WESTON-ON-THE-GREEN
In the 19th century the parish covered an area of
2,295 acres, but in 1932 a detached portion of Chesterton in which lay Weston Park farm was added to
it, increasing its area to 2,483 acres. The parish
measures some four miles from north to south, and
two miles from east to west at the widest point.
Akeman Street forms the northern boundary and
Gallows Brook most of the western boundary. Two
other streams rising near Akeman Street bound the
parish on the east. (fn. 1)
The northern third of the parish lies on the Cornbrash, and the Forest Marble is exposed in the valley
of the Gallows Brook in the north-west, but most of
the parish lies in the area of the Oxford Clay; (fn. 2) its
soil is clay and stonebrash. The ground slopes
slightly from north to south, being about 275 feet
above sea-level in the north and 200 feet in the south,
with a slight rise called Sandhill or Sainthill to the
south of the village. It is a well-watered area; besides
the streams on the boundaries others run south
through the parish. No woodland is recorded in
Domesday, but there was some in the 18th century,
and Great Spinney and Middleleys Spinney are
noted in 1848. (fn. 3) In 1955 there were several woods,
the largest being Weston Wood (48 a.) and Mead
Copse.
Two main roads cross the parish: the main road
from Oxford to Brackley, a busy highway from
medieval times, and the road from Oxford to
Bicester. The minor road to Bletchingdon was mentioned in 1766 when it was being repaired. (fn. 4)
It is possible that the original settlement at Weston
was named 'West tun', as it lay on the west side of an
ancient trackway and in the extreme west of the
parish. (fn. 5) It still lies on one side only of the OxfordBrackley road. Throughout its recorded history it
appears to have been a fair-sized village. There
were 37 taxable houses listed for the hearth tax of
1665: besides the big manor-house, the village had
13 substantial farm-houses with 4 or 3 hearths apiece. (fn. 6)
For the greater part of the 18th century there were
50 or so houses, including 8 farm-houses. (fn. 7) By 1811
there were 82 dwellings in the village, and by 1851
25 more had been built. Owing to the considerable
fall in population there were only 67 inhabited
houses in 1901, but the number had increased to 97
by 1951. (fn. 8) Much new building took place between
1951 and 1955. (fn. 9) Many of the new concrete council
houses are near the church; others have been built
near the Roman Akeman Street, where there were
already a few houses which had been built during the
First World War. Here too is a large building
occupied by the Danish Bacon Company. During
the Second World War, the airfield (285 a.), built in
1915 by Canadians and by German prisoners of war,
was a satellite of the Bomber Command station at
Upper Heyford. Since 1946—except for a short
period—it has been used as a dropping zone for the
R.A.F. Parachute Training School. (fn. 10)
Despite these changes the appearance of the old
village has altered little since the mid-19th century. (fn. 11)
Many of the cottages, built of stone from local
quarries, are still thatched, although slate roofs are
gradually replacing the thatch. Some like Manor
Cottage, once the dower house of the manor, (fn. 12) and
the 'general store' (dated 1617) are of 17th-century
origin. A few houses and cottages lie scattered along
the Brackley road from the 'Chequers' (fn. 13) at the south
end of the village as far as the entrance to the manorhouse, but the main village street branches off the
main road and runs on into Church Lane. The
church and Vicarage lie to the north of the road and
farther north and west is the water-mill, probably on
the site of one of the two medieval mills. (fn. 14) Windmill
Clump to the north of the village perhaps marks the
position of a third mill, mentioned as late as 1808. (fn. 15)
Beyond the turn to Church Lane is the 'Ben
Jonson's Head', mentioned by name in 1784, (fn. 16) but
possibly in existence as early as 1735 at least, when
two Weston victuallers were licensed. (fn. 17) A second but
shorter village street called North Lane branches off
the main road beyond the public house. Here are the
19th-century nonconformist chapel and the school. (fn. 18)
Between these two streets probably lay the ancient
village green which gave the place its name of
Weston-on-the-Green. As late as the end of the 19th
century there was a small triangular green on which
the stocks stood near the 'Ben Jonson's Head'.
