MARSTON
Marston is the last parish which the River Cherwell
skirts on its left or eastern bank before reaching
Oxford, where it joins the Thames. The ancient parish
of Marston was not coextensive with the modern civil
parish, which was diminished in 1928 by the Oxford
Extension Act. On the north, the boundary between
Marston and Elsfield follows the course of the Wash
Brook (or Bayswater Brook) from Sescut, on the
Cherwell, for a distance of nearly a mile and a half.
The southern boundary runs between the ancient
parishes of Headington and Marston from the King's
Mill on the Cherwell to the nearest point on the
Oxford-Marston road. It then follows that road and
Copse Lane for about a mile and a quarter, making
an eastward loop to take in about 20 acres on the
Headington side of the road. The boundary between
Copse Lane and the Bayswater Brook follows an
arbitrary line. (fn. 1) The area of the ancient parish was
1,227 acres. (fn. 2) In 1928 an area of 216 acres in the
south of the ancient parish, in which is included the
part of the modern suburb of New Marston which
lay in the ancient parish of Marston, became part
of the county borough of Oxford. (fn. 3) The boundary
between the county borough and the civil parish of
Marston now follows the course of a stream immediately north of New Marston. (fn. 4)
The old village of Marston stands on the top and
the southern slope of a low gravel elevation, rising
to some 200 ft. above sea-level or 40 ft. above the
level of the river. All round it is the Oxford Clay,
much of it liable to flood, so that occasionally all the
roads into the village may be under water. The
scenery is like that of the rest of the Cherwell valley,
with many elms in the hedges. Until the construction
of the northern by-pass road in 1932, no road of
importance ran through Marston, but the regular
way from Oxford to Elsfield seems to have been
through Marston at least from the 13th century. The
modern road to Wood Eaton turns out of the Elsfield
road and follows the Wash Brook; but it is not
shown on any map before Cary's map of 1805, and
until then the usual way to Wood Eaton seems to
have been on the drier ground through Elsfield. At
the nearest point of the Cherwell to Marston village
there is a ferry, which leads by a foot-path to
Summertown. The first mention of a ferry at Marston
is in 1279 in the Hundred Rolls, when it was held as
a freehold of the manor by two fishermen of Oxford. (fn. 5)
Until the 20th century there was no road-bridge between Magdalen Bridge and Islip, so that Marston
was comparatively isolated: the distance by road to
Carfax is more than 2½ miles. The old village lay all
in a piece along the two sides of the village street or
near it. There are only two outlying houses older
than living memory, the inn at the ferry and Hill
Farm, half-way to Sescut, which seems to have been
first built in 1691. (fn. 6) One or two cottages recorded as
existing away from the village before the inclosure
have disappeared. The church stands a stone's throw
down the Elsfield road from the corner where it
turns at right angles from the street. This corner is
still called 'The Cross' after the village cross which
used to stand there. (fn. 7) The only house with notable
medieval fragments (beams, &c., presumably 15thcentury) is the much reconstructed Court Place
Farm, half-way down the village; but there are
several houses with 17th-century walls and details.
Of these the most interesting are the two portions
into which, after various mischances, the remains of
the 'mansion-house' built by Unton Croke in the
time of Charles I was divided. These contain some
good oak wainscotting, stone doorways, and heraldic
tiles. (fn. 8) In the garden is a pair of good gateway-piers.
Except for the Crokes (fn. 9) no one of much note seems
to have been connected with Marston except some
of the clergy. Among these William Richards (1643–
1705) was something of an author, and William
Smith (1651?–1735) was an antiquary; (fn. 10) but they
did not reside here, and really belonged to Oxford.
Yeoman families like the Ewens, Pernes, and Hopes
in the 16th century, or the Simses, Bleays, and Loders
in the 19th, (fn. 11) whose fortunes can be traced, never
seem to have developed business interests outside
farming. Some of them owned or rented land in
Elsfield and Headington or elsewhere, so that the
Marston records do not give a full account of them or
their possessions. Such being the mediocrity of its
human population, it may be mentioned that Marston
produced one distinguished animal. In about 1815
the sporting parson Jack Russell, in the course of a
walk to Elsfield, bought a bitch there which he
regarded as the perfect fox-terrier, and, under the
name of Trump, it heads the best genealogical tables
of the Parson Jack Russell breed. (fn. 12)
Manor.
