TURKDEAN

Turkdean is a rural parish lying beside the Foss way 17 km. east of Cheltenham and 3 km. north of Northleach. It has the name given by the 8th century to the deep valley that is a prominent feature of the surrounding landscape; (fn. 1) the first part of the name is possibly from the Celtic word twrch meaning 'boar'. (fn. 2) The parish's area is 2,178 a. (881 ha.) and includes a limb on the north-west where it takes in land west of the Turkdean valley. The southeastern boundary with its straight lines mostly observes the original route of the Foss way, (fn. 3) running SW.-NE. and bending slightly half way along its length before dropping down into Broadwater bottom, and the almost straight southern boundary is the line of an ancient track. From Broadwater bottom the northern boundary, following the southern boundary of an estate in Notgrove and Cold Aston described in an Anglo-Saxon survey, (fn. 4) ascends a valley formed by one of the headwaters of the Sherborne brook for some distance before climbing onto higher ground to the west and turning northwards to descend into the Turkdean valley. The main part of the western boundary follows the floor of the Turkdean valley and the line of an old road that ran south-westwards out of it. (fn. 5) The village, in the centre of the parish, comprises Upper and Lower Turkdean, which were taxed separately in the 14th century (fn. 6) and originated as separate manors.

On the west the Turkdean valley turns from its southwards course to run eastwards across the centre of the parish and in the eastern corner it meets other valleys of the Sherborne brook's headwaters, including that marking the north boundary, to form Broadwater bottom. From the Turkdean valley, the floor of which descends from 167 m. in the north to 152 m. in the east, the land rises steeply and the highest places, at over 230 m., are in the north, the far north-west, and the south-west. In the north-east the land falls towards the valley on the boundary and in the south it ascends to 200 m. at the Foss way and includes the top part of a valley with its head at Leygore. While the valley bottoms are mostly on Midford Sand, most of the parish is formed by the Inferior Oolite with a band of fuller's earth separating it from the overlying Great Oolite of the highest ground. (fn. 7) Springs issuing from the fuller's earth determined the location of early buildings, including the main part of the village. (fn. 8) The principal spring on Chalk hill, in the north on the east side of the Turkdean valley, feeds a stone-lined culvert probably associated with Roman settlement that lasted on the hillside until at least the 4th century. (fn. 9) The spring, known as Chalk well long before 1614, (fn. 10) provided water for much of the parish from the early 20th century and continued to supply some outlying houses after the advent of mains water to the village in the 1950s. (fn. 11)

Before parliamentary inclosure in 1793 the wolds in Turkdean were given over to large open fields and commons. There were meadows in the valley bottoms, and stone slots beside the stream in the centre of the parish in 1999 attested postinclosure management of water meadows in the Turkdean valley. (fn. 12) Turkdean had little if any woodland at inclosure, but the Turkdean valley had long included withy beds, and in the centre of the parish it was known as Withy bottom. (fn. 13) In the later 19th century woodland was confined mainly to a covert at Milkwell in the far northwest and several small coppices strung out along the bottom of the Turkdean valley in the centre. (fn. 14) The area of woodland, given in 1905 as 34 a., (fn. 15) increased in the early 20th century. Some of the new woods and coverts were near the village (fn. 16) and some were in the south at Leygore, (fn. 17) where the landowner A. E. Moss (d. 1943) and his wife are buried in a grave in a belt of woodland he planted along the east side of the Northleach road. (fn. 18) In 1986 the area of woodland in Turkdean was at least 73 ha. (180 a.). (fn. 19)

In 1086 twenty-five tenants were recorded in Turkdean, twenty of them on the estate at Upper Turkdean. (fn. 20) Seventeen inhabitants of Upper Turkdean and seven of Lower Turkdean were assessed for tax in 1327 (fn. 21) and at least thirtyone people in Upper Turkdean and twenty-two in Lower Turkdean were assessed for the poll tax in 1381. (fn. 22) The number of communicants in the parish was put at c. 68 in 1551 (fn. 23) and 84 in 1603; (fn. 24) the number of households or families was given as 14 in 1563 (fn. 25) and 22 in 1650. (fn. 26) The population, estimated c. 1710 at 120, (fn. 27) was reckoned c. 1775 to be 113 (fn. 28) and it rose between 1801 and 1821 from 143 to 228. The number of inhabitants continued to rise in the mid 19th century but it fell considerably in the late 19th century, from 337 in 1871 to 145 in 1901. The decline continued less dramatically and in 1991 the population was 100. (fn. 29)

