GLYMPTON

Glympton, a long, narrow parish 14 miles (c. 18 km.) north of Oxford, covers 1,259 a. (510 ha.); much of it lies along the river Glyme, from which it takes its name, but it extends northwards onto the higher ground of Glympton Heath, and southwards into the still wooded area which was once part of Wychwood Forest. (fn. 1) Glympton itself is now the only village, but in the Middle Ages there were small settlements at Slape and Boriens, whose names survive in Slape Copse and Berrings Wood in the south of the parish, and at the unidentified Blauden.

The parish boundary for the most part follows roads or bridleways, some of them clearly ancient routes, except on part of the east where it follows the river Glyme. The northern stretch of the eastern boundary may be the 'Edward's boundary' recorded in 958. (fn. 2) Parts of the southern boundary with Wootton parish appear artificial, and were probably established comparatively late, as land was assarted from the forest in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. North of the Glyme the country is rolling upland, rising to between 140 m. and 145 m. on Glympton Heath; south of the river the land becomes more hilly, but does not rise above 125 m., the height reached on parts of the Woodstock road and in the extreme south of the parish. In the Glyme valley and in Slape Bottom the land falls to between 90 m. and 95 m. Except for bands of Chipping Norton limestone, Sharps Hill beds, and alluvium along the Glyme and its tributaries, the whole parish lies on limestone of the Great Oolite series. (fn. 3) The Glyme flows from west to east through the middle of the parish before turning south to form its eastern boundary; a small tributary, called in the Middle Ages and the 17th century Boxden Lake, flows from west to east through Slape Bottom, where it is joined by another stream from Hark Wood, and into the Glyme. Another stream rises in the fields in the north of the parish and flows south-west into the river Dorn at Wootton. By the early 12th century the Glyme had apparently been dammed to form a fishpond, and, probably in the early 18th century, a large serpentine lake was formed from the river in Glympton Park. Between 1675 and 1767 the course of the river through the village was altered, creating the wide, shallow stream beside the road which was a feature of the village in 1981. The river was diverted again in 1788 when improvements were made in the rectory garden. (fn. 4)

The road through the village, leading from Wootton towards Enstone, was formerly part of the main road from London to Aberystwyth. It and its branch road to Woodstock, later the main road from Oxford to Stratford on Avon and the West Midlands, were turnpiked in 1729 and disturnpiked in 1878. (fn. 5) The London road brought prosperity to the village inn but not to the parish as a whole which was said, in the mid 17th century, to be 'much charged and burdened with cripples, poor passengers, and vagrants', a complaint supported by several recorded burials of pauper travellers. (fn. 6) The Woodstock road, which runs from south-east to north-west across the south of the parish, is probably an older route. It was called Woodstock Way in 1298, and in Glympton it marked the north-east boundary of Wychwood Forest from the 12th century. (fn. 7) In the 17th century the road north from the village, which in 1981 went only as far as the turning to Ludwell Farm in Wootton, was part of a road to Banbury; (fn. 8) it presumably followed the line of the modern bridleway, along the eastern boundary of the parish to Steeple Barton. In 1298 a highway (via regia) ran along the southern boundary of the parish, north of the modern Woodleys in Wootton, to join the Woodstock road at Slape. It may have formed part of a Roman or RomanoBritish route from Ditchley towards Hordley. The old road did not follow exactly the line of the modern footpath, the eastern end of which was diverted away from Woodleys c. 1887. (fn. 9)

The stream from Slape Bottom crossed the Woodstock road by a ford in 1411, but a bridge had been built by 1609; it was rebuilt in 1861. There is no record of a bridge over the Glyme in Glympton village until 1794; it was repaired, apparently by the county, in 1842. (fn. 10)

In the late 19th century and the early 20th carriers' carts ran from Glympton to Oxford twice a week. The nearest railway station, opened in 1853, is 5 miles away at Charlbury. There has been a post office in the village since c. 1887. (fn. 11)

The river or wells presumably supplied the village water until the 19th or 20th century. A supply provided by the Glympton Estate failed in 1943, and was replaced c. 1947 at the expense of A. P. Good of Glympton Park, by water pumped from bore holes on the Heath. Good also provided the first public electricity supply to the parish. (fn. 12)

Until the mid 17th century the southern part of the parish lay within Wychwood Forest. The exact bounds of the forest are difficult to determine, but it was alleged in 1300 that Henry II had greatly extended them, afforesting, among others, the wood belonging to Glympton manor (presumably the modern Glympton Wood) and the wood called the Frith to the south. (fn. 13) Other evidence suggests that in the early 13th century the forest may have extended as far east as the Glyme, or even the Cherwell, taking in half or possibly the whole of Glympton parish, (fn. 14) but the only clear references to the forest are to the woods west of the Woodstock road. In 1199 the vill of Glympton was amerced for ancient waste, presumably in the forest, and waste in Glympton Wood was presented at forest eyres in 1256 and 1272. (fn. 15) Perambulations in 1298 and 1300 seem to have left the whole of Glympton outside the forest, but woodwards were regularly appointed by 14th-century manorial courts. (fn. 16) As late as 1553 the lord of the manor required a royal licence to sell timber from Glympton Wood, and a view of the assarts in Wychwood, made in 1609, included Berrings closes, Berrings Wood, Hark Wood, Glympton assarts, and part of Slape. (fn. 17) In 1685 the Woodstock road formed the south-west boundary of the open fields of the parish; the land beyond it was presumably assart land. (fn. 18)

Glympton was inclosed in the late 17th century or the early 18th, but there are only two early outlying farmhouses, Heath Farm in the north, built c. 1700 as the glebe farmhouse, and Glympton Assarts Farm in the south, built in the mid 18th century. There are still areas of woodland in the north, at Glympton Heath, and in the south in Berrings Wood, Glympton Wood, and Hark Wood. In the centre of the parish, around the manor house, Glympton Park, is a large area of parkland, formerly a deer park, made in the 17th century and extended in the later 19th. (fn. 19)

Two sections of the 1st-century Grim's Dyke, with their associated earthworks and ditches, run through the south of the parish, and the fields of the Roman villa at Callow Hill, just across the parish boundary in Stonesfield, extended into Glympton, overlying some of the earthworks, (fn. 20) but no evidence of early settlement has been found in Glympton itself. The place-name was first recorded c. 1050 when Aegelric of Glympton witnessed a charter, and the settlement was certainly well established by 1086 when Glympton was assessed at 10 hides and cultivated by 26 men. (fn. 21) A total of 30 tenants, 3 of whom may have lived in the hamlet of Boriens, was recorded in 1279, but only 36 people paid poll tax in 1377, and in 1428 there were fewer than 10 households in the parish. (fn. 22) There appears to have been a serious epidemic in 1593, when 16 people were buried between 27 June and 10 September. (fn. 23) After 1642, when 31 men over 18 took the Protestation oath, the population may have fallen, for in 1676 only 56 adults were recorded. The population seems to have risen slowly during the 18th century, and in 1801 had reached 96; it rose quickly to 141 in 1821 and thereafter has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between 119, in 1841, and 167, in 1871 and 1911. In 1971 it was 130. (fn. 24)

