ESTATES
Like the rest of Witney parish Hailey township formed
part of Witney manor. (fn. 1) During the 16th century and
early 17th several large copyhold estates were formed,
chiefly from inclosed assart; a few became centred on
new outlying farmhouses, and by the late 18th century
were effectively freehold. (fn. 2)
University Farm Estate
An estate centred on University Farm, near Hailey
village's southern end, originated in a grant by the
Witney fuller and woolman William Martin or Bishop,
who in 1540 gave to University College, Oxford, a freehold yardland (around 20–25 a.), two small closes (4 a.),
and an adjacent assart-close of 14 a. held by copy. (fn. 3) The
college, which in the 1590s briefly held another 60 a. of
assart from Witney manor, (fn. 4) leased the estate to local
farmers and gentry, some of whom presumably sublet
it. (fn. 5) By the 1740s, when let to Thomas Godfrey of
Milton-under-Wychwood, it seems to have been occupied with a copyhold of 3 yardlands, which was surrendered to the college with the other copyhold close in
1757 when Godfrey's son failed to pay off a mortgage. (fn. 6)
In 1758 the college estate comprised around 88 a.,
including 60 a. of open-field arable and meadow, (fn. 7) and
the acreage remained similar after inclosure in 1824. (fn. 8)
From the mid 18th century the estate was let to tenant
farmers and was sold to the tenant in 1920. (fn. 9)
No house was mentioned before 1742, when
Godfrey's 3 yardlands included a house with 3 adjacent
closes. (fn. 10) Presumably that was the house on the site of
University Farm occupied with the holding in 1758, set
back from the road and aligned west-east, with a barn or
outbuilding projecting northwards from its east end. A
second barn stood on a detached site some 100yd. to the
south at Foxburrow cross. (fn. 11) In 1805 the house was old
and decayed, and the tenant was excused from
rebuilding should it collapse during his 21-year lease. (fn. 12) A
cottage and two-acre close to its south was bought from
Samuel Shuffrey in 1830, linking the homestead with
Foxburrow barn, and the farmhouse may have been
rebuilt soon after, apparently at right angles to its predecessor. (fn. 13) A stone barn fronting the road was rebuilt in
1832. (fn. 14) In 1878 the house, of stone and slate, was 'small
but comfortable', with an adjacent barn and other agricultural buildings; (fn. 15) by 1937 it was tiled, and included a
drawing and dining room with 3 first-floor and 2
attic-bedrooms. (fn. 16) The buildings were separated from the
farmland in the late 20th century; Foxburrow barn was
converted into a house in 1980, (fn. 17) and the roadside barn
presumably about the same time.
Swanhall Farm Estate
A copyhold estate of some 150 a., centred on the
outlying Swanhall (formerly Swanhill) Farm, was built
up before 1609 by the gentleman-farmer Robert Yate (d.
c. 1640), related to the Yates of Standlake; he was
succeeded by his son John (d. 1658), who held additional open-field land, by John's daughter Abigail and
her husband John White (d. 1701), and by their sons
Sampson (d. 1708) and John (d. 1712), whose nephew
John Ashworth, with his mother Mary, sold it in 1738 to
Sir George Fettiplace (d. 1746). (fn. 18) During the later 18th
century the estate was variously owned by the Fettiplaces
and their relatives the Lacys, owners from 1763 of
Eynsham manor, with which it descended to Robert
Langford (d. 1785) and the Duberley family; in the 19th
century it was owned by the Waines and (later) the
Clinches, (fn. 19) and from 1879 by James Mason (d. 1903) of
Eynsham Hall, who before the early 20th century accumulated over 500 a. in Hailey and New Yatt. (fn. 20) The Yates
and Whites resided, but from the earlier 18th century
both house and land were let to tenant farmers, forming
in the 1790s part of a farm of over 300 a., (fn. 21) and in the
earlier 20th century they were sold to the tenant. (fn. 22) The
house remained a farmhouse in 1999.