Upper Turkdean, the main part of the village, stands above a steep bank forming the east side of the Turkdean valley and is reached along several old roads. That from the north, described in the mid 18th century as a way from Evesham (Worcs.), (fn. 30) runs high above the valley before descending the bank on a curving route through the upper part of the village and an avenue of beeches to continue towards Northleach. Where it enters the parish from Notgrove that road was part of a way to Cirencester in the early 17th century. (fn. 31) The Cirencester way, which bypassed the village by following a route south-westwards down Kite hill into the Turkdean valley and along the line of the parish boundary out of the valley, was visible in 1765 (fn. 32) but its course seems to have disappeared a few years later. (fn. 33) A road leading to the top of the village from Cold Aston was once known on the north side of the parish as Mill way, (fn. 34) one of several routes, including Chalkwell way, recorded in Turkdean in 1614. (fn. 35) In the late 20th century the way from Cold Aston was a farm track and footpath and a road from Hazleton, to the west, to the top of the village had also long ceased to be a thoroughfare. High up in the south-western corner of the parish, Coxwell's Ash was a landmark on the road to Hampnett in 1777. (fn. 36)

The ancient route on Turkdean's southern boundary presumably ceased to be an important through road long before the mid 18th century although its western end was part of a London road that diverged from it on a south-easterly course across Hampnett. (fn. 37) In 1999 parts of the ancient route, including the western end, survived as wide green lanes and the section east of the Turkdean-Northleach road remained a road to Farmington. The Foss way, to the south-east of Turkdean, was turnpiked from 1755 (fn. 38) to 1877 (fn. 39) and it remained the principal route touching the parish in 1999. The section climbing the south side of the Leygore valley, where, as specified at inclosure in 1793, it turned on an oblique course, (fn. 40) was diverted in 1964 to take a straight and steeper line along the parish boundary. (fn. 41)

The village's two parts have remained distinct settlements. Upper Turkdean, high on the side of the Turkdean valley close to several springs, includes the parish church and it has probably always been the larger settlement. It contained c. 16 houses in 1765 (fn. 42) and c. 30 in 1851. (fn. 43) Most of the houses form a fairly regular village street, which rises eastwards from the town well, so called by 1672. (fn. 44) Another spring, some way to the north, was known in 1793 as Gratton spring and was reached along Grathorne or Gratton Lane, recorded from 1640 and running from the west end of the street to the old Hazleton road. (fn. 45) The church, standing a short distance south of the street, was possibly built before the early 12th century. (fn. 46) Immediately to its south are the former rectory buildings (Rectory Farm) and, on their south-west, the former vicarage house (the Glebe House); in the late 18th century those buildings had a water supply brought from Gratton spring by a culvert. (fn. 47) West of the church, and on the other side of the lane to the rectory and vicarage buildings, a house belonging to the Humphris family in the mid 18th century (fn. 48) was by 1826 the site of several cottages; (fn. 49) they were abandoned in the early 20th century and demolished. (fn. 50)

Although some of the houses recorded from the mid 18th century have been demolished and not replaced, (fn. 51) the village street retains several former farmhouses and cottages dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. One house (Rosemullion), opposite the churchyard, has an 18th-century front with plain mullions and another (Draper's House), higher up and south of the street, bears a datestone of 1780. North of the street a small two-bayed farmhouse with a central stack and staircase (the eastern bay being an addition) dates from the 17th century and has a 19th-century west wing. The house, the ownership of which passed to the vicar at inclosure in 1793, (fn. 52) was used later as a labourer's cottage and a farm store and under W. A. Rixon, who bought it in 1908, (fn. 53) it was a farmhouse once again. (fn. 54) In the later 20th century it became a private dwelling (the Bakehouse) and, in the mid 1980s, a barn and other outbuildings were converted as houses. (fn. 55) To the east a plot of land, which at inclosure in 1793 became the property ex officio of the parish clerk, (fn. 56) accommodated a cottage and garden but was derelict long before 1910 when it was sold to Rixon. (fn. 57) Higher up to the north-east the top of the village centres on a small green, on the north side of which there was once a pound. (fn. 58) On the east side, south of the former Cold Aston road, Turkdean Manor is a 16th-century manor house which served as a farmhouse before W. A. Rixon converted it as a country house in the early 20th century. The house's outbuildings include substantial former farm buildings. (fn. 59) West of the green an area once the site of a house (fn. 60) has remained a farmyard with buildings dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, among them a stable range built by Rixon in 1909; (fn. 61) some of its older buildings had thatched roofs until the mid 20th century. (fn. 62) North of the entrance to the Cold Aston road is a pair of 19th-century farm cottages and beyond them the village was extended northwards in 1952 by the construction of three pairs of council houses in gabled Cotswold style. (fn. 63)

In the later 20th century (fn. 64) only one new house, a bungalow, was built in Upper Turkdean. Of the older cottages a few were demolished and most of the others were enlarged, the additions usually having gabled dormers after the local traditional style. In one or two cases cottages were amalgamated to form larger dwellings; a derelict cottage at the rear of Rosemullion was restored as the back wing of the house in 1968. (fn. 65) At the bottom of Upper Turkdean the former village schoolroom, south of the street, has been converted as a house and it retains its bellcot. Next to it a small house (Wright's Cottage) that was enlarged and raised in the late 20th century incorporates a datestone of 1821 that was evidently once part of a building belonging to the Humphris family. (fn. 66)