Slape, on the Woodstock road in the south-east corner of the parish, was established by c. 1220 when Ralph de Clinton and his son Ralph granted 4 tenants' yardlands there to Lettice de Saucey. (fn. 25) It was described as a vill in 1241 and 1272, and at least 8 men from there were attached for forest offences in 1246 and 1256. (fn. 26) Only Lettice de Saucey's 4 yardlands, then held by St. John's hospital, Oxford, were recorded in 1279, but 2 tenants in Wootton bore the surname Slape and others may have lived there. (fn. 27) The settlement seems to have been depopulated in the 14th century. In 1385 the hospital leased its property there in two moieties instead of four separate yardlands to men from Wootton, and in 1414 leased the whole property to another man from Wootton. There was presumably still a house on the site in the early 1680s when Thomas Bolton of Slape was the Magdalen College lessee, but it had gone by 1767. (fn. 28) In 1971 and 1979 the sites of three buildings were surveyed and excavated; two contained early medieval occupation debris, but little evidence was found for occupation after the later Middle Ages. (fn. 29) The field on the opposite side of the road has been extensively quarried, and any earthworks there have been destroyed.

Boriens was first recorded in 1246 when four men from the hamlet were attached for forest offences, and, like Slape, it was described as a vill in 1272. (fn. 30) In 1279 Boriens was a hamlet of Kiddington, with only two recorded tenants, but three tenants in Glympton were surnamed 'of Boriens' and probably lived in the hamlet. (fn. 31) Thereafter Boriens seems to have been part of Glympton, its tenants holding of the main Glympton manor or of the sub-manor in the parish, but part of the hamlet's fields extended into Kiddington. Boriens, like Slape, was probably depopulated in the later 14th century. There seems to have been at least one house there in 1404, but in 1446 at least part of the fields were farmed from Glympton. (fn. 32) In 1653 there was a house on 'Boriams Hill . . . against Boriams', (fn. 33) but it may have been a new one, on or near the Woodstock road, rather than a survivor of Boriens. In 1979 house platforms, mounds, and some stone foundations survived beside the ruins of a 19th-century keeper's cottage. (fn. 34)

The surname 'of Blauden' occurs in Glympton in 1311; a messuage and ½ yardland in Blauden were leased from the lord of Glympton manor in 1371, as were three cottages in the street (vicus) of Blauden in 1376, but there is no evidence for the site of the hamlet. (fn. 35) In 1372 a tenant was amerced for sowing 1½ a. of wheat there without licence, an offence which suggests that Blauden was assart land, but no reference to the place-name has been found in forest records. (fn. 36) Blauden was last recorded in 1446 when a Glympton man held a toft and ½ yardland there. (fn. 37)

Glympton village lies on the north bank of the Glyme, near the centre of the parish. The medieval village was presumably about ½ mile to the north-west, near the church and the manor house, but the landscaping of the park and gardens of the house have removed all trace of it. The move south-east onto the main road probably took place in the 1630s and 1640s when William Wheate created a park around the manor house; presumably most of the villagers went willingly, for Wheate's extensive correspondence describes only one dispute, with the rector, William Woodward, who owned a cottage next to the churchyard. (fn. 38) Wheate presumably built the lodge at the south entrance to the park, which survived, somewhat altered, in 1981. (fn. 39) The modern village is largely the work of the Barnett family and of A.P. Good (d. 1953), the 19th-and 20th-century owners of Glympton Park, who built the cottages for their farm workers. Only the former inn, a substantial, L-shaped house of 2 storeys with attics, built of coursed rubble, is clearly of 18thcentury date; the other older houses were all built or extensively remodelled in the 19th century, probably by G. H. Barnett. In 1662 there were only 10 householders in the parish, including the lord of the manor and the occupants of the outlying houses at Slape and Boriens, so the village itself may have contained only about half a dozen houses in addition to the rectory. (fn. 40) The number of houses in the parish increased to 15 in 1738 and to 17 in 1771, but in 1811 there were only 12, including the manor house, its lodge, and two outlying farmhouses. (fn. 41) The number of houses rose to 22 in 1841 and to 34 in 1861, but in 1867 there were not enough cottages to supply the labour of the parish. The 22 which did exist, all owned by G. H. Barnett, were well cared for. There was no increase in the number of houses until the late 1940s when A.P. Good built 6 semidetached estate workers' houses on the edge of the playing field to the east of the village and a block of 4 almshouses to the north of the village. The almshouses, dated 1949, are built of local stone in traditional style. (fn. 42) The village has remained an estate village; in 1976 only the former rectory house and one cottage had been sold, and of the 40 households in the parish, 37 were those of estate workers. (fn. 43)

There was an alehouse in 1648. A wine licence granted to William Wheate in 1656 appears to have been for the manor house itself, (fn. 44) but by the end of the 17th century there was a large and well equipped inn in the village. In 1699 the innkeeper owned goods worth £563, including 21 bedsteads, 40 pairs of sheets, 35 pewter dishes, 5 dozen plates, 78 napkins, and 19 tablecloths. The inn contained 13 rooms. (fn. 45) At times in the later 18th century there were two inns, called the Swan and the Pole Axe in 1780, but from 1784 there was only the Swan, which closed c. 1853; from 1782 until c. 1847 it was kept by members of the Tidmarsh family. (fn. 46)

The former school was converted into a village hall and given to the parish c. 1950 by A.P. Good. It presumably replaced a reading room recorded between 1894 and 1949. (fn. 47) The village stocks stood by the side of the river in the middle of the village in 1955, but they were later moved to the churchyard. (fn. 48)

From c. 1585 to 1610 the lessee of Glympton manor was Thomas Tesdale, a wealthy Abingdon maltster who had invested in land. By his will, dated 1610, he left £5,000 to maintain 6 scholars and 7 fellows from Abingdon School at Balliol or another Oxford college. In 1624 the money was used for the foundation of Pembroke College. (fn. 49)

Like its neighbours, Glympton suffered the depredations of soldiers from both sides in the Civil War. In 1646 the royalists in Oxford requisitioned food and carts, and in 1648 as many as 50 parliamentarian soldiers were billetted in the village. (fn. 50) A hoard of coins, mainly of James I and Charles I, was found on the site of the new almshouses in 1949. (fn. 51)

Manors and Other Estates.

