STOWOOD
Stowood lies on either side of the old LondonWorcester road, (fn. 1) now a country road connecting
Stanton St. John and Islip. The wood crowns a hill
at the junction of this road with the Roman road
from Dorchester to Alchester. Although it never
had a church and, until the Crown sold Shotover,
was closely linked with Shotover and Headington,
Stowood came to be treated as a separate parish and
so remained until 1932. In 1660 its area was estimated at 641 acres (fn. 2) and at 593 from 1891 (fn. 3) until 252
acres of Headington parish were added to it under
the Oxford Extension Act of 1928. (fn. 4) In 1932 the
whole parish was absorbed in Beckley. (fn. 5) The surviving belt of woodland has light sandy soil, although
the lower cultivated ground round Lodge Farm in
the south has some peat and clay. (fn. 6)
There were two farms in 1851. There are now
three. The site of Royal Oak Farm may have some
connexion with the 'kyngeshoke' mentioned in the
description of the bounds of the forest in c. 1298. (fn. 7)
The house is a two-storied building of rubble with
squared quoins and thatched roof; it probably dates
from the 17th century, but has an 18th-century
facade. In the 19th century it was a public house,
much patronized by undergraduates. (fn. 8) Lodge Farm,
formerly the lodge of the royal forest, is partly of
17th-century date. It is known that it needed repair
in 1640; in 1660 it was a building 36 ft. by 13 ft.,
with three small rooms and three garrets, and was
given rent-free to the keeper of the forest by the
Tyrrells. (fn. 9) The third farm, Folly Farm, formerly
Whistler's Folly, (fn. 10) has two old cottages of rather
similar appearance. West Cottage is an 18th-century
building of rubble, with two stories, thatched roof
and irregular casement windows; East Cottage may
be of 17th-century date. The rest of the cottages in
the hamlet lie either at the corner of the road to
Beckley, where they preserve the name of the Red
Lion Tavern, extant in 1852, (fn. 11) or at the entrance
to Lodge Farm. The latter were built by Kingerlee
of Oxford in 1881. There were only three cottages
in addition to the lodge in 1660, (fn. 12) but as a result of
the conversion of the land to farming there was a
slight increase. In 1861 27 people lived in six houses:
in 1901 there were 43 residents. (fn. 13)
There has never been a school, church, or chapel;
the villagers went to school and to church at Beckley.
Economic History.
Domesday book mentions Stowood, the 'stony Wood', (fn. 14) as part of the
4½ hides of forest in the county held by Rainaldus. (fn. 15)
It is not known when it was settled. The parish was
bounded on the east by the Roman road from
Dorchester to Alchester, but there is nothing to suggest Roman occupation of the area. (fn. 16) Indeed, it is
likely that the wood remained forest land, unsettled
and uncultivated, well into the medieval period. (fn. 17)
Until disafforestation by Charles II (fn. 18) Stowood was
the northernmost portion of Shotover and Stowood
forest; (fn. 19) with its centre in the manor of the Derehyde
in Shotover, (fn. 20) it was administered by the bailiff of
Shotover aided by other forest officials; its history
during this period therefore cannot be disentangled
from that of Shotover and the rest of the royal forest.
Reports of grants and privileges, encroachments,
trespasses, and so on mostly refer to the forest as
a whole, but occasionally Stowood is specifically
mentioned. In the Middle Ages it was recorded that
it was flanked by the woods of the abbots of
Eynsham and Westminster, Beckley park and
Stanton fields. (fn. 21) In 1660 the boundaries were
defined as running from Beckley field along Stanton
field, Stafford Grove, Wick grounds, and then along
by Elsfield ground and field, thence again by Wood
Eaton common and so along by Noke pastures to
Beckley again. (fn. 22)
The neighbouring parishes had right of common
there: Headington, Marston, and St. Clement's in
Stowood and in Shotover; Beckley, Noke, Islip,
Wood Eaton, and Elsfield in Stowood only. (fn. 23)
Each household in Headington had the right to
send someone to gather nuts one day a year in the
wood; (fn. 24) the lord of the manor of Headington had
half of the pannage, and the right to two cartloads
of brushwood weekly, (fn. 25) and Stanton manor had a
grove in the wood. (fn. 26)
Grants to individuals of timber from both Shotover and Stowood were frequent, sometimes timber
from Stowood alone being specified. (fn. 27) Grants of
rights to hunt also usually concerned the whole
forest. But to cite a few examples, grants for
Stowood alone were made to Richard, Earl of Cornwall in 1258, (fn. 28) to his son in 1263, (fn. 29) to the Earl of
Warwick in 1259, (fn. 30) and during the same period to
royal huntsmen. (fn. 31) Trespasses and encroachments
were many. As would be expected, the main offenders
were those with land in or near the forest; the Prior
of St. Frideswide's was pardoned for forest offences
in 1387; (fn. 32) and the Abbot of Westminster in 1363. (fn. 33)
In 1255 the Earl of Cornwall, who was the owner of
Beckley manor, and the parson of Beckley were
accused of taking wood for fencing for their own use,
and Philippa Countess of Warwick was stated to have
taken too much underwood; (fn. 34) in 1364 the Prioress
of Studley was amerced for setting up hedges round
her enclosure and thus trapping the royal deer. (fn. 35)
There is no reliable information on the state of
the woodland until the 16th century. At the time of
disafforestation there were nine coppices in Stowood
totalling 631 acres. Of these, five were inclosed. (fn. 36)
Some inclosure had probably taken place earlier.