Apart from the manor-house, one of the best
houses in the village is the Vicarage. It is a handsome
stone building, roofed with blue slate and containing
seventeen rooms. Dunkin described it in 1823 as a
'neat and commodious mansion' which had been
occupied for many years by the vicar James Yalden
(d. 1822). (fn. 19) It had replaced a 'mean' house, which
in 1635 and 1685 was described as having only
three bays of building. (fn. 20) The house was enlarged in
1823 by the architect S. H. Benham of Oxford at a
cost of some £300. (fn. 21)
There was a medieval manor-house which was
probably of some size, as it was the seat of Oseney
Abbey's bailiff for the bailiwick of Weston. (fn. 22) Two
sides of its 13th-century rectangular moat were existing, and a third side could be traced, before they
were largely filled in in 1908. (fn. 23) The present house,
however, was probably mainly built in the mid-16th
century by Lord Williams of Thame or his widow. (fn. 24)
The main survival of the earlier building is the great
hall (19x42 ft.), very probably the court room of the
manor. Its walls date from the early 16th century.
An entry into the hall from the corridor between the
great hall and the buttery and kitchen quarters is
called the Monk's Hole or Hall, but as it now stands
it appears to be of a later period and probably dates
from about 1851, when the Hon. the Revd. F. A.
Bertie was rebuilding and making extensive alterations to the house.
On the outside of the south wall is a staircase
turret, bearing the arms of the Bertie family, (fn. 25) and
leading up to a minstrels' gallery, perhaps adapted
from the solar of the older hall. Inside, the hall has
oak linen-fold panelling and above a carved frieze of
foliage and mermaids, and a head probably representing that of St. John the Baptist on a charger. A
legend 'Time Deum et recede a malo. Principium
sapiencie timor est Dei' runs round the frieze, with
the name of Richard Rydge, the last Abbot of Notley
(Bucks.), between the two sentences. Peregrine
Bertie (1741–90) moved this panelling from Notley
in about 1780 and put it up in the hall at Weston; (fn. 26)
the open timber roof now in the hall also came from
Notley, but was first used to roof a barn in Chesterton
and was not placed in the hall of Weston Manor
until between 1840 and 1850. The plaster corbel
angels supporting the roof were probably a part of
F. A. Bertie's restoration.
The main block of the 16th-century house is
rectangular: with its two small projections at the back
it encloses a courtyard (45 X 30 ft.). The stables and
outbuildings lie to the right of the house across a
paved stable-yard, through which may once have
been the main approach. The size of the house
before the 19th-century alterations may be gauged
from its 20 hearths returned for the hearth tax of
1665. (fn. 27) It was among the county's larger mansions,
although not in the same class as Lord Anglesey's
house with its 30 hearths at nearby Bletchingdon. (fn. 28)
An etching of about 1823 shows it as it was before its
original 16th-century frontage was replaced by a
Gothic-revival façade in the 1820's. The front of
the main building has a gable at either end and the
central porch is flanked by bay windows, extending
the whole height of the building, which was of two
stories with attics. An unpretentious low wall or
paling separates the house from an open field, and
farm outhouses lie on both sides. (fn. 29)
The principal other points of interest in the present
building are the William and Mary panelling in the
drawing-room; the bow window of this room, which
extends to the top of the first floor; the Tudor fireplace in the entrance hall; and the adornments of the
central courtyard. This last has a central well surrounded by a low wall bearing the arms of the Bertie
family, and against its west wall two doors from the
Jacobean chapel of Exeter College. They bear the
arms of George Hakewill, a Fellow and Rector of
the college, at whose cost the chapel had been built;
and were probably acquired by the Berties when
Exeter chapel was rebuilt in 1856. (fn. 30)
The gardens have an avenue of deciduous trees,
called the Monks' Walk, but undoubtedly planted by
the Berties. The last of the elm trees, planted in 1672
and 1682 and noted in the parish register by Edward
Norreys himself, (fn. 31) was struck by lightning in 1952
and removed. The house has been used as an hotel
since 1949.
The parish has played a small part in national
affairs. In the Civil War royalist troops were quartered in the village in 1643 and 1644 (fn. 32) and parliamentary troops under Colonel Fleetwood were stationed
there before the siege of Oxford in 1646. (fn. 33) The
manor-house was the home for over two centuries of
the Bertie family. (fn. 34) John Warde, 'the father of foxhunting', established kennels at Weston in 1778. (fn. 35)
Manor.
At the time of the Conquest WESTON
was one of the possessions of the Saxon lord Wigod
of Wallingford. On Wigod's death shortly afterwards many of his lands including Weston passed to
Robert d'Oilly, the first Norman castellan of Oxford,
who is said to have married Wigod's daughter.
