OUTLYING TOWNSHIPS
CRAWLEY
Introduction
The rural township of Crawley, with its single riverside
hamlet and, from the 18th and 19th centuries, a couple
of outlying farms, lay in Witney parish's north-west
corner; in the early Middle Ages the area was largely
wooded, and it remained within the purlieus of
Wychwood Forest until the mid 19th century. (fn. 1) The
township had its own fields by the 13th century and its
own parish officers by the 16th or 17th, and in the 18th
century administered its own poor relief; from the later
19th century it was counted a separate civil parish,
though it remained part of Witney and later of Hailey
parish for ecclesiastical purposes. (fn. 2) Its area, 1,128 a. in
1877, was increased to 1,150 a. (465 ha.) in 1954 by the
transfer from Hailey of closes and houses immediately
east of Crawley village; small adjustments in 1985
reduced it to 463 ha. (fn. 3)
Township Boundaries and Landscape
The township's western and northern boundaries were
those of the 10th-century Witney estate, and are
discussed above (and see Fig. 63). (fn. 4) The eastern boundary
with Hailey, in part following early lanes or roads, was
established presumably by the 13th century, when the
two townships had separate fields; parts of that
boundary may be pre-Conquest, though whether
Crawley and Hailey belonged to separate estates before
their incorporation in the Witney estate is not known. (fn. 5)
The southern boundary with Curbridge, extending just
south of the river Windrush to include a group of closes
belonging in the later Middle Ages to Crawley Mill and
to Crawley Manor farm, (fn. 6) was presumably also established early, and perhaps reflects pre-Conquest partition
of riverside meadow.
The township's western part, much of it formerly
wooded, lies chiefly on Forest Marble, and its eastern
part, including Crawley village, on White Limestone. Its
extreme southern tip, straddling the river Windrush, lies
on alluvium. From the floodplain (at 85 m.) the ground
rises steeply to over 100 m. on both sides of the river: the
centre of Crawley village lies in a hollow, with buildings
extending up the steep roads which lead into it and
houses around Uphill Farm standing on relatively
exposed high ground. Further north, where the ground
rises slightly more gently to 155 m. in the north-west, a
steep-sided valley runs south-east from Showells Farm,
marking the course of Showells spring. (fn. 7) In the 19th
century the limestone provided arable of fair quality, (fn. 8)
though land immediately adjoining the river, which at
Crawley bridge is particularly wide and fast-flowing,
often flooded. (fn. 9)
Roads
Akeman Street, the Roman road from Cirencester to St
Albans, cut across the township's northern part,
surviving after the Roman withdrawal as a woodland
track (see Fig. 63). (fn. 10) It was mentioned by name in 1300
and 1609, (fn. 11) and at the disafforestation of Wychwood
Forest in 1857 was confirmed as a public way. (fn. 12) Excavation about 1940 confirmed its presence under the
existing track's southern boundary hedge. (fn. 13) The intersecting Pay (formerly Pale) Lane, perhaps also of Roman
origin, (fn. 14) formed the northern boundary of the Witney
estate in 969 when it was called suga rode, probably
denoting a marshy track or riding through woodland,
though 'sparrow' or 'sow way' have also been
suggested. (fn. 15) In 1594 it was the 'royal way to Leafield
sarts'. (fn. 16) Intersecting both those roads at the township's
north-east corner is the main Witney—Charlbury road
through Whiteoak green, probably also an ancient route,
which for part of its course formed the township
boundary. (fn. 17) A branch road southwards past Showells
Farm, through Crawley village, and across the river
Windrush probably formed part of an early route
through Curbridge to Bampton: (fn. 18) a predecessor of
Crawley bridge existed by the later 15th century, (fn. 19) when
the road south of the river was called the 'king's way', (fn. 20)
and there may have been an earlier ford a little to the
west near Crawley Mill. (fn. 21) The bridge, two-arched and of
stone in the earlier 16th century, (fn. 22) was repaired about
1608, (fn. 23) and rebuilt with three arches in 1833; (fn. 24) the
causeway to its north was repaired in 1728. (fn. 25) Langley
way, running along the township's western edge to
Langley in Shipton-under-Wychwood, was mentioned
in 969, (fn. 26) and roads leading south-eastwards from
Crawley to Witney and north-eastwards along Priest Hill
Lane through Delly End are likely to be pre-Conquest or
medieval, as were, presumably, routes leading westwards
to Minster Lovell. (fn. 27)
60. Crawley village street in
2003, looking north.
