Church
The Norman doorway which survived until 1802 shows that there was a church
at Bladon by the 12th century. (fn. 54) It seems to have
been the centre of the later Woodstock rural
deanery until the mid 13th century. (fn. 55) In 1291,
and probably much earlier, the parish included
the township of Hensington and the borough of
New Woodstock. (fn. 56) Despite attempts, notably in
the 17th century, the early 19th, and in the
1930s to separate Woodstock from Bladon, (fn. 57) the
borough church remained a chapel of ease. The
removal of the centre of the rural deanery to
Woodstock in the mid 13th century suggests
that by then the borough church was already the
ecclesiastical centre of the parish, and from
perhaps as early as 1256 the incumbent at Bladon was sometimes called rector of Woodstock.
After 1686, when a rectory house was built in
Woodstock, the rectors usually lived in the
borough. (fn. 58) The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1877 when the rector took over formal
responsibility for Old Woodstock, technically a
hamlet of Wootton parish but effectively a
suburb of Woodstock: the built-up area (c. 51 a.)
was transferred from Wootton, together with
land (354 a. from Dornford and Hordley farms)
yielding a tithe rent-charge of £100. In 1951
more land near Old Woodstock (the area south
of Akeman Street, between the Glyme and the
wall of Blenheim Park) was transferred from
Wootton to Bladon, and in 1953 a small area
straddling the Oxford-Woodstock road in Kidlington civil parish was transferred from Shipton-on-Cherwell ecclesiastical parish to Bladon. (fn. 59)
In 1241 the living was a rectory in the king's
gift, (fn. 60) and the advowson descended with the
manor thereafter. The king or his tenant presented regularly, except in 1621 when John
Whitton of Hensington had received a grant of
the next presentation from the Prince of Wales,
later Charles I. (fn. 61) The advowson passed with the
manor to John Churchill, duke of Marlborough,
in 1705; the dukes presented thereafter, except
in 1840 when John Benbow presented after a
dispute with the duke, and in 1929 when the
turn passed to Oxford University because the
duke was a Roman Catholic. (fn. 62)
The living was said to be worth 30 marks in
1241, but was valued at only £7 in 1254 and £10
in 1291; (fn. 63) in 1535 it was valued at £16 11s. (fn. 64) By
the early 17th century its value had apparently
risen to £80, and in 1753 it was said to be worth
£130 a year. (fn. 65) The 2 yardlands of glebe were
exchanged at inclosure in 1767 for 53 a., and at
the same time the rector received 113a. for the
rectorial tithe of Bladon township. (fn. 66) The whole
allotment, with the tithe of Hensington, was
leased to the duke of Marlborough from 1767
for £190 a year, a rent raised in 1802 to £274
16s. (fn. 67) In 1806 the rector also received tithe from
Burleigh wood (24 a.), Burleigh meadow (2 1/2 a.),
and Woodstock borough, besides an offering of
6d. a year from every family in the parish. (fn. 68)
None of those payments was recorded again,
and they were probably already of little value
and difficult to collect. In 1831 the living was
worth £329 net, but despite the commutation of
the tithe of Hensington for a rent charge of £237
in 1847, its value was stated to be only £307 in
1851; in 1862, however, it was estimated at
between £400 and £500. (fn. 69) When Old Woodstock was transferred to Bladon in 1877 the
value of the living was increased to c. £530. (fn. 70)
The glebe farm was sold c. 1920. (fn. 71)
Two thirds of the tithe of the d'Oilly demesne
in Hensington was given to the church of St.
George in the Castle, Oxford, by Robert d'Oilly
or his successors, and passed, with the rest of
that church's endowments, to Oseney abbey. (fn. 72)
The tithe was valued at 4s. in 1254, but its
collection proved difficult, and in 1413 the abbey agreed with the rector for its commutation
to a 5s. rent charge. (fn. 73) The 5s. was still paid in
1510, but had been lost by 1535. (fn. 74)
The original rectory house was in Bladon, and
in 1665 the rector was taxed on 6 hearths there, (fn. 75)
but in 1686 Bishop John Fell gave the mayor
and corporation of Woodstock a new house for
the rector in the borough, (fn. 76) and thereafter the
Bladon house was used as the glebe farmhouse.