Marston was a hamlet or member of the
manor of Headington. (fn. 13) It had its own constables,
tithingmen, beer-tasters, and hayward, but the
manorial business relating to Marston was done in
the Headington courts.
Mill.
In 1279 John de Molendino held a mill at
Marston of Hugh de Plescy for life at an annual rent
of 11s. In 1398 a mill was said to have been lately
built on what was apparently the site of the earlier
mill; it was held by Thomas son of Thomas atte
Mill. By 1406, however, the mill had passed out of
the hands of Thomas son of William atte Mill, and
was no longer standing. It may have again been in
existence in 1423; it was mentioned in the late 15th
and early 16th century, and in 1540 was in the possession of Brasenose College. (fn. 14)
Economic and Social History.
According to philologists the name of Marston is derived
from the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Marsh-town,
and it would appear to be very appropriate. (fn. 15) The
various fields in the strip of low ground on the
eastern side have long had such names as Marsh
Field, Marsh Ditch, and the Common Marsh; at
least until the late 14th century some of the land on
the Elsfield side of the boundary was under water
almost all the year round; (fn. 16) and the scouring of
ditches occupies even more than the usual space in
the local records. The Domesday hidage of Headington, of which Marston was a hamlet or member, does
not appear by any means large enough for Marston
to be included in it. Except for two palaeolithic finds (fn. 17)
we know, in fact, nothing about the place before the
first certain occurrence of the name, which is in
1122, (fn. 18) and there is nothing in the form of the word
to justify us in supposing that it was an old name
then. In default of other evidence it seems right to
infer that until the early 12th century or thereabouts,
all the low ground was awash, and the site of the
village an island among marshy courses of the Cherwell. Regular settlement and the laying-out of the
fields may well have been made possible then by
better ditching and draining. This is compatible with
the history of the manor of Headington. The great,
composite royal manor included water-meadows beyond the Cherwell as far as Oseney and Binsey on
the Thames, and fisheries in both rivers. Marston,
although a separate agricultural community, was
presumably never an independent manor or anything like it, but was a new settlement in the wide,
wet region over which the manorial rights of Headington extended. Like the rest of the manor it was
in the forest. There is nothing to indicate that there
was ever any considerable woodland in the parish,
but the tenants had rights of common in the rest of
the forest-area, and these, no doubt, were of value
to them. After the disafforestation of Shotover and
Stow Wood in 1661 the inhabitants of the parishes
bordering on it were compensated for their lost
rights of commoning cattle and cutting furze, fern,
and deadwood in the forest. This compensation was
granted in the form of land, and Marston got no less
than 90 acres, whereas the share of Wick, Wood
Eaton, Islip, Beckley, and Noke was only 20. Even
so none of the parishes was satisfied and they all
petitioned for more. (fn. 19)
In 1279 the Hundred Rolls enumerated 46 unfree
tenants besides the vicar and two freeholders. (fn. 20) Only
six of the tenants in ancient demesne held a whole
yardland each, the rest having smaller portions down
to an eighth of a virgate or less. The eight men who
shared a virgate lived in the 'Buriende', a name
which may imply the previous existence of a fort at
some point which cannot be identified. One virgate
was held by a freeholder who possibly resided at
Court Place. The other resident freeholder was the
miller. The Hundred Rolls mention that one piece
of ground had a three-year course of husbandry, so
that it is fair to infer that there were three fields; and
it appears also that the demesne land lay all in a
piece. (fn. 21) The first surviving record of the commutation of labour-services for a money rent dates from
1423. (fn. 22)
From the middle of the 14th century there is evidence of the joining of holdings by purchase. In 1406
John Hyze bought the mill. He was then described
as 'forester of Stow Wood'; from 24 years earlier he,
or a namesake, had received pay from the issues of
the county as 'ranger of Shotover and Stowood',
which rose to 6d. a day, the highest rate for a skilled
labourer. He had a son, Thomas Bastard, who held
land in Marston, (fn. 23) and the legitimate line of Hyze,
Hye, or Hay added field to field until they had more
than three and a half yardlands and three cottages.
