CHURCH
Origins and Status
From the Middle Ages to the mid 18th century Hailey
inhabitants attended Witney church, an arrangement
credibly claimed in 1761 to be 'incommodious and
sometimes almost impracticable'. (fn. 1) The same year a
chapel serving both Hailey and Crawley was built in
Hailey village, on copyhold land given by the duke of
Marlborough and his tenant; it was served by a perpetual
curate appointed by the rector of Witney, and had rights
of baptism and burial but not of marriage. (fn. 2) A dependent
chapel was built at Crawley in 1837, (fn. 3) and in 1854 the
two townships (excluding Woodgreen and West End)
became an independent parish named Hailey-cumCrawley, served by a perpetual curate who was later
styled vicar. The advowson was vested in the bishop of
Oxford, the Crown nominating by lapse in 1937 and the
archbishop of Canterbury in 1957. (fn. 4) Holy Trinity
church at Woodgreen, built within Hailey chapelry in
1848–9 but served from Witney, was transferred to
Witney parish in 1854, and is treated above; (fn. 5) the original chapel at Hailey was replaced in 1869 by a larger
building on a nearby site. (fn. 6)
In 1953 Hailey-cum-Crawley's eastern part, including
New Yatt, was transferred to North Leigh, (fn. 7) and from
1982 the rest was reunited with Witney and was served by
a team ministry. Hailey chapel retained baptismal and
burial rights, together with the right granted in 1854 to
publish banns and solemnize marriages. (fn. 8) The chapel at
Crawley was closed in 1984. (fn. 9)
75. Hailey: the chapel of St John the Evangelist (demolished c. 1868) in 1860.
Endowment
The original endowment comprised only the
chapelyard, but about 1763 some 52 a. at Chipping
Norton was bought using a benefaction from the rector
of Witney and augmentations from Queen Anne's
Bounty, supplemented by the duke of Marlborough. (fn. 10)
Five further Bounty augmentations totalling £2,000,
some by lot and others to meet benefactions, followed
between 1772 and 1842. (fn. 11) Part was used before 1814 to
acquire 4 a. in Hailey, for which 8 a. was awarded at
inclosure in 1824, (fn. 12) and the Hailey land was increased to
40 a. using Bounty money about 1832. (fn. 13) A payment of £3
9s. and an annual rent-charge of 4s. 3d. were awarded at
the commons' inclosure in 1853, and tithe-rents from
Crawley were added at the creation of the new ecclesiastical parish in 1854, those from Hailey remaining with
the rector of Witney. (fn. 14) In 1893 net income was £214
including tithe-rents (£160), glebe-rents (£134), and
£24 from stock held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, presumably representing Bounty augmentations; (fn. 15) in 1935, when some of the Chipping Norton land
had been sold, net income was £342. (fn. 16) Despite the
various augmentations the endowment remained inadequate, however, and in 1937 the bishop was unable to
find an incumbent willing to serve two churches on so
small a revenue. (fn. 17)
Vicarage House
Clergy serving the new chapel lived in Witney until
about 1842 (fn. 18) when a large two-storeyed house of stone
and slate, designed by the then incumbent's brotherin-law William Wilkinson, was built on glebe immediately south-west of the original chapel, apparently at the
incumbent's own cost. Alterations and additions, also by
Wilkinson, were funded by mortgage in 1854. (fn. 19) In 1957
the house was subdivided and a part was let; (fn. 20) it was sold
in 1981, and a house in Witney was allocated to the vicar
of the new team ministry the following year. (fn. 21) In 2000
the team vicar serving Hailey and Crawley lived in a
vicarage house acquired in 1987 in the Thorney Leys
estate in west Witney, where he also ministered. (fn. 22)
Pastoral Care and Religious Life
George Seele (incumbent 1762–c. 1810) and John Hyde
(1810–38) (fn. 23) served the chapel usually with help from
non-resident curates, holding a single Sunday service
with sermon, additional services on Good Friday and at
Christmas, and prayers at the main festivals; a Sunday
school existed from the 1760s, and children were
catechized. In 1834 there were a midweek evening
lecture and prayers 'to accommodate the labouring
population'. The sacrament was administered three
times a year in the later 18th century and four times by
1811, an extra Sunday service being held on those days
by 1817. There were no refusers in 1771, though the
'lowest sort' did not attend 'as constantly as they ought';
afternoon congregations in 1834 allegedly averaged
250–300, the chapel's full capacity following enlargement, though by then Nonconformity was increasing.