One coppice, Lodgemoor, probably the Lodge coppice of the 1660 survey, had been inclosed with
rails by 1580, when it was reported that although this
coppice was common, inclosure had not much hurt
the inhabitants or foresters. (fn. 37) Another coppice,
Lynehill, had recently been inclosed and Lord
Norreys, then keeper of the forest, had been allowed
40s. for hedging and fencing. (fn. 38) The same report
refers to 'great spoyles of younge springes' made by
horses, oxen, and carts in two coppices lately felled,
the regarders having turned the beasts into them.
It was also alleged that the keepers had mowed two
coppices, though this was later stated not to be
harmful, and that there had been unlawful cutting
of timber. (fn. 39) By 1628 there was more evidence of
waste and decay, though Stowood was not so badly
off as Shotover, being valued at £20 an acre as
opposed to the latter's 20 marks. (fn. 40) In particular,
there was considerable damage to the forest from
nearby residents, who cut down hedges and young
trees. (fn. 41) In 1631 for instance, the Earl of Lindsey,
who had a lease of the timber, was told 'your wood
in Stowood is cut down and carried away', and one
Burt of Elsfield was accused of stealing wood in
league with Mr. Heaster (see below). By 1660 the
nine coppices of Stowood were in a worse state. It
was reported that four were so destroyed that the
mounding of them would cost as much as the underwood was worth; that Beckley coppice (89 a.),
though much destroyed by cattle entering through
broken fences, was the only likely source of profit
in either Shotover or Stowood; that the country
people had destroyed Stowood and the soil was unfit
for arable and 'very ill for pasture'. (fn. 42) Much of the
destruction was due to the heavy demands for
timber in the first 60 years of the century, particularly by the navy, as the lack of sap, hardness, and
twisted growth of the trees in this area made them
very suitable for the tree-nails, &c., required in shipbuilding.
Mr. Heaster, a keeper of the forest in 1628 and
1660, was the only ranger who can be connected
definitely with Stowood, as distinct from the whole
bailiwick. It is clear that he was administering this
section of the forest from the lodge, which then had
28 acres of land, half arable and half pasture, railed
and hedged in. (fn. 43)
Parts of Stowood were allotted to those villages
with ancient rights of common: Marston, Wick,
Wood Eaton, Islip, Beckley, Elsfield, and Noke. (fn. 44)
The remainder, some 421 acres, was leased out by
the Crown. (fn. 45) Earlier, in 1637, Richard Powell of
Forest Hill had obtained a lease of Shotover and
Stowood from the Bishop of Oxford, with the duty
of repairing the mounds. (fn. 46) Powell was put to much
expense, and his widow Anne was thereby involved
in legal proceedings at the Restoration. (fn. 47) She was
granted a lease of Stowood after disafforestation, on
payment of £44 to the Bishop of Oxford and £50
to the Crown. (fn. 48) It is not known when the Powell
connexion ceased, but the bishops of Oxford continued as Crown lessees for many years. In 1779,
when Stowood Lodge with the lands and coppices
were leased to the bishop for 26 years from 1784 at
a rent of £100, the land was valued at £200 a year. (fn. 49)
In 1806 the annual value was given as £363, but the
bishop was allowed to pay the same rent; the concession was made to augment his slender revenues. (fn. 50)
His lease expired in 1837. (fn. 51) The property continued
to be leased throughout the century, though slightly
diminished in extent by the sale of a cottage and land
in 1838, (fn. 52) and in value by the considerable felling
which took place between 1860 and 1870, (fn. 53) and
by later neglect resulting from the agricultural
depression. In consequence, in 1903 John and Herbert
Parsons obtained a lease of over 553 acres for only
£175 a year. (fn. 54) Guy Thomson followed, and had a
keeper in the lodge and stockman in Folly farm and
Royal Oak farm. In 1926 Brasenose College purchased the property from the Crown. (fn. 55)
The ancient forest land is now mainly arable.
Even by 1797 inclosed arable land lay south of the
Islip road. (fn. 56) In 1838 the Crown lands were described
as arable, meadow, and woodland; (fn. 57) but in the later
19th century they tended to revert to scrub. The
parish became noted as a sportsmen's paradise; in
1876 it was described as 'broken up into many
straggling coppices' and as being 'well known to
every Oxford man who loves the horse and fusil'. (fn. 58)
In the Thomsons' time the emphasis was on shooting and hunting, but after 1926 it changed to
husbandry. The struggle against scrub and the
reinforcement of the weak hazel hedges has defined
more clearly the copses from the fields. The woodland is now chiefly noted for its nuts and primroses,
the best trees being on the Beckley side.