They lived at Court Place. A few years before the
end of the 15th century their land was sold, and in
1525 it was acquired by Brasenose College. (fn. 24) Brasenose was not the first Oxford college to acquire
Marston land: an acre of the lot-meadows was given
to Oriel in 1349. (fn. 25) In 1458 the 42 acres of the King's
Mill meadows passed to Magdalen, on its foundation, from the former owners, the Hospital of St.
John, who had held them for more than two centuries. (fn. 26) The colleges were the most stable of the
various buyers of land from outside the parish; no
family within it seems ever to have built up more
than a substantial yeoman's holding, though there
was much buying and selling on a small scale.
In 1451 the benefices of Headington and Marston
were united by a papal bull on the ground that the
two parishes were too poor to maintain two vicars: (fn. 27)
for Headington there is evidence of impoverishment
from nine years earlier; (fn. 28) but not for Marston, and
we know nothing of its nature and causes nor how
long it lasted. The field-system of Marston seems to
have improved in the reign of Henry VII: it was
probably at this time that a fourth and smaller arable
field was formed along the southern brook, where
the drainage had very likely improved. It appears as
if there had been irregular cultivation in this part,
and various exchanges of land were carried out, so
as to make it possible to lay out a field and allot the
strips to the various existing holders. Not long afterwards, in 1520, there was a beginning of inclosure,
when Magdalen began to buy out the common
rights in its meadows from the other tenants of
the manor. Individual tenants were paid in cash,
and the college covenanted to give annually to the
churches of Headington and Marston one of the best
sheep from the meadows, or, if the churchwardens
so chose, 3s. 4d., and a bushel of malt or 10d. The
Marston churchwardens seem to have taken their
sheep and their malt for consumption at the churchale, which was held until 1594 or later. (fn. 29) Their
accounts show that, besides their church duties, they
discharged various functions in the economic life of
the village. The manorial court enforced on the
tenants their duties of keeping up hedges and scouring ditches; but the churchwardens managed and
paid for such work about the commons. They looked
after the pound and a bridge and the gate at the
town's end and they kept the parish bull. They let
several small closes and the grazing on the green
roads and, more important, the fishing in the Cherwell. In 1330 the fisheries held by the two men named
in the Hundred Rolls of 1279 were granted for their
lives to the under-tenants of Godstow Nunnery; (fn. 30)
but the Marston fishery proper was in the control of
the churchwardens from at least as early as 1532
until 1720 and possibly later. By the end of the 18th
century angling was 'permitted', presumably because it was no longer valuable enough to yield a
rent, and was 'a favourite diversion with the gentlemen of the university'. (fn. 31)
Early in the 17th century the amount of arable
land in the parish, calculated from two excellent
maps of the Corpus estate, dated 1605, was about
600 acres, or nearly half the whole area. Brasenose
College had added to its holding, and Corpus Christi
College had held two half-yardlands and one quarter
since 1529. If the ordinances were obeyed, and if the
reckoning of twenty yardlands for the parish was
correct, the commons carried not more than 200
beasts and 800 sheep: Corpus at any rate had a right
to common 15 beasts and 75 sheep, and had an acre
and a half in the lot-meadows for every 20 acres of
its arable land, which amounted to 46 acres, 2 roods,
and 4 perches in all. (fn. 32) This was the state of things
when the most considerable family which ever lived
in Marston made its appearance. (fn. 33) In the reign of
James I Unton Croke, a rising lawyer and a younger
son of a legal family, the Crokes of Studley Priory,
married Anne Hore, the heiress to a messuage and
half a yardland in Marston. Nicholas Hore, perhaps
her grandfather, had the third highest assessment in
the parish in goods for taxation in the first year of
Queen Elizabeth, and the highest in the 23rd year. (fn. 34)
Unton Croke rebuilt the house on a grander scale,
and, though he never owned anything but copyholds,
he added to the land his wife inherited, and, as a
master in Chancery, serjeant-at-law, justice of the
peace, and so forth, became very much the principal
inhabitant. In 1645 when the parliamentary forces
laid siege to Oxford he had to make room in his
house for Fairfax's headquarters, and Oliver Cromwell came there to meet the commander-in-chief. In
the next year the headquarters of the besieging army
were at Headington, but when the city surrendered
Unton Croke's house was the place appointed for
the meeting of the commissioners from the two
sides. (fn. 35) Unton Croke was openly and not unprofitably committed to the parliamentary side; his second
son and namesake became prominent as a commander
of horse, and at the Restoration the father had to give
a bond for his peaceable demeanour in the large sum
of £4,000.