In 1800 the road from Whiteoak green through
Crawley to Witney was turnpiked as a branch of the
main Charlbury—Witney road, with a toll house in
Crawley village. (fn. 28) It was disturnpiked in 1877, and the
toll house was sold. (fn. 29) Roads from Witney and Hailey
were confirmed at Hailey's inclosure in 1824, (fn. 30) and in
1853 Riding Lane along the township's western edge,
presumably following in part the 10th-century Langley
way, was confirmed as a 30-foot public road. (fn. 31) Pay Lane,
confirmed as a public way in 1857, (fn. 32) was a bridle path in
1999.
Settlement, Population, and Domestic Buildings
Early Settlement
A cluster of probably Bronze-Age round barrows has
been noted on the higher ground in the north-west,
within what was later woodland. (fn. 33) Another barrow just
south of the river Windrush, overlooking Crawley
village on high ground west of Dry Lane, was probably a
Neolithic long barrow, and marked part of the boundary
of the Witney estate in 969 when it was called hawk's low
or tumulus (hafoces hlewe); the area adjacent was later
called Hawksley. (fn. 34) The barrow was shallow and almost
entirely of stone, and when excavated in the mid 19th
century had already been partly destroyed, the rest being
removed before 1939. (fn. 35) It had evidently been re-used,
perhaps several times: oriented burials found with
undated buckles and scattered Romano-British sherds
were thought in the 19th century to be late Roman, and
the term hlewe may imply re-use in the Anglo-Saxon
period, (fn. 36) while skeletons found 'just beneath the surface'
were perhaps medieval execution burials. Three
oriented burials at the centre, protected by large stones,
were accompanied by a bronze buckle which appears to
be post-Conquest and possibly late medieval, though if
so the reason for such burials at that date remains unexplained. (fn. 37)
No other evidence of early settlement in the township
has been found, and in the late Saxon period much of it
was evidently woodland and wood pasture intersected
by numerous tracks. By the 11th century and possibly
earlier, however, there was probably arable in the south,
and there may already have been embryonic settlement
near the river or in other clearings: certainly by the 13th
century Crawley was divided into yardlands in the usual
way, and the settlement appears to have been longestablished. (fn. 38) The place name, recorded from the 13th
century, means 'crow leah', the second element denoting
woodland or a clearing within it. (fn. 39)
Population from the 13th Century
By the early 13th century there were around 23 households at Crawley, most of them settled on probably
long-established customary holdings. (fn. 40) In contrast with
Hailey the population seems to have been little increased
by 13th- and 14th-century assarting or woodland clearance: only 25 households were recorded at Crawley in
1279, and 13–17 taxpayers were noted in the early 14th
century, though division of two customary holdings
between 1237 and 1279 suggests some increase. (fn. 41) As elsewhere on Witney manor plague mortality in the mid
14th century was heavy: a third of villein tenants in
Crawley died in 1348–9, and though half the vacancies
were filled by 1352 a further outbreak in 1361 seems to
have led to long-term population decline. (fn. 42) Only 14
Crawley inhabitants paid poll tax in 1377, implying a
maximum adult population of around 30 and perhaps
14–15 households, (fn. 43) and the population apparently
remained below 13th-century levels in the 17th century,
only 17 houses (excluding cottages at Whiteoak green)
being mentioned in 1609, and 14 in 1662. (fn. 44) In 1642 the
adult population was probably under 70, and the total
population in 1676 under 150. (fn. 45)
Twenty-six houses were reported from the 1730s to
the 1750s and around 20 in 1778, (fn. 46) and in 1801 there
were 33 houses occupied by 38 families, a total of 157
inhabitants. Before 1861 the population reached 253
accommodated in 52 houses, but fell to 160 before 1881
when 13 houses were vacant, apparently the result of
agricultural depression. (fn. 47) It recovered to 206 by 1901
but had fallen to 161 twenty years later, remaining under
200 throughout the 20th century: 190 inhabitants were
noted in 1931, 160 in 1970, and 183 (comprising 64
households) in 1991. (fn. 48)
Medieval Settlement and Village Topography
Early settlement within Crawley village probably clustered, as later, around the intersection of routes just
north of the river crossing. (fn. 49) A predecessor of Manor
Farm, immediately west of the road to the bridge (Dry
