HEADINGTON
In 1928 the greater part of the parish of Headington
(1,529 a.) was incorporated in the City of Oxford,
under the Oxford Extension Act. It became part of
the civil parish of St. Giles and St. John. The remainder was dispersed among the neighbouring
parishes of Elsfield (1a.), Forest Hill (46 a.), Stowood
(252 a.), and Horspath (127 a.). (fn. 1) This concluded a
series of changes in local government boundaries.
In 1881 the area of the parish was estimated at 2,171
acres; in that year it was enlarged by the addition
of land towards Shotover, including Elder Stubbs. (fn. 2)
In 1891 the area was 2,257 acres. (fn. 3) In 1889 216 acres
of the parish were included in the city boundaries and
were annexed to St. Clement's parish in 1894. (fn. 4) The
parish of Headington became an urban district in
1927, (fn. 5) but this was dissolved almost at once under
the Oxford Extension Act. Its final dismemberment
marked the end of a long process of encroachment
of town upon country—a process which is reserved
for fuller treatment under the City, together with the
history of the parish after its incorporation.
The parish boundary before 1881 left the Marston
road at Copse Lane, turning north and east to join
Bayswater Brook but making a wide sweep beyond
it to include Wick Farm. Rejoining the brook near
Bayswater Bridge, the boundary turned south-east
over Sand Hill to the main road from Oxford to High
Wycombe and London, at a point three miles distant
from the city; then south-west, skirting the quarries,
crossing the old road to Shotover and continuing as
far as Brasenose Farm. After turning north along
the Slade, the boundary made a second southward
bend to join the Horspath road near Cowley Marsh
and followed it to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. From
this point it turned along the line of Divinity Road
to the Warneford Hospital and to Pullen's Tree; (fn. 6)
and so along the footpath to the Marston road. (fn. 7)
The whole of this area once lay within the bounds
of the forest of Shotover and Stowood and, until
recent times, traces of common scrub and woodland
could be found on the high ground to the south-east
of the parish in Open Magdalen, Open Brasenose,
and Brasenose Wood. Under the slopes of Shotover
are the upper Coralline Beds where the famous
Headington stone was quarried. (fn. 8) Beyond the quarries
the sandy uplands continue at a height of some
300 ft. to the western and northern limits of the
parish, where the level drops sharply to the water
meadows of the Cherwell and the marshy ground
bordering Bayswater Brook.
There have been some prehistoric finds in the
parish (fn. 9) and more considerable evidences of Roman
settlement, notably in the villa site at Wick and the
kiln at Harry Bear's Bottom; the Roman road from
Alchester to Dorchester crossed the eastern end of
the parish. (fn. 10) The name Headington is derived from
a Saxon personal name 'Hedena' (fn. 11) and the village,
as the nucleus of a great royal manor, may perhaps
have been more important in Saxon and Norman
times than at any later period. The only surviving
traces of this age are to be found in the foundations
of an ancient building known to the Ordnance Survey
as 'Ethelred's Palace' in Court Close, adjoining
Manor Farm. The village lies a mile and a half east
of Oxford between the main road to London via
High Wycombe on the south and the by-pass on the
north. It is now called Old Headington to distinguish
it from the modern suburbs which surround it, and
retains something of the appearance of a typical
Oxfordshire village with many stone houses of the
17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 12) It may be approached
from the London road along Old High Street. The
Bull Inn and No. 56 on the west side, and Nos. 33
and 69 (the Hermitage) are of 17th-century origin
though much restored. In North Place there is a
17th-century rubble cottage and adjoining it are a
number of 18th-century cottages. At the corner of
Old High Street and Barton Lane is the Black Boy
Inn, which has been entirely rebuilt; but an inn of
this name existed here as early as 1667. (fn. 13)
On the south side of Church Street are a number
of houses of coursed rubble. No. 10 is probably of
17th-century origin, refaced in the 18th or 19th
century; it has two stories and one gabled attic
dormer; inside there is some 18th-century panelling.
The White Hart Inn (No. 12) is a stone building of
two stories with cellar and attics and a tiled roof; it
retains some of its original panelling and doors.
No. 16, of the same date, has a contemporary stone
fireplace. Laurel Farm, the property of Corpus
Christi College, is also built of rubble with a tiled
roof. The south wing is probably of 16th-century
origin, but was altered in the 18th century. On the
other side of the road is Mather's Farm, the property
of Magdalen College, on the corner of Larkin's
Lane. It is a 17th-century L-shaped rubble house
of two stories and attics with a tiled roof, stone
mullioned windows and a moulded flat hood on the
southern front. It contains some 18th-century panelling and an original stone fireplace. Larkin's Lane
has two 17th-century stone cottages (Nos. 1 and 2)
with slate roofs. No. 14 Church Lane is also a 17thcentury cottage. Stoke House, north of the church,
is a mainly modern house incorporating an 18thcentury cottage. The Croft, behind Church Street,
has several old houses. No. 8, built in 1706, is a
T-shaped house built of rubble with a slate roof. The
Court is an early-17th-century house, the property
of Magdalen College, with two stories, cellars, and
attics. It has been extensively modernized but retains an original fireplace in the hall. Manor Farm,
north-west of the church, has also been much altered,
but was built in the 17th century. It is of rubble with
a tiled roof and contains two original stone fireplaces
and some panelling.
Of the larger houses in and around the village the
oldest is the Rookery, formerly the home of Sir
Michael Sadler, now used by Ruskin College as a
hostel. The earliest part of the house, which is built
of ashlar and rubble, may be of the 16th century or
early 17th century. The south elevation has modern
sash windows, but in the north wing are some
original three- and four-light mullioned windows
and two stone fireplaces. Headington House, approached by a drive leading from the High Street,
is of three stories with an ashlar front and a Welshslate hipped roof. It was built between 1775 and
1783. (fn. 14) The Manor House, now used as a nurses'
home, was built for Sir Banks Jenkinson before
1779 (fn. 15) and became the residence of the Whorwood
family in 1801–2. It has an ashlar front with a central
block of three stories and recessed wings of two
stories. Other substantial houses of the late 18th and
early 19th century include Bury Knowle, which
stands in its own park at the east end of the village
and is now used as a branch of the City Library,
and White Lodge, a Regency villa, still used as a
private house.