In 1655 Unton Croke was the leading figure in the
inclosure of the two open fields by agreement of the
landholders. They gave two reasons for the change.
First, Marston lay low in a very dirty and waterish
heavy soil to plough, very near to the walls of Oxford,
and far more fit and convenient for pasture than for
tillage. Secondly, the Civil War had interrupted cultivation and manuring; many trees had been felled
and turf had been taken from the meadows for
building breastworks, and cattle had been plundered
and taken away. The second reason is not by itself
very impressive. The first might be put more plainly
by saying that there seemed to be good prospects
for several farming, predominantly in pasture, for
the Oxford market. The land was surveyed and
divided up into well over 100 closes. The agreement
enumerated 38 tenants of the manor, including the
three colleges. The lord had in demesne only a
4-acre plot in Brook Field. The number of copyholders who had 1 yardland each was 7, the same as in
the time of Edward I; but there was one who had
2 yardlands, and among the rest the number who
had as much as half a yardland was considerably
diminished. If the two surveys can be compared at
all, it looks as if, roughly speaking, the total number
of the community was not very different, but the
number of landholders had decreased from nearly
50 to nearly 40, and the inequalities between them
had become greater. As the extent of cultivation had
probably increased, there must have been an increase
of landless labourers, and we know from the court
rolls that there were some such men, but we cannot
guess how many.
Unton Croke died in 1671. His elder son Sir
Richard, who became Recorder of Oxford, leased
the Corpus land (fn. 36) and kept house in Marston, probably at what is now Cross Farm. He did not survive
his father long, and with his son Wright Croke, who
lived into Queen Anne's reign, the Marston Crokes
came to an end. Cross Farm and some of the Croke
lands were bought by Thomas Rowney, an attorney,
who, like his son of the same name, sat in Parliament
for the city of Oxford, but one of their descendants
disposed of their holding of over 100 acres in the
time of George III. During the 17th century the
Crokes and Rowneys were not the only Marston
residents whose livelihood did not come from the
soil: Dr. John Speed, grandson of the historian,
held a lease from Brasenose. (fn. 37) From some point in
the 18th century, however, and probably not long
after the death of the elder Rowney in 1727, Marston
became a village where no one lived who pretended
to the rank of gentleman. No large property was
brought together. On the contrary, the holding of
the Rowneys was dispersed as were the 2 yardlands
once held by Sir Sebastian Smythe of Oxford, and
some smaller accumulations. Some of the resident
yeomen purchased land, but most of the purchasers
lived in Oxford or farther away, and apparently they
were all middle-class people of almost every grade,
who bought for investment, as others, for instance
various clergymen, held for investment after they
married the daughters and heiresses of the small
landowners of the place. (fn. 38)
In 1801 there were 45 dwelling-houses and 264
inhabitants. The chief man was the innkeeper of the
'White Hart', who was also a farmer and had a
bakery. There were a blacksmith, a carpenter, a
weaver, and a fisherman. The farming was miscellaneous, as it usually is close to a town, and it was
untidy. Although the fields are too wet to suit them,
there were still sheep, chiefly of the Berkshire kind,
and a considerable number of house-lambs were
raised. Fruit and much excellent bacon were sold to
Oxford; there were good crops of all kinds of corn
and pulse, especially beans. There is as yet no mention of selling milk to Oxford. The 'poor' were
numerous and expensive. Six families of paupers
were accommodated in the house built by Unton
Croke. (fn. 39) We know that two years later the poor-rate
was nearly double the average for the hundred of
Bullingdon. (fn. 40)
Early in the 19th century the population began to
increase noticeably, and by the middle of the century
it was well over 400. In one respect the character of