Lower Turkdean, sometimes called Lower Dean, is situated to the south-west in the Turkdean valley. It includes a few houses in the lee of the steep bank or slope forming the valley's east side and strung out along a road running south-eastwards to join the road from Upper Turkdean to Northleach. Lower Dean Manor, a 16th-century manor house on the site of an earlier house, (fn. 67) stands slightly higher up on the valley's west side. Two men assessed for tax in Lower Turkdean in 1327 took their surname (atte Clive) from the bank. (fn. 68) Some buildings in Lower Dean in the late 18th century have been demolished and the only new house built since the inclosure of 1793 (fn. 69) is an early 19thcentury cottage on the bottom of the bank next to the bridleway leading directly down from Upper Turkdean. In the early 17th century one of the farmhouses there was called Fyfield House. (fn. 70) In the mid 19th century perhaps 20 dwellings, including the manor house, stood in Lower Dean (fn. 71) but by the mid 20th century there were below the manor house only four houses, (fn. 72) all substantially enlarged and given landscaped gardens by 1999. The Old House, which incorporates a small 17th-century cottage extended early by several bays, was once three separate dwellings. (fn. 73) Willowbank (formerly Elmbrook), at the south-east end of the settlement, also dates from the 17th century and was once several cottages. (fn. 74) The Grey House, on the south-west side of the road, dates from a rebuilding in 1816 of a farmhouse on a small estate owned by the Humphris family; (fn. 75) for a time called Blanche's Farm after the surname of the tenant in the 1820s, (fn. 76) it was altered in the early 20th century. (fn. 77) Willowbank and the Grey House were, in 1932 and 1937 respectively, remodelled in Cotswold style as gentleman's residences on A. E. Moss's estate by Raymond Erith, who also designed a summer house as part of a new garden at Willowbank. (fn. 78)

The oldest outlying buildings in Turkdean are two barns built by Edmund Waller when the parish was inclosed: Castle (formerly Coxwell's) barn (fn. 79) high up in the south-west near the Hampnett road is dated 1793 and Chalkhill barn on the east side of the Turkdean valley in the north-west 1794. (fn. 80) A pair of cottages was built at Castle barn in 1832 (fn. 81) and the eastern cottage was given gabled dormers when it was extended in the 1950s to serve as a farmhouse. (fn. 82) A pair of cottages standing at Smith's (formerly Hill) barn in the east of the parish in 1851 (fn. 83) had been abandoned by 1948. (fn. 84)

At Leygore, in the south-east, a farmhouse was built soon after the inclosure and was enlarged in the 19th century and again in the early 20th to form a country house called Leygore Manor. (fn. 85) To the west, on the Northleach road, is a pair of cottages built by 1841. (fn. 86) Some way north-west of Leygore a barn set back from the road (fn. 87) was converted as four cottages known in the 1880s as Newtown; (fn. 88) using stone from Leygore Manor, the back-toback cottages were remodelled in the later 20th century as a single dwelling known as Blanche House. (fn. 89)

Although several houses in the village are reputed locally once to have been public houses there is no evidence that Turkdean ever had a licensed public house. After the closure of its school in the mid 20th century the village was without a public meeting place, and in the late 20th century, when its secluded position made it a favoured retreat for several rich people, village and parish activities benefited from their financial support. (fn. 90) Among earlier landowners, W. A. Rixon (d. 1948) (fn. 91) painted landscapes and scenes in and around Turkdean. (fn. 92) A cricket team founded by 1905 had its ground in the south of the parish near the Foss way, where A. E. Moss placed a former tramcar as its pavilion. (fn. 93) During the Second World War the ground was covered temporarily with huts and shelters for an airfield in the neighbouring part of Hampnett. (fn. 94)

Manors and Other Estates.

An estate in Turkdean held in 1066 by Siward passed, together with an estate in Little Rissington, to Robert Doyley. (fn. 95) Robert, who allegedly married the daughter of Wigod of Wallingford, (fn. 96) included two thirds of the demesne tithes of both estates in the endowment of the church of St. George founded in Oxford castle in 1074 (fn. 97) and retained both estates in 1086. (fn. 98) Later Turkdean, like Little Rissington, was regarded as part of the honor of Wallingford, (fn. 99) with which Robert had been connected, and after 1540 Wallingford formed part of the honor of Ewelme, (fn. 100) which thereby acquired lordship over part of Turkdean. (fn. 101)