72. Swanhall Farm, Hailey, from the south-west.
Robert Yate owned a cockloft and barn at 'Swanell' in
1639, (fn. 23) and two bays of the existing house's rear (north)
wing, which retain a massive beam with lamb's tongue
stops, appear to be early 17th-century. It is not certain,
however, whether the house then occupied by Yate,
which included a hall, parlour, kitchen, numerous
outbuildings, and at least nine upper rooms, stood on
that site or another, perhaps in Poffley End. (fn. 24) The present
rubble-built main range (Fig. 72), (fn. 25) south-facing and
forming an L with the rear wing, was built perhaps about
1670 for John and Abigail White. (fn. 26) It is single-pile, of five
bays and two storeys plus attics, and on the two main
floors probably originally had windows with stone
cross-mullions and transoms; its slightly later appearance results from the timber modillion cornice, timber
cross-casements, and gabled dormers installed before
the later 19th century. (fn. 27) Two rooms on each floor flank a
narrow well-staircase with thick balusters and pendants.
A triangular hood over the central doorway in 1861 was
replaced by a flat hood during the 20th century. (fn. 28) An
18th-century rubble-built barn of five bays, with a
central threshing floor, survives to the south-east.
Middlefield Farm Estate
An estate centred on Middlefield Farm, around 135 a. in
the 1790s, (fn. 29) was acquired before 1646 by John Clarke,
who in 1652 transferred it to his son, John. (fn. 30) He or
another John Clarke, a physician, lived at Middlefield at
his death in 1707. (fn. 31) Later owners included John Harris in
the 1730s, from the 1760s the Wright family, and from
the early 19th century their relatives the Birds, who in
1872 sold it to their tenant Henry Calcutt. In 1885 it was
acquired by the Marriotts of Witney, and was made freehold in 1899. (fn. 32) The house, (fn. 33) west of New Yatt road, incorporates two bays of an earlier 17th-century two-storeyed
house with ovolo-moulded mullioned windows,
extended southwards in the mid 17th century by a gabled
three-storeyed bay with a large stack, associated newel
stair, and entrance; the bay has windows one above the
other, progressing from four-light on the ground floor to
three-light in the attic. Presumably the work was carried
out by John Clarke, whose initials, with the date 1656,
appear on a rectangular dovecot to the south-east, (fn. 34) and
in 1665 the house was taxed on 5 hearths. (fn. 35) From around
1810 it was a tenanted farmhouse, (fn. 36) and during the 19th
century it was again extended southwards, the east front
and north end being refenestrated apparently before
1861. (fn. 37) The house was reroofed with Stonesfield slate
about 1950, (fn. 38) and was separated from its farmland and
from agricultural buildings to the north in the later 20th
century. A three-storey rubble-built weaving shed to the
west, with the inscription JW 1781 for John Wright (d. c.
1795), (fn. 39) presumably replaced weaving shops attached to
the copyhold by 1652. (fn. 40)
Home Farm, New Yatt
An estate of 120–150 a. in New Yatt, later centred on
Home Farm, was owned from the late 16th century by
the Wenmans of Caswell House in Curbridge, passing in
1800 to their heir Sophia Wykeham, in 1824 (by sale) to
George Richards, vicar of Bampton, (fn. 41) and in the late
19th century to James Mason of Eynsham Hall. (fn. 42) Home
Farm, apparently built for the estate in the early 18th
century on assart land fronting the heath, is a long,
three-bay, two-storeyed house of limestone rubble, with
an attic lit by roof dormers, and an attached barn and
granary. (fn. 43) A red-brick service- and dairy-wing are 19th-century. It remained a tenanted farmhouse until the late
19th century, when it was occupied by a farm bailiff. (fn. 44)
Burycroft Farm
A small area of inclosed demesne arable by the river
Windrush, called Inland and (later) Burycroft or
Berrycroft, remained a separate leasehold estate from the
Middle Ages, distinct from the township's copyholds. (fn. 45)
In the 15th century, reckoned at 40 a., it was let for 25s.
with meadows associated with a former fulling mill, (fn. 46)
and in the 16th century it was briefly held with
Curbridge farm. (fn. 47) In the 1580s Thomas Box acquired it
in connection with building New Mill, with which it
descended until the 1730s; (fn. 48) thereafter it was separately
leased and, usually, sublet to local farmers. (fn. 49) Like
Curbridge farm it was excluded from the sale of Witney
manor in 1862, and in 1890 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold it to the tenant as a discrete 49-a. farm. (fn. 50) A
barn, stable, and summer house for the holding existed
by 1785, and about 1842 the non-resident lessee E. H.
Butler rebuilt the farmhouse. (fn. 51)