Many West End inhabitants apparently attended Witney
church, which was nearer. (fn. 24) Hyde's local influence was
increased by his role as a particularly active JP, and he
regularly attended Witney vestry meetings. (fn. 25)
George Crabb Rolfe (incumbent 1838–1893), a
former curate of Witney much respected by the bishop,
resided constantly from 1842, serving also as chaplain to
Witney poor-law union, and building both the vicarage
house and the new church. For much of his incumbency
he served the cure alone, holding alternate morning and
afternoon services at Hailey and Crawley, with full
Friday and Wednesday services in Lent. During the
1870s, when assisted by a curate, he held four Sunday
services at Hailey and a weekly communion, increased
from eight communions a year in 1854. The number of
communicants, formerly under 20, reached 65 in 1878.
Congregations, averaging 280 in 1854 and 220 in 1866,
were reckoned 'fair' and rose slightly following the
opening of the new church in 1869, though Rolfe
lamented the lure of the public house, and estimated in
1875 that perhaps a third of the population were habitually absent. A slight fall in attendance in the late 1880s
was attributed to agricultural distress, Nonconformity,
and a 'wave of democracy'. The design of the new church
suggests High Church sympathies, though Rolfe, while
characterising local Wesleyans as 'aloof', nevertheless
visited their sick. Tracts and religious books were circulated in the 1870s through the village library, and Rolfe
catechized both in the school and after services. (fn. 26) A
Temperance Society established in 1880, with Rolfe as
chairman, seems to have foundered after initial enthusiasm. (fn. 27)
Rolfe's successor Herbert Wilson continued to serve
the cure alone, (fn. 28) and all 20th-century incumbents
resided, several serving for long periods. (fn. 29) A choir
mentioned in 1866 continued in the later 20th century. (fn. 30)
Following the reunification with Witney in 1982, Hailey
was served at first on an ad hoc basis by members of the
team ministry, being grouped until 1993 with Holy
Trinity, Woodgreen. Thereafter it was served by a team
vicar combining ministry in Hailey and Crawley with
responsibility for new housing estates in west Witney. (fn. 31)
Church Architecture
The 18th-century chapel of St John the Evangelist, so
called from its foundation, (fn. 32) stood south of Hailey's main
street. (fn. 33) The building (Fig. 75), of stone rubble and slate,
had a small chancel or apse, a nave, and a polygonal west
tower surmounted by an open bellcote in the form of a
cupola; (fn. 34) it was repaired and enlarged about 1830 when
an aisle or transept was added, the cost met by subscription and by the Incorporated Society. (fn. 35) In the earlier
19th century the nave north wall had two pointed
windows with intersecting tracery, flanking a blocked
round-headed doorway; a west doorway with a fanlight
led into the tower, which had a clock on its north side.
Fittings included a surviving stone font with a
gadrooned bowl on a baluster stem, later transferred to
the new church, (fn. 36) and a bell may have been given or
recast in 1812. (fn. 37) The alterations of 1830 reportedly
increased accommodation by 180, (fn. 38) though estimates of
the chapel's capacity both before and after enlargement
varied greatly and in 1866 only 208 sittings (183 of them
unfree) were reported, excluding those in a gallery. (fn. 39) The
building was said then to be 'ugly, ill-pewed and very
dilapidated'. (fn. 40) An extension to the chapelyard was
acquired in 1810 and consecrated in 1827. (fn. 41)
In 1866 it was decided to build a new church on a
close to the south-east, given reportedly by the incumbent George Crabb Rolfe. (fn. 42) The building-cost was met
chiefly by the Diocesan Church Building Society and
from subscriptions, to which some non-resident landowners refused to contribute. The architect was the
incumbent's son Clapton Crabb Rolfe, whose plans,
dubbed 'needlessly eccentric' by the diocesan architect,
were modified at his insistence. Work began in 1868 and
the church was consecrated in 1869. (fn. 43) The old building
was demolished except for a small part of the south and
west walls, which, with surrounding gravestones,
remained within the former churchyard in 1999.