the community had not altered: the land was still
held in small parcels. There was only one owner of
more than 100 acres, Brasenose College. Altogether
there were 49 other owners besides the other two
colleges, and of these rather less than half lived in
the parish. The blacksmith and one labourer were
among them. The main reason why small landowning persisted in this parish seems to have been
that Oxford afforded a good market for the characteristic produce of small-holders, whether owners or
tenants. Nor was there any nucleus round which a
residential estate was likely to grow. The lords of
the manor had never lived in the parish. The colleges
were only interested in drawing rents or fines on the
renewal of leases; the Croke family had never been
of much account as landlords; there were neither
woodlands nor anything else to attract the sportsman, and there was no site obviously suitable for a
mansion. The small men were land-hungry and
tenacious, and they could protect themselves against
the risk of farming by by-occupations. By this time
one of the farmers was described as a bacon-factor;
there were 3 dairywomen and 2 or 3 dairymen and,
though the weaver had disappeared, there was now a
wheelwright as well as the blacksmith, and there was
a shoemaker. Three masons and a veterinary surgeon
who lived in the village presumably found work
outside it as well as within. There were 6 or 7 farmers
with 50 acres or more; but the amount of arable
land was less than half what it was before the inclosure, and so the growth of population cannot be
explained by greater employment on the farms. (fn. 41)
The growth of Oxford increased the demand for
garden-produce and the like, as did no doubt the
rise in the standard of living in both town and
university. Possibly men who worked in Oxford or
its suburbs were already coming to live in Marston.
There were various other ways in which the prosperity of the world in general enabled more people
to live here. The roads were given a metalled surface. In 1851 the first elementary school was built.
This meant not only that there was work for schoolteachers and cleaners, but in time it meant that
others had to do work which the children had done
before. In the middle of the century, however, one
phase of increase ended and until 1871 there was a
slight decline in numbers. From then the census
records no marked increase for twenty years. The
establishment of the Workman's Hall in the Oxford
Road in 1871 marks a change in the village and in its
relation to Oxford. (fn. 42)
Shortly before the census of 1891, the workingclass suburb of New Marston was built on the
Oxford road, partly in the parish and partly outside
it. From about that time the pressure of Oxford on
the village became more and more severe in every
direction. Business men and university men built
houses or modernized old ones. Colleges took one
meadow after another for playing-fields. Arable farming declined with the agricultural depression, but
the farmers and small-holders prospered on their
milk-rounds. Brasenose had money to invest, and
by purchases in the 20th century increased its holding to more than 400 acres. No other large holding
was built up, and the rest of the property was still
raggedly held by a very mixed, if continually changing, company of owners. After the end of the First
World War, the internal combustion engine completed what the bicycle had begun, and the town
came down on the village, almost blotting it out.
The northern by-pass road bridged the Cherwell and
gave new access to Summertown and Headington.
Private enterprise and municipal rehousing schemes
filled up the interval between the old village and
New Marston, where new streets preserved the lines
of the old furlongs and green roads. The old village
changed comparatively little, but it is now not much
more than a museum piece, and only the intervention of two public-spirited trusts has preserved the
green fields to the north and west. The Oxford
Preservation. Trust bought those between the village
and the river, including the holding of the last of the
yeoman family of Sims; the Pilgrim Trust bought
fields along the by-pass road.
Church.