Lane), existed probably in the 13th century and certainly
by the 15th, and former copyhold tenements on the site
of Crawley Farm and elsewhere in the modern village
were presumably also established early. (fn. 50) Uphill Farm, at
the upper end of Steep Lane, was built on a small plot of
assart in the mid 17th century, (fn. 51) and some cottages
nearby may have been licensed encroachments in
former common or woodland. (fn. 52) By the mid 18th
century settlement within the village was little different
from later, a few houses on Foxburrow Lane spreading
just over the eastern boundary into Hailey township. (fn. 53)
Probably the only outlying medieval site was the mill: (fn. 54)
Showells and Breach Farms both originated as barns in
the open fields apparently in the 18th century, (fn. 55) and
Chasewood Farm, further north, was built in the late
19th century following clearance of remaining woodland. (fn. 56) A keeper's cottage on the western edge of
Whiteoak green, adjoining Barleyhill coppice, existed
probably by the early 17th century. (fn. 57)
Domestic Buildings
The earliest surviving building, of late medieval origin, is
Manor Farm, described below. (fn. 58) Most other buidings are
of the 17th century or later, constructed of coursed limestone rubble with stone-slated roofs. (fn. 59) Some were
formerly thatched, (fn. 60) and in 1715 the mill was to be
repaired using freestone from Cornbury quarry. (fn. 61)
Around half the fourteen houses taxed in 1662 were
assessed on only one or two hearths, though four,
including Manor Farm, were much larger, with five or
six. (fn. 62) Other larger houses included Uphill Farm, built in
the mid 17th century by one of the Selman family for a
copyhold farm of two yardlands; (fn. 63) the house is
two-storeyed and of three bays, with four- and five-light
mullioned windows in the front and rear elevations. In
the 1770s it was described as a 'good slated farmhouse'
with two barns, stables, and other outbuildings, all in
good repair; (fn. 64) a new doorway and adjacent window were
inserted in the 19th or 20th century, and agricultural
buildings to the south, probably of the mid 18th century,
were converted into houses in the late 20th.
The Farmhouse (formerly Crawley, Village, or Manor
Farm), (fn. 65) north of Foxburrow Lane on a slope overlooking the village, was rebuilt for one of the other chief
farms by the Howell family about 1780. (fn. 66) Its southfacing main range, of 3 bays and 2½ storeys, is rubblebuilt but was evidently intended to be rendered, and has
ashlar dressings including rusticated quoins and
keystones. A projecting back wing existed by 1816, (fn. 67)
when the house contained two large parlours with
sashed windows and marble chimney pieces, presumably separated, as later, by a central staircase; there were
four bedrooms and four attics, cellars, and a large
kitchen, dairy, and brewhouse, presumably at the rear. (fn. 68)
The ground-floor south windows were enlarged to three
lights perhaps by that date. An adjoining farmhouse to
the east, absorbed into the holding during the 18th
century, was converted into cottages and outbuildings. (fn. 69)
Other houses built or rebuilt during the 18th century
included the later New Inn just over the Hailey
boundary, which bears a datestone F/JH 1783 probably
for members of the Fawdrey family; (fn. 70) a range at right
angles was extended in 1977. (fn. 71) The Lamb Inn in Crawley
village, apparently of 17th-century origin, (fn. 72) bears a
datestone TM 1791 on a northwards extension along the
street, built probably by Thomas Minday or Munday
who sublet the premises to licensees. (fn. 73) Fir Tree House
east of Dry Lane, a small two-storeyed house of three
bays, was built or rebuilt in the early 19th century with
an open pedimented stone hood over the central
doorway, (fn. 74) perhaps for the fuller Richard Smith or his
son John (both d. 1827). (fn. 75)
Inclosure in the mid 1790s (fn. 76) at first prompted little
new building, though homesteads at the outlying Breach
and Showells barns each included labourers' cottages by
the 1840s, (fn. 77) and New Found Out Farm at Whiteoak
green, an L-shaped, two-storeyed house of coursed
stone with a symmetrical three-bay front, was built after
the green's inclosure in 1853. (fn. 78) Chasewood Farm,
adjoining Akeman Street in the midst of former woodland, was built as a model farmstead for the duke of
Marlborough about 1873, to designs by the Oxford
architect William Wilkinson (Fig. 61); (fn. 79) the house,
two-storeyed with attics, is of locally dug stone and
Welsh slate, with brick dressings and chimney stacks.
