Part 5

ADDERBURY.--Altitudes: high town 342, low town 300; population, 1132; 3-1/4 miles south of Banbury. It retains its old mansions and homesteads and the wide margin of its ways to a fuller degree than other villages in the north of the shire. The old rectory house, the manor house, formerly Lord Rochester's home, and others on the south side of the green, are good buildings. Nothing remains of the Cross once standing on the green, and of Sir Thos. Cobb's famous house there remain but the gateways and kitchen. The village during the time of the Great Rebellion was held as a Royalist outpost in the Banbury area. Mr. Wilmot, afterwards Lord Rochester, with his local troops of horse fought on the left wing of the Royalists' Army at Edge Hill. A cavalry fight took place during the war near Bodicot, on the Banbury road, when Fiennes had some success.

ST. MARY'S CHURCH is remarkable for its elegant chancel, built by William of Wykeham. The chancel windows are in the early style of perpendicular architecture, and are fine illustrations of the architect's skill. His arms are to be seen above the exterior of the east window. The north door is in the decorated style, and is rich in mouldings and crocketed canopies. A good example of perpendicular work is to be seen in the square-headed vestry door. The spire dates from the 14th century, and is massive and imposing. The frieze under the cornice of the north wall is filled with grotesque sculpture. In the interior, the timber roof of the nave, the clustered columns, and the sedilia and piscina are excellent specimens of work of the decorated period.

HANWELL.--Altitudes: 476-416; population, 176; 3 miles north-west of Banbury. The village winds in one long street down-hill. It rests on the ferruginous red rock of the Middle Lias. Midway in the village an old oak tree covered the village stocks and the outflow of an aquaduct, probably the Saint Ann's Well of past time. Pleasant footways follow the hill side on the north to Shotteswell and on the south to Banbury. When King Charles took the Castle after the battle of Edge Hill it would seem that it was not without a fight. An old rhyme runs:

Hornton in the hollow, Long Horley on the hill, Frowsty little Drayton, Bloody Hanwell hill.

HANWELL CASTLE during its tenure as a farm house lost much of its old work in successive alterations. Two massive octagonal turrets and the facing of the west front remain of the old building. The right-handed stairway, a flight of eighty steps in the north turret, is of very thorough Hornton stone work, but the turrets and front are of the good flat red brick in use in Tudor time, with stone quoins. It would appear that the right hand stairway lent itself better to defensive uses; the upper rooms are entered from the turret stair. In the angle of the south turret a small room shows some old oak panelling, and in an adjoining room a hearth and chimney piece of local stone are in the south-east angle. The once "gallant house of Hanwell," and, according to Dr. Plot, the home of Sir Anthony Cope, the most eminent artist and naturalist, may be seen figured as in its original state by Skelton in his "Antiquities of Oxfordshire," who says the mansion was quadrangular with two towers at each angle. The stonework of the doorways of the room adjoining the south entrance and most of the masonry of the west side has been preserved. The Copes came into early possession of the Hanwell estate, and John Cope, cofferer to King Henry VIII., built the house which was so well spoken of by Leland. In Tudor and Stuart times they were busy politicians, and James I. and his Queen are said to have visited the Castle. The Copes were with the people in the time of the Great Rebellion, and after Edge Hill the Castle was taken by the Royalists. Subsequently Sir Anthony Cope found residence for the eminent Puritan pastors Harris and Dod, who, with Whateley of Banbury, ministered to enlarge the religious zeal of the neighbourhood. The pool and plantation lie to the east of the grounds, and the plantation below is worth mention from the number of rare plants found therein, amongst them the Bistort, Lungwort, Green Hellebore, and Saracen's Woundwort.

BLOXHAM.--Altitudes: high town 400, low town 310; population, 1340; 3 miles south-west of Banbury. The village stands on the red rock of the middle Lias which bears a capping of clay on the high lands: the lower levels are of the usual marls. Field ways from Banbury run from the end of West Bar, and by a less direct but pretty route across the farm field on the Oxford Road. The buildings of All Saint's School, founded about half a century since, are at the entrance of the village. The school has earned good place by the excellence of its tuition. The brook cutting through the town from west to east and the many side streets and jetways add a pleasant appearance to the many good homesteads and gardens.