Robert held Weston rated at 10 hides in 1086 (fn. 36) and
on his death in 1094 (fn. 37) it passed to his brother and
successor Nigel. (fn. 38) Nigel lived until about 1115 (fn. 39)
and was succeeded by his son Robert (II) d'Oilly,
who married Edith, daughter of Forne, to whom he
gave Weston as part of her dower. (fn. 40) It is likely that
Robert's gift about 1130 to his new foundation of
Oseney Abbey of the church of Weston (fn. 41) was accompanied or followed by a grant of lands in the manor;
Henry (II) d'Oilly confirmed to the abbey 6 virgates
which were the gift of his grandmother Edith and
his father Henry (I). (fn. 42) In 1137 Edith, with Robert's
consent, gave 35 acres of land in Weston to the new
foundation of Otley Abbey in Oddington, later removed to Thame. (fn. 43) Robert died in 1142, (fn. 44) and was
succeeded by his son Henry (I), who confirmed his
mother's gift to Thame (fn. 45) and confirmed or augmented
her gift to Oseney. Edith presumably held Weston
until her death between 1151 and 1154. (fn. 46) Her son
Henry (I) died in 1163 and was succeeded by his son
Henry (II), a minor who came of age about 1175. (fn. 47)
In 1213 Henry granted Weston in marriage with his
daughter Maud to Maurice de Gaunt, who undertook to discharge a debt of 1,200 marks owed by
Henry to the king. Maud had died without issue by
1220 when Henry sought to recover the manor from
Maurice. The king's court eventually decided that,
since Maurice had been given twelve years in which
to pay Henry's debt by annual instalments, he should
hold Weston until 1225, when Henry should recover
possession. (fn. 48) Oseney Abbey had meanwhile increased
its estate in Weston by a number of small gifts from
tenants of the manor. (fn. 49) In 1227 Henry d'Oilly sold to
Oseney the whole manor with the exception of the
manor-house, the mill, and certain demesne lands for
300 marks, which the abbey paid to a creditor of
Henry, David the Jew of Oxford. (fn. 50) Soon afterwards,
probably in 1228, Henry gave the remainder of the
manor to Oseney Abbey. (fn. 51)
Henry d'Oilly died in 1232, (fn. 52) and the overlordship
of Weston passed to his nephew Thomas de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, and followed the same
descent as the overlordship of Bucknell. (fn. 53) In practice
the overlordship soon lapsed, and the Abbot of
Oseney virtually held the manor in chief. (fn. 54) About
1260, however, the manor was claimed against the
abbot by Roger Damory of Bucknell. At the time
of the Domesday survey Robert (I) d'Oilly's tenant
at Weston had been Gilbert, (fn. 55) probably the ancestor
of the Damory family, who also held of Robert at
Bucknell, Bletchingdon, and Fulwell. Gilbert's descendants (fn. 56) may have held lands at Weston as tenants
under the D'Oillys, but although Robert Damory
(d. 1236) witnessed grants of land in the manor about
1220, (fn. 57) it does not appear that either he or his son
Roger held lands there themselves: they were certainly not among the numerous tenants of the manor
who granted their lands to Oseney between 1230 and
1270. (fn. 58) Roger nevertheless brought his suit, but in
1260 at Beckley, before Richard of Cornwall, he
agreed to quitclaim the manor to the abbot for 300
marks. (fn. 59) From 1260 until the Dissolution (fn. 60) Oseney
Abbey remained in undisputed possession of the
whole manor with the exception of the 35 acres given
to Thame in 1137 and quitclaimed to that abbey by
Roger Damory in 1257. (fn. 61)
As a reward for his services to Henry VIII, notably
as surveyor of monastic lands in Oxfordshire, Sir John
Williams of Thame obtained Weston manor in 1540,
and in 1546 he purchased certain lands and rents
reserved in his original grant. (fn. 62) Sir John, later
Lord Williams of Thame, died in 1559 leaving
Weston to his second wife Margery Wentworth. (fn. 63)
Margery married secondly Sir William Drury (d.