At the time of the Domesday survey two watermills belonged to the manor of Headington, together worth 50s. per annum. (fn. 16) One of these was
probably King's Mill, which stands on the Cherwell
at the point at which the parishes of Headington,
St. Clement's, Marston, and Holywell converge. It
was granted by name to the Canons of Missenden
by Stephen and continued to appear among their
properties until the 15th century; but they never
seem to have had possession of it. (fn. 17) From 1166 to
1174 Osbert of Blockesham (Osbert the door-keeper)
held it at a yearly rent of 50s.; (fn. 18) from 1174 to 1178
it was held jointly by his son and by Peter de Buris. (fn. 19)
In 1179 it was granted to Oliver de Pluggenait, who
held it until 1187. (fn. 20) From 1195 to 1231 Parnel, wife
of Geoffrey de Fleccar, was in possession; in the
latter year she granted it to St. John's Hospital, and
it passed in due course to Magdalen. (fn. 21) In 1477
Magdalen agreed to sell the mill to Merton; but the
agreement was annulled within a few years because
a new mill which Merton had made stopped the
flow of water at Holywell. (fn. 22) Thereafter Magdalen
retained the property and the mill did not stop working until 1832. (fn. 23) Less is known of the two windmills
in the parish, one of which stood near the Isolation
Hospital and the other at the angle of the Old Road
and Windmill Road. (fn. 24) One may probably be identified with the medieval mill described as standing
in a forest clearing in 1303. (fn. 25) Both were reported to
be ruinous in the 18th century, but the Windmill
Road mill, recently rebuilt 'on the most modern
lines', was evidently working when it was offered for
sale in 1823. (fn. 26) There was also a large wayside stone
cross in the parish, mentioned in 1498 in a description
of the lands of Katharine Rede. (fn. 27) This description
and the name High Cross Bush, which survived into
the 19th century, would seem to place the cross at
the corner of Windmill Road and London Road, (fn. 28)
although Anthony Wood thought that it had stood
at the top of Headington Hill as a parish boundary. (fn. 29)
The strategic importance of Headington Hill,
from which the eastern approaches to Oxford could
be commanded, made the control of the village an
objective to both sides in the Civil War. It was
occupied from time to time by parties of royalist
horse, more particularly when the Oxford garrison
expected Essex to advance from Thame; (fn. 30) a serious
epidemic broke out among the troops quartered here
in June 1643. (fn. 31) In 1645, when Fairfax advanced
upon Oxford and made his headquarters at Marston,
Headington became a look-out post for the parliamentary forces. When the royalists discovered that
'the rebels fought only with perspective glasses', (fn. 32)
they made a successful sally and engaged the enemy
on Headington Hill. (fn. 33) With the renewal of the siege
in the following summer, Fairfax moved his headquarters to Headington. At a council of war held
there on 2 May, it was decided that a major fortress
should be built on Headington Hill to hold 3,000
men, with a line of subsidiary fortresses to encircle
the king's position at St. Clement's. (fn. 34) Fairfax ordered
his officers to pay for the troops' quarters at Headington, the army having for some time past lived in free
quarters to the utter undoing of the inhabitants. (fn. 35)
The village may on the other hand have derived
some profit from the free market which Fairfax proclaimed there in the hope of deflecting country
produce which would otherwise have been taken to
Oxford to relieve the garrison. (fn. 36) Four or five cartloads of provisions taken to the Headington market
were captured there by a royalist party of horse in
1645. (fn. 37)
The two medieval hamlets within the parish were
Barton and Wick, both lying north-east of the main
village. In the earliest record of Barton (1246) it is
already called Old Barton; (fn. 38) in 1279 it had eleven
peasant households. (fn. 39) In the 15th and 16th centuries
it was much frequented by masons and quarrymen. (fn. 40)
Two 17th-century cottages, built of rubble, have
survived, as well as part of a larger house known as
the Manor House, a two-story building of ashlar
dating from the 17th century, with moulded eaves
and cornice and three original attic dormers with
gables. The west side was refronted in the late 18th
century. Inside is a late-17th-century staircase. The
modern Fox Inn has a 17th-century outhouse. (fn. 41)
This group of houses is now separated from Headington village by the northern by-pass and submerged
by a post-war housing estate. Wick lies beyond the
brook. Even in 1279 it appears that this hamlet
consisted of one large farm, for one tenant then held
4½ virgates, and there were in addition only three
cottages. (fn. 42) In Elizabeth I's reign the farm was estimated at 5 virgates and was described in the 17th
century as the largest in the parish (fn. 43) after the manor
farm. The tenants were Richard Lyde or Joyner of
Cuddesdon and his son Francis (1595–1614). (fn. 44) Unton
Croke of Marston held it from 1665, and Sir William
Walter of Sarsden from 1685. (fn. 45) Later owners included the families of Acton, Stebbings, Bishop,
and Morrell. (fn. 46) The farm-house dates from the 17th
century but was largely rebuilt about 1840 after a
severe fire. In the farmyard is an ancient well with
a stone canopy and a hooded garden gate, and a
handsome pair of gate piers with moulded caps are
contemporary with the oldest part of the house. (fn. 47)
Although for manorial purposes Wick continued
as a separate unit until the 19th century, electing its
own tithing man, it was superseded in the 17th
century by the new settlement which had grown up
round the quarries; (fn. 48) 18th-century vicars unhesitatingly state that there were two hamlets in the parish
and that these were Barton and Quarry. (fn. 49) It is possible that the aula and cottages belonging to the
hereditary foresters of Shotover in the 13th century
were situated here; (fn. 50) but no connexion can be
traced between the Mimekans' estate and the
cottages which grew up for the use of the quarry
workers in the 17th century. Quarry Farm, now demolished, was an L-shaped house of two stories with
a red-tiled roof, which dated from this period. It
had blocked stone mullioned windows on the north
and west. (fn. 51) The village has some good ashlar cottages
of the 18th and early 19th centuries with massive
porches of the same material. They were built at
irregular levels on the site of disused mounds and
diggings. (fn. 52) The Chequers Inn was in existence in
1805, when Catherine Mather's endowed school
opened there; it was extensively altered in 1930. (fn. 53)
The 'Crown and Thistle' is itself modern but stands
on the site of Titup Hall, an inn which served the
needs of travellers using the old road to London over
Shotover Hill. Until the end of the 18th century,
when it was superseded by the turnpike road through
Headington, this was the main road from Oxford to
London. The name 'Titup' indicates that at this
point the road was sufficiently level for horsemen to
canter. (fn. 54) A mounting-stone, nearer to Shotover, was
given by Dr. Bracegirdle, a physician of Oxford,
before 1631, 'out of a good intent to ease passengers
there to mount their horses'. (fn. 55) In 1850 Quarry hamlet was made into a separate ecclesiastical parish. (fn. 56)
Although the census of the following year shows
that twelve inhabitants were still employed as masons
and brick-makers, (fn. 57) the quarries were already in
decline; nevertheless the hamlet began to make rapid
growth as a residential suburb of Oxford.
The modern suburb of New Headington had
its origin in the rectangle made by London Road,
Windmill Road, Old Road, and Gipsy Lane, although it has now outgrown these boundaries. Apart
from the Britannia Inn, on the corner of Lime Walk,
which is mentioned in 1828 (fn. 58) and appears to be on
the site of an older inn marked as the 'White House'
on Davis's map of 1797, there was little or no building in this area before 1860 (fn. 59) and expansion was not
rapid until the present century, when Highfield Farm
was sold for building sites. In 1910 a new ecclesiastical parish was formed, (fn. 60) taking the name of
Highfield, and shortly after its incorporation in the
city, this parish had a population (3,927) exceeding
that of Headington Quarry (3,796) and of Old Headington (3,295). (fn. 61) The progress of urbanization of
the whole area covered by the three ecclesiastical
parishes can best be indicated by the census figures:
1801, 669; 1841, 1,668; 1881, 2,766; 1911, 4,488,
and 1921, 5,328.
A characteristic feature of the development of the
area was the number of public institutions built in
the parish. Local stone was used for Headington
Workhouse, now a hospital and known as The Laurels.