The first mention of Marston church is
in a charter of 1122, by which Henry I granted the
chapel of Marston, among others, to the canons of
St. Frideswide's. (fn. 43) Headington, Marston, Elsfield,
and Binsey hamlet formed a peculiar, the rights of
which were confirmed to the canons of St. Frideswide's by a number of bishops and popes. (fn. 44) Continual reference to the church as a chapel in the 12th,
13th, and 14th centuries indicate that it was probably
once dependent on Headington, though Marston
seems to have been independent by 1122. The
parishes of Marston and Headington were united by
papal bull in 1451, (fn. 45) and were not separated until
1637. (fn. 46)
At the end of the 12th century Hugh de Pluggenait, lord of the manor of Headington and a benefactor of St. Frideswide's, endowed the church of
St. Nicholas at Marston (the first reference to the
dedication) with half a hide of land. (fn. 47) At the beginning of the 13th century the gross value of the
church was £12 a year. (fn. 48) The rectory was valued at
£5 6s. 8d. in 1291. (fn. 49) In 1535 the farm of the combined rectories of Headington and Marston was
worth £12. (fn. 50) The church and its possessions were
held by the priory of St. Frideswide's from 1122
until the priory's suppression in 1524, (fn. 51) when it
became part of the endowment of Cardinal College,
and in due course of Christ Church. (fn. 52) It was sold
in 1545 or 1546 by Henry VIII, along with other
lands and churches conveyed to Christ Church, (fn. 53)
and in 1547 the rectory, vicarage, and advowson of
Marston and Headington were bought by Sir John
Brome, lord of Headington manor. (fn. 54) The rectory
estate then became merged with that manor. From
the end of the 17th century the rectorial tithes belonged to the several landowners. (fn. 55)
A vicarage was instituted by Hugh of Welles,
Bishop of Lincoln, probably between 1213 and 1218;
the vicar had £3 6s. 8d. a year, houses and a court
formerly used by the chaplain, the lesser tithes of all
the parish, all the tithes from one yard land, and the
altar offerings. (fn. 56) The vicars were presented by St.
Frideswide's Priory, and in the first quarter of the
15th century two of the canons served as vicars. (fn. 57)
After the union of Marston and Headington parishes
in 1451 vicars were instituted to Headington, but
from 1481 there is no record of the institution of a
vicar to either church until 1636. (fn. 58) In 1520 the two
parishes were being served by one of the canons of
St. Frideswide's; it was complained that a woman
and two girls were occupying the vicar's house at
Marston. (fn. 59) In 1529 the parish was being served by
a Dominican friar from Oxford. (fn. 60) In 1535 Christ
Church was receiving £2 from the farm of the
vicarial tithes of Marston, as well as the farm of the
rectory, (fn. 61) and it seems that Sir John Brome acquired
not merely the advowson of the vicarage but the
endowment itself. It has been plausibly suggested
that at the time of the purchase it was stipulated that
the purchaser should always find a man to serve the
church. (fn. 62) The names of clergy who officiated in
Headington between 1550 and 1585 are known, but
none can be shown to have been vicars, and one is
expressly named as curate of Marston. (fn. 63)
In 1637, perhaps as an incident of the Laudian
ecclesiastical revival, a vicar was instituted on the
presentation of the Crown, and Marston became
once again a separate parish from Headington. The
circumstances of this institution after a gap of 150
years are obscure. Presentations were made in 1686
by members of the Whorwood family, in 1690 by
the king and queen pro hac vice, in 1705 by Robert
King of Oxford pro hac vice, and in 1717 by the
Bishop of Oxford. Thereafter the right of presentation was exercised by the lords of Headington manor
until 1872. The Revd. E. Evans presented in 1888;
his widow, who presented in 1899, devised the
advowson to the Bishop of Oxford, who presented
in 1905. (fn. 64)
The vicarage was discharged from paying firstfruits and tenths and the clear yearly value was
given as £26 in 1707. (fn. 65) In 1835 the yearly value was
estimated at £195 of which £50 was paid to a curate.