1579) and thirdly James Croft. On her death in
about 1588 Weston passed by the terms of Lord
Williams's will to Henry, Lord Norreys, husband of
Margery, Lord Williams's younger daughter by his
first wife. (fn. 64) Lord Norreys, however, allowed James
Croft to retain Weston as his tenant. Sir William
Norreys, Lord Norreys's eldest son, had died in
1579, and in 1586 his widow Elizabeth married
Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. (fn. 65) The earl claimed
Weston manor as part of his wife's jointure, turned
Croft out of the manor-house by force and occupied
it himself. Lord Norreys brought an armed band
from Rycote to his tenant's help, and after some fighting with the earl's servants Croft was reinstalled.
The earl, however, continued his fight in the Star
Chamber court from 1590 to 1597. Judgement was
finally given in Lord Norreys's favour. (fn. 66)
On the latter's death in 1601 Weston passed to his
grandson Francis Norreys, later created Earl of
Berkshire. Francis married Bridget, daughter of
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, by whom he had a
daughter Elizabeth, who inherited most of his lands
on his death in 1624. Weston, however, by virtue of a
settlement made in 1619 passed to Francis's illegitimate son Francis Rose, who assumed the name of
Norreys after his father's death. (fn. 67) Sir Francis, as he
became in 1633, was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1635
and later M.P. for the county under the Commonwealth. He married Hester, daughter of Sir John
Rouse, and was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Edward Norreys on his death in 1669. (fn. 68) Sir Edward,
many times M.P. for either the county or city of
Oxford, died in 1713, when Weston was inherited by
his eldest daughter Philadelphia and her husband
Captain Henry Bertie, a younger son of James, Earl
of Abingdon. (fn. 69) In 1734 Captain Bertie was succeeded
by his grandson Norreys Bertie, who died unmarried
in 1766 and who bequeathed Weston to his greatnephew Peregrine Bertie. Peregrine also left no
children, and on his death in 1790 Weston passed to
his elder brother Willoughby, Earl of Abingdon, who
entailed the manor so that it should only be held by
his successors in the earldom if there were no younger
brother to hold it. Willoughby was succeeded as
Earl of Abingdon in 1799 by his third and eldest
surviving son Montague, but Weston under the entail was inherited by his fourth son, the Hon. the
Revd. Frederick Arthur Bertie, when the latter came
of age. He married Georgina, daughter of Admiral
Lord Mark Ker, and was succeeded in 1868 by his
son Captain Frederick Arthur Bertie. (fn. 70) Captain
Bertie's widow, Rose Emily Bertie, sold the manor
by auction in 1918 after the death of her only son in
action in Palestine in the previous year. The estate
has been split up and manorial rights have lapsed. (fn. 71)
Economic and Social History.
In 1086
there was land for 12 ploughs in Weston-on-theGreen, all under cultivation. On the demesne were
4 ploughs and 5 serfs, while 17 villeins (villani) and
11 bordars had 8 ploughs. There were two mills
worth 4s. and the value of the estate had increased
£8 to £12 since 1065. (fn. 72) In c. 1228 Oseney Abbey
acquired the manor from Henry (II) d'Oilly, the
latter's grant including the manor-house, a wood and
one of the mills, presumably in the north-west of the
parish, since meadowland near it was described as
'towards Kirtlington'. (fn. 73) In the course of the 13th
century Oseney gradually accumulated lands from
the freeholders of the manor, (fn. 74) and in about 1270 obtained the second mill, a water-mill. (fn. 75) Only one mill,
however, was recorded among the abbey's possessions in 1279. The demesne then included 5 carucates
of land, a park of 4 acres, and a warren. There were
only 5 free tenants, including the Abbot of Thame
and 3 socagers, holding a little over 10 virgates in all.
Nineteen villeins held a virgate each, paid 5s. a year,
and worked and were tallaged at their lord's will.