BLOXHAM CHURCH (ST. MARY'S) is one of the most perfect specimens of Gothic architecture in the county of Oxford. Part of the materials of the chancel, the mouldings, walls, and buttresses are Norman, though the church is mainly of the 14th century, about which time it was re-built. The west doorway is surmounted by figures of the apostles, with a canopied representation of the Saviour at the apex; on the left and right are sculptured representations also of the rising of the dead and the punishment of the lost. The spire, which is 195 feet high, presents a particularly graceful outline. The square tower is crowned by an octagon middle stage, rising above which is a balcony, projected on corbels from the face of the tower. Within the balcony the spire springs, and from the four angles of the square tower stage slender turrets, terminating in spirets, are carried up through the middle stage to above the springing of the spire. The geometric tracery of the windows of the west front, and the grotesque cornice carvings on the north side, are exceedingly good work. The decorated oak chancel screen is again a noticeable feature, and its restoration has brought to light the remains of paintings on its lower panels. There are also remains of a mural painting of St. Christopher on the north wall, and of others on the wall above the rood loft. There are large perpendicular windows in the Milcombe chapelry, on the south side of the church, and in its north aisle is a beautiful decorated column, having an enriched capital, with sculptures of mailed figures and heads of saints. A good Gothic font, the carved work of the hoods of the north and south doorways, and a handsome modern reredos and other portions of the chancel can here be mentioned only.

KING'S SUTTON.--Altitudes: 385-282; population, 1037; 5 miles south-east of Banbury. It is built on the red rock and marls of the Middle Lias. The old life is represented in the handsome manor house, by tradition also connected with the wanderings of King Charles I., and a good house on the south side of the green said to have been a prebendary manor. The town was in the eighteenth century, with the adjoining village of Astrop, of resort for the use of its mineral waters. The chalybeate spring (St. Rumbald's well) is in Sir Wm. Brown's park at Astrop. The well basin and the carved stone hood stand as in old time together with the Well House. The Well House, by the work of the doorway and windows, would appear to be of earlier date than the well hood, but the spring is at present conveyed from its source to a replica of the well head by the road side. The associated buildings have long since disappeared, but the pleasant walk up the old road past the Well Close and the Long Spinney remain. Near the railway station at King's Sutton is the other mineral spring charged with sulphate of soda, yet in common use by the people of the homesteads near. Celia Fiennes in her diary, "Through England on a side saddle," writes of her journey: "Thence I went to Astrop where is a Steele water much ffrequented by y{e} Gentry, it has some mixture of Allum so is not so strong as Tunbridge. There is a ffine Gravell Walke that is between 2 high cutt hedges where is a Roome for the Musick and a Roome for y{e} Company besides y{e} Private Walkes. The well runnes very quick, they are not curious in keeping it, neither is there any bason for the spring to run out off, only a dirty well full of moss's which is all changed yellow by the water. There are Lodgings about for y{e} Company at a little place called Sutton." Halliwell gives the following rhyme in his nursery series:

"King's Sutton is a pretty town, And lies all in a valley: There is a pretty ring of bells, Besides a bowling-alley: Wine and liquor in good store, Pretty maidens plenty: Can a man desire more? There aint such a town in twenty."

KING'S SUTTON CHURCH is dedicated to St. Peter. The chancel is principally Norman work, and has along each side a continuous stone bench under an arcade, exhibiting the characteristic zigzag moulding. The piers and arches on the south side of the nave are also Norman; those on the north side are early English. The rood loft turret and staircase remain in the south abutment of the chancel arch. The appearance of the tower from the north and south-west is very beautiful. Crocketed pinnacles, connected by flying buttresses with the face of the spire, are arranged around the junction of the spire and tower, and the spire itself is boldly crocketed from base to apex. It is of the early perpendicular period. The deeply recessed doorway of the western entrance may be of somewhat later date, and contains the original west door. Separating the chancel from the nave is a beautiful oak screen, which was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.