It was built in 1858 for the Headington Poor Law
Union (established in 1834) to accommodate 250
inmates. (fn. 62) In 1813, 10 acres of land were purchased
for the erection of a lunatic asylum attached to the
Radcliffe Infirmary, opened in 1826. Through the
benevolence of Dr. S. Warneford, the philanthropic
Rector of Bourton-on-the-Hill (Glos.), the asylum
was endowed in order to receive patients 'able to
pay a moderate fee but too straitened to bear the
expense of suitable provision'. (fn. 63) It was managed by
an independent body of governors; in 1841 there
were 48 patients. (fn. 64) This was the first of many foundations to choose the parish of Headington as a healthy
and convenient site for the treatment of patients
both from Oxfordshire and from more distant
counties. The Wingfield Convalescent Home was
opened in connexion with the Radcliffe Infirmary
in 1876, transformed into an Orthopaedic Hospital
when in military hands in 1917, and subsequently
rebuilt through the generosity of Lord Nuffield and
renamed the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital. (fn. 65) The Isolation Hospital, now used as a school
for defective children, was built at the corner of the
road to Stanton St. John in 1906. (fn. 66) The Sunnyside
Convalescent Home and the Osler Pavilion for the
treatment of tuberculosis were built on the Manor
House estate as branches of the Radcliffe Infirmary
in 1928. (fn. 67)
Manor.
The manor of HEADINGTON was part
of the Saxon royal demesne and remained in the
king's hands after the Conquest. Ethelred's charter
to St. Frideswide's in 1004 was witnessed 'in villa
regia quae vocatur Hedindona', (fn. 68) and there is a
strong tradition that a royal residence of some kind
existed there before the Conquest. Wood speaks of a
nursery for the royal children; (fn. 69) or perhaps it was a
hunting lodge. Whatever its purpose, it seems to
have fallen into disuse when Henry I made Woodstock the favourite royal residence in the county, and
in his daughter's time the manor was alienated from
the Crown. The grant to Hugh de Pluggenait, (fn. 70) one
of Maud's Breton followers, cannot have been later
than 1142, when Oxford fell into Stephen's hands.
Its terms are not known, but what Hugh de Pluggenait received was valued at £42 10s., compared
with the Domesday valuation of £60. (fn. 71) In the intervening period fisheries and watermeadows on the
Thames and Cherwell had been separated from the
manor and given to the religious houses of Oxford;
but the manor remained an important administrative
unit extending far beyond the parish of Headington.
For this reason estimates of its value, acreage or
population in the Middle Ages afford unreliable
evidence for the parish itself.
Hugh de Pluggenait was a generous benefactor to
St. Frideswide's, as well he might be, since one of
his Breton relatives, staying with him at Headington
at Eastertide, had sight, hearing, and the use of his
right arm miraculously restored at the shrine of the
saint. (fn. 72) The jury of 1279 afterwards said that Hugh
de Pluggenait held the manor for his life only, (fn. 73) but
two of his sons appear to have had some interest in
it: Josceus, who assented to some of his father's
grants and confirmed a conveyance, (fn. 74) and Alan,
whose widow Clemence later received the rent paid
to the Exchequer by way of dower. (fn. 75) After the death
of Hugh de Pluggenait in 1201, (fn. 76) the manor was
held for short periods by Hugh de Neville and by
Gilbert Bassett at the old valuation of £42 10s., (fn. 77)
but in 1203 it was granted to Thomas Bassett and
his heirs at an annual rent of £20. (fn. 78) His daughter
Philippa, the widowed Countess of Warwick, succeeded to his estates in 1220; she afterwards displeased the king by her second marriage to Richard
Siward, a man warlike from his youth up, twice
exiled for his share in the baronial wars. (fn. 79) His private
war with Richard, Earl of Cornwall, extended to
their Oxfordshire estates. In 1233 the demesne crops
at Headington were seized at the king's order by
Earl Richard, who was authorized in the following
year to carry off the Headington cottages as a reprisal
for the burning of his Beckley tenants' houses by
Richard Siward. (fn. 80) In 1265 at the death of Philippa,
who had divorced Richard Siward but had not
remarried, (fn. 81) her estates were divided between the
three coheirs of the younger sister Alice, who
had married John Biset. They were Margaret, wife
of John de Riviers, Ela, wife of John of Wootton,
and Isabel, the youngest daughter. Margaret's
share descended to her eldest son John, but Isabel's
husband Hugh de Plescy obtained it by an exchange of manors. (fn. 82) He also bought out the interest of Ela on condition that the first mowing
of the demesne meadows should be appropriated to
the maintenance of one of his nephews, William of
Wootton, in the schools of Oxford. (fn. 83)
Hugh de Plescy, who thus became sole lord of
the manor, quarrelled with his ecclesiastical neighbours, (fn. 84) was imprisoned for taking the king's venison
under cover of a licence to hunt beasts of the chase, (fn. 85)
and oppressed his tenants by attempting to enforce
uncustomary labour services. (fn. 86) After the death of
his wife in 1280, he surrendered the manor to the
Crown in exchange for £200, and the manor of
Long Compton (Warws.). (fn. 87) In addition to finding
the rent of £20, he had fulfilled his knight service
in person, following the king for 40 days at his own
charges and afterwards, if required, at the king's
expense. (fn. 88) For the following 30 years the manor was
administered by royal bailiffs. (fn. 89) In 1299 it had been
granted to Queen Margaret as part of her dowry
and thereafter its rent frequently, though not invariably, formed part of the revenues of the queens of
England. (fn. 90) When in 1317 the manor was again alienated, the grant to Sir Richard Damory, constable of
Oxford castle and sheriff, stated that the rent formerly
paid would be discovered by reference to the Exchequer. (fn. 91) Whether by accident or design, the
Exchequer fixed the rent at £81, a charge which the
manor was quite unable to sustain; for an extent of
1281 showed that the annual yield, exclusive of the
profits of jurisdiction, amounted to £47 8s. 5½d. (fn. 92)
On the death of the elder Sir Richard Damory in
1330, his widow Margaret held a third part of the
manor in dower, but was excused her share of the
rent in consideration of her husband's good services
to the king. (fn. 93) Her son, the younger Sir Richard, was
answerable for the remaining two-thirds, but £40
was excused to enable him to maintain the dignity
of knighthood, (fn. 94) and the remaining £14 was cancelled in 1340 on condition that £27 should be paid
on the death of Margaret and the full rent on the
death of Sir Richard. (fn. 95) By 1354, however, Sir
Richard's debts to the Crown amounted to £2,000,
and he was required to surrender his Oxfordshire
estates to Sir John Chandos, receiving them back as
a life-tenant only. (fn. 96) In 1362 the Exchequer was
instructed to stay its demands upon Sir Richard,
who had crossed to Normandy on the king's service. (fn. 97)
On his death in 1375 the manor passed to the heirs
of Sir John Chandos, (fn. 98) who also defaulted in the
payment of their rent. In 1379, 'for a fit cause laid
before the Council', the Exchequer was restrained
from laying a distress upon the Headington tenants, (fn. 99)
and in 1399 the manor was deemed to have lapsed
to the Crown through non-payment of rent. (fn. 100)
When in the same year the manor was regranted
to William Willicotes of North Leigh, the rent was
fixed at £40. (fn. 101) His two sons, who in turn inherited
the Headington property, were both killed in the
French wars. (fn. 102) The widow of the younger son held
the manor in dower until 1466, when it passed
to the coheiresses of William Willicote's youngest
daughter, Elizabeth Palmer and Philippa Catesby. (fn. 103)
The former surrendered her rights to the son of
the latter, the William Catesby who was attainted
of treason in the first parliament of Henry VII. Three
years earlier, however, he had exchanged the manor
of Headington with John Brome, a kinsman presumably of Robert Brome (or Browne) of Holton, (fn. 104) for
properties in Ipwell and Walcote. (fn. 105) In the possession
of the Bromes, the manor followed the same descent
as Holton, which remained the principal seat of the
family. After the marriage of Ursula Brome to Sir
Thomas Whorwood of Sandwell (Staffs.), the Whorwoods resided for a time at Headington, living at
Mason's Farm, (fn. 106) for the medieval manor-house no
longer existed. Royal bailiffs in the 13th and 14th
centuries had been charged with repairs to the 'aula'; (fn. 107)
we know that it was called Westcourte to distinguish
it from the Mimekans' forest lodge, and that tolls
were charged for carts driven through its gates to
the village; (fn. 108) but it appears to have fallen into decay
after the beginning of the 15th century when the
Willicotes and Bromes had no need of it.