In the early 12th century Ralph Basset, the justiciar, held Turkdean and Little Rissington and he gave the churches there to his son Ralph, a clerk. (fn. 102) Both estates were among the knights' fees Nicholas Basset held from the honor of Wallingford in 1166. (fn. 103) Nicholas's sons forfeited his possessions to Henry II, (fn. 104) who in 1173 or 1174 granted William son of Henry an estate in Turkdean (fn. 105) later held from the honor for ½ knight's fee. William was succeeded c. 1202 by his son Robert of Torigni. (fn. 106) Robert acknowledged the ½ knight's fee to be the right of Henry of Theydon and Robert of Brightwell, both of them apparently grandsons of Nicholas Basset, (fn. 107) and by 1224 they had granted him half of the estate to hold from them for ¼ knight's fee. (fn. 108) In 1232 Henry's son Paulinus of Theydon reserved the services of Robert of Brightwell and William of Torigni and sold the rest of the estate, the part that Henry's widow Juliana had held in dower, to Oseney abbey (Oxon.). (fn. 109) Paulinus's mesne lordship passed, as did the manor of Little Rissington, to Robert de Briwes (d. 1276) and after him to Robert Burnell (d. 1292), bishop of Bath and Wells, (fn. 110) under whom three estates, including that of Oseney abbey, made up the ½ knight's fee, in Upper Turkdean, in 1285. (fn. 111) Philip Burnell was the mesne lord at his death in 1294, (fn. 112) but the mesne lordship was not recorded later and in 1300 the three estates were held directly of the honor of Wallingford. (fn. 113)

Robert of Torigni's estate passed to his son William by 1232 (fn. 114) and William retained land in Turkdean c. 1246. (fn. 115) The later descent of the estate is not known but it may have been acquired by Maud of Palton (or Paulton), who was assessed for a share of the ½ knight's fee in Upper Turkdean in 1285 and 1300. (fn. 116) Maud's estate passed by 1303 to John of Palton (fn. 117) and he or another John of Palton was named among the lords of Turkdean in 1316, (fn. 118) was taxed along with Roger of Palton in Upper Turkdean in 1327, (fn. 119) and was assessed for a share of the ½ knight's fee in 1346. (fn. 120) The estate seems to have passed, with Croscombe manor (Som.) after 1360, from John of Palton to his son Robert (fn. 121) (fl. 1385) (fn. 122) and it was known as the manor of TURKDEAN in 1405 when Robert's widow Elizabeth granted it with Croscombe and other Somerset manors to his son and heir William of Palton. (fn. 123)

The Turkdean manor was possibly that which Westbury-on-Trym college acquired before 1509 (fn. 124) and held of the honor of Wallingford for a rent of 3s. 4d. (fn. 125) In 1544 Henry VIII granted the college's possessions to Sir Ralph Sadler. (fn. 126) Sir Ralph, later Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, (fn. 127) conveyed the Turkdean manor to William Howse (fn. 128) and he sold it soon afterwards, in 1585 or 1586, to William Bannister. (fn. 129) William (d. 1604) was succeeded by his son Thomas, (fn. 130) who acquired more land in Turkdean and at his death in 1633 was succeeded by his brother Richard. (fn. 131) At Richard's death without issue c. 1640 the manor passed to his nephew William Bannister, and after William's death in 1685 his widow Jane evidently held it for several years before it passed to his eldest son William, (fn. 132) the lord of Hazleton manor, (fn. 133) who became a judge and a baron of the Exchequer and was knighted in 1713. (fn. 134) Sir William died in 1721 and trustees acting for his daughters and coheirs Jane and Elizabeth, respectively the wives of John Hamilton and Richard Harcourt, (fn. 135) sold the Turkdean and Hazleton manors in 1725 to Edmund Waller of Beaconsfield (Bucks.). (fn. 136) Edmund (d. 1771) was succeeded by his son Edmund (d. 1788), (fn. 137) whose son and heir Edmund acquired an estate in Lower Turkdean c. 1790 and sold much of his Turkdean land to Thomas Willan in 1799. (fn. 138) The rest of Edmund's land was retained by the Waller family with its Farmington estate. (fn. 139) In 1900 William Noel Waller sold a farm in Turkdean and Hazleton to John Ewen McPherson (fn. 140) and in 1902 the manor house and other land in Turkdean were acquired by William Augustus Rixon. (fn. 141) Rixon, who in the next ten years bought much of the rest of Turkdean, (fn. 142) died in 1948 (fn. 143) and his executors sold most of his Turkdean Manor estate of over 1,500 a. (fn. 144) to a family trust established under the will of W. H. Milne. (fn. 145) Soon afterwards the manor house passed into separate ownership, changing hands several times in the later 20th century, (fn. 146) and Manor farm was sold in 1958 to Mr. Wilfred Mustoe. The other farms were sold off after 1958, and Mr. Mustoe, who purchased Castle farm in 1972, owned c. 283 ha. (700 a.) in 1999. (fn. 147)