Responsibility for the site was transferred to the parish
council in 1958. (fn. 44)
76. Hailey: the chapel of St John the Evangelist, built 1868–9.
The church, (fn. 45) of squared limestone with ashlar quoins
and dressings and originally with stone-slated roofs, is
an idiosyncratic version of the French Gothic style, with
prominent buttresses (Fig. 76). It has a chancel, nave,
and narrow north aisle under one roof covering, north
and south porches, and a Poitevin-style north-west bell
turret. The nave has trefoiled north lancets and
three-light south windows, and the chancel sexfoiled
circular windows north and south. The chancel east and
south windows were enlarged from the original plans on
the diocesan architect's orders, though the chancel
remains 'mysteriously dark'. (fn. 46) The interior, including
fittings, is characterized by banded masonry; the
polychromy is richest in the chancel, which has red stone
nook-shafts with large foliate capitals to the east
window, similar grey wall-shafts on bulbous corbels, and
a roll-moulded chancel arch on banded grey stone
shafts. The north arcade has red stone columns with
white shaft-rings, waterholding bases, and moulded
capitals. Fittings, also by Rolfe, include a trefoiled
reredos with painted tympana and roundels, a large
pulpit carved with figures of the Evangelists, a font of
quatrefoil section, and gasoliers with ornate ironwork.
Pews gradually replaced chairs between the 1880s and
1912, and the earlier font was moved into the church
from the vicarage garden in 1907. (fn. 47) A single-manual
organ was installed before 1904. (fn. 48) Glass in the chancel
north and south windows, depicting symbols of the
Evangelists, may be of 1868; memorial glass includes a
west window light to George Crabb Rolfe by Clayton and
Bell, installed in 1895, a three-light east window to John
Hyde apparently also by Clayton and Bell, and north
aisle windows by John Powell and Sons of London and
others, installed between 1903 and 1952. Heating was
renewed in 1939 and 1960 and the church was electrified
in 1944 and re-roofed in 1980, reusing or replacing
Stonesfield slates. The churchyard was extended in
1927 (fn. 49) and a new burial ground adjoining the original
chapel-site to the north-west was consecrated in 1998,
when the churchyard was nearly full. (fn. 50)
The single bell, hung for chiming, dates possibly from
1868. (fn. 51) The plate includes a mid 18th-century silver
paten and chalice given by Simon Wisdom in 1772, and
a silver paten of 1708 given by John Hyde in 1826. (fn. 52)
Separate registers begin in 1797. (fn. 53)
NONCONFORMITY
Roman Catholicism
The wife and possibly a daughter of John Hampshire of
Crawley were fined for recusancy in the 1620s, when
they were twice said to be 'of Hailey', (fn. 54) and in the 1640s
and 1650s one of the recusant More family of Lower
Haddon (in Bampton parish) also lived in Hailey. (fn. 55)
During the alleged Popish Plot of 1679 John White (d.
1701) of Swanhall Farm was removed from the
Commission of the Peace for being 'too malapert', but
there is no evidence that he was a Roman Catholic, (fn. 56) and
no papists were reported in the parish in 1676. (fn. 57) A
Woodstock Roman Catholic owned land at Hailey in
1759, (fn. 58) but no other Roman Catholicism in the township
is recorded.