Sir Thomas Whorwood's numerous Chancery
suits show him to have been an aggressive and
truculent relative, neighbour, and landlord. (fn. 109) He
was involved in litigation with the Exchequer, which
questioned the validity of his title to the Brome
estates on his father-in-law's death in 1613. (fn. 110) The
rent paid to the Exchequer for the manor of Headington was still the £40 fixed in 1399; yet the annual
receipts from Holton and Headington together were
now estimated at £1,000, a striking example of the
Crown's dilemma in an age of sharply rising prices.
The Exchequer failed to make good its case for a
resumption of Crown land and the Whorwood family
remained in possession until the 19th century. When
the only son of Brome Whorwood and his wife Jane (fn. 111)
was drowned in 1657, (fn. 112) the legitimate line failed;
but a natural son Thomas was adopted as his father's
heir and took the name. (fn. 113) In 1800, shortly after Henry
Mayne Whorwood had succeeded to heavily encumbered estates on coming of age, the manors of
Holton and Headington were offered for sale. (fn. 114)
Holton was sold to Elisha Biscoe but, whether for
lack of a purchaser or for other reasons, the sale of
Headington did not go forward and the Whorwoods
came into residence at the Manor House in 1801 or
1802. (fn. 115) Henry Mayne Whorwood died in 1806 and
was survived by twin brothers. The elder, Thomas
Henry Whorwood, vicar of the parish, was heir-atlaw and succeeded as lord of the manor, but the
estates were left to the younger, William Henry
Whorwood, a captain in the Royal Navy, who found
it necessary to sell some of the property in 1813. (fn. 116)
Both brothers died in 1835 and the remainder of the
estate was offered for sale by the heir, the Revd.
T. H. Whorwood, in 30 lots. (fn. 117) The manorial rights
were sold with the manor farm to the trustees of
William Peppercorn in 1849. (fn. 118) The manor-house
was bought by John Matthews, solicitor, in or before
1847; it had previously been let to Mrs. Butler and
used as a ladies' seminary. (fn. 119) Mrs. Matthews sold the
house in 1858 for £4,900 to E. W. Taylor of Kerston
Hall (Northants.), from whose family Col. James
Hoole, C.M.G., purchased it in 1895. In 1906 Col.
Hoole also bought the manorial rights and the manor
farm from the heirs of William Peppercorn. The
reunited properties were purchased from Francis
William Hoole in 1917 by the trustees of the Radcliffe
Infirmary as a site for future development. (fn. 120)
Economic and Social History.
As tenants in ancient demesne the men of Headington
could collectively refer disputes with their lord to
the arbitrament of the king's justices. They took
advantage of this privilege in 1277, when Hugh de
Plescy, in common with many landlords in the later
13th century, was attempting to enforce uncustomary
services. The composition then made carried the
authority of the courts and was valued for 200 years
as a local charter of liberties; it was confirmed in
1297, 1355, 1358, when additional clauses were
added, 1392, 1400, and 1464. (fn. 121) The survival of copies
of the composition in the Boarstall Cartulary, and in
the archives of Magdalen and New College further
testifies to the importance which was attached to it. (fn. 122)
To this composition we owe most of our knowledge
of the medieval economy of Headington.
The composition fixed the money rents at 10s.,
8s., and 5s. a virgate, according to custom. The
services due were fixed at the rate of sixteen days
for 1 virgate and proportionately less for the smaller
holdings. These rents and services conform closely
to the actual conditions of tenure described in the
nearly contemporary Hundred Rolls survey of 1279. (fn. 123)
The 16 days' work was distributed as follows: 2 days'
ploughing and harrowing for the winter crop; 2
days' ploughing and harrowing for the spring sowing;
1 day's hoeing in early summer and 1 day's stirring
of the fallow between hay-time and harvest. Two
days' work was required for mowing; one for turning
and one for carrying the hay to the lords' barns and
stacking it. For this service a payment of 5s. was
required. At harvest time each tenant was bound to
reap 1 acre of corn at his own charge and 4 more
days' reaping were done at the lords' expense. On
one of these days the men had to bring their whole
household, leaving at home only the wife and someone to tend the cattle; the lord provided dinner for
all and the men stayed to supper. In return for their
harvest work the men enjoyed the right to pasture
their beasts in the demesne pastures. On the sixteenth day they gathered nuts in Stow Wood.
The composition also fixed the rate of relief and
merchet. A tenant entering upon possession of a
customary holding paid twice the first year's rent
with an additional bonus of not more than 4s. No
merchet was payable for tenants' daughters married
within the manor, but 2s. was due for those married
outside in compensation for the chattels taken with
them. No mention is made in the composition of
heriot, though the court rolls give examples of the
payment of the best beast at a tenant's death. View
of frankpledge was to be held not more than once a
year, when tenants were to be amerced only by their
peers and in proportion to their offences. When the
king tallaged his demesne the men were to be quit
on payment of 5 marks to the lord. In the confirmation of 1358 the men were exempted from the unpopular manorial offices of bailiff, reeve, reaper, and
clerk of accounts. The last recorded confirmation of
the composition was in 1464; by this date labour
services had lost their significance. The demesne
had in 1281 consisted of 400 acres of arable besides
meadow and pasture; a compact holding of 62 acres
lay on either side of the Court, but the rest was
dispersed throughout the common fields. (fn. 124) In 1401,
however, William Willicotes had leased almost the
whole of it to St. John's Hospital, (fn. 125) and no longer
required labour services. Whether the traditional
right of access to the courts at Westminster continued to be of any value to the tenants in the
next century is uncertain. We know that in the reign
of James I the tenants brought a collective action
against Sir Thomas Whorwood for breaches of
manorial custom, but the case has not yet been
traced. (fn. 126)
The fact that the composition had been confirmed
(1358) without substantial revision only a few years
after the Black Death suggests that Headington had
not been so severely affected by the plague as some
of the neighbouring parishes. A period of decline
seems to have come a century later in Headington.
In 1442 and 1444 half the taxation due from the
parish was remitted and in 1451 the vicarages of
Headington and Marston were united, both on
grounds of special poverty. (fn. 127) There is no evidence
to throw light upon the process of recovery, but
that Headington had lost ground in comparison with
Marston is suggested by a customary payment in the
reign of Elizabeth I to which Headington contributed
4s. 4d., and Marston 5s. 8d. (fn. 128) The size of the village
at this date cannot be estimated. The hearth tax
returns of 1665 give 36 taxpayers and 6 persons
discharged by poverty, (fn. 129) the Compton Census records
237 churchgoers in 1676, and the earliest of the 18thcentury vicars' estimates gives 75 families. (fn. 130)
In the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I the court
rolls begin to be a useful source of information. (fn. 131)
The Court Baron was concerned with the business
arising from the transference of copyhold tenures;
tenants in ancient demesne could initiate proceedings in respect of their lands in the court and could
be penalized for taking action in other courts. (fn. 132)
The court leet and view of frankpledge concerned
themselves with many other affairs; they enforced
the assize of bread and ale and the Tudor legislation
concerning unlawful games, inns and alehouses, vagabonds, unlicensed cottages, housing of inmates, and
maintenance of highways. They dealt with cases of
assault, petty theft, and disturbance of the peace.