They had to pay fines if their sons left the manor,
pay for the right to brew ale and to pasture their
swine, and could not sell horses or oxen without
licence. Sixteen half-virgaters held by the same
services and paid rent at the same rate. Between them
they provided 6 labourers all the year round for the
abbot, and another 6, who worked every day from
Midsummer to Michaelmas except Saturdays. At
Christmas they paid their lord half a quarter of oats,
and another half-quarter if they did not harrow, and
at Candlemas they paid 3d. for being excused carrying services outside the shire. Ten cottars held
between them about 5½ virgates. One of them, the
miller, paid £1 4s. 3d., and the others paid up to
8s. 3d. a year. Three of them worked at the lord's
will, but five of them owed only one autumn boonwork. (fn. 76) The population had evidently increased
since 1086, and by 1279 there appear to have been
about 64 virgates under cultivation. (fn. 77)
The rents received by Oseney Abbey in the year
1279–80 amounted to £13 18s. 10d. (fn. 78) In 1291
the manor brought in an estimated income of
£16 6s. 10½d., while the produce and stock were
worth another £5. (fn. 79) Like other Oseney manors
Weston and its dependent estates at Chesterton and
Ardley sent considerable quantities of produce to the
abbey—wheat and oats, cattle, pigs and poultry,
cheese, butter and eggs, and notably in 1279–80 314
fleeces, 223 sheepskins and 47 lambskins. At Michaelmas 1280 the stock remaining in the bailiwick of
Weston, of which the manor was the administrative
centre with a canon in residence as bailiff, amounted
to 25 horses, 86 cattle, 422 sheep, and 64 pigs. (fn. 80)
Weston was a two-field village in the 13th century:
in a number of grants of land to Oseney the acres
were equally divided between the two fields, the
South Field and the East Field, the latter called in
one grant 'the field towards Chesterton'. (fn. 81) There is
no indication whether a fixed amount of meadow
went with every virgate of arable, but meadow or
mowing ground in the headlands of the arable are
frequently mentioned, (fn. 82) and there were certain lotmeadows. (fn. 83) Three crofts were included in Henry
d'Oilly's grant in 1228, and others are mentioned
later, some of them inclosures of arable. (fn. 84) The taxation assessments of the early 14th century show that
Weston was among the more prosperous villages in
Ploughley hundred: 36 inhabitants were assessed in
1316 and 37 in 1327, (fn. 85) and from 1334 onwards the
village's assessment was fixed at £3 10s. (fn. 86)
At the end of the 15th century the demesne lands
were let, but by 1509 they had been taken back into
the abbey's hands 'pro husbondria ibidem manutenenda'. The former farmer of the demesne, John
Cocks, still held two pastures, 'Roundehill' and
'Churchwestmorelese', for £13 6s. 8d. a year, and
had held Sevenacre, a pasture close which had been
an arable furlong in the 13th century. (fn. 87) It is possible
that at Weston Oseney Abbey had resumed control
of its demesnes as a check on the activities of an inclosing grazier. In 1521 the demesnes were still in the
abbey's hands; and so were the two pastures, where
the abbey's own sheep and cattle now grazed. (fn. 88) Before 1535, however, the demesnes were again farmed,
first to a single tenant and later to a number of
tenants. The abbey's gross income from the estate in
1535 was £55 8s. 11d.—£18 15s. 7d. from the rents
of customary tenants and £36 13s. 4d. from the farm
of the manor, rectory, vicarage, and tithes. (fn. 89)
The progress of inclosure at Weston is not documented. Since the Norreys and Bertie lords of the
manor owned very nearly the whole parish (fn. 90) the
decision to inclose must have depended on them.
There is no inclosure act, and both open fields and
commons appear to have been inclosed about the
middle of the 18th century, certainly before 1773. (fn. 91)
In 1774 the Bertie estate was charged with the payment of annuities to three people 'in lieu of lifehold
estates of land in the Common Field granted on inclosing the commons and wastes of Weston'. (fn. 92) In
1783 the two surviving annuitants were both about
60 years of age. (fn. 93) The number of common fields before inclosure is not known, but a deed of 1803
records that South Field Mead had been inclosed in
three parts, 48 acres in all, and there were six inclosures, 107 acres in all, in what was 'formerly the
Common South Field'. 'Southill fields' are mentioned as formerly part of the common fields, and
Green Close (28 a.) had been part of Weston Green
before inclosure. (fn. 94)
In 1773 the Bertie estate at Weston was producing
£1,941 a year in rents. There were 11 leaseholders,
9 of them paying over £40 a year, 17 cottagers, and
17 tenants of small plots and cottages for one, two, or
three lives. (fn. 95) There were nine 'farms and grazing
land', and two of the leaseholders held the mill and
the stone-pits. (fn. 96) The total area of the estate was
estimated at 2,371 acres in 1783, when there were
still nine farms—one called a dairy farm and one a
grazing farm—held, however, by seven farmers. The
smallest farm was 92 acres, the largest 343 acres, and
all the rest were around 200 acres. There were 18 cottagers, and 26 tenants for life, with 3 houses and
21 cottages. (fn. 97) There were still nine farms in 1848,
some of them with increased area, since the lord of
the manor had only 69 acres in hand compared with
602 in 1783. (fn. 98) In 1918 there were eight farms-including Weston Park, then in Chesterton parish, and
the mill, which had 66 acres attached to it, on the
Bertie estate; and another farm on the Valentia
estate purchased in 1803. (fn. 99) In 1848 there were 1,215
acres of arable to 1,089 acres of meadow and
pasture, (fn. 100) but by 1867 two-thirds of the parish was
said to be arable, (fn. 101) a proportion which held good in
the 20th century. (fn. 102)
In 1801 the population of Weston was 350; by
1851 this had risen to a peak figure of 517. A high
proportion of the inhabitants was employed in
agriculture during this period, 74 families out of 90
in 1821, and 86 out of 102 in 1831, when there were
99 farm labourers. (fn. 103) Many of these were employed
outside the parish: in 1867 there were about 40
working on farms in Bletchingdon, Oddington, and
Chesterton but living in Weston. (fn. 104) Lack of cottages
in neighbouring parishes appears to have been the
main reason. One serious consequence earlier in the
19th century had been the liability of Weston parish
to relieve sick, poor, and aged labourers whose work
had been outside. Sums raised by poor rates had
risen from £112 in 1776 to about £635 in 1813. (fn. 105)
Although the cottages of Weston were overcrowded
in 1867 they were reported to be 'good and commodious', with good gardens, while all had allotments. Many cottages had outhouses, and all had
privies; rents ranged from 3d. to 1s. 3d. a week. (fn. 106)
In the 18th century, building-stone, paving- and
flooring-stone were quarried in the stone-pits; the
Peat Pits, on the western boundary stream, north of
the village, were then worth between £40 and £80
a year; and marl was dug for use on the land. (fn. 107) In the
early 19th century there were fifteen families engaged
in trade or handicrafts: (fn. 108) of the latter lace-making
was the most important and there were 22 women
and girls employed in it in 1851. (fn. 109) At that date there
were also 4 railway navvies, probably employed on
the construction of the Bletchley-Oxford line, 3
bricklayers, a 'stoneman', 2 tailors, a shoemaker and
a cordwainer, a carpenter, a wagoner, a toll-collector,
and the miller, who was also the baker. (fn. 110) The number
of agricultural labourers declined later in the century
when the population dropped steadily from 517 in
1851 to 263 in 1901 and many young men left the
village. (fn. 111) In 1903 the village had a blacksmith, a
carrier, and a wheelwright, and one shopkeeper. (fn. 112)
There were still a wheelwright and a blacksmith in
1939, when there were two shops, a cafe, a coal
merchant, and a drainage contractor. (fn. 113) The population has increased rapidly from 256 in 1921 to 353 in
1931 and 522 in 1951. (fn. 114)
Church.
There was probably an 11th-century
church at Weston. Wigod of Wallingford was followed
as lord by Robert d'Oilly, who in 1074 granted twothirds of his demesne tithes there to his foundation of the church of St. George in Oxford castle. (fn. 115)
St. George's church passed in 1149 with all its possessions to Oseney Abbey. Weston church was part
of Robert d'Oilly the younger's foundation grant to
Oseney Abbey in about 1130, (fn. 116) a gift which was soon
afterwards several times confirmed. (fn. 117) By at least the
early 13th century the abbey had appropriated
Weston; (fn. 118) it retained it until its dissolution in 1539.
In 1540 the rectory and advowson were granted with
the manor to Sir John Williams of Thame, (fn. 119) and
followed the manor's descent until its sale in 1918.
Since then William Parlour Esq. of Darlington has
been patron. An exception to the normal rule of
presentation by the lord of the manor occurred in
1601 when the queen presented. (fn. 120)
The value of the rectory rose from £8 in 1254 (fn. 121) to
£9 6s. 8d. in 1291. (fn. 122) No later valuation has been
found, as in 1535 it was valued with the vicarage and
manor. (fn. 123)
When the vicarage was formed Oseney took almost
all the glebe. Two early 13th-century vicars, John
and Henry, who possessed some land and a rent of
6s., granted them to Oseney, in return for which the
latter was to have his obit said in the abbey. (fn. 124) The
land once belonging to the church evidently became
amalgamated with the manor land, and no separate
record has been found of it. Before the Reformation
Oseney seems to have collected all the tithes; afterwards the lay rector was entitled only to the great
tithes, which were commuted in 1848. Peregrine
Bertie received a rent-charge of £270 for tithes on
2,226 acres, and Lord Valentia £34 for the tithes on
236 acres belonging to him. (fn. 125)
No medieval valuation of the vicarage has been
found, showing that in 1291 it must have been worth
less than 5 marks.