Edward, whose boundary touched the north-west of Wootton parish in 958, and Aegelric of Glympton who witnessed a charter c. 1050 (fn. 52) presumably held GLYMPTON, or part of it. In 1066 Glympton, with estates in Wootton, Finmere, and Hethe, was held freely of Edward the Confessor by Wulfward the White, who survived the Conquest, (fn. 53) but by 1086 it was part of the fee of Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances; it presumably passed with Geoffrey's other lands to his nephew Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, and was forfeited to the Crown on his rebellion in 1095. (fn. 54)

The bishop's tenant in 1086 was William, perhaps the ancestor of the next recorded lord, Geoffrey de Clinton, Henry I's chamberlain, who first appears in 1110, and certainly held Glympton by 1122 when he granted the church there to Kenilworth priory. (fn. 55) He gave Glympton to his brother William de Clinton, who was succeeded by his son Ralph. (fn. 56) From Ralph the manor passed to his brother Jordan de Clinton (d. 1189) who exchanged it with Geoffrey's grandson, Henry de Clinton. (fn. 57)

Henry de Clinton gave or sold Glympton to King John's minister William Brewer, who held a knight's fee in Glympton in 1202. (fn. 58) William's son, another William Brewer, died without issue in 1233, and his property was divided among his 5 sisters or their heirs. Glympton was assigned to his widow Joan Brewer in dower, and then to his sister Alice, widow of Reynold de Mohun. (fn. 59) In 1274 and 1279 the manor, variously assessed at 1 knight's fee and ½ knight's fee, was held of Alice's great grandson John de Mohun (d. 1279). (fn. 60) John's son John (d. 1330) was overlord in 1284 and 1291, and the younger John's grandson, another John de Mohun, in 1362. (fn. 61) With the death of the last John in 1375 the male line of the de Mohuns ended, (fn. 62) and the overlordship of Glympton was not recorded thereafter.

Before 1226 the elder William Brewer granted the manor to William de Mohun, (fn. 63) presumably a junior member of the de Mohun family. William de Mohun was still holding in 1242, but by 1253 the manor had passed to Henry of Bath. After Henry's death c. 1261, his widow Aline and her second husband Nicholas of Yattendon held the manor in dower until Aline's death in 1274, when it passed to Henry and Aline's son John of Bath (d. 1291). (fn. 64) John's heir was his daughter Joan de Bohun, but in 1300 Glympton was held by John of St. John who, before 1306, gave it to his younger son Nicholas. (fn. 65) The grant was confirmed in 1317 by John's elder son John. (fn. 66) Nicholas of St. John was lord as late as 1347, but in 1362 John of St. John, perhaps his son, died seised of the manor and was succeeded by his grandson, another John of St. John. (fn. 67) He died before 1376 and was succeeded by his brother Thomas (d. 1432), who was followed by his granddaughter Clemence and her husband John Lydeard. (fn. 68) The manor passed from them to their son Thomas Lydeard (d. 1480), to Thomas's son Anthony, and to Anthony's sons William (d. 1545) and Edmund, who sold it in 1547 to John Cupper. (fn. 69)

In 1581 Cupper settled the manor on his son Richard and his wife Frances and their heirs male with remainder to his younger son Thomas and his heirs male. (fn. 70) Richard died in 1583, leaving only a daughter, but his widow Frances who remarried a Mr. Pollard held the manor for her life. She leased it to Thomas Tesdale, cofounder of Pembroke College, Oxford, and his wife Maud until Maud's death in 1616. (fn. 71) In 1618, although both Thomas Cupper and Frances Pollard were still alive, Thomas's son John Cupper made a settlement of the manor. (fn. 72) Thomas Cupper died in 1621, and in 1632 John, with Frances Pollard's consent, sold the manor to Sir John Sedley who sold it the following year to William Wheate. (fn. 73)

The manor descended in the Wheate family until the early 19th century, being held by William Wheate (d. 1659), his son Thomas (d. 1668), and Thomas's son Thomas (d. 1721), created baronet in 1696, and grandson Sir Thomas (d. 1746). Sir Thomas had no sons, and on the death of his widow Mary in 1765, the manor was bought, presumably from his nephew Sir Jacob Wheate, for his daughters Sarah (d. 1805) and Anne (d. 1807) Wheate and Mary Lloyd (d. 1803), who held jointly. They were succeeded by Mary's son Francis Sackville Lloyd, who assumed the additional surname Wheate. After his death in 1812, his widow Elizabeth and her second husband William Way held Glympton until Elizabeth's death in 1846. The manor then passed, under the terms of F. S. Lloyd Wheate's will, to George Henry Barnett, nephew of Sir Jacob Wheate. G. H. Barnett (d. 1871) was succeeded by his son Henry (d. 1896), by Henry's son Frank Henry (d. 1907), and by Frank Henry's son George Henry (d. 1942) whose son Benjamin sold it in 1944 to A. P. Good. On Good's death in 1953 the estate was sold to Garfield Weston who sold it in 1957 to E. W. Towler, the owner in 1981. (fn. 74)

A plan of the manor house, Glympton Park, at the beginning of the 18th century (fn. 75) shows it to have been of half H form with the wings running out northwards flanking a courtyard and a small extra block at the south-east corner. It had probably been remodelled in the later 17th century, receiving a new staircase at the west end of the central range, but the irregular plan suggests that it incorporated an older building of the late 16th century or earlier.

Early in the 18th century Sir John Vanbrugh prepared drawings for the remodelling of the south elevation and the rooms behind it but the work was not carried out. Nevertheless, extensive alterations appear to have been made for Sir Thomas Wheate (d. 1721) or his son Sir Thomas (d. 1746) on similar but less elaborate lines. The elevation was rearranged as a recessed centre of seven bays with central doorway between slightly projecting wings (fn. 76) and the principal rooms were refitted. By the early 19th century the western range of the old house had been demolished. (fn. 77) G. H. Barnett (d. 1871) remodelled the house in the late 1840s. (fn. 78) He removed the east and west wings from the main front and refaced it in mid 18th-century style, adding a balustraded parapet to the roof and replacing the entrance, which he moved to the west side, by a bay window. He also added a large kitchen block in a plain Italianate style on the site of the eastern range of the 18thcentury house.