The villagers would not restrict their exercise to the
practice of archery as the Statute required, but
obstinately preferred 'illoyal games': ball games in
the time of Henry VII and the bowling alley in
Elizabeth I's reign. It is often difficult to say whether
the court was in fact administering the royal justice
or providing the machinery whereby a largely selfgoverning community could regulate its own affairs.
It is certainly in this latter capacity that the court did
its most important work, enforcing penalties for
failure to scour ditches or to lay open illegal enclosures; for ploughing up the verges of highways
and removing landmarks; above all for infringement
of the stringent pasture restrictions. From 1562 to
1728 these matters were often regulated by ordinaciones or by-laws.
A study of the by-laws suggests that shortage of
pasture was the limiting factor in the agricultural
system. The land afforded little natural meadow or
pasture save where the high ground drops sharply
to the Brook towards Wick Farm and where the
parish boundary for a short distance abuts upon the
road from St. Clement's to Marston. In the former
area were the pastures of Wick Marsh and Beyondthe-Brook; in the latter Hedley, Lammas Close,
College Leys and, pleasantest of all Headington fieldnames, Shiver-de-Sham. (fn. 133) Allotments of meadowland beyond the Cherwell which had once belonged
to the manor, but not to the parish, were still attached
to some properties. (fn. 134) Headington tenants enjoyed
free pasture rights in Shotover and Stow Wood for
their cattle and pigs; we hear of their customary
pastures in Bastard's Grove near Stowford and
'Bythendthehaye' in Elsfield. When Shotover was
disafforested in the reign of Charles II, Headington
was compensated by the allotment of 250 acres in
Quarry Coppice. (fn. 135) The stubble of the cornfields
made an essential contribution to the pasture system;
it was therefore necessary to determine by regulation
the day, and sometimes even the hour, at which the
fields could be laid open to horses, cattle, sheep, and
pigs, to stint their numbers and measure their tethering ropes.
The arable appears to have been cultivated on a
three-field system from the 13th to the 19th century.
There is much irregularity in the distribution of the
fields, attributable no doubt in part to the gradual
cultivation of forest clearings. The three main fields
were South Field, running down to St. Bartholomew's
and Cowley; Brockholes, west of the village, sloping
down towards the Cherwell; and Quarry Field lying
east and south-east of the village towards the forest
boundary. (fn. 136) To what extent the hamlets of Barton
and Wick had their own fields is uncertain. Around
the village and its hamlets were the usual small
closes and orchards; but apart from them there is
no evidence of early inclosure. The absence of rich
pasture and the relatively poor quality of much of
the arable gave little incentive to follow the example
of Marston, (fn. 137) and in Headington initiative and enterprise were concentrated upon the exploitation of the
quarries.
The earliest documentary evidence of the use of
Headington stone (fn. 138) is in the New College building
accounts of 1396–7. (fn. 139) From the beginning of the
15th until the middle of the 18th century the
Headington quarries were the chief source of supply
for Oxford buildings. There are references to their
use at Queen's (1398–9), Oriel (1410–11), All Souls
(1438–43), Merton (fn. 140) (1448–50), Magdalen (1498–9),
and at Wolsey's foundation in 1525. The building
activity of the next century created a still heavier
demand. Headington stone was used at Wadham
(1610–13), the Schools quadrangle (1612–24), Merton (1608–10), St. John's (1634), the Botanic garden
(1632), the Sheldonian (1664–9), and the Old Ashmolean (1679–83). The demand was maintained in
the early 18th century for the Clarendon Building
(1712), All Saints' church (1707–8), the Peckwater
Quadrangle and Library at Christ Church (1706–16),
Queen's (1713–21), the new building at Magdalen
(1733), the Hawksmoor building at All Souls (1735–
45), and the lower part of the Radcliffe Camera
(1737–47). Although Oxford supplied the chief market for Headington stone, there are examples of its
use farther afield; at Eton in the 15th century, and
at Burcot, (fn. 141) Thame, and Windsor in the 16th century. (fn. 142) One of the reasons given for the Act of 1624
for making the Thames navigable as far as Oxford
was the need for cheap transport for carrying
Headington stone to London. (fn. 143)
Little is known of the masons, quarrymen, and
labourers or of their organization. In 1450 John
Beclee, a mason of Headington, was the lessee of
Calcot Farm and of the quarry which belonged to
it, the property of St. John's Hospital and afterwards
of Magdalen, (fn. 144) and in 1472 another mason, William
Atkyns, was their tenant. (fn. 145) William Orchard, the
master mason responsible for much of Waynflete's
building both at Magdalen and at Eton, was also a
tenant of the Magdalen quarry; but he leased other
pits on his own account from the lord of the manor. (fn. 146)
He lived at Barton in 'a lyttel house with an orchard
called the Pale and three acres of land', the property
of Magdalen (? now Barton End), and was clearly a
man of substance, styled armiger in the court rolls.
His son John was an Oxford B.C.L. In connexion
with a dispute arising from the disposal of his father's
property, John Orchard came to the Headington
quarries and called all the men working 'in diverse
men's quarries together and they all sat down upon
a green bank and did drink a penny worth of ale'. (fn. 147)
This suggests something of a working community
and it may be that the fourteen or more wage-earners
assessed in 'gains' in the Subsidy Roll of 1524 were
quarry labourers. (fn. 148) But it is probable that their
numbers fluctuated with the demand for stone, and
there is no evidence of any permanent settlement
round the quarries until the early years of the 17th
century. The beginning of the Quarry hamlet can
be fairly closely dated, for in 1630 it was alleged
that cottages had been built without licence in the
last fifteen years to house 'lewd and disorderly
persons', who despoiled the forest of brushwood,
disturbed the king's game with their dogs, and frequented unlicensed ale-houses. (fn. 149) In their defence it
was stated that the cottages had been built for
labourers, quarriers, and tile-makers. 'The pitts and
quarries were very useful and necessary to the
University and Colleges of Oxford and the houses
and cottages were useful and necessary to the
labourers, without whom the stone could not be
digged.'
The quarries were at this time at the height of
their prosperity. At the beginning of Elizabeth I's
reign Christ Church, Magdalen, Corpus Christi, All
Souls, Oriel, Queen's, Balliol, Lincoln, and Brasenose were in possession of quarries. (fn. 150) Others were
occupied by working masons. When Sir Thomas
Whorwood succeeded to the Brome estates, he found
that little of the profit derived from the quarries
accrued to the lord of the manor. A ruling was
given in the manorial court that none of the colleges
held their pits by freehold tenure; all were copyholders. (fn. 151) An attempt was made to evict some of the
smaller men or to raise their rents. (fn. 152) New pits were
dug to the east of the old workings for direct exploitation by Sir Thomas Whorwood, who was said
to have removed 500–600 cartloads of stone from
them by 1630. The Exchequer, equally anxious that
the quarries should yield some revenue to the Crown,
tried to prove that the new pits were beyond the
parish boundary and within the confines of the
forest. (fn. 153) Much inconclusive and conflicting evidence
on this point was given to the commissioners appointed to inquire into it and the immediate outcome
is not known. But from an application for a licence
to dig stone made to the Crown by the Dean of
Christ Church in 1637 it appears that some pits
were in Quarry Coppice, within the forest boundary,
but that the adjoining 'great quarry there commonly
called Heddington quarry' was outside. (fn. 154) It is notable that the definition of the boundary line separating the parish of Headington from Quarry Coppice
was still a matter of difficulty to the Inclosure
Commissioners in the 19th century. (fn. 155)
The Headington quarries produced two kinds of
stone; the first is the hardstone which has proved
to be of great durability and can be seen to advantage
in New College bell tower (1396–7) and has been
much used for plinth courses, 'one of the greatest
delights of Oxford buildings'; (fn. 156) the second is
the freestone which, as Plot says, has provided 'the
gross of our buildings'. Writing in 1677, when the
reputation of Headington freestone was still untarnished, Plot gives it high praise. 'The Quarry of
Headington, scarce two miles from Oxford, supplies
us continually with a good sort of stone . . . it cuts
very soft and easie, and is worked accordingly for
all sorts of building.' (fn. 157) But it has since shown itself
to be fatally susceptible to atmospheric conditions.