A vicarage was ordained during the episcopate of
Hugh de Welles (1209–35) on the same conditions as
Oseney's other vicarages, (fn. 126) an arrangement confirmed in 1284 by Bishop Sutton. (fn. 127) The vicar was to
receive 2 marks a year for his vestment and a certain
share of mortuaries and oblations. Otherwise his
support was to fall on the abbey: the canons were to
provide him with food from their grange in Weston,
and he was privileged to eat with the canons when
any were present in the parish. They were to provided
him with a clerk and a boy, and a horse when he
needed to travel on church business; they were to
meet all expenses of the church.
This ordination implied a close connexion between
the vicar and the abbey, and may have proved unsatisfactory. After 1451 institutions to the vicarage
cease, and in the 16th century the church was served
by a curate who received a fixed stipend of £5 6s. 8d., (fn. 128)
while Oseney kept the endowment of the vicarage. (fn. 129)
At an episcopal visitation of this period, the most
important complaint was that no distributions were
made to the poor, (fn. 130) the abbey's responsibility, while
nothing was said against the curate. One mid-16thcentury curate, frequently mentioned in local wills, (fn. 131)
remained in the parish for 30 years. (fn. 132)
By the 17th century the ordination of the vicarage
had been changed. In addition to about an acre of
land, the vicar was to have the small tithes and a
pension of 6s. 8d. from the Rector of Bletchingdon. (fn. 133)
In the mid-18th century the vicarage was valued at
£34, (fn. 134) and in 1808 at £125, a sum derived almost
entirely from the small tithes, (fn. 135) which were commuted in 1848 for £232. (fn. 136)
The history of the church seems to have been uneventful: few records of it survive and even the
names of some of the vicars have not been found. By
the 18th century the vicars were usually non-resident,
perhaps partly because the Vicarage house (fn. 137) was
considered inadequate. In 1738 John Bertie, a
member of the Bertie family of Rycote, was a Student
of Christ Church, where he lived, and he served the
church himself. He held two services on Sundays,
and said that about 50 people took the sacrament
given four times a year. (fn. 138) His successors were pluralists: James Hakewill, for example, vicar for over
fifty years (c. 1746–98), had a curate at Weston
while he himself held two other Oxfordshire churches,
'by which means' his income was 'more comfortable'
to him. (fn. 139)
After 1823 when the Vicarage was enlarged the
vicars began to live in the parish. (fn. 140) Attendance at
church increased during the century, the number of
communicants having risen considerably by 1834. (fn. 141)
In the middle of the century, in spite of the growth
of dissent, congregations were good, numbering
about 150, but many, it was said, attended both
church and chapel. (fn. 142)
The church is dedicated to ST. MARY, (fn. 143) although
in the 19th century there was a tradition that it had
once been dedicated to St. Bartholomew. (fn. 144) The
present church is a plain rectangular building dating
from the 18th century except for the western tower,
which is probably 13th-century and belongs to an
earlier medieval church. The tower has a later parapet
and has been buttressed at the south-west corner.
The original medieval church had three altars,
dedicated by the bishop in 1273 to the Virgin, to St.
James the Apostle, and to St. Nicholas the Confessor;
twenty days' indulgence was granted to all those who
gave to these altars. (fn. 145) In 1564 the church, 'being
in great decay', was reroofed and the seats were
renewed. (fn. 146) By 1741 it was falling down, and in 1743
and 1744 was rebuilt by Norreys Bertie (fn. 147) whose
initials and arms and the date 1743 can be seen on the
rainwater heads. The present church has a pedimented south door, built in the classical style with
an elaborately carved architrave and frieze on the
outside; on the inside, stonework contemporary with
the original building still surrounds it. The roundheaded windows, four on the north and three on the
south side, of the 18th-century church remain. (fn. 148) In
1810 extensive repairs were made to the roof, and the
original heavily ornamented ceiling fell down and
was replaced by the present plain one. (fn. 149)
The church was restored in the 1870's by the
architect R. P. Spiers for about £500; a plan for
building an apse 'to make the building more churchlike' was never executed, and the actual work only
included repairs to the tower, the addition of the
south porch, reseating, and the addition of Gothic
tracery and glass to the windows. (fn. 150) An organ was
bought in 1885 (fn. 151) and in 1923 the north and south
walls were panelled.