A sub-manor in GLYMPTON seems to have originated in the combination of two holdings: the 2 yardlands and a wood called le Frith held by Vivian son of Ralph in 1227, and 100 a. and 2 yardlands confirmed to Robert le Waleys by William Mohun in 1241. (fn. 79) In 1279 William de Bray held of John of Bath a ploughland and a wood identifiable with le Frith, and before 1296 Robert de Bray sold the estate, then described as a manor, to Master Thomas Adderbury. (fn. 80) Master Thomas died in 1307 and was succeeded by his brother Walter, by Walter's son Richard (d. 1333), and by Richard's son John, on whose death without issue in 1346 the manor passed to his uncle Thomas Adderbury and then to Thomas's son Richard (d. c. 1400). (fn. 81) Another Richard Adderbury, presumably Richard's nephew of that name, held a manor in Glympton in 1402. (fn. 82) Between 1412 and 1414 he conveyed it, with manors in Ludwell and Duns Tew, to his kinsman and heir Richard Arches and to John Langston. On Richard Arches's death c. 1417 John Langston bought his interest in the manor, which passed from him to his son, another John Langston, who held it c. 1460. (fn. 83) That John Langston died seised of the manor in 1506 and was succeeded by his younger son Thomas. (fn. 84) Thomas's grandson, Thomas Piggot, son of his daughter Catherine, sold the manor in 1571 to Thomas Harris. It was apparently bought by Sir John Sedley in 1632 or 1633. (fn. 85)

In 1373 Richard Adderbury granted a freehold of 2 or 3 yardlands, called Newhall Place, to John Halwell or Hanwell and his wife Emma. John, or perhaps another man of the same name, died in 1398, leaving a widow Agnes and an infant daughter Philippe who before 1412 married Thomas Scarlett. Thomas and Philippe sold the property in 1414 to John Huchons; he conveyed it in 1416 to Thomas Huchons who was succeeded in 1418 by his son Richard. In 1443 another John Huchons sold Newhall or Hanwell's Place to John Langston, but in 1451, after a dispute, the property was awarded to John Lydeard. (fn. 86)

In 1279 William Martin held BORIENS or BERRINGS of Richard of Williamscot, lord of Kiddington. (fn. 87) In 1316 Nicholas of St. John was lord, and thereafter the hamlet was presumably held of the lords of Glympton manor. Part of it was acquired by the Adderburys. (fn. 88)

In the early 13th century Lettice de Saucey, holder of Kiddington manor, received two grants, each of 2 yardlands, in SLAPE, one from Ralph de Clinton at a rent of 1d. a year, and the other from his son Ralph for 2d. a year. (fn. 89) Having settled a dispute with William Brewer over the ownership of the property in 1224–5, Lettice granted the hide, then held by 4 villein yardlanders, to St. John's hospital, Oxford, subject to a rent of 3d. to the lord of Glympton. (fn. 90) It passed to Magdalen College with the other endowments of the hospital in 1457, and was leased to the James family in the 16th century, to the Gregorys in the early 17th century, to the Boltons in the later 17th century, and to the Wheates and their successors at Glympton from 1733. It was sold to F. H. Barnett in 1903, and, except for a few acres on the borders of Wootton parish sold to Sir Charles Ponsonby in 1944, has remained part of the Glympton estate. (fn. 91)

Economic History.

There is no early evidence for the field system at Glympton, but a north field was recorded in the early 16th century, and in the 17th century holdings were divided between north and south fields, most people having more land in the north than in the south. (fn. 92) In 1685 the glebe was divided among three areas: the common fields on the north side of the parish (21 a.), the common fields on the south side of the parish (12½ a.), and the upper side of Woodstock Way (19½ a.). (fn. 93) The third division was not said to be in the common fields, and seems to have been assart land which was cultivated as a separate unit. The north and south fields thus covered only the area of the parish north and east of the Woodstock road. By 1635 each field was divided into two 'sides' three of which seem to have been sown each year. (fn. 94) A hitch field was first recorded c. 1636; a detailed account of the hitch made in 1653 shows that it was in two adjoining blocks of land, perhaps furlongs although they were not so called, and comprised between a quarter and a third of the south field. (fn. 95)

Woodland in the south of the parish was taken into the royal forest of Wychwood in 1154 and to some extent disafforested c. 1300. Assarting seems to have started about that time, and in 1316 at least 23 a. of assart land changed hands in the manor court. (fn. 96) Their names suggest that the fields or furlongs Lutches Ley, Edamesley, and Bradeley, recorded in 1322, were also assarts. In 1426 there were more than 46 a. of assart land on the St. John manor alone, (fn. 97) as well as the older assarts at Slape and Boriens. In 1631 there were estimated to be 500 a. of assart land in the parish. (fn. 98) Most of the assarts were divided into yardlands, made up of acres and half acres like the yardlands in the common fields, and were presumably cultivated on an open field system. The vill and fields of Boriens were recorded in 1353. (fn. 99) The assart yardlands were subject to much more extensive rights of intercommoning than common field yardlands, not only other men from Glympton, but also the inhabitants of the neighbouring forest parishes having rights of common. (fn. 100)

The parish was well supplied with meadow, both along the Glyme and in Slape Bottom; a total of 18 a. was recorded in 1086. (fn. 101) Plots of meadow in Tatham (unidentified), by Glympton pond and in Dead Moor were among lands in dispute in 1227. (fn. 102) Long Mead, along the Glyme, was recorded in 1276, and in 1325 Nicholas of St. John's reeve paid for the mowing of four meadows: Long Mead, Acham (perhaps the later Oak Meadow on the Glyme), and two called the Moor. (fn. 103) The manorial demesne included 12 a. of meadow, worth 1s. 6d. an acre, in 1362; in 1380 the 12 a. were called pasture, but their high value, 46s. 8d., suggests that they were actually meadow. (fn. 104) Richard Adderbury (d. 1333) had held 2 a. of meadow worth 2s. an acre, but in 1346 his successor held 10 a. worth 1s. 6d. an acre. (fn. 105) A rental of 1426 suggests that most tenants held some meadow, probably in proportion to the number of their yardlands. (fn. 106) Seventeenth-century estimates of up to 70 a. of meadow and 220 a. of pasture in the parish, in addition to the furze and brush on the Heath, seem to be exaggerations; in 1840 there were 34 a. of meadow, 138 a. of pasture and 37 a. of furze in the parish. (fn. 107) Lot mead was recorded in 1562. (fn. 108) There is no evidence that the inhabitants of Glympton ever needed to extend their meadow or pasture by the use of leys.