At that time the parsonage house was uninhabitable, (fn. 66) and in 1887 there was said to be no glebe
in the parish. (fn. 67) In 1844 the vicarial tithes were
commuted for an annual rent-charge of £200. (fn. 68) A
parsonage house was said to have been built in the
forties, but that used in 1954 was not acquired until
1912. In 1953 the net income of the benefice was
£300. (fn. 69)
From early in the 18th century until 1849 the
vicars of Marston were non-resident. The list of
vicars who were regularly instituted does not coincide at any point with such a list as can be made out
of the clergy who actually officiated. The parish was
served by curates and, in the second half of the 18th
century, by university clergy, chiefly fellows of
Oxford colleges, who rode out to Marston on Sundays. As time went on they seem to have become less
active. In 1758 there were two sermons on Sunday;
there were four communion services a year and
about 31 communicants. Thirteen years later there
was only one Sunday sermon and the number of
communicants had dropped to 10 or 12; by 1808
there were only two communion services a year. (fn. 70)
A magazine-writer of 1799 gives a favourable account
of the curate in charge, John Curtis, Fellow of Magdalen, and of the enthusiasm of the parishioners. (fn. 71)
In 1849 Richard Gordon, already Vicar of Elsfield,
became Vicar of Marston, (fn. 72) and for some time held
the two livings in plurality. A curate performed the
Sunday duty at Marston but the vicar visited the
sick and his incumbency began a period in which
the standard of assiduity was much higher than it had
been. In the middle of the century there were 15 to
25 communicants at the monthly celebration. (fn. 73)
In the 15th century a John Chichele endowed the
roodlight with land worth 4d. a year. Armorial tiles
in the church suggest that he was a kinsman of
Archbishop Chichele. This endowment was taken
by the Crown in the early years of Edward VI. (fn. 74)
A mission chapel at New Marston was dedicated
in 1911: (fn. 75) the ecclesiastical history of the district
after its incorporation in Oxford City in 1928 is reserved for inclusion in a volume on the history of
the city.
The church of ST. NICHOLAS (fn. 76) consists of
a chancel, a clerestoried nave with aisles, a south
porch, and a low western tower. The oldest parts of
the building, the chancel arch, the seven arches of the
nave arcades—four on the north and three on the south
—and the south door, appear to date from the time
of Henry II or Richard I. It is probable that the
south aisle was originally the same length as the
north and was shortened later. Inside the church,
on what is now the east wall of the tower, may be
seen the steep pitch of the old roof of the nave. In
the 15th century the aisles were widened, the nave
roof raised, and a clerestory built. A modest west
tower and a new chancel completed what must have
looked almost like a new church. The chancel is well
proportioned, and there is attractive carving in the
spandrels of the hood moulding over a doorway on
the south side. In the deep external hollow moulding
of the three-light east window is carved some unusual leaf ornament. The recess of the first window
on the south side has been carried down to form a
sedile, and to the east of it is a small square piscina.
A hagioscope looks into the chancel from the south
aisle, and above the present pulpit is the blocked
entrance to a vanished rood loft. There are fragments
of glass and some encaustic tiles with floral and
heraldic patterns which date from the 15th century.
The plain oak benches and bench-ends and the
remains of the chancel screen and return stalls may
have been put in shortly after the rebuilding. In 1520
the chancel was reported to be out of repair. (fn. 77) In
1562 there were considerable repairs to the fabric,
especially to the south porch and the south aisle,
which was largely rebuilt, only one of the old
windows being retained. The pulpit probably dates
from the first half of the 17th century. In the early
19th century the tower and the nave roof were repaired, and in 1883 the church was intelligently
restored, the architect being H. G. W. Drinkwater
of Oxford, at a cost of £1,400. A new roof was built
over the chancel, and the south wall of the chancel
and the buttresses of the north aisle were rebuilt.