It was rebuilt c. 1770, as a large stone house 33
ft. by 39 ft. with a slate roof. (fn. 77) The house
survived, as a private house, in 1985.
Ralph de Hauvill, rector in 1241, (fn. 78) was presumably a relation of Geoffrey de Hauvill who
held the manor. Most other 13th- and early
14th-century rectors were royal clerks, like John
of London, who held the living for over 50 years
from 1252 to 1306 and was also farmer of the
manor, (fn. 79) or John of Hanborough, rector
1324-49, who was keeper of the king's works at
Woodstock in. 1334. (fn. 80) Although many 14th-
century rectors resigned or exchanged the living
after only a few years, there were two long
incumbencies: John of Hanborough died as rector after 25 years, having failed twice to carry
out an exchange and John Watts served from
1369 to 1409. (fn. 81)
In 1415 there was a Lollard in Bladon and
another in Woodstock. (fn. 82) Several 15th- and early
16th-century rectors were members of Oxford
university and probably non-resident; some, like
William Riley, instituted in 1409, were also
pluralists. (fn. 83) Nicholas Newton, rector 1444-59,
may have been the man of that name who was
rector of Great Haseley and principal of an
academic hall. (fn. 84) His successor, Philip Morgan,
was certainly a member of the university, citing
a Woodstock man to the chancellor's court for
debt in 1466 and 1467. (fn. 85) In 1520 the rector,
another graduate, was non-resident and had
failed to provide a proper curate, leaving the
service of the church to a friar; by 1526, however, there was a curate. (fn. 86) Leonard Hutchinson,
rector 1534-41, was a non-resident pluralist and
master of University College, Oxford, who in
1540 admitted that he had preached only twice
and said mass only once since his induction.
Like his predecessor he had failed to provide a
suitable curate, although he claimed to have sent
various preachers to declare the gospel. (fn. 87)
Lands were given during the Middle Ages for
an obit, a lamp, and a light in the church. They
included the lamp acre in Hensington, held by
the churchwardens in 1512, and perhaps also the
acre in Hensington held in 1279 by the rector of
the gift of Eustace the franklin. (fn. 88)
The rector from 1546 to 1570 was Robert
Kirkby, possibly the Oxford graduate of that
name who had been a monk at St. Mary's abbey,
York. (fn. 89) Bladon and Hensington wills made in
1550, 1557, and 1559 had moderate Catholic
declarations of faith, but one of them was witnessed not by Kirkby but by Martin Cave, a
curate. (fn. 90) Kirkby was also rector of Stonesfield,
where he farmed the glebe, as he did at Bladon;
he was buried at Bladon where he seems to have
lived, at least at the end of his life. (fn. 91) Richard
Harris, rector 1577-1610, held Somerton in
plurality from c. 1596; (fn. 92) he employed a curate
for Woodstock, Anthony Noble, who wrote or
witnessed a Hensington will in 1596 and a
Bladon one in 1602. Both those wills and others
made in 1607 and 1611 start with long Protestant declarations of faith. (fn. 93) Edward Evans,
rector 1610-21, may have been the 'noted
preacher' of that name in the university. (fn. 94)
From 1625 to 1641 the living was held by the
pluralist John Prideaux, rector of Exeter College
and regius professor of divinity, later bishop of
Worcester. He apparently preached at Bladon or
Woodstock once a quarter, but employed a
curate the rest of the time. In 1633 the curate
claimed to preach every third week, although he
admitted that at harvest time there had been no
sermon for six weeks, an omission which suggests that he farmed the glebe. (fn. 95) Until c. 1650
Bladon was served by rectors or curates with
royalist and Anglican sympathies; a parishioner's will made in 1648 contains an exceptionally long declaration of faith, largely taken from
the Prayer Book. (fn. 96) Francis James, inducted in
1648 on the orders of the House of Lords, was
evicted in 1649 and lived 'poor and bare' until
1660 when he petitioned for the restoration of
the living. (fn. 97) Robert Ferrers, appointed late in
1649, seems to have served the cure until 1655
or later. (fn. 98)
After the Restoration a succession of rectors
who were academic pluralists, visiting the parish
occasionally but usually leaving it to the care of
curates, (fn. 99) included Henry Savage, 1662-72, and
Thomas Good, 1672-8, masters of Balliol College, and Thomas Marshall, 1678-83, rector of
Lincoln College. (fn. 1) Matthew Griffiths, rector of a