Woodland 6 furlongs by 6 furlongs belonged to Glympton in 1086. (fn. 109) The inhabitants of the parish also enjoyed, or took, rights in Wychwood Forest. In the 13th century men from Glympton, Slape, and Boriens were regularly accused of poaching venison and of taking too much wood and timber from the forest. (fn. 110) John of Bath and William de Bray both held woods in Wychwood in 1279; John's Glimhemwood, probably the later Glympton Wood, and William's wood called le Frith both enjoyed housebote, haybote, and vert, as well as view of forest. (fn. 111) Woodwards were appointed in the St. Johns' manor courts. (fn. 112) The wood was still a valuable source of timber in the early 16th century when Anthony Lydeard expected the sale of Glympton Wood to raise more than £40. Four loads of wood from Balkers Hill just north of Slape Bottom were the subject of a law suit c. 1547. (fn. 113) Hark Wood, Glympton Wood, and woods in Boriens and Slape were recorded in 1609, but in 1631 only 80 a. of wood were recorded. (fn. 114) There were 102 a. of woodland in the parish in 1801 and c. 115 a. in 1840. (fn. 115) Most of it survived in 1981.

In 1086 Glympton was said to contain land for 6 ploughteams, but there were 11 teams there, 6 on the demesne worked by 6 serfs, and a further 5 held by 15 villeins and 5 bordars. If the figures are correct the increase in the number of teams may have been due to the extension of the arable into the forest or the heath. The estate had risen in value, though not in proportion to the increase in the number of teams, from £6 in 1066 to £8 in 1086. (fn. 116) In 1279 John of Bath's manor covered the whole of Glympton and Slape, but excluded at least part of Boriens which was a hamlet of Over Kiddington. John held 2 ploughlands in demesne, and 5 villein yardlanders and 7 half-yardlanders held of him, paying money rents of 10s. a yardland and working at the lord's will; 6 cottars held a cottage each, for a money rent only. There were 5 free tenants. One held ½ hide, two others ¼ yardland each; the master of St. John's hospital, Oxford, held 4 yardlands in Slape, and William le Bray held a ploughland in demesne, 3 villein yardlanders, 2 cottars, and one free yardlander; William's villeins performed the same services as John of Bath's. In Boriens William Martin, a minor, held land of Richard of Williamscot, lord of Over Kiddington, by a money rent and one boonwork; he had only one tenant, a villein holding ½ yardland. (fn. 117) The manorial demesne seems to have been reduced before 1362 when it contained 120 a. of arable worth 2d. an acre, and it had been reduced still further by 1380 when it contained only 72 a. of arable. It was intermixed with the tenants' land. (fn. 118) Some labour services were apparently still being exacted in 1365, and one of the 8 customary tenants owed a day's work at harvest as late as 1426. Between 1376 and 1432 Thomas of St. John, the lord of the manor, tried to recover a villein from Woodstock. The Adderbury holding, which came to be considered a manor, increased slightly in size between 1279 and 1333, perhaps by the addition of part of Boriens, which extended into Over Kiddington. In 1333 there were 2 houses and 9 a. of land in addition to the demesne ploughland, 4 yardlands, and 2 cottages recorded in 1279. The villeins still performed labour services. The demesne ploughland, c. 100 a., was worth only 2d. an acre when sown because it was stony; when it was not sown it was worth nothing because it lay in the common fields. (fn. 119)

In 1372 a half yardland in Blauden, presumably in Glympton fields, contained only 8 field acres, but in 1451 Newhall Place, apparently an estate of 3 yardlands, contained 63 field acres and 2 yardlands' meadow. By the mid 17th century yardlands varied greatly in size, between 20 statute acres and 8 field acres, a field acre being reckoned to be ½ statute acre. (fn. 120) Possibly former half yardlands had come to be considered yardlands. Certainly the number of yardlands seems to have increased between the 13th century and the 16th. In 1279 there were 3 ploughlands on the manorial demesne and 15 tenant yardlands, c. 27 yardlands in all; in the earlier 15th century there seem to have been 18 or 19 tenant yardlands, and 41½ a. of assart land, in addition to the manorial demesnes. Four yardlands of glebe were probably omitted at both dates. In the later 16th century, however, there were said to be a total of 53 yardlands in the parish, 18 on the manorial demesne, 7 on the manor farm, 24 held by tenants, and 4 on the glebe. In the 1640s it was claimed that that figure was too high and that the manor and its farm contained only 7 yardlands in all, making a total of 35 yardlands in the parish. (fn. 121)

Wheat, barley, oats, dredge, and maslin were grown in Glympton in the 14th and 15th centuries, but sheep and cattle were probably more important to the economy of the parish. In the accounting year 1325–6 the reeve sold grain worth only £2 2s. 9d. compared with livestock worth £6 3s. 8d. and wool worth c. £5, and at Michaelmas 1325 he accounted for livestock including 8 oxen, 1 bull, 9 cattle, 24 pigs, 3 rams, 163 sheep, and 62 lambs. Some tenants, amerced for trespassing in the corn, had flocks of as many as 60 or 80 sheep. (fn. 122) The only evidence for the stint in the parish is an order of 1527–8 that there should be 30 sheep commons to the yardland. (fn. 123)

In 1306 only 11 people were assessed for the thirtieth, at a total of 10s. 8¾d. Almost half the assessment, 5s. 2½d., was made on Nicholas of St. John; Master Thomas Adderbury was assessed at 1s. 6d., and the others at less than 7d. In 1316 as many as 21 people were assessed for the sixteenth at a total of 43s. 8d. Nicholas of St. John's assessment, 13s. 4d., was again by far the largest; one man was assessed at 3s. 4d., the remainder between 2s. and 8d. In 1327, for the twentieth, 19 people were assessed, at a total of 27s. 8d. Nicholas of St. John was still the wealthiest man in the parish, with an assessment of 8s. 4d.; the others were assessed at sums ranging from 2s. to 6d. (fn. 124) From 1334 the parish's assessment for the fifteenth was £2 6s. 3d., about average for the hundred. (fn. 125)

Some later medieval lords, including Thomas Lydeard (d. 1480), lived at Glympton, but others leased the manor. In 1371 the farmer was the rector of Spelsbury. The Langstons, the successors of the Adderburys, leased their sub-manor to farmers. (fn. 126) The freehold called Hanwell or Newhall Place belonged in the late 14th century and the early 15th to prosperous yeomen who may have had trading connexions. John Hanwell's widow married John Basing, a merchant of Calais, and his daughter and heir Philippe married Thomas Scarlett, holder of a small manor in Wargrave (Berks.). (fn. 127) Eleven men were assessed for subsidy in 1524–5, including Anthony Lydeard on £10 worth of lands, and Robert Maye, constable of the parish, on £17 worth of goods; 3 men were assessed on wages. (fn. 128)