A well-known local rhyme, referring to the spires of the three famous churches of the neighbourhood, says:--

Bloxham for length, Adderbury for strength, And King's Sutton for beauty.

A hill side coppice bearing the name of Rosamunds Bower and the Moate House are within easy walking distance. The pathway near the bog (mineral) spring is the shorter and pleasanter route to Banbury, leading near to the calcining furnaces and ironstone quarries of the Astrop Ironstone Company.

COMPTON WYNYATES, the residence of The Marquis of Northampton, is distant about nine miles to the south-west of Banbury, and is a beautiful example of a brick castellated house of Tudor date. It stands in a prettily wooded hollow at the foot of the hills which skirt the south-east border of Warwickshire. The building surrounds a quadrangle, and was formerly encircled by a moat, which has now been filled in on the west, south, and east sides; its erection began about 1519. The woodwork of the gables and the doorway of the entrance front, with the shields bearing the Tudor roses and the emblems of Castile and Arragon, are good instances of the work of the time. On the right of the quadrangle is the rich bay window of the hall, and in the hall itself is a finely carved wood screen, coeval with the building. The tower, and particularly the highly ornamented brick chimneys, are worth detailed attention. Adjoining the tower is the chapel, the window of which looks out upon the lawn; a secret passage and Roman Catholic chapel also testify to the troubled transition times of the early households. There is but space to note two incidents in the long history of the house,--the visit of King Henry VIII., and in later years the fierce little fight when the place, garrisoned by the Puritan troops, was attacked by Sir Charles and Sir Wm. Compton with a party of Royalists from Banbury. The Comptons failed to regain their home.

HORLEY.--Altitudes, 500-400; population, 247; is 4 miles north-west of Banbury, and may be reached by a pleasant footpath passing over Ruscot Hill and through Drayton fields. The village stands at the neck dividing two of the high vales of North Oxon, the Lias ironstone covering all the high lands thereabouts. St. Ethelreda's Church, plain, square towered and full of good old Early English work, is in mid village; the two pointed arches between chancel and nave, the old glass of the north aisle and the great mural painting of Saint Christopher, the Christ bearer, with the legend:

"What are thou; and art so yying Bar I never so heavy a thinge."

"Yey, I be hevy, no wunther nys For I am the Kynge of blys."

All these, and the organ (1765), are worth the passing hour of the wayfarer. Many of the houses, for instance that of Mr. B. Hirons, are of good proportion and build. At the north-west end of the village, Clump Lane leads to some beautifully terraced fields known as Steps Meadow and Hadsham Hollow, and the footway along the high bank to the near village of Hornton is also one of the pleasant ways of the countryside. At the Yellow Well beyond the Horley House a dole of bread was wont to be made on St. Thomas's day.

RADWAY.--Altitude, 400; population, 216; 9 miles north-west of Banbury; is pleasantly reached by the pathway below the Tower at Ratley Grange. Radway Grange by alteration about 1735 lost most of its good features as a building--it stands on the slopes of its park land at the foot of the hill. The farm pool runs close to the road side, and a pleasant prospect of the hill side is got through its foliage. The church is more noticeable for its enclosure of the Kingsmill monument, one of the burials of the Edge Hill fight, than for its architectural style. The wide openings of the village and the high wooded lanes of the Edge are diversified with many a pleasant path and resting place.