London church, who was buried, at Lewis Napper's expense, in the Hensington aisle at Bladon
in 1665, may have acted as curate; he is said to
have died of a seizure caused by excitement
while urging his congregation to 'study to be
quiet and follow your own business'. (fn. 2) In 1673
the churchwardens spent 6d. going to Oxford to
get a minister. (fn. 3) Humphrey Prideaux, rector
1683-6, although resident at Christ Church,
Oxford, served Bladon and Woodstock himself,
with the assistance of a curate who lived in
Woodstock. Prideaux supervised the building of
the new house for the rector in Woodstock. (fn. 4)
Robert Cocks, rector 1715-35, preached fairly
frequently at Bladon between 1716 and 1718,
repeating the same sermon several times. (fn. 5)
Although most 18th- and 19th-century rectors paid some attention to Bladon, usually
taking a few services and signing the churchwardens' accounts, the major part of their time was
given to Woodstock, where some, such as Benjamin Holloway the younger, 1739-77, William
Mavor, 1810-40, and Joseph Bowles, 1840-7
were much involved in town life and politics. (fn. 6)
From 1774 or earlier there was only one Sunday
service at Bladon, attended in 1787 by only c. 30
people but by 80-100 in 1831. (fn. 7) Communion
services there were reduced from 5 or 6 to only 3
or 4 a year in the course of the later 18th
century, but the number of communicants remained fairly steady at c. 20 until the 1830s
when it fell to 14-15, despite the presence of a
curate by 1831. (fn. 8)
In 1847 Bishop Samuel Wilberforce had to
investigate the 'shameful and indecorous performance of Divine Service' by the rector, Joseph
Bowles, in Bladon church; his fault was perhaps
the same as that of his successor, G. W. St.
John, who rushed through the Bladon service in
order to get to Woodstock for the service there;
St. John also altered the time of the Bladon
service from 2 p.m. to one less convenient for
the parishioners, and later in his incumbency
ceased to take any services at Bladon or Woodstock. (fn. 9) In 1854 he quarrelled with the parishioners over the cleaning of the chancel. (fn. 10) By
1851, however, St. John or his curate had increased the number of Sunday services at Bladon to two, attended by an average of 100 people
in the morning and 200 in the afternoon, out of a
total population of 484 in Bladon and 236 in
Hensington. (fn. 11) The relatively small congregations were later blamed on the prevalence of
dissent. In 1862 Bladon was served by a resident
curate, and by 1866 there was a monthly Communion service for c. 25 communicants, a number which rose to 36 in 1875. (fn. 12)
Under St. John's successor, Arthur Majendie,
1876-95, Bladon and Woodstock experienced
the revival in religious life characteristic of the
mid 19th century. Majendie employed two curates, one for Bladon and one for Woodstock; he
increased the number of Communion services at
Bladon to three a month, and then, by 1893, to
one a week; he was responsible for the virtual
rebuilding of the church in 1891. He also built a
church room or hall, the freehold of which was
conveyed to the parochial church council by his
daughter Miss D. Majendie in 1938. (fn. 13) Under his
successor, J. E. G. Farmer, some ill feeling was
caused in the village by the 'sacerdotalism' of
the high church curate J. A. Rivington, 1895-8,
which particularly annoyed the strong Methodist community. (fn. 14)
Relations between Bladon and Woodstock
have occasionally been strained in the 20th
century. In 1933 the need for the rector to work
at Bladon was described as 'a tremendous handicap to the work of the church', and the burial of
Sir Winston Churchill at Bladon in 1965, with
the consequent influx of money and visitors to
the church there, aggravated the difficulty resulting from the rector's decision to move the
curate from Bladon to Woodstock. (fn. 15) A curate's
house at Bladon was acquired on lease from the
duke of Marlborough in 1958, but was given up
in 1962. (fn. 16)
There was a chapel in Hensington by c. 1200,
and a fugitive took sanctuary there c. 1240. (fn. 17) By
the 16th century there were two chapels in
Hensington. One, dedicated to St. John, belonged to the Hospitallers, and, with its garden,
was held in 1512 by a hermit, John Glass; in
1546 Glass, no longer described as a hermit,
held the chapel and garden by copy of court
roll. (fn. 18) The other was a chapel of ease to Bladon
in 1530 and 1536. (fn. 19) In 1585 it was called St.