Anthony's son Edmund Lydeard in 1545 granted a 30-year lease of his manor to John Christopherson, but c. 1549, after a lawsuit, John Cupper seems to have bought in the lease, and he kept the manor in his own hands until c. 1581. (fn. 129) In 1618 the demesne was estimated to comprise 4 closes, 5 meadows, Glympton Wood, and 20 yardlands in the fields, and in 1619 the estate in John Cupper's own hands comprised 25 yardlands, nearly half the parish. By the 1640s William Wheate owned the whole parish. He held the park and the assarts in demesne; the rest of the land except for the glebe and Magdalen College's 4 yardlands in Slape, was let to tenants by lease or at will. (fn. 130)

Thomas Tesdale, tenant of the manor from c. 1585 until his death in 1610, grew woad as well as the more usual crops. He also raised cattle. (fn. 131) In the early 17th century cultivation seems to have been mixed with an emphasis on crops; in 1633 the crop of wheat, maslin, barley, peas, and oats was valued at £300, and 186 sheep and 205 fleeces at £94. (fn. 132) William Wheate, a progressive landowner, farmed the estate himself, taking an interest in every detail of his crops and stock. He raised sheep for sale at Bicester and Woodstock, as well as for their wool, and experimented with early lambs. (fn. 133) The main crops continued to be wheat and barley with some peas and vetches grown on the hitch field. A tenant who died in 1631 had some hemp among his possessions, but it is not clear whether or not he had grown it. (fn. 134) Most men seem to have owned some sheep, and Thomas Ricketts in 1692 left over 80, but his crop of corn and hay was almost twice as valuable. Timothy Hix (d. 1673) had 180 sheep, but they were worth only £22 compared to £35 10s. for his corn. Thomas Hanwell (d. 1715) left 'cattle of all sorts', perhaps including sheep, worth £113, but his corn was worth £194. (fn. 135)

The lord's inclosure (defensum), presumably of pasture as it was distinguished from his corn, was recorded in 1311 or 1312, and in 1342 tenants were amerced for trespass on the lord's close. There were also closes in the assarts, like the parcel of inclosed land in le Frith by Slape leased by John Lydeard in 1437, and inclosure may have proceeded faster there than in the rest of the parish. The site of Boriens (c. 26 a.) was inclosed by 1609. (fn. 136) In 1562 John Cupper, by agreement with William Babington, Thomas Piggot and the rector, William Owsley, the only remaining freeholders, extinguished rights of common in the meadows in the parish. (fn. 137) In 1618 the manor estate included 4 closes, two of which were near the village in the centre of the parish. (fn. 138) The meadow and pasture belonging to the manor had been inclosed by 1632, but the arable was still in open fields. (fn. 139) Soon after his purchase of the manor in 1633 William Wheate embarked on further inclosure, much of it around the manor house. Lands were exchanged to consolidate Wheate's holding, and rights of common on it were extinguished. In 1634 a total of 14½ a. was 'measured and laid out', no doubt as part of an exchange. There was opposition, chiefly from the rector, but it seems to have been ineffectual. Most of the land inclosed was converted to parkland and pasture, but at the same time Wheate extended the arable by ploughing former waste, such as the Heath, and some pasture at Slape. (fn. 140) The c. 60 a. of glebe arable was still dispersed in the open fields in acre and half-acre strips in 1685, although the pasture in the Heath and by the Great Tew road was inclosed. In 1690 the glebe was consolidated and inclosed in four fields near the Heath containing 55 a. (fn. 141) The inclosure of the glebe presumably enabled Thomas Wheate with the agreement of his tenants to inclose the remainder of the parish.

In the later 18th century and the 19th the parish was usually farmed as four farms, including the glebe, Heath farm. (fn. 142) In 1854 the farms were Assarts farm and Hill farm, run by farm bailiffs, and Heath farm and New farm (presumably the modern Home farm) leased to farmers. (fn. 143) Cultivation remained predominantly arable. In 1801 there were said to be 865 a. of arable, 173 a. of permanent grass, and 102 a. of woodland in the parish; in 1840, c. 900 a. of arable, c. 138 a. of pasture, c. 115 a. of woodland, and c. 37 a. of furze, used as a fox cover. (fn. 144) The parish was chiefly arable in 1868. (fn. 145) In 1914 Glympton was one of the main corn-producing parishes in the county, 73 per cent of the land being arable. Barley (26 per cent of the arable) was the chief crop, followed by wheat (19 per cent) and oats (10 per cent); 12 per cent of the arable was under swedes and turnips, fodder crops for the c. 500 sheep and c. 90 cattle in the parish. In the late 1960s there were c. 350 a. of grass, c. 160 a. of lucerne, c. 750 a. of corn, and c. 150 a. of sugar beet and potatoes. Modern farm buildings and plant were built at Home Farm. In 1981 the whole parish with land in Wootton and Steeple Barton, a total of 2, 182 a. (883.4 ha.), was farmed by the Glympton Estate. (fn. 146)

The field name Quarry piece was recorded in 1451. (fn. 147) Stone was quarried at Glympton in the early 18th century, and some was used in the building of Blenheim Palace. It appears, however, to have been of poor quality, and the quarry probably was not used for long. (fn. 148) A limestone quarry at Slape, west of the Woodstock road, has been worked since c. 1918; in 1981 it was operated by Dunns Fertility Ltd., and produced limestone for agricultural use. (fn. 149) A few people, mainly wives and daughters of agricultural workers, were employed in gloving in the mid 19th century. (fn. 150)

In 1086 there was one mill in Glympton, worth 5s. (fn. 151) Ralph de Clinton in the later 12th century gave to Glympton church the site of the mill above his fishpond, (fn. 152) but the grant did not take effect. A mill, in 1279 associated with a fish pond, formed part of the manor estate throughout the Middle Ages; it was rebuilt in 1292 and again in 1326, but in 1362 was so decayed as to be worthless. (fn. 153) In 1632 there were said to be two mills, perhaps a double mill, but in 1659 there was only one. It was last recorded in 1724, and had gone by 1767. (fn. 154)

Local Government.