WARMINGTON.--Altitudes: high town, 600; low town, 409; population, 269. The village is within the Warwickshire border, 5-1/2 miles to the north of Banbury, and is built on the slopes of a continuation of the Edge Hill escarpment. From the south side it is hidden from view by the woods of Deddington Hill. The church stands on a bold mass of Lias rock jutting into the roadway, and with the old homesteads surrounding the green and pool and the high banks clothed with wood and orchard, have given Warmington a high reputation for beauty even amongst the many beautiful villages near it. St. Nicholas' Church is known to antiquarians more by the plain solidity of its work than by any richness of ornamentation. It has heavy Norman and early English piers, and sedilia and piscina in the chancel with Norman enrichment. The priest's house, one of the best of the countryside, is on the north side. It has done service as vestry also, and in the window embrasure in the upper room is a stone altar table. There is the ancient stone fireplace also, and a window from which the altar could be watched. The headstone in the churchyard to Captain Gourdin stands by the path to the Banbury road. The Manor House facing the pool dates from the later days of Henry VIII.'s reign. Though now in use as two homes, its hall and oak stairway retain their old style. Of the usual type with projecting wings and recessed entrance, it looks over the pool and wide green to the Dassett hills in front. A pathway from the south-west corner of the churchyard passes through the woods of Deddington Hill and commands good views of the dale.

RATLEY.--Altitudes, high town, 680; low town, 593; 8 miles north-west of Banbury. At the point of the long vale, beginning a little south of Ratley Grange, is Ratley, built in terraces on the hill slope. The red rock of the Lias covers the brow and high slope; the low town is on the yellow marls. If it were not for Warmington, it might be said to be the prettiest village in the district. Descending springs make at their several outbursts the Bachelor's Trough and the Gogswell. The temperature of the Bachelor's Trough would seem to be low enough for the humane purposes of past days. The Church of St. Peter ad Vincula at the hill foot, with a plain and square tower, bears good appearance from the height and beauty of the windows (15th century) and the spacious porch of the north side. In the churchyard on the same side is a cross with steps, plinth and head in far better preservation than others of the countryside. A curious hummock at the south-west end of the village is known as the Castle Mound, but it is probably but a terraced bank naturally formed. Near by is the old manor house, in bad repair. Beautiful field-ways bear to Arlescot, Warmington, Hornton, and Horley. The Arlescot path is known as the Tryst-path.

WORMLEIGHTON.--Altitude, 431; population, 191. The village, a few houses between the mansion and the highway, is on the ridge of the water parting between the Cherwell and the Avon. The three shire stone is near by. Hidden by trees from the main road the older settlement is not seen until quite near, where ampler width of roadway brings tower, house and church into view. The gateway tower, as the dated shields (1613) tell, is of later building than the house. It is a plain square tower with connected side buildings all of the local (Hornton) stone. The archway of the tower is of good proportions, bearing on the west and south fronts in stone entablature shields and coats of arms of the Spencers, the latter with the motto "Dieu defende droit." Inside the archway are warder's doors on either side, though the approach to the turret is now by an adjoining building. The ancient turret clock tells time only by its bell.

The manor was bought by John Spencer, Esq., of Sir Wm. Cope, of Hanwell, in Henry VII.'s days, and the house was built then. It is of the usual flat red brick of the time, with stone quoins; such as we see of it on the north and east sides, of handsome proportions and style, and embattled. It was entered in the inquisition of the time as having sixty persons in residence, and was then of ampler state and extent. The Tudor brickwork, though not so elaborated as Compton Wynyates, makes, with that of Hanwell Castle, good local study. On the south side, a postern leads to the hall, and of the old front the brickwork and crenellations of the angle remain. The north entrance, though with no porch now, is at once seen to be the main way by the proportions of the lobby and its panelled ceiling. On the right and the left in the lobby are doorways, the one bearing corner shields and the other triple shields of the house (fret d'or and escallops of the field).[i] The left doorway opens to the hall, a fine plain room with large oriel window with bold stone mullions. Above is the star chamber: the gilt stars remain here and there on the timber work. It is of like size to the hall, with similar east windows and west side windows, nearly all bricked up, and a good fireplace with corner shields. It is coloured to resemble Purbeck marble. Leads and battlements above with covered niches show the semi-defensive house type of Tudor time. It is said to have been garrisoned by the Parliamentarians on the evening of the Edge Hill fight, and that the garrison was captured or driven out by Prince Rupert. But as to the burning of the house, it is not clear whether it was then partly destroyed or late in the year after. The Lord Spencer, a King's man, though at first Parliamentarian, had little liking for Court ways, and lost his life at the battle of Newbury. Whether the house at Watergall, two miles to the North-west, of which the foundations only remain, was of the Spencer holding, and of its fate there is no evidence. The escallops of the field of the Spencer arms probably find their origin in the fossil escallops of the Wormleighton stone.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH near by, though plain in all its external decoration, retains in the interior some work typical of the district. The enamelled tiles with figures and geometric ornament, the panelling of the chancel and the carved grotesques of the bench ends are good early work. The handsome chancel screen removed from the hall, though large for its place, is of skilled later workmanship; especially rich are the spandrils and ornament on the inner side of the screen. On the west chancel wall is a mural tablet to Robert E. Spencer, of date 1610, and an empty tomb is in an inlet in the north wall of the aisle. Arms of the Spencer family are on the wall above the belfry arch. A south doorway in the tower and the carved heads of the tower moulding are worth notice.