Farm buildings to the west, constructed of the same
materials, included a large square covered yard, with
surrounding cattle, horse, and pig sheds, a fowl house,
and a barn, most of which remained in 1999. Following
an abortive sale of the Crawley estate in 1886 (fn. 80) the duke
also spent considerable sums rebuilding and improving
existing farmsteads: around 1888–90 new stone and
tiled cottages (later a farmhouse) were built at Showells
Farm, new buildings were erected at Breach Farm, and
derelict cottages and outbuildings east of Crawley Farm
were replaced with a new farmstead. (fn. 81) Extensive new
industrial buildings were added at Crawley Mill from
about the same period by the Witney blanketmanufacturers W. Smith & Co. (fn. 82) The only new institutional building was a small Anglican chapel and schoolroom near Uphill Farm, built in 1837; an outbuilding
east of Crawley Farm was converted into a nonconformist chapel about 1820, but was demolished with
other farm buildings about 1890. (fn. 83) The College, a cottage
row on the road leading northwards from the village,
was so called by 1876, but is not known to have fulfilled
any educational function; possibly the name was meant
ironically. (fn. 84)
61. Chasewood Farm, as designed by William Wilkinson in 1874.
During the 20th century there was little new building,
exceptions including a roughcast farmhouse at Showells
Farm, erected after 1920, and various new mill buildings. Broken Hatch Farm on Porkers Road and Crawley
Hill Farm on Foxburrow Lane, just over the ancient
township boundary, were both built in the later 20th
century, (fn. 85) the former in traditional Cotswold style with
hoodmoulds over the windows, and the latter, a large
L-shaped house of stone with hipped slated roofs,
dormers, and a projecting gable, in an eclectic vernacular
style. A few buildings, including the Lamb Inn, were
extended, and barns east of Crawley Farm and north of
Manor Farm were converted into houses. By 1942 most
of the chief farms had mains water, and some but not all
houses had electricity by the 1950s. (fn. 86) A war memorial
cross, erected on a small green at the intersection of the
chief roads into Crawley about 1920, received a new
head in 1999, the original having been missing for some
years. (fn. 87)
Inns, Clubs, and Festivities
The Ball, licensed possibly by the 1750s, seems to have
been a forerunner of the Lamb, which was so called from
the 1780s and occupied its present site in Crawley village
by the early 19th century. (fn. 88) In 1770 the Ball's licensee was
prosecuted for selling beer in unstamped vessels. (fn. 89) Sometimes a second house was licensed in the 1750s and
1760s, and the Swan in the 1780s, but usually there was
only one public house. (fn. 90) The Lamb was acquired in the
later 19th century by Hunt Edmunds Brewery of
Banbury, (fn. 91) and remained open in 2003. The New Inn,
opened in a farmhouse on Foxburrow Lane before 1871,
was acquired in 1926 by Clinch and Co. of Witney, (fn. 92) and
remained open as the Crawley Inn in 2003. No friendly
societies are known, though a men's social club was
mentioned in the early 20th century. (fn. 93)
In the early 18th century Crawley feast was celebrated
with Witney and Hailey feasts around 10–11
September. (fn. 94) Crawley inhabitants also participated in
the annual Whitsuntide hunt in Chase woods and
Wychwood Forest, established probably by the late 16th
century but suppressed in the 1850s. (fn. 95)
Airfield
Akeman Street airfield, straddling the Roman road in the
the township's northern part, was established in 1940 as
a relief landing ground for training units based at Brize
Norton and, later, at Little Rissington (Glos.); it
comprised a grass landing strip surrounded by an oval
concrete perimeter track. Though closed in 1945 it was
occasionally used later by private light aircraft and crop
sprayers. (fn. 96)