In 1279 John of Bath held a court for his tenants but the sheriff and the bailiff of Wootton entered the court to hold view of frankpledge. John himself answered for his liberty twice a year at the great hundred court. (fn. 155) John's successors, the St. Johns and Lydeards, held courts to which all the tenants in the parish, including the Adderburys, owed suit. Tenants were amerced for agricultural offences, such as allowing cattle, sheep, pigs, or horses to stray into the corn or failing to perform customary works; by-laws for the regulation of the fields were made; land, including assart land, was granted and surrendered; and woodwards and haywards were appointed. (fn. 156) The court, described as a court baron in 1632 and a court leet c. 1647, (fn. 157) continued to meet in the 17th century, at any rate to regulate the cultivation of the fields. It may have disappeared in the early 18th century, when the fields were inclosed. In the mid 19th century the duke of Marlborough's steward held view of frankpledge once a year in Glympton. (fn. 158)

In 1776 Glympton spent £47 on poor relief; in 1803 the cost had risen to £85, or c. 15s. 6d. a head of population. There were only two adults on permanent relief, but as many as 20 nonparishioners were relieved, a remarkably high figure presumably caused by the presence of poor travellers on the main roads through the parish. In 1813, towards the end of five years of high wheat prices, £162, or c. £1 8s. 6d. a head of population, was spent on the poor, 10 adults being on permanent relief. (fn. 159) Costs fell in 1815 and 1816, but by 1818–19 had risen again to £222, or c. £1 11s. a head of population. Expenditure fell steadily to a low of £80 10s. in 1823–4, but rose again to £221 or c. £1 15s. a head of population in 1831–2. There was no workhouse. (fn. 160)

There are no records of vestry government, but the parish seems usually to have had only one churchwarden. (fn. 161) After 1894 some of the vestry's functions were taken over by a parish meeting. Glympton was included in the Woodstock poor law union in 1834; in 1932 it was transferred from the Woodstock to the Chipping Norton rural district, and under the Act of 1972 became part of West Oxfordshire. (fn. 162)

Church.

The church was in existence by the early 12th century when Manasser Arsic (fl. 1101, 1110) gave it 1½ hide in Ludwell. (fn. 163) The original invocation was to St. Laurence; by the early 18th century it had been changed to St. Mary, although the parish wake was still kept on or near St. Laurence's day. (fn. 164) Glympton has remained a separate parish and benefice, a proposed union of benefices with Wootton in the 1970s having been defeated by the patron of Glympton, E. W. Towler, who in 1981 paid the rector's stipend. (fn. 165)

In 1122 Geoffrey de Clinton gave the church to his new foundation, Kenilworth priory. (fn. 166) The priory's right to the advowson was twice unsuccessfully challenged, in the later 12th century by Geoffrey's nephew Ralph de Clinton, and in 1238 by William de Mohun. (fn. 167) The priory presented regularly until the Dissolution when the advowson passed to the Crown. (fn. 168) In 1557 it was sold to an agent for John Cupper. (fn. 169) Thereafter the advowson descended with the manor, (fn. 170) the lords presenting regularly, except in 1818 when Thomas Nucella, patron for that turn, presumably as a result of a sale of the turn, presented himself. (fn. 171) In 1981 the patron was E. W. Towler.

The living, a rectory comprising tithes and 4 yardlands of glebe, was valued at £5 in 1254, at £5 13s. 4d. in 1291, and at £7 6s. 8d. gross, £6 16s. ¼d. net in 1535. (fn. 172) In 1428 a pension of 6s. 8d. a year was paid to the prior of Kenilworth. (fn. 173) In the 1630s William Wheate, in the course of a dispute with the rector, asserted that the living was worth £70 a year; in the 1640s, £90 (£30 for glebe and £60 for tithes). (fn. 174) In 1690 the glebe was consolidated and inclosed. (fn. 175) In 1831 the living was worth £258, and the commutation of the tithes in 1837 for a rent charge of £255 17s. 6d. raised its value to £280 in 1851. (fn. 176) The glebe farm was sold to G. H. Barnett c. 1920. (fn. 177) A 'barbarous custom' whereby the rector gave a dinner at Easter at which, it was alleged, all the parishioners consumed bread and cheese, pigeon pies, and other meat, and drank themselves full of ale, was discontinued in the 17th century in return for the abolition of Easter dues of 2d. a year from each household. (fn. 178)

The medieval rectory house was presumably near the church. It was taxed on 8 hearths in 1665 and contained 7 bays of building in 1685. (fn. 179) Some dilapidated buildings were demolished in 1690 and rebuilt 'in a more convenient place'; (fn. 180) they may have been outbuildings, moved to the site of Heath Farm near the newly-inclosed glebe, or they may have been the house itself, moved away from Thomas Wheate's new park. Certainly by 1767 the rectory house was on the south-east edge of the village. (fn. 181) It was almost completely rebuilt between 1803 and 1805, and in 1887 a study and a bedroom above it were added at the back. (fn. 182) The house, which is of coursed rubble with ashlar quoins, string course, and window surrounds, presumably dates from 1803–5; it has 2 storeys and attics. It was sold in 1961, (fn. 183) and in 1981 the rector lived in a cottage in the park, opposite the church.

For a parish comparatively close to Oxford, Glympton was unusual in having few members of the university among its medieval rectors. Only David Robert, instituted in 1394, and Fulk Salisbury, rector 1501–44, are known to have studied at Oxford, and both seem to have completed their studies before their presentation to Glympton. (fn. 184) Other rectors, like Master Zacharias de Chebsey, instituted c. 1207, were presumably connected with Kenilworth priory. (fn. 185) As a result, Glympton may have had more resident incumbents than many neighbouring parishes. Although there were several resignations or exchanges of the living, two within a year of institution, there were some long incumbencies, notably those of Thomas Banbury (1337–73), Geoffrey Barchysay (1465–1501), and Fulk Salisbury (1501–44). Salisbury was evidently non-resident, and neglected Glympton. In 1520 he had no curate there, although one had been supplied by 1530 when the rectory seems to have been leased to a layman. (fn. 186) In 1540 Salisbury was presented for not preaching himself and having provided only two sermons in a year. (fn. 187)

In the later 12th century Ralph de Clinton gave a yardland to the church to support a Saturday mass in honour of the Virgin Mary at the lady altar he had built, (fn. 188) but there is no further record of the mass or the land, and probably the grant did not take effect. At a later date land, probably 2 a. called Church acres c. 1633, was given to endow a trendell light, an early form of chandelier. (fn. 189)

George Jelybrand, rector 1544–7, left a surplice to the church and provided for a priest to say mass for him. His successor, Edward Gabet, who died in 1558, seems to have held protestant views, making no reference in his will to the saints, or to prayers for his soul. (fn. 190) William Owsley, rector 1559–68, subscribed to the Elizabethan settlement, but his successor John Raynforth had not subscribed in 1559, when he was vicar of Eynsham, and was deprived of Glympton in 1577. (fn. 191) William Woodward, rector 1577–1620, was reported in 1593 to be only 'tolerable' in the performance of his duties. His shortcomings may have encouraged Thomas Tesdale, lessee of the manor house c. 1585–1610, to pay £20 a year for a Sunday lecture. (fn. 192) Woodward was succeeded by his nephew, another William Woodward, who from c. 1635 until his enforced resignation c. 1648 was at loggerheads with William Wheate. Although Wheate accused Woodward of seldom preaching and collecting his tithes too harshly, the main causes of the dispute seem to have been Wheate's desire to inclose land, some of which was alleged to belong to the rectory, and his attempts to alter the system of rating, reducing the rateable value of the manor and raising that of the rectory. In the later 1640s the parish was served by a curate who was also tutor to Wheate's children. Woodward's immediate successor, John Wallis (1648–51), Savilian professor of Geometry at Oxford, who divided his time between Oxford and London, presumably had little contact with Glympton, but the second parliamentarian minister, Nathaniel Staniforth (1651–62) was soon involved in a similar, although less prolonged, dispute with Wheate over rating. In 1653 Wheate complained that he had not administered the sacrament for over a year. (fn. 193)