In the present century much of it has been replaced
with Clipsham or Portland stone. Where there has
been no refacing the characteristic blistering and
crumbling of the Headington freestone can still be
seen, as, for example, in the Christ Church Library.
Experience of its uncertain wearing qualities, together with the exhaustion of the better workings,
account for the decline of the industry in the late
18th century. In the 19th century freestone was still
used locally, mainly for interior work; the hardstone
was used for road curbs until recent times.
The supply of stone created a close link with the
university, for whose members Headington had long
been and long remained a favourite resort. Scholars
of Oxford were from time to time engaged in disorders there; a monk of Durham College had been
fined for obstructing the constable in the course of
his duties in the reign of Henry VII. (fn. 158) The University
bedel was fined for proceeding against a Headington
tenant without the consent of his lord. (fn. 159) From the
diaries of Wood and Hearne we obtain a fuller picture.
Wood describes his walk from the top of Headington Hill to the village in the exceptionally mild
December of 1681 when the rye was already green. (fn. 160)
His frequent objective was 'Joan's', a favourite and
disreputable ale-house which provided the name and
setting for Dr. William King's academic witticism
The Tragi-Comedy of Joan of Hedington. 'The place
for the performance of the action is comprehended
in the small vicinage of Hedington, in which everybody sees every Body, and every Body knows every
Thing'; and its leading character is 'a country
woman and an honest parishioner of Hedington of
a calling which though discommendable yet has been
made use of in all ages.' (fn. 161) Wood speaks also of
Widow Coxe's ale-house, (fn. 162) and Hearne refers respectfully to Mother Gurdon's. (fn. 163) In 1727 undergraduates who had tried to tie a cat to the bull's
tail at a bull-baiting and had been beaten off by
the villagers retaliated by committing 'such strange
disorders as have hardly been heard of'. Windows
were smashed, houses broken into, householders
roughly handled; only the timely arrival of the
proctors saved the windows of the church. (fn. 164) In the
following year the village suffered its second serious
fire within three years. It began in a brew-house
below the church on the right side and went down
the street that runs southwards taking all in its way
except about two houses which were stone buildings,
whereas the others were old thatched buildings. (fn. 165)
At the end of the 18th century migration from
the city began to change the face of village life.
We occasionally hear of Oxford citizens living at
Headington at a much earlier date; Harman Evans,
for example, a printer, had a house there in 1551, (fn. 166)
and Robert Pawling, a mercer, was lessee of Mather's
farm in the 1680's. (fn. 167) Cottagers who had moved from
Oxford to Headington in 1687–8 said they had done
so because they could live more cheaply outside the
city, (fn. 168) but generally it was the prosperous tradesmen
who bought property in the parish and built themselves substantial stone houses. In or about 1660
William Finch, for example, converted a 16th-century dwelling previously in peasant occupation, and
the house, later known as the Rookery, remained in
his family until 1863. (fn. 169) William Jackson, the printer
and proprietor of Jackson's Oxford Journal, built
Headington House on a site purchased from the
Whorwoods in 1775 and previously known as Plants.
On his death in 1793 the property passed to Mary
Jones, the daughter of an Oxford fishmonger, who
left it to her niece, the wife of Edward Latimer, a
wine merchant. The Latimers lived at Headington
House until 1846. (fn. 170)
The Inclosure Award, made in 1804, shows that
the major landowners, apart from the Whorwoods
and Magdalen College, were Mary Jones, William
Finch, and Joseph Locke, (fn. 171) a goldsmith and banker
of High St., Oxford, whose newly inclosed allotment
blocked the footpath from Quarry hamlet to the
church and gave rise to the only vigorous resistance
to the inclosure. (fn. 172) There was some feeling that the
inclosure was the work of 'purse-proud sons of
wealth' and that the award paid undue respect to
'the wealthy citizens' money-bags'. (fn. 173) It may in fact
have been the city element which pressed for inclosure. At this date even marginal land could yield
a profit, but it is probable that building leases offered
a more attractive alternative. Certainly the Whorwoods had plans for developing the manor-house
estate and employed a London architect to make a
plan of 'a crescent and detached villas in the best
style'. (fn. 174) In spite of the rapid building developments (fn. 175) which in time transformed Headington from
a country parish to a suburb of Oxford, farming
continued to be the main occupation of the parish
for many years after inclosure. In 1883 Headington
was still described as an agricultural parish, (fn. 176) raising
wheat and barley, and in 1891 there were still five
farms which had not yet been broken up for building
sites or market gardens. (fn. 177) Typically rural traditions
and pursuits have been retained until the present
century, more particularly in Headington Quarry.
May Day celebrations, Whitsuntide processions, and
a mumming play at Christmas (a local version of St.
George and the Turkish Knight) were regular features
of the year, and Headington morris-dancing is still
renowned. Two dances, 'Rigs of Marlowe' and 'BeanSetting', originated there and other local favourites
were collected and published in The Esperance Morris
Book in 1910. (fn. 178)
Churches.
The first record of the church of
St. Andrew is Henry I's charter to the canons of
St. Frideswide in 1122 granting them a chapel at
Headington; (fn. 179) but this charter may have been by
way of confirmation, for the older foundation of
St. Frideswide seems to have enjoyed tithes of the
manor in Ethelred's time. (fn. 180) The Austin Canons
could claim exemption from episcopal control only
in parishes already exempt at the date of the appropriation; since the chapel given by Henry I was to
be free of all custom to the bishop and archdeacon,
the earlier existence of the Headington peculiar must
be assumed. In 1232, when the claim to exemption
was challenged by the archdeacon and investigated
by papal commissioners, it was stated to have been
in existence from very early times and the commissioners upheld its validity. (fn. 181) Probably the origin
of the peculiar is to be sought in an extra-parochial
chapel attached to the residence of the Saxon kings.
Its end is as obscure as its beginning. The parish
was excluded from visitations of the Cuddesdon
deanery as late as 1540, (fn. 182) yet in Elizabeth I's reign
it was as a matter of course subject to the jurisdiction
of bishop and archdeacon. (fn. 183) It seems that in the
course of the 16th-century ecclesiastical changes the
medieval claim to exemption was allowed to lapse.
After its appropriation the parish was at first
served by a chaplain; but under pressure from Bishop
Hugh of Lincoln a vicarage was ordained after the
Council of Oxford in 1222. The vicar's portion was
as meagre as it could be. He had no share of the
glebe, and tithes of lambs and cheese from the
demesne were withheld. His emoluments, including
the offerings of the altar and a house, were valued
at 5 marks, a quarter of the estimated value of the
living. (fn. 184) The vicarage survived until the 15th century. In 1451 St. Frideswide's were authorized to
unite the vicarages of Headington and Marston, now
considered to be too poor to support two priests. (fn. 185)
In 1486 both parishes were served by a single curate
and this was still the position in 1526. (fn. 186) The dissolution of St. Frideswide's did nothing to improve
the position. The appropriation passed in quick
succession to Cardinal College, Henry VIII's College, and to Christ Church, (fn. 187) who held it in 1535
when the rectories of Headington and Marston were
worth £12 and the vicarage of Headington £3. (fn. 188)
In 1545 both rectory and vicarage were sold to a
group of London merchants from whom they were
purchased by John Brome, the lord of the manor, in
1547. (fn. 189) It was afterwards stated that the reinstitution
of a vicarage was an essential condition of the sale;
but the Bromes did nothing to implement any such
undertaking. They continued to appoint a curate for
Headington, though he was no longer responsible
for Marston also. In Laud's time, an action for the
restoration of the vicarage was successfully brought
against Dame Ursula Whorwood by the curate, John
Horne, a Fellow of Oriel. (fn. 190) Even after the recognition
of his legal title to the lesser tithes, the vicar
experienced difficulty in collecting them; in 1646 he
brought an action for the recovery of tithes of furze
and gorse, once considered as the perquisite of the
poor, but now saleable in the Oxford market. (fn. 191) After
Horne's time the vicarage again lapsed; but in 1680
it was permanently restored. A terrier of 1685 confirmed that the vicar had no share of the glebe, but
he could now claim tithes of garden and orchard
produce, of lambs, pigs, and calves from the demesne
as well as the rest of the parish. For cattle a rate of
composition was necessary; otherwise tithe could be
collected in money or in kind at the discretion of
the vicar. (fn. 192)
It might be supposed that the parish would subsequently benefit from the services of a resident
vicar; but this was not the case. The 18th-century
vicars were for the most part fellows of colleges,
living in Oxford, and sometimes appointing curates
to relieve them of their parish duties. The vicarage
house, consisting of two cottages with an orchard and
close adjoining the churchyard, was allowed to fall
into decay so that even the curate was able, in 1768,
to obtain a licence to live in Oxford. (fn. 193) At the beginning of the 19th century the curate, James Palmer,
had to find his own house and support a wife and
two children on a stipend of £27 10s. (fn. 194) The lay
rector was at this time awarded 220 acres in lieu
of rectorial tithes and the non-resident vicar 96
acres. (fn. 195) The lay rector, Henry Mayne Whorwood,
was described by the curate as 'a man who having
lived a very debauched life and having been in
Germany, that hot-bed of modern infidelity and
mental quackery, has imbibed notions so contrary
to all religion and everything resembling it that he
does not scruple to call it all priestcraft'. It was
impossible for his brother, the vicar, to 'differ from
him materially without danger of starvation.' (fn. 196) In
this situation an issue arose which sharply divided
the parish. The inclosure of Joseph Locke's property
closed the footpath from the Quarry hamlet to the
church along which the Quarry coffins were carried
for burial, and when there was a funeral the new wall
was broken down. Rector and vicar supported the
landowners, while the curate championed the Quarry
villagers who 'for the accommodation of one upstart
fellow . . . were to be distressed'. The curate,
threatened with summary dismissal, appealed to the
bishop, who ruled that he must not be dismissed
unless the vicar himself came into residence, and
that his stipend must in the meantime be raised to
£35. The death of his elder brother brought the
vicar into residence in 1806 as lord of the manor, a
circumstance not without difficulty, as is shown by
the press comments upon his enforcement of the
game laws. (fn. 197)
In his time there were only modest signs of recovery in the parish. In the 18th century the sacrament was generally administered three times a year
to an average of 30 communicants, and although the
numbers had increased to 40–50, the services were
as infrequent in 1820. (fn. 198) Morning and evening prayer
were held on Sundays, with one sermon; save in the
time of a Jacobite incumbent who read prayers on
30 January, 29 May, and 5 November, (fn. 199) there were
usually no other services. By 1808 a Sunday school
had been started and the vicar was beginning to complain that the smallness of the church was a limiting
factor in attendances. (fn. 200) It was not until the middle
of the century that the growth of the population and
the spread of nonconformity had their effect. The
enlargement of the existing church, and the creation
of new ecclesiastical parishes in Headington Quarry
(1850) and Highfield (1910) were complementary
measures designed to meet new problems. The
patronage of Headington remained in the Whorwood
family until at least 1883, after which it passed to
Mrs. Rawlinson; that of the two new parishes belonged to the Bishop of Oxford. The gross value of
the Headington living was estimated in 1852 at £118,
including 90 acres of glebe, and that of Headington
Quarry at £121 including 7 acres of glebe. (fn. 201) In 1928
their values had risen to £350 and £339 respectively,
and Highfield was worth £320. (fn. 202)
The chancel of the church of ST. ANDREW was
built of local stone about the middle of the 12th
century. (fn. 203) A hundred years later the church was enlarged by the addition of a south aisle, with a threelancet east window and two single lancets on the
south wall, joined to the nave by an arcade of two
bays. The ground stage of the south tower and the
pointed arch enclosing the fine 12th-century chancel
arch are of the same date. The chancel was rebuilt
at the end of the 14th century and the roof, two
windows on the south wall, one on the north, date
from this time. In about 1500 the upper stages of the
tower were added, but they had to be rebuilt in 1679.
The initials of the churchwardens mark the restoration, which is also recorded by Wood. (fn. 204) The south
porch was built in 1598. In the 18th century part of
the east wall was rebuilt and there were repairs to
the roof and to the stone work on the north side.
There are references in 1758 to a buttress on the
north wall which was destroyed in the 19th century
restorations; directions were also given for plastering
and whitewashing the walls and for repaving the
floor. (fn. 205) In 1786 the chancel roof was in need of repair. (fn. 206)
In 1862 the Bishop of Oxford doubted whether
there was a parish in his diocese where restoration
was so urgently needed. The church was 'incumbered with galleries and pews, the woodwork ... of
different ages in every imaginable shape, position
and proportion'. The floor level was well below that
of the churchyard, with a broken and uneven surface;
the roof admitted an abundant supply of rain. (fn. 207) The
restoration of 1864 was undertaken by J. C. Buckler
at a cost of £3,000, mainly raised by voluntary subscription. (fn. 208) It considerably extended the nave at the
west end. In 1881, at a further cost of £2,300, a
north aisle was added with porch and vestry. These
additions increased the seating accommodation to
450. (fn. 209)
Although an effort was made 'to preserve the
architectural features', much was inevitably lost,
including the wall-paintings uncovered in 1864 over
the chancel arch and nave arcading, and in the south
aisle. The latter were of earlier origin and greater
interest than the rest; they included a large St.
Christopher and a group of more unusual subjects
in the window jambs depicting legendary scenes
from the flight into Egypt. (fn. 210) The church contains
few monuments of interest: (fn. 211) on the west wall of the
tower are monuments to Samuel Acton (d. 1726),
and his wife Mary Butterfield; to William Finch
(d. 1752) and his wife Mary; and to Henry Yardley
(d. 1756), a Fellow of Trinity College. There are few
descriptions of its early ornaments and fittings. Hugh
de Pluggenait endowed an altar lamp. (fn. 212) Ralph Attewelle in 1465 left 2 bushels of barley to keep the
lamps alight before the crucifix and image of the
Virgin. (fn. 213) The Commissioners of 1552 removed all
the plate save the chalice; (fn. 214) but this too has since
disappeared. There are patens of 1634 and 1764,
a cup of 1701, and a tankard flagon inscribed 'Heddington Parish 1734'. (fn. 215) The Commissioners of 1552
left three bells, one of which survives from about
1430 bearing the inscription Sancta Margareta, ora
pro nobis. There are now six bells, three of them
dating from the 17th century. The fourth was given
by Sir Thomas Whorwood in 1624, and bears his
arms. (fn. 216)
In the churchyard is a cross with a 15th-century
base; the shaft has been restored. (fn. 217) The earliest
tombs are of the Restoration period and commemorate the names of yeoman families. In 1718 Hearne
noted some inscriptions of interest, and was scandalized to find that part of the churchyard was used
for secular purposes. (fn. 218) Part of the vicar's close was
incorporated in the churchyard in 1778, (fn. 219) but the
19th-century population outgrew the burial ground
as well as the church. In 1885 the cemetery on the
road to Marston was bought at a cost of £1,600 and
administered by the parish council. (fn. 220)
The registers date from 1683.
In 1848 the foundation stone was laid of the new
church of THE HOLY TRINITY, at Headington
Quarry, which was consecrated in the following year.
It was built of local stone dug from Quarry Farm
Hollows, the gift of Thomas Burrows. The architect
was Sir George Gilbert Scott and the contractors were
Wyatt's of Oxford. The cost was about £3,000,
which was raised by voluntary effort; Gladstone was
among the subscribers. (fn. 221) It is a simple building of
14th-century style, with nave, north aisle, south
porch, and a gable bell-cote at the west end containing two bells. The registers date from 1849.
The church of ALL SAINTS, Lime Walk, was
built in 1870 to serve the needs of New Headington.
Rebuilt in 1910, it is in the Early English style with
nave of five bays, north and south aisles, and a west
porch. It is built of brick with stone dressings. (fn. 222)
Roman Catholicism.
There are no traces of
any survival of Catholicism in Headington after the
16th century, except for one recusant Hugh Smith,
a yeoman tailor, who was fined in 1624–5. (fn. 223) No papists
were returned in 1676 or 1706; but the returns of
1767 give two persons, a labourer of 90 and a gentleman's servant. (fn. 224)
Protestant Nonconformity.
When
Fairfax made his headquarters at Headington in
1646 the villagers had unparalleled opportunities of
listening to the sermons of able Puritan divines.
'Mr. Saltash preached before the General and army
at Headington on the Lord's Day; Dr. Dell the day
before in the forenoon and Mr. Sidgwick in the
afternoon. Many soldiers at each sermon climbing
up into trees to hear, for it was in the orchard before
his Excellency's tent: great love among the soldiers,
presbytery and independency making no breach'. (fn. 225)
Some remnants of dissent survived the Restoration.
Robert Pawling, the Oxford mercer who was arrested
for suspect complicity in Monmouth's rising and
was Mayor in 1679, was the tenant of Magdalen
farm. (fn. 226) In 1672 he took out a licence to hold Presbyterian services in the house of one Anthony Hall in
Oxford; (fn. 227) but his own statement that he continued
to attend the parish church (fn. 228) is confirmed by local
records; he was involved in a dispute about the
occupation of a pew traditionally belonging to his
farm, but lent to Sir Thomas Whorwood during his
brief residence in Headington and subsequently
claimed by his tenant at Manor Farm. (fn. 229) A Quaker
known to the neighbourhood as 'Doctor' James
Bracey was highly thought of as a blood-letter and
the lady of the manor was one of his patients; he
left the village in 1723. (fn. 230) But no thread of continuity
is known to link these last survivals of 17th-century
Puritanism with 19th-century nonconformity. The
18th-century visitation returns give no evidence of
dissent in the parish.
It was in the 'neglected and destitute' Quarry
hamlet that Methodism first appeared. In the inclosure dispute (fn. 231) the Quarry parishioners threatened
that 'as they are to be deprived of their funeral path
they will not come to church at all but intend to have
a Methodist preacher come to them'; (fn. 232) and this
actually happened. Meetings began in a small way
in the house of James Coppock; (fn. 233) the first chapel was
opened in Trinity Road in 1830. In 1860 a larger
chapel was built in Quarry High Street at a cost of
£300; the old building was used as a Sunday School
until 1874, when new school premises were added
to the High Street chapel; the old school was then
converted into dwelling-houses. In 1889 a second
Methodist chapel was opened in Lime Walk at a
cost of £300. (fn. 234)
From the beginning of the 19th century a few
families would attend the services at the New Road
chapel in Oxford, but did not necessarily withdraw
themselves completely from the parish church. (fn. 235) The
small mission hall, built in 1836, and burial ground
in the Croft was closely associated with the New
Road Baptist church. It became independent in
1929. (fn. 236)
Schools.
In 1808 there was one partly endowed
school at Headington. The endowment of £20 a
year came from a bequest of £400 left by Catherine
Mather in 1805 for educating 6 poor boys and 6
poor girls, and 18 other children were paid for by
the vicar. At this time there were also three other
fee-paying schools, which provided education for
about 60 children. (fn. 237) By 1818 there were said to be
only three schools, and it was considered that the
poor were without sufficient means of education. (fn. 238)
By 1833 (fn. 239) there were five small fee-paying schools
besides the endowed school, which later became
affiliated to the National Society. About 1851 (fn. 240) the
school moved into new quarters, a red-brick Gothic
building, erected with the help of private subscriptions and a government grant, on a site given by
Charles Tawney in New Headington on the London
road. It was now a mixed school with an average
attendance of 180. By 1854 (fn. 241) an infant school for
60 children had been started, supported by private
subscriptions.
By 1894 the National school had again outgrown
its buildings, and a new school was built at New
Headington for 260 children at a cost of £2,200, on
a site near the old one. The 1851 buildings were
used for infants. By 1895 a third school had come
into existence at Headington Quarry—a National
mixed school for 135 children, and an infant school
for 90 children. (fn. 242)
In 1902 the Catherine Mather bequest came under
the administration of the Board of Education, who
drew up a scheme for its administration (25 Nov.
1902), which was amended in 1907 so that money
should be used to provide an exhibition to a public
secondary school. (fn. 243)
In 1908 a new council school was built in Margaret
Road, with accommodation for 220 children and 150
infants, and by 1920 the Headington Church of
England school had accommodation for 280 children. (fn. 244) The later developments of these schools after
1928 are reserved for a volume on the City of Oxford.
The Headington Girls' public school was founded
in 1915 for both boarders and day pupils. The
original school buildings were on the south side of
the London road, but are now on the north side.
The school owns 23 acres of land and is an independent one with its own governing body. (fn. 245)
Charities.
No ancient charities are recorded but
the following were reported in 1871: the Peat Moor
Poor's allotment (5 acres) given by the inclosure
award of 1802, and then worth £3 10s.; £8 from
Shotover Hill Poor's allotment, founded about 1819;
£27 distributed annually from Wharton's Charity,
founded by a bequest of 1852, and £5 10s. from the
Slade Charity founded by a deed of 1854. (fn. 246) In
1939 £27 was distributed annually from Wharton's
Charity and the interest of £500 from Mrs. Stone's
charity; the Peat Moor, Shotover Hill, and Slade
charities were worth £10 and were distributed in
coal. (fn. 247)