The 12th-century font is circular, with interlacing
arcading on a moulded circular base of later date.
Above the altar there is a large 18th-century canvas
of the Ten Commandments surrounded by cherubs
and symbols of the Crucifixion. (fn. 152) Other decorations
include a Russian triptych of the Virgin and two
saints, the Assumption of the Virgin copied from
an Italian original, and over the vestry arch an 18thcentury Royal Arms in raised and painted plaster.
The church also contains a medieval iron cross,
given by Lady Greville, and a plaster statue of the
Virgin given in 1929. (fn. 153) The iron gates at the eastern
end of the churchyard were erected in 1951 as a war
memorial.
There are a number of monuments to the Norreys
family, including those to Sir Francis Norreys (d.
1669); to Sir Edward Norreys (d. 1713), his wife
Jane (d. 1722) and their children, to his second son
Francis and his wife Jane; and to Norreys Bertie
(d. 1766). There are also 19th-century memorials to
the Bertie family. In the old church was a monument
to Richard Chamberlaine (d. 1624/5), and a brass to
Alise Saxeye (d. 1581). (fn. 154)
In 1552 the plate consisted of a silver and gilt
chalice. (fn. 155) In 1955 it included a silver chalice and
paten cover of 1751, the gift of Mary Norreys. (fn. 156)
There were five bells, all 19th-century. Formerly
there were three bells, dating from the 15th, 16th,
and 17th centuries. (fn. 157)
The registers date from 1591, with a gap from
1672 to 1695. There is a churchwardens' book
covering the years 1767 to 1917.
Nonconformity.
The only early recusant
recorded was Joan, the wife of Richard Poure, (fn. 158) who
was fined in 1603. In the late 18th and early 19th
centuries there were a few Roman Catholics, probably not more than one family, who went to chapel
at Tusmore. (fn. 159)
Protestant dissent appeared soon after this, when
in 1818 the first house was licensed for worship. (fn. 160)
From 1829 the meetings were held in the village
shop. (fn. 161) The owner, George White, sold the garden
to the Methodists for £20, and in 1838 the present
chapel was built by the labour of the members themselves. (fn. 162) By the middle of the century congregations
were large—over 100 in 1851. (fn. 163) In 1878 there were
said to be 60 professed dissenters, but many people
attended both church and chapel. (fn. 164) The chapel had
eighteen members in 1955. (fn. 165)
Schools.
In 1808 there was a small school for 12
to 20 children, who were paid for by their parents. (fn. 166)
It had apparently closed by 1819, (fn. 167) , but in 1833 there
was a fee-paying school for about 20 children. (fn. 168) A
Church of England school was opened in 1855; (fn. 169) its
average attendance was 48 by 1890, (fn. 170) and 42 in 1906. (fn. 171)
The school was taken over by the County Council in
1920 and was reorganized as a junior school in 1937.
There were 22 children in the school in 1954 compared with 39 in 1937. (fn. 172)
Charities.
Sums of money, amounting to £30,
were left to the poor of the parish at unknown dates
by William and Francis Drake, William Webb,
Thomas Croxton, and Hannah Maunde. (fn. 173) The
interest was distributed to the poor in bread in
1759. (fn. 174) The principal, however, was held by Norreys
Bertie, who died bankrupt in Ghent in 1766.
Peregrine Bertie, his successor as lord of the manor,
nevertheless paid £1 10s. a year, which was distributed in meat and bread, until 1772. Only two
other payments, in 1781 and 1788, were made before
his death in 1790. (fn. 175) Although he left £5 for a sermon
on 30 January and for prayers on Ash Wednesday
and Good Friday, (fn. 176) Peregrine Bertie appears to have
allowed the charity for the poor to lapse, and although
a yearly payment of £1 laid out on bread was recorded in 1805 (fn. 177) the charity was regarded as lost in
1824. (fn. 178)