Protestant Nonconformity
Friends (Quakers)
A Friends' meeting house at Woodgreen, built by
Witney Quakers about 1676, is discussed above. (fn. 59) Several
Hailey people, chiefly textile-workers and tradesmen,
were noted as members from the 1690s to the early 18th
century, (fn. 60) but no resident Dissenters were reported in
Hailey during the later 18th century (fn. 61) and there seems to
have been little further Quaker activity in the township
until the 1890s, when cottage meetings were established
at Hailey Fields. (fn. 62) A few Hailey members in the earlier
20th century included Charles Buckingham of
Middlefield Farm, a stalwart of the Witney meeting. (fn. 63)
Wesleyan Methodists
Four houses licensed for meetings between 1806 and
1815 belonged probably to Wesleyan Methodists, by
then the dominant Nonconformist group in Witney: a
few Methodists were reported in Hailey from 1811, and
in 1823, when they attended Witney chapel, the curate
admitted that their number was increasing. (fn. 64) A
Wesleyan meeting house licensed in 1824 was served in
1851 from Witney, and on Census Sunday had morning
and evening congregations of 30 and 50, with Sunday
school attendance of 33. (fn. 65) Its site, possibly near Breach
Farm, is not known, and though used exclusively as a
chapel and said to have been newly built in 1825, it may
have been only a former cottage or outbuilding fitted up
at that date. (fn. 66) In 1853 it was replaced by a plain
stone-built chapel (later Pennygreen Cottage) at Poffley
End, with pointed side windows, a pointed doorway in
the east gable end, and possibly a gallery, (fn. 67) giving a
capacity in 1854 of around 60. (fn. 68) The impetus came
chiefly from Witney Methodists and from the vigorous
Witney minister Peter Horton, who 'greatly improved
the cause' at Hailey during his time on the circuit. (fn. 69)
Membership, usually around 9–11 during the 1840s
and 10–15 during the 1850s, reached over 40 in 1860,
but thereafter fell to under 10 by the late 1870s, perhaps
in response to George Crabb Rolfe's conscientious
Anglican presence in the new parish of Hailey-cumCrawley. (fn. 70) In 1866 Rolfe estimated that around 80
parishioners attended the Wesleyan or Primitive Methodist chapels exclusively, with some poorer inhabitants
attending both church and chapel, and in 1878 about 30
families were acknowledged to be Dissenters. (fn. 71) From the
1890s Wesleyan membership at Hailey again exceeded
20, (fn. 72) and in 1908 a new chapel and Sunday school were
built at the southern end of Middletown as part of a
general expansion of the circuit, on the initiative of the
Witney pastor Arthur Martin. The new building,
designed by W. J. Fyfield of Witney in 'very mixed styles',
is of stone, with a squat, square tower capped by a shingled broach-spire over the porch, a large, arched west
window with intersecting tracery, and a south window
with stone mullions and transom. (fn. 73) The old chapel was
converted to cottages. (fn. 74) In 1922 attendance at Hailey
chapel was 'very poor', (fn. 75) though membership remained
above 20 both then and following the Methodist union
of 1932. There were 19 members in 1964, shortly after
the Witney and Faringdon circuits merged, but about
1970 the chapel closed and became a private house. (fn. 76)
Primitive Methodists
Primitive Methodists established a group at New Yatt
about 1826, attached to the recently formed Witney
circuit. (fn. 77) An agricultural labourer's house there was
licensed in 1827, (fn. 78) and in 1827–8 membership rose from
10 to 25, (fn. 79) probably mostly labourers. A chapel with 64
free sittings was built in 1843; afternoon attendance on
Census Sunday in 1851 was 22, the return being signed
by another agricultural labourer. (fn. 80) By 1863 the chapel
was too small, and the following year a new stone-built
chapel was built on former common land at New Yatt
immediately south of the main road, a Sunday school
being established at the same time. (fn. 81) In 1900 the chapel
had 100 sittings and average attendance was 80,
although there were only 19 members. (fn. 82) A new stone
chapel with 120 sittings was built immediately to the east
in 1912, the older building being used thenceforth for
the Sunday school and for meetings. (fn. 83) Attendance fell
from 100 to around 30 by 1932, (fn. 84) when the society
became part of the United Methodist Church; by the
1950s membership was only three, and about 1970 the
chapel closed and became a house. The adjoining
schoolroom was demolished before 1975. (fn. 85)