A western gallery was removed, a new floor was laid,
the tower arch was opened, and the ground floor of
the tower became a vestry. In the course of the work
an aumbry was discovered in the north aisle and
traces of wall-paintings were uncovered. In the
chancel are memorials to Richard Croke (d. 1683)
and Unton Croke (d. 1670/1) and a brass to the
latter's wife Anne (d. 1670). (fn. 78)
Plan of St. Nicholas's Church
In 1552 there were three small bells and a sanctus
bell. (fn. 79) At present there are five bells hung in the
western tower, and an inscription on the tenor records that they were recast in 1823 by W. & J.
Taylor of Oxford. About 1930 they were rehung in a
new oak frame by Mr. Richard White. Their predecessors may have been either medieval bells or
bells recast about 1620–30. (fn. 80)
In 1552 Marston church possessed three vestments, one of blue velvet, one of black worsted, and
one dornick, a surplice, a rochet, five altar cloths,
three of them of diaper, a chalice and paten with
their inner surfaces gilt, and a cross, a pyx, and two
candlesticks of latten. (fn. 81) The medieval cup now used
as a chalice may have come to the church in the late
15th century, but the point is disputable, and it is
uncertain whether it came for that purpose or for
some secular use as the 'town cup'. (fn. 82) The churchyard was enlarged in 1894. A cross was removed in
1830 to mend a wall, and has been replaced by a
similar cross as a war memorial. The lych-gate was
erected in 1927 in memory of H. A. Cumberlege, a
former vicar.
The surviving series of registers of baptisms,
marriages, and burials starts in 1653 and is complete
save for marriages between 1753 and 1814. There are
churchwardens' books covering the period 1540–
1610, and some earlier years, and churchwardens'
accounts from 1669 to 1732.
The church of ST. MICHAEL AND ALL
ANGELS in New Marston is reserved for description in a later volume. (fn. 83)
Nonconformity.
There is no evidence of
Protestant nonconformity in the parish until 1871,
when trustees who are believed to have been Congregationalists established a mission hall, called the
Workman's Hall, in the Oxford Road. At the beginning of the 20th century this was no longer used
for its original purpose and seemed likely to become
derelict. (fn. 84) About 1932 a scheme was established by
the Charity Commissioners, under which the hall
was being leased to the British Legion in 1954. The
only traces of recusancy before Catholic emancipation are the mentions of one or two Roman Catholics
and later of one Roman Catholic family, in the reign
of George III. (fn. 85) Developments in New Marston
after 1928 are reserved for treatment in a volume
on Oxford City.
Schools.
A privately owned school for 20 children existed in 1816. (fn. 86) A new building was erected
in 1851, the running expenses of which were largely
borne by the vicar, Canon Gordon, with aid from
the National Society. This provided accommodation
for 145 children, (fn. 87) and was an 'all age' mixed school
until September 1947, when the seniors were removed to Gosford Hill Secondary Modern School.
It now continues as a Junior and Infants' School. (fn. 88)
The building was modernized and improved in
various ways in 1926. (fn. 89) New Marston primary school
(Church of England) was opened in 1927, at
first in temporary premises, a permanent building
being opened in 1928 on land presented by Mrs.
George Herbert Morrell. In 1929 this school was
transferred from the county authority to the City. (fn. 90)
Later developments are reserved for treatment in
a volume on the City of Oxford.
Charities.
The only ancient charity given by an
individual donor is that of Mary Brett. She was the
widow of a 17th-century squire of Elsfield, and after
marrying a second husband she died in 1671, leaving
a house and land (valued in 1816 at 12s. 6d. and
10s. respectively) for bread for the poor of Marston.
One of the many shares in the Forest Farm granted
in lieu of common rights in the forest was held by
the churchwardens and overseers for the poor of the
parish. In modern times this was used for a distribution of coal and it is usually called 'the forest
coal'. (fn. 91) In the inclosure, twelve cow-commons were
set aside for poor men. Either then or later it was
laid down that one was to be held by the parish
clerk, and that men in receipt of parish relief were
not eligible. Twelve poor inhabitants are still elected
by the landowners to share the rent of the 20-acre
field so allotted, in the north-east corner of the parish.