In the late 17th century and the 18th Glympton was usually held by pluralist or largely nonresident rectors, whose curates often lived in Oxford. Throughout the period, however, the church was comparatively well served, with 2 services and one sermon each Sunday, and Holy Communion 3 or 4 times a year for communicants whose numbers rose from 12 or 14 in 1771 to 20–30 in 1817. (fn. 194)

In 1818 Thomas Nucella presented himself to the living, which he held until his death in 1856, aged 84. (fn. 195) At the beginning of his incumbency there was a drop in the number of communicants, but in 1854 when the number of communion services had been increased to one a month, numbers had recovered somewhat, to 17–20 on great festivals. (fn. 196) Congregations, which on Census Sunday 1851 were only 55 in the morning and 44 in the afternoon, including c. 20 Sunday school children, out of a total population of 149, (fn. 197) perhaps reflected the rector's age and infirmities. Nucella's successor, C. M. Bartholomew, rector 1856–97, was responsible for the restoration of the church in 1872. Congregations and communicants increased and in 1875 he reported that only Roman Catholics and dissenters were habitually absent from church. Between 1872 and 1875 he increased the number of communion services to two a month, and his successor, W. L. Groves, introduced weekly communion in 1899. (fn. 198)

The church of ST. MARY (fn. 199) comprises a chancel, nave with south porch, and a west tower. The 12th-century church was similar, but only the tower arch and the chancel arch, rebuilt in the 19th century, survive. Fragments of zig-zag ornament and of a corbel table were re-used in the 15th or 16th century when the tower was rebuilt. The nave was also rebuilt during the later Middle Ages. Both nave and chancel were said to have been rebuilt in the 1730s. (fn. 200) but part of the nave walls and their buttresses survived that rebuilding. Round-headed windows were inserted in the nave, and a pediment added to the south doorway. (fn. 201) The tower was repaired in 1818. (fn. 202) The church was thoroughly repaired c. 1850, the work apparently including rebuilding the chancel arch. (fn. 203) In 1872 the church was restored, under the direction of G. E. Street. The chancel was virtually rebuilt, new windows in 14th-century style were inserted in the nave, and a south porch and north-east vestry were added. The church was re-roofed in 1950, and the chancel was re-floored and re-ordered between 1955 and 1958. (fn. 204)

The font is 12th-century. On the inside of the north pillar of the chancel arch is part of an inscription: dedicatio huius templi idus martii. The lettering is of 12th-century character, but the inscription was not mentioned in 17th-, 18th-, or early 19th-century accounts of the church. (fn. 205) Presumably it was removed from its original position during the medieval rebuilding, and discovered and built into the pillar of the chancel arch c. 1850.

On the north wall of the chancel is an imposing alabaster monument to Maud Tesdale (d. 1616) with kneeling figures of Maud and her husband Thomas (d. 1610); it was restored by Pembroke College in 1704. On the floor is a brass to the same Thomas Tesdale, recording his benefactions to Balliol College and Abingdon School; the brass was originally on an altar tomb. (fn. 206) In the nave are memorials to several members of the Wheate family including Sir Thomas Wheate (d. 1746), his wife Mary (d. 1765), and his nephew Sir George Wheate (d. 1760), and to Alan Paul Good (d. 1953). On the wall of the tower are marble monuments to Francis Sackville Lloyd Wheate (d. 1812) and to William Way (d. 1845).

There are five bells, the earliest being of 1784, and a sanctus of 1705. (fn. 207) The church plate includes a pewter tankard flagon and plate originally given in 1634 and recovered in the late 19th century. (fn. 208)

In the churchyard is a cross, erected in 1897 in memory of Henry Barnett (d. 1896). (fn. 209)

Nonconformity.

Apart from one Protestant dissenter in 1676 no nonconformists or Roman Catholics were recorded until the later 19th century. (fn. 210)

Education.

In the late 18th century and the earlier 19th, the few children in the parish were taught at the expense of the Wheates and their successors at Glympton Park the Ways and of the rector, who also held a small Sunday school. (fn. 211)

In 1849 G.H. Barnett built a new school, with accommodation for 50 children, on the northern edge of the village; 34 children attended in 1854, and the diocesan inspector commented favourably on their 'quiet demeanour, general cleanliness, and devout manner', the result of 'continual intercourse with their superiors'. (fn. 212) The school was supported by the children's pence and by G. H. Barnett and his successors; a government grant was received from 1876. (fn. 213) Numbers on the register rose to 44 in 1874, but average attendance was only 29 as many children worked on the estate for part of the year. (fn. 214) Attendance fell to 15 in 1890, but rose again to 40 in 1906; both teaching standards and buildings were unsatisfactory in the early years of the 20th century. (fn. 215)

F. H. Barnett conveyed the school to the rector and churchwardens in 1903, and thereafter it was an aided church school. In 1922 it was reorganized as a junior school for 17 children, seniors being transferred to Kiddington or Wootton. The school closed in 1932 and the 10 children on the roll were transferred to Wootton. (fn. 216) In 1979 junior children went to Wootton or Kiddington and seniors to Spendlove Comprehensive in Charlbury or Marlborough Comprehensive in Woodstock. (fn. 217)

Charities for the Poor.

Maud Tesdale, by will proved 1616, left to the poor of Glympton £10 which Sir Thomas Wheate held in 1738, (fn. 218) but which was apparently lost in the later 18th century. By 1788 Maud's name had been associated with a rent of 6s. 8d. a year of unknown origin, charged on Ludwell farm in Wootton parish and first recorded in 1738. (fn. 219) The payment was still a charge on Ludwell farm in 1894, and the charity was apparently being distributed c. 1897, (fn. 220) but was not recorded thereafter.

In 1949 A. P. Good of Glympton Park built four almshouses for the poor of Glympton. A deed of 1952 created a trust, endowed with £1,500 stock, to administer and maintain the houses. The charity was registered in 1961 and administered under a Scheme of 1967. (fn. 221)

Footnotes