Bell (vicar 1792–96) also lived at Filkins, (fn. 517) and his son T. E. Colston (vicar 1796–1845) occupied Green Dragon House, which the family had acquired in the 1750s–60s. (fn. 518)

Perhaps as a result the vicarage house was in decay in 1744, when Whitfield sought to rebuild the most dilapidated parts. Whitfield claimed that the living was insufficient to maintain so large a dwelling, which previous incumbents had extended rather than repaired: at that date it included a large hall and pantry, two cellars and a closet, two chambers, a study, and four garrets, together with a schoolroom which was to be demolished. A kitchen with a chamber and closet above was to be rebuilt as a parlour, a brewhouse was to be turned into a kitchen, and a large barn was to be converted into a stable and woodhouse. (fn. 519) Repairs were completed by 1752, (fn. 520) and in the 1760s the house was occupied by a curate, (fn. 521) though from 1774 it was usually let to local farmers. (fn. 522) In 1805 it included a small parlour and a kitchen (presumably those fitted out in 1744–52), three bedrooms, and five garrets, with a brewhouse, stable, woodhouse, and pigsty. (fn. 523)

In 1845 T. W. Goodlake, as incoming vicar, received £118 for dilapidations, and by 1848 the house had been repaired and extensively remodelled at a cost of nearly £900, raised partly from a mortgage of £650 from Queen Anne's Bounty. The woodshed was dismantled and the materials re-used; a study, dining room and drawing room were added to the ground floor, filling in the angle of the L to form the present roughly rectangular plan; additional bedrooms and attic space were made above; and a separate stable and coach-house block was built. (fn. 524)

Successive vicars occupied the house until 1966, when it was sold following the unification of Broadwell and Kencot. A small thatched cottage by the churchyard was purchased instead, (fn. 525) but that too was sold in 1977 following further parochial reorganization. (fn. 526) Vicars serving the expanded ministry lived from 1980 at Filkins, (fn. 527) and from 1995 at Shilton. (fn. 528)

Pastoral Care and Religious Life

The Middle Ages to the Reformation

In 1185 the Templars were leasing the church and its income to Master William, who was evidently a cleric and a university graduate. Presumably it was served by him or by his nephew Hilary the priest, who was responsible for the 4-mark rent, and who held another 1½ yardlands in Broadwell from the Templars. (fn. 529) Stricter arrangements were inaugurated under the early 13th-century vicarage ordination, which laid down the vicar's duties. In Broadwell church and Kelmscott chapel he was to officiate daily, as well as providing services three times a week and on festivals in Holwell chapel. Three chaplains were to be provided, paid presumably by the vicar. (fn. 530) How far this was done is unclear, though assistant chaplains were recorded intermittently throughout the medieval period. (fn. 531)

Of the 40 or so clergy known to have served the parish before the Reformation, only Robert of Clipston (vicar early 13th century), Thomas of Maldon (vicar c. 1340), and John Lucas (curate c. 1526) may have been university-educated. Of those, Clipston, a civil and canon lawyer and later an official of the diocese of Worcester, was the only one of particular note. (fn. 532) Clearly the relative poverty of the living and the burden of providing additional services at the two chapels deterred men with better prospects. Most vicars probably resided: Robert of Clipston and William Mollyngs (vicar 1453–90) were both cited in debt cases, (fn. 533) while in 1356 William Edward (vicar 1355–60) was implicated in a raid on Cirencester abbey's property in Broadwell, along with members of the d'Oddingseles family. (fn. 534) Several vicars were local men, four of them from Broadwell or its hamlets, (fn. 535) and four more from within Oxfordshire. (fn. 536)

The living changed hands frequently in the earlier 14th century because of the disputed advowson, (fn. 537) and was exchanged five times between 1347 and 1420. (fn. 538)

Pastoral care seems to have reached a low point under John Mabley (vicar 1500–32), who neglected services at Broadwell and Holwell and failed to find a chaplain for Kelmscott. Vestments were torn, and the churchyard was unfenced. Mabley was allegedly abusive to parishioners, and was involved in a violent pew dispute with one woman, while relations were perhaps soured further by his involvement in small-scale inclosure. By 1530 he employed curates, but the vicarage house was decayed and used as an alehouse, and the chancel roof was in disrepair. (fn. 539)

At an unknown date a light in the church was endowed with land in Nether Filkins, held by the churchwardens and said in 1578 to be worth 4d. a year. (fn. 540) The land was confiscated at the Reformation, when (as elsewhere in the parish) there is evidence of local religious conservatism. In 1546 there were still two lights in the church, (fn. 541) and in 1554, during the re-adoption of Roman Catholicism, Margery Turner of Filkins asked Thomas Pycher (vicar 1532–59) to find a priest to say masses for herself and her husband. (fn. 542) In 1577 and 1581 Nicholas and Henry Hampson similarly requested elaborate funeral doles to the poor to elicit prayers for their souls. (fn. 543) The vicars themselves conformed, however. William Fisher (vicar 1559–81) subscribed to the Elizabethan religious settlement, and his successor William Fisher or Pearce, presumably a relative, was a doctor of divinity, who also held the much wealthier adjacent living of Kencot. (fn. 544) All of Broadwell's later vicars seem to have similarly been university-educated. (fn. 545)

The Reformation to 1850

Several Roman Catholic families in the parish in the 16th and 17th centuries included some prominent landowners and gentry. (fn. 546) John Thompson (d. 1591), owner of Bradwell Odyngsell manor from the 1560s, retained a household chaplain and adhered to the Catholic faith until his death, prompting the Crown to seize the manor and to lease it to tenants. (fn. 547) Persecution eventually forced him to move to Newland in the Forest of Dean (Glos.) under the name of Mr Groves, and he was imprisoned in Gloucester gaol more than once, where he died after seven years' confinement. Of Thompson's children, Francis Thompson alias Yate (1557–1614) was a Jesuit on the English mission, Margaret (d. 1613) was a Benedictine nun at Brussels, and Jane married the Gloucestershire Catholic Ambrose Griffiths. Their son James Griffiths studied to become a Jesuit, with financial help from his uncle Robert Thompson, but died young.

John Thompson's other children, John, Dorothy, and his heir Robert (d. 1601), were all fined for recusancy in the 1580s. Robert Thompson's will shows a close relationship with the Bailey family, yeoman tenants of the Thompsons, who were among other recusants in the parish: Robert was godfather to Robert Bailey, and made bequests to him and his siblings. The family's fortunes illustrate the difficulties encountered by recusants in the face of Crown harassment and mounting fines, and though they tried various methods to safeguard their lands, unlike the Trinders of Holwell they were ultimately unsuccessful. After a series of tortuous land transactions the manor was finally sold in 1627 to pay off their debts. (fn. 548) Thereafter recusancy seems to have all but died out in Broadwell, suggesting that the Thompsons' influence had been limited. Only three or four Catholics 'of no rank' were recorded intermittently during the late 17th and late 18th century, and none later. (fn. 549)

During the late 16th century and the 17th the parish was served by a succession of long-serving, resident, and moderately conscientious vicars and assistant curates. Philip Willett (vicar 1588–1615) witnessed local wills, and was related to the Hampsons, lords of Broadwell from the late 16th century. (fn. 550) His curate in the 1580s was Robert Callis, one of a local yeoman family, (fn. 551) whose relative Alice Callis was employed as Willett's servant. (fn. 552) From 1629 Willett's successor James Frethern was also rector of Kencot, (fn. 553) and was assisted in Broadwell and its hamlets by various curates including the conscientious John Hughes (d. 1643) of Kelmscott, (fn. 554) and William Clarkson, whom the anti-clerical pamphleteer Ralph Wallis satirized as a drunkard in 1668. (fn. 555) Frethern remained rector of Kencot until his death in 1663, but had apparently resigned or been deprived of Broadwell by 1653, when John Sone was styled 'minister'. (fn. 556) Sone remained for life, to be succeeded by Thomas Thackham (vicar 1667–91). (fn. 557) Re-roofing of much of the church in the mid 16th century and replacement of the bells in the mid 17th suggests energetic involvement both by incumbents and by leading parishioners. (fn. 558)

Two clerical dynasties, the Whitfields and the Colstons, dominated the parish from 1692 to 1845. Henry Whitfield (vicar 1692–1727) acquired the patronage, and was succeeded by his son and grandson, both also called Henry. (fn. 559) The first of them (vicar 1727–62) was an army chaplain, who was in Scotland with his regiment in 1738 and in Flanders in 1744; he employed curates to cover his absences, of whom at least one was not ordained. (fn. 560) Despite restoring the vicarage house he seems not to have lived there after 1732, when he acquired Hall Place in Filkins through marriage. (fn. 561)

The Colstons were similarly gentlemen clergy, who lived at Filkins and frequently employed curates to fulfil their duties. In 1765 Alexander Colston of Filkins Hall presented his son Alexander to the living, though until 1773 Broadwell continued to be served by the curate Thomas Powell, who occupied the vicarage house. (fn. 562) In 1790, shortly before his death, Colston was assisted by neighbouring clergy: George Johnson of Clanfield served Broadwell, while Mr Francis of Lechlade served Holwell and Kelmscott. (fn. 563) Colston was followed in 1792 by his son-in-law Robert Barker Bell, and in 1796 by his son Thomas Edwards Colston (d. 1845), a former curate who in 1823 was assisted by a nephew. (fn. 564) Under the Colstons Sunday services were generally performed twice in summer (with one sermon) and once in the winter, with alternate Sunday services at each of the two chapels. Holy Communion was celebrated four times a year, attended by around 40 parishioners. There was occasional catechizing, and Sunday schools (supported by subscription) were run intermittently. (fn. 565) T. E. Colston consistently failed to report the prevalence of Nonconformity, particularly in Filkins, (fn. 566) perhaps suggesting a relaxed attitude to his duties. He did, however, present a silver chalice to the church in 1842. (fn. 567)

Unlike Filkins, which lay at some distance from the mother church, Broadwell never became a centre of Protestant Nonconformity, although one of the first Primitive Methodist meetings in the area was established in a cottage there probably in the 1820s, and inspired the development of Primitive Methodism in Filkins. (fn. 568) A small Primitive Methodist group was recorded sporadically thereafter, with eight or more members in the 1850s–70s; a 'class' was mentioned c. 1858–62, and in 1889–90 there was a resident preacher and steward. Thereafter the group seems to have foundered, and no members were noted in 1915. (fn. 569) A Broadwell parish clerk who left the Anglican church for the Plymouth Brethren presumably attended meetings held by the Pinnell or Porter families at Manor Farm in Holwell, and the Brethren do not seem to have become established elsewhere in the parish. (fn. 570)

Religious Life since 1850

T. W. Goodlake, vicar 1845–55 (and also patron), complained to Bishop Wilberforce in 1854 that the parish had suffered from 'insufficient pastoral super-intendance for fifty years'. (fn. 571) In response he instituted weekday services, despite serving the entire parish alone; even so he admitted that attendance at Broadwell church remained unsatisfactory, due partly to its distance from Filkins, and partly to the prevalence of religious Nonconformity within the parish as a whole. (fn. 572) Goodlake extended Broadwell vicarage house, served as an inspector of schools from 1847 to 1861, and presided over parish reorganization, profiting from the sale of Holwell's and Broadwell's advowsons in 1850 and 1855. (fn. 573) In the latter year he resigned Broadwell to become rector of the newly established parish of Broughton Poggs with Filkins, until in 1861 his violence towards a servant and the resulting scandal forced him to resign and move away. (fn. 574)

The separation of Filkins and Holwell from the parish, leaving only a part of Broadwell township and the detached chapelry of Kelmscott, did not lead to immediate improvement. In 1857 William Hervey of Bradwell Grove complained that services had diminished under F. T. Woodman (vicar 1855–70), and full duty was restored only after intervention by Bishop Wilberforce. (fn. 575) Horace Meeres (1870–1907), a conscientious vicar, seems to have presided over stagnant or declining church attendance, although he was able to introduce daily services in Lent and Advent for devout parishioners. Average congregations numbered 110–20 out of a population of well over 200, with fewer men than women, though in the 1880s the number of communicants rose from ten to around 30 or 40. (fn. 576) Some parishioners were still Nonconformists (an estimated 13 per cent in 1878), but Meeres found it impossible to 'draw a line between dissenters and churchmen', and identified the real hindrances to his ministry as apathy and indifference. (fn. 577) His lasting monument was the restoration of the two churches, Broadwell in 1873 and Kelmscott in 1885–9. (fn. 578)

In the 20th century church-going continued to dwindle to a small core of committed members, of whom there were 19 in 2000. (fn. 579) Despite the upheavals of benefice reorganization, resulting in part-time ministry and fewer services, (fn. 580) this small group successfully maintained the fabric, raising over £80,000 for restoration work between 1980 and 2000. (fn. 581)

Church Architecture

Broadwell church (Figs 13–14), cruciform in plan and built largely of stone rubble, is dominated by a three-stage west tower surmounted by a tall, octagonal spire similar to that at Bampton. (fn. 582) The nave, chancel and lower two stages of the tower were probably built in the late 12th century after the Limesys' grant of the church to the Templars, but irregular masonry on the north and south chancel walls and around the tower arch may remain from an earlier building. External 12th-century features include pilaster buttresses on the lowest stage of the tower and at the west end of the chancel, and a string-course which runs around the eastern part of the chancel and along the nave's south wall, where it can be seen inside the south transept chapel. The south doorway, of three orders, is decorated with chevron and a tabbed roll moulding, and has dog-tooth on the hoodmould; the nook-shafts have early stiff-leaf capitals. A lancet in the chancel's south wall and those in the second stage of the tower are probably of the same period.

Inside, the 12th-century tower arch is unusual in being equally elaborate on its east and west faces: it has quadrant roll mouldings, hoodmoulds, moulded imposts extending into a string-course, and shafts with scalloped capitals. The font, which has a quatrefoil bowl on clustered shafts with scallop capitals, is also late 12th-century. The north transept chapel, more advanced in style and probably added after the body of the church had been finished, has an arch from the nave of two chamfered orders on shafts with early stiff-leaf capitals and waterholding bases.

The church was much enlarged in the second half of the 13th century. The chancel was remodelled and a north chapel added to it; the south transept chapel and south porch were added to the nave; and the upper stage of the tower and the spire were built. The two chapels and the chancel modifications are closely related in design: the windows in both chapels have three trefoiled lights with blind tracery in the spandrels, while the chancel's south-east window has similar tracery and a dropped sill. The inner surround of the east window (a cusped rere-arch similar to examples at Bampton and elsewhere in the area) is also late 13th- or early 14th-century, although the window itself has been replaced. The arches to the chancel and chapels each have two chamfered orders, the inner one resting on shafts with moulded capitals, the outer one continuous. The opening into the porch is plainer, but is probably contemporary with the work further east. The upper stage of the tower has large windows, each of two lights and a foiled circle. The spire has four gabled lucarnes and is linked to the tower by four miniature flying buttresses. No documentary evidence has been found to support the modern assumption that the north chancel chapel was built as a chantry chapel for the d'Oddingseles family, (fn. 583) although their arms appear on a corbel shield on the east wall. (fn. 584) A tall narrow recess in the chapel's west wall may have housed staves for parish perambulations.

Few structural changes were made to the church after this period. The central window in the chancel's south wall, which also has a cusped rere-arch, was inserted in the 14th century, and retains a fragment of original glass, while in the early 15th century two very large windows with Perpendicular tracery were installed on each side of the nave. The north transept chapel was remodelled later, when an arch was opened to connect it to the chancel chapel, rectangular windows of three cusped lights were installed, and the roof was replaced by a low-pitched one with a plain parapet. A stair in the corner of the chapel originally led to a room over its roof. Upper and lower doorways to a former rood stair also survive in the south-east respond of the chancel arch, and there is a late 15th- or 16th-century statue niche in the south chapel.

The nave, chancel, and north chancel chapel were re-roofed in the mid 16th century. (fn. 585) The chapel roof, which has a virtually flat, coffered ceiling, survives; the nave and chancel apparently had similar roofs until the 19th century. (fn. 586) Probably also of the mid 16th century were the four-light east window (removed in the 19th century), and a row of three recesses with depressed heads, possibly for brasses, in the chancel's north wall. Below the recesses is a square piscina, presumably for a chantry altar. (fn. 587) The surviving ring of five bells was completed in 1653–63, apparently partly at the cost of the lord of Broadwell; another of the bells is 14th-century, and one is of 1581. A saunce was added in 1778. (fn. 588) Most surviving mural monuments, some of them quite elaborate, were erected between the 17th and early 19th centuries, commemorating resident gentry such as John Huband (d. 1668) of Bradwell Grove, the Hampsons, and the Colstons. (fn. 589)

A blocked door over the tower arch probably led to a former gallery, perhaps that erected in 1829 by the builder Richard Pace as part of more general repairs. (fn. 590) In 1831 the church was said to be in good condition, though in the 1850s and 1860s the interior was still cluttered with irregular box pews, some of them cut down to improve visibility, and by the early 1870s decayed flooring had rendered half the seating unusable. (fn. 591) The church was heavily restored in 1873 by E. G. Bruton, who installed the present steeply pitched, early gothic-style roofs, but retained some corbels from the earlier roof. Probably at the same time the medieval floor levels were raised. (fn. 592)

A large-scale programme of maintenance and repair from the 1980s to the early 21st century included restoration and re-leading of the roofs and partial rebuilding of the spire. An organ from the Cowley Fathers' church of St John the Evangelist (in Cowley near Oxford) was acquired c. 1988, replacing one transferred from Broughton Poggs in the early 1930s. (fn. 593)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Manor Courts and Officers

Courts baron for each of the three main Broadwell manors were held by the 13th century, meeting probably at the manor houses in Broadwell. By 1279 the lords of Bradwell Odyngsell held views of frankpledge as well, and the Knights Templars or Hospitallers must have claimed similar rights, since views were held for Bradwell St John manor in the late 16th century. (fn. 594) Annual profits from the d'Oddingseles' courts were reckoned at 6s. 8d. in 1305, and in 1347 the annual view yielded 2s. (fn. 595) The Hospitallers' Broadwell courts yielded around 40s. a year in the 1330s and 23s. at the Dissolution, (fn. 596) when Cirencester abbey's courts were held twice a year and yielded around 10s. (fn. 597)

Court proceedings for Bradwell Cirencester and Bradwell St John manors continued to be recorded separately in the late 16th and 17th centuries, after the manors were effectively merged. Since the courts were held at Broadwell on the same day, however, in reality the business was probably transacted at a single session. Bradwell Odyngsell was mentioned in court rolls only from the 1670s, but as it was in common ownership from 1599 its tenants, too, probably attended the sessions. By then the courts met usually twice a year, with the annual view (by then associated solely with Bradwell St John manor) held in September or October. The chief business was copyhold land transfers and election of manorial officers, and tenants were fined for standard misdemeanours such as obstruction of highways, allowing animals to stray, and unauthorized cutting of trees or digging of slate. Occasionally the courts issued field orders and regulated grazing. No later evidence for manor courts has been found, and if they continued into the 18th century they presumably lapsed at or before Broadwell's inclosure in 1776. (fn. 598)

Some or all tenants in the parish remained subject to the hundred court as well, which from the 13th century belonged to the lord of Bampton. In 1279 the owner of a large freehold in Kelmscott owed suit at the Bampton view twice a year, and in the 17th century Broadwell was one of several places where the lord of Bampton's steward held an annual view or lawday around Michaelmas (29 September), at which representatives of all four townships reported infringements such as obstruction of roads, failure to repair stocks or drainage ditches, and unringed pigs. The views may have continued until the early 19th century. (fn. 599)

Manorial officers, all nominally elected at the Bradwell St John court from the late 16th century, included separate tithingmen for Broadwell and Filkins, and a single constable. A second constable (presumably for Filkins) was mentioned occasionally, but may have been appointed by a separate body. (fn. 600) Two field wardens were appointed in 1593 and haywardens were mentioned occasionally from the late 16th century; in 1622 one of them was appointed for Broadwell and Over Filkins for one year, his salary paid in grain. (fn. 601)

Parish Government and Officers

Broadwell's vestry is recorded from the 18th century, (fn. 602) and was presumably of earlier origin. Filkins had its own officers and raised its own poor rates, but as the two villages shared a field system agricultural affairs must have been jointly regulated, and probably Filkins's inhabitants attended the Broadwell vestry. Holwell and Kelmscott had their own officers by the 16th or 17th century, and perhaps their own village or township assemblies. (fn. 603)

Two churchwardens were recorded by 1530, of whom one probably represented Filkins. (fn. 604) Sidesmen (one for Broadwell and one for Filkins) were also elected in the earlier 17th century, though possibly not after 1641. (fn. 605) Kelmscott and Holwell had their own churchwardens with responsibility for their own chapels, although until the 19th century all four townships were required to contribute towards the upkeep of Broadwell churchyard, and the churchwardens levied rates in Broadwell and Filkins towards upkeep of the church building. (fn. 606) In the 17th and 18th centuries the church-wardens were drawn from the villages' lesser gentry and leading farming families; (fn. 607) they appear to have had no separate endowment, although after inclosure they and the vicar administered the furze grounds allotted to the poor. (fn. 608) Other 17th-century officers (elected annually) included two overseers of the poor and, until 1695, four surveyors of highways. Of those, one of the overseers and two of the surveyors represented Filkins. (fn. 609) A single parish clerk for both places, often a local craftsman, was appointed by the vicar according to ancient custom, and in 1831 received £4 a year plus fees. In 1895 the clerk was non-resident, his duties undertaken by a village tailor as deputy. (fn. 610)

Responsibility for poor relief passed in 1834 to the newly established Witney poor-law union, and following the Local Government Act of 1894 most remaining local government powers passed to the county council or to Witney Rural District Council. In 1974 the latter was superseded by the new West Oxfordshire District Council. (fn. 611) Parish councils continued in both Broadwell and Filkins, exercising residual parish responsibilities.