Nicholas's; earlier it may have been dedicated to
St. Thomas Becket, giving its name to the
nearby St. Thomas's Lane recorded in 1512, (fn. 20)
but, like St. Thomas's church, Oxford, suffering
a change of name at the Reformation. (fn. 21) The
chapel was disused by 1585, and thereafter the
inhabitants of Hensington were buried, and
presumably worshipped, at either Bladon or
Woodstock. (fn. 22)
The medieval church of ST. MARTIN, (fn. 23)
demolished in 1802, comprised a chancel with
north chapel, a clerestoried nave with south aisle
and porch, and a west tower; the south aisle was
separated from the nave by an arcade of three
bays. (fn. 24) A 12th-century outer doorway to the
south porch, presumably not in its original
position, was the oldest part of the fabric. The
15th-century windows in the south aisle and
south wall of the chancel were probably inserted
c. 1445 when the 'nave and belfry' were repaired
or rebuilt. (fn. 25) The clerestory was presumably
added at the same time. Two mid 16th-century
wills left money for the repair of Bladon church,
one of them for the lead. (fn. 26)
Minor repairs were carried out regularly in
the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1680 the rector,
Thomas Marshall, 'repaired and beautified' the
chancel, and in 1717 the parish made substantial
repairs to the north wall of the nave. (fn. 27) By 1802,
however, the church was in such a bad state that
plans for repair were abandoned in favour of a
complete rebuilding, and the medieval church
was demolished that year. The new church,
completed in 1804, comprised a small chancel
with a vestry room on its south side, a wide
nave, and a west tower. It was longer than the
medieval church. Most of the cost of the building was borne by the duke of Marlborough. (fn. 28)
The medieval font, possibly 12th-century,
seems to have been lost after 1813. (fn. 29) In 1891 the
church was restored under the direction of Sir
Arthur Blomfield. The chancel was completely
rebuilt, in 14th-century style, at the expense of
the rector, A. Majendie; the nave was remodelled in the same style, with two narrow aisles
with timber arcades, and a south porch; the
tower was refenestrated and given pinnacles. (fn. 30)
In 1893 Majendie gave a lych gate in memory of
his mother. (fn. 31) In 1937 a statue of St. Martin was
placed in a niche over the porch. (fn. 32)
The old church had a ring of three bells, of
1670, c. 1470, and 1629; they were not rehung in
the new church, but were recast with extra metal
at the Whitechapel foundry in 1883 to make a
new ring of six bells. (fn. 33) A silver chalice and
cover, recorded in 1664, had been lost by 1819
when the rector, William Mavor, gave a silver
communion cup and paten. (fn. 34)
The churchyard was extended northwards in
1902. (fn. 35) Immediately north of the tower are the
graves of members of the Spencer-Churchill
family, including those of Sir Winston Churchill
and his father Lord Randolph Churchill. The
wrought-iron gates in the north wall of the
churchyard were presented in 1965 by a group
of 15 Oxfordshire blacksmiths. (fn. 36)