SHUTFORD.--Altitudes: high level, 485; low level, 400; population, 283; is on the inner fringe of hills of the west Oxfordshire border. It rests mainly on the red rock of the Middle Lias, there as much as 20 to 25 feet thick. Though mainly of plain agricultural homesteads, it supports a small community of plush weavers who settled there many generations since, and who weave a fabric of good repute. The Manor House at the east entrance to the village is by its height a conspicuous landmark. In the excellence and strength of its masonry it stands amongst the best of our good houses. On the south front are porch and square-headed doorway with plain good moulding and a smaller (postern) door of similar type opening to one of the south-west rooms. The house appears to be of the style of Broughton, but of later date, and it is part of the Castle estate. It is not crenellated, but has similar stone gabling and somewhat smaller windows. The north front, with projecting wing and entrance, presents a solid wall of stone covered with fine flint concrete. In its upper storey an angled fire place and room point to the place of a recluse. The long room of the upper storey is large enough for the "the stowering of a troop"--if time allowed the quartering of King Charles or Oliver Cromwell in a new place a legend might be found--it must suffice to know that it was probably the home of the famous Puritan soldier Nathaniel Fiennes. The hall, well lighted and with good panelling, is at the north-east of the building, the further extent of the house on the west side of the court yard is shown by the old foundation. The kitchen yet keeps its recessed fireplace of ample space. In the south room there is a chimney piece of Hornton stone with lozenge-shaped ornament, and the floor stone of the same kind is unusually good. The Diary of Celia Fiennes, in the time of William and Mary, mentions "a neate little house and gardens" at Shuttford.

ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, in close touch with the Manor, is of plain early English work, with a buttressed and pinnacled tower of small proportions. The nave is on the south side with north chapelry or Lady aisle, heavy Norman pillars and plain chancel screen. A garden facing the west front has a stone sun-dial, its plinth covered with ivy, and near by a low stone building known as the Monastery, said to have been a foundation of the Knights of St. John. The stonework of the doorway, windows, and stone bench in the interior are parts of the early work of the house.

A List of Books and Pamphlets relating to Edge Hill and the Battle.

A Nalson, J.--Imp. Coll. of Great Affairs of State. London, 1633.

B Clarendon History of Great Rebellion, pp. 379-384. Oxford, 1842.

C Dugdale.--A Short View of the late Troubles of England. Oxford, 1641.

D Carte.--Original Letters and Papers, 1641-1660. London, 1739.

E Rushworth, J.--Historical Collections. London, 1692.

F Warburton.--Miscellanies.

G May, T.--History of the Parliament of England. Oxford, 1854.

H Gibson's Camden's Britannia. Vol. II. London, 1772.

I Memoirs of Denzil. Lord Holles, p. 17. London, 1699.

J Lee, W.--A Brief Chronicle of All the Chief Actions ... from 1640-1661. London, 1662.

K Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, Esquire. Vol. I. Vivay, Switzerland, 1698.

L Wood, A.--Athenæ Oxonensis.

M Heath, J.--Brief Chronicle of Late Intestine War, pp 66-69. London, 1663.

N Wood, A.--Fasti Oxoniensis. London, 1815.

O England's Worthies. London, 1819.