Turkdean Manor is built of dressed limestone and has two storeys with attics and an irregular plan. William Bannister probably began it soon after buying the manor in 1585 or 1586; his name and the date 1588 are inscribed on a timber door frame (in 1999 ex situ). The earliest fabric is probably at the north angle but by the mid 17th century the house seems to have been remodelled on a U-shaped plan, open to the south-west and with a gabled three-bayed, two-and-a-half-storeyed south-east front. (fn. 148) The front has three- and four-light windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and originally with transoms; the windows in the lower storeys have hoodmoulds and those in the gables are under string courses. The south-east range contains two rooms, the larger of which has a plain classical chimneypiece. In 1672 the house contained seven hearths. (fn. 149)

In the early 19th century, when the house was a farmhouse, there were also two projecting ranges on the north-east side but in the mid 19th century the areas between the projecting ranges on both sides were mostly infilled; (fn. 150) the new building on the south-west side accommodated an entrance hall. In 1905, when W. A. Rixon extensively remodelled the house as a country house, the more southerly projection on the north-east side was demolished and there was much refenestration; many of the rainwater heads bear the initials of Rixon and his wife Lady (Julia) Bolton. Rixon's alterations also included a single-storeyed addition north-west of the entrance hall; the entrance hall contained a staircase with a Tijou-style balustrade. (fn. 151) Between 1948 and 1966 the single-storeyed service wing on the north-east side was enlarged slightly, (fn. 152) and before 1997 a south-west porch and a north-east conservatory were added. (fn. 153) As part of extensive alterations in 1999 beams, fireplaces, and other fittings were imported, the conservatory was rebuilt in Gothic style, and an outbuilding to the northeast, used before 1948 as a studio and garden room, (fn. 154) was converted as a dining hall with an imported late-medieval roof of West Country type, said to have been removed in 1937 from a house in Bradford-on-Avon (Wilts.). (fn. 155) The former farmyard, north of the house, has along its boundary good-quality stone buildings, most of which were converted for domestic use in 1999; one cattle shed is dated 1828. Wroughtiron gates erected in the early 20th century at a south-west entrance on the village street have been moved to a different position. (fn. 156)

Oseney abbey held that part of Paulinus of Theydon's estate it acquired in 1232 from the honor of Wallingford by the service of 1/8 knight's fee and 2s. rent; (fn. 157) that part of the estate was later described as a quarter of Turkdean. (fn. 158) The abbey, whose estate included land that Robert le Bel of Stow-on-the-Wold had held by military service by the grant of Robert of Torigni, (fn. 159) appropriated Turkdean church and merged its land with Turkdean rectory, the history of which is given below.

In 1236 John of Brightwell, Robert of Brightwell's son, gave Robert's estate in Turkdean to his sister Maud and her husband Geoffrey of Langley (fn. 160) and in 1241 he gave them 3 yardlands there that the abbess of Godstow (Oxon.) had quitclaimed to him. (fn. 161) Geoffrey died in 1274 (fn. 162) and the land passed to Maud's son Robert of Langley, (fn. 163) who had by 1280 been succeeded by his half brother Geoffrey of Langley. (fn. 164) After Geoffrey's death in 1297 his son and heir Edmund of Langley (d. 1316) released his TURKDEAN estate, described as a manor, to his mother Emme in dower. (fn. 165) Emme married John Sevare of Gloucester and, despite her apparent intention in 1299 to return possession of the manor to Edmund, (fn. 166) John retained it in 1303. (fn. 167) In 1316 Lawrence Sevare was recorded among the lords of Turkdean (fn. 168) and in 1321 Henry Sevare, John's brother and heir, granted an estate in Turkdean to Richard of Foxcote. In 1363 John of Foxcote had land in Turkdean and in 1374 John Compton, rector of Stratton, gave it, together with John's lands in Duntisbourne Rouse and Withington, to John Serjeant of Cirencester. John Serjeant granted the Turkdean estate to John Cosyn, who in 1384 granted it to Thomas Raleigh. (fn. 169) Thomas (d. 1396 or 1397) was succeeded by his son Thomas (fn. 170) (d. 1404), whose son and heir William (fn. 171) died still a minor in 1419. The Turkdean estate passed with Edgeworth manor to William's sister Joan, wife of Gerard Braybrook and later of Edward Bromflete. (fn. 172) In 1423 Reginald Grey and his wife Joan held the Turkdean estate, apparently by title derived from Joan and Edward Bromflete, and by 1432 John Langley, a direct descendant of Edmund of Langley (d. 1316), had recovered it from the Greys as part of his inheritance. (fn. 173) At his death in 1458 John Langley left the Turkdean manor, together with Chesterton manor, in Cirencester, and other of his ancestral estates, to his niece Isabel de la Pole, wife of Walter Langley (fn. 174) (d. 1470) of Knowlton (Kent). (fn. 175) Isabel (d. 1474) was succeeded by her son William Langley (fn. 176) (d. 1483), who was succeeded by his son John, a minor. (fn. 177)

John Langley died in 1518 (fn. 178) and the Turkdean estate evidently passed to John Strange, who died in 1536 seised of land in Upper and Lower Turkdean as well as of Chesterton manor. John's son and heir Anthony (fn. 179) (d. 1542) was succeeded by his son John, a minor, (fn. 180) and after John's death in 1559 or 1560 the Turkdean estate evidently passed with Chesterton in turn to his brothers Thomas (d. 1594), perhaps the Thomas Strange who became M.P. for Cirencester in 1572, and Anthony (d. 1596), who left part of his estates to his widow Helen. (fn. 181) In 1600 Thomas's nephew Thomas Strange of Gray's Inn (Mdx.) sold part of his uncle's Turkdean estate to William Truby of Cirencester (fn. 182) and in 1610, at her death, Helen Strange left land in Upper and Lower Turkdean to William Trotman, her son-in-law. (fn. 183) The later descent of the estate has not been traced.

In 1066 Osgot had an estate in Turkdean and in 1086 William Leuric had the same with Geoffrey as his tenant. (fn. 184) The estate may have been that said later to have been held in turn by Osbert and his son Hugh, the latter of whom confirmed to Llanthony priory a grant of land by his tenant Richard son of Pons (Pontius). (fn. 185) In 1165 Mahel of Hereford granted the priory the part of Turkdean that he held by the grant of Henry II. (fn. 186) The priory's estate, to which land in Aylworth, in Naunton, was attached in 1291, (fn. 187) was known by the mid 14th century as the manor of TURKDEAN. (fn. 188) In 1543, following the Dissolution, the Crown granted that manor, which included land in Lower Turkdean, to Richard Andrews and Nicholas Temple in two stages and they sold it to William Walter, the tenant of the demesne. (fn. 189) William died in 1559 seised of the manor, usually known later as NETHER TURKDEAN manor, and his heir was his son John. (fn. 190) In 1575 John sold the manor to Oliver St. John, Lord St. John of Bletso. (fn. 191) Lord St. John, (d. 1582) left the manor to a son Oliver, (fn. 192) who succeeded to the barony in 1596 (fn. 193) and had conveyed the manor to Sir John Spencer by 1599. (fn. 194) Sir John, a former Lord Mayor of London, died in 1610 and was succeeded in his manor in Turkdean by his daughter Elizabeth and her husband William Compton, Lord Compton. (fn. 195) They retained it until at least 1612. (fn. 196)

Soon afterwards the manor was acquired by Thomas Dutton (d. 1615), who left it to his elder brother William Dutton of Sherborne to buy lands as an endowment for almshouses in Northleach. (fn. 197) William and his successors did not use the bequest as Thomas had intended (fn. 198) and in 1648 William's son John evidently sold at least part of Nether Turkdean manor to Robert Brereton. (fn. 199) John Rich, to whom Brereton quitclaimed his estate in 1660, (fn. 200) sold Nether Turkdean manor to John Coxwell of Preston, near Cirencester, in 1665. (fn. 201) John Coxwell (d. 1667) was survived by several sons including John, who died a minor in 1675. Henry, a younger son, (fn. 202) inherited the manor before 1687 (fn. 203) and retained it until his death in 1725. (fn. 204) Henry's heir, his grandson Sir Henry Nelthorpe, (fn. 205) Bt., died a minor in 1729 and the manor passed, presumably with the baronetcy, to his uncle Henry Nelthorpe of Barton on Humber (Lincs.). After his death in 1746 his widow Elizabeth (d. by 1768) held the manor, and his son and heir Sir John Nelthorpe (fn. 206) sold it c. 1790 to Edmund Waller, the lord of Turkdean manor. In 1799 Edmund sold much of his Turkdean estate, including part of Upper Turkdean, to Thomas Willan. (fn. 207) Willan, who by his later acquisition of Leygore farm (fn. 208) enlarged his Turkdean estate to 1,182 a., died in 1828 and his executors put the estate up for sale in 1829. Lower Turkdean farm (212 a.), the part which included the house known later as Lower Dean Manor, (fn. 209) was evidently bought by Thomas Tayler (fn. 210) and owned in 1835 by his widow Rebecca. After her death in 1848 ownership of the farm passed to their son Thomas Tayler (fn. 211) and he retained it until his death in 1903. (fn. 212) In 1905 Thomas Colpitts Granger sold the farm to W. A. Rixon (fn. 213) of Turkdean Manor and after Rixon's death in 1948 (fn. 214) Lower Dean Manor was included in that part of his estate sold to the Milne family. In 1968 the house and 46 a. (c. 19 ha.) were sold to Mr. S. L. Winwood, who remained their owner in 1999. (fn. 215)

Lower Dean Manor, which is presumably on the site occupied in the later Middle Ages by the demesne buildings of Llanthony priory's manor, is a two-storeyed, mainly rubble-built house on an irregular plan. The block which extends west from the centre of the east front and has massive walling on its south side may represent the chamber block of the house in which William Walter, who became the priory's tenant in 1534, (fn. 216) lived until his death in 1559. (fn. 217) Under the east end of it is a cellar, which may predate the rest of the fabric and may have related to a former undercroft. Entered from a smaller cellar on the north side through a fourcentred doorway within a blocked arch, it has buttress-like pilasters along the south and east walls. The room above dates from the early 16th century and is lit by mullioned windows with arch-headed lights and has a heavily beamed ceiling; its west part has been interrupted by the insertion of a chimney stack. A one-bayed north extension with windows with ovolo-moulded surrounds was added to give the chamber block an L plan in the early 17th century. A larger south-west addition was built in the late 16th or early 17th century, probably by Sir John Spencer or Lord Compton; its south front, which has been reduced in height, is ashlarfaced and has an eight-light ground-floor window, with chanelled king mullions and transoms, lighting a single large room containing a fine classical chimneypiece. While it was the Coxwell family residence, the house included a hall (perhaps the large room in the south-west block), great and little parlours, and great and little cellars in 1667 (fn. 218) and contained nine hearths in 1672; (fn. 219) by the latter date a three-bayed, twostoreyed west extension of the north range of the chamber block had probably been added. Henry Coxwell had let the west part of the house to a tenant farmer by 1706 (fn. 220) and Lady (Elizabeth) Nelthorpe reserved the part not occupied as a farmhouse for her agent in 1762. (fn. 221) The house, solely a farmhouse in 1829 (fn. 222) and until c. 1930, (fn. 223) was enlarged by the addition of a rear wing in the 19th century and an extension of that wing in the 1960s. (fn. 224) The garden contains a dovecot built in the early 1950s. (fn. 225) Part of a range of outbuildings west of the house was a separate dwelling in 1999.

On selling Nether Turkdean manor John Dutton evidently reserved an estate in Lower Turkdean to himself in 1648. (fn. 226) That estate, part of which was held under lease by the Radway family by the mid 18th century, (fn. 227) centred on LEYGORE following parliamentary inclosure in 1793 (fn. 228) and the ownership descended with the Duttons' Sherborne estate until c. 1813 (fn. 229) when Leygore was acquired by Thomas Willan. (fn. 230) In 1829 Willan's executors put Leygore farm (369 a.), then reputed a manor, up for sale with the rest of his land in Turkdean (fn. 231) and in 1831 the farm's owner was William Hewer (fn. 232) (formerly Radbourne). William died in 1846 and his son George (fn. 233) owned the farm at his death in 1887. (fn. 234) After mortgagees offered the farm, comprising 378 a., for sale in 1900, (fn. 235) Arthur Edmund Moss, the son of a Winchester (Hants) brewer, (fn. 236) bought it (fn. 237) and made the farmhouse his country seat. At his death in 1943 Moss was survived by his wife Norah and his daughter Judith Main (fn. 238) and a few years later Leygore was sold to Richard Evelyn Fleming, a merchant banker (fn. 239) who added part of the adjoining rectory farm to the estate in the 1960s. (fn. 240) Fleming died in 1977 and his son Mr. Fergus Fleming owned the estate in 1999. (fn. 241)

The Leygore farmhouse was built in 1797 (fn. 242) to replace an old house that was perhaps in Lower Dean (fn. 243) and it was on an L plan with an outbuilding near by in 1829. (fn. 244) By the late 19th century the house's three-bayed south front had a porch, the angle of the L had been infilled, and there was a detached building to the north-east, probably a coach house. (fn. 245) A. E. Moss renamed the house Leygore Manor in the early 20th century (fn. 246) and enlarged it in a heavy 17th-century style. By 1920 he had extended the north-east service wing and by 1927 had added a ballroom in a south-west block which lengthened the south front by three bays. He also made a west entrance with a two-storeyed staircase hall and added a north-west wing. (fn. 247) In work begun in the early 1950s the ballroom was demolished and other parts of the house were remodelled; some of the fabric was re-used in a house elsewhere in Turkdean. (fn. 248) Moss also enlarged the grounds south of the house, (fn. 249) where he created a rockery and, in the bottom of the valley, a lake or fishpond, but in the mid 20th century a large part of the new gardens was laid down as grass. (fn. 250) Higher up to the north are extensive ranges of 19th-century farm buildings and a house built in the 1950s for the farm manager. (fn. 251)

The abbot of Cirencester was named in 1316 among the lords of Turkdean (fn. 252) but there is no record of the abbey having an estate in the parish.

Ralph Basset, the clerk, gave Turkdean church to Oseney abbey in or before 1151. (fn. 253) About 1190 William son of Henry and his son Robert acknowledged the abbey's right to two thirds of the Turkdean demesne tithes that it had acquired as the successor in 1149 to the endowments of St. George's church in Oxford castle. (fn. 254) The abbey appropriated Turkdean church before 1294 (fn. 255) and it retained the rectory, which was valued at £10 in 1522 (fn. 256) and was farmed with the abbey's land for £12 in 1535, until the Dissolution. (fn. 257) The Crown granted the rectory together with the land to the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1542 and renewed the grant in 1546. (fn. 258)

The dean and chapter's estate, reputed to be of manorial status, was held by lessees until the late 19th century. Robert Hyett, who had been Oseney abbey's lessee in 1535, (fn. 259) became the dean and chapter's first tenant (fn. 260) and died in 1570 leaving his title to his son William. (fn. 261) Soon afterwards the dean and chapter granted a reversionary lease of the estate to Matthew Mantell, and in 1587 he granted his title to his sister-in-law Christian Wake of Oxford. She assigned the manor and rectory to her son Abraham Wake in 1599 (fn. 262) and he retained the estate in 1608. (fn. 263) The rectory, valued at £50 in 1603, (fn. 264) received the corn tithes of 27 yardlands. (fn. 265)

In 1633 the dean and chapter of Christ Church leased the manor and rectory to William Blomer of Eastleach Martin for a term of three lives. (fn. 266) Later leases were similar and were renewed after one of the named lives had lapsed; the dean and chapter's income included a fine, calculated in 1807 at 2 years' valuation, (fn. 267) levied at each renewal. Thomas Keble of Southrop was the lessee in 1649 and the estate passed to his son-in-law John Wheeler, of Minster Lovell (Oxon.), to whom the dean and chapter granted a lease in 1662. William Dewey of Iffley (Oxon.) acquired the leasehold in 1665 and retained it until 1699, when John Knight, rector of Broughton (Oxon.), became the lessee. (fn. 268) Knight died in 1712 (fn. 269) leaving as coheirs his daughters Elizabeth, Hannah, and Susannah. Hannah, of Bicester and later of Banbury (both Oxon.), survived her sisters (fn. 270) and at her death in 1751 or 1752 left the leasehold estate to Susannah Trotman, wife of the architect Sanderson Miller of Radway (Warws.). Miller died in 1780 (fn. 271) and his son Fiennes Sanderson Miller sold the estate, possibly on Susannah's behalf, to Edmund Waller in 1790. (fn. 272) At inclosure in 1793, when the rectorial tithes were commuted for 277 a., the leasehold was enlarged to 601 a. (fn. 273) and in 1799 Edmund included it in a sale of land to Thomas Willan. (fn. 274) After Willan's death in 1828 his executors were unable to sell Rectory farm, the leasehold part of his estate, (fn. 275) and by 1837 it was in the hands of Henry Seymour (d. by 1879), the husband of Willan's daughter Jane. Hers was the last surviving life named in the most recent lease, granted in 1818, and on her death by 1880 the leasehold was extinguished. (fn. 276) The dean and chapter of Christ Church sold the freehold of Rectory farm in 1911 to W. A. Rixon of Turkdean Manor (fn. 277) and after his death in 1948 the farm was sold with much of his estate to the Milne family. (fn. 278) In 1968 the farmhouse and 415 a. (c. 168 ha.) were bought by Mr. Giles Daniels, their owner in 1999. (fn. 279)

The farmhouse, Rectory Farm, has a rubblebuilt rectangular main range of two and a half storeys with a south-east front of four bays, including gabled end bays, and a south-west addition behind a screen wall. The mullioned windows, those on the ground floor with king mullions and all perhaps originally with transoms, have hoodmoulds except in the gables where they are under string courses. The northeast bay, which has a very thick south-west wall and floor levels higher than elsewhere in the house, may represent the chamber block of a late-medieval, perhaps 15th-century, house. Its undercroft is of exceptional quality and has a lierne vault in which sixteen chamfered ribs spring from a central pier and rest on semicircular responds on the side walls and on quarter responds in the angles. Piers and responds have moulded capitals and plain bases; the ribs are connected by liernes to four rings, each enclosing a half-spherical boss.

In 1606 Abraham Wake reserved part of the house, including the hall, a kitchen, a buttery, a storehouse, and the parlour with two rooms over it, for his own use. (fn. 280) The ground-floor room at the north-east end has a classical chimneypiece of the late 16th or early 17th century. John Wheeler heavily remodelled or entirely rebuilt the main range apart from the north-east bay in the mid 17th century (fn. 281) and William Dewey, who lived in it in the late 17th century, (fn. 282) was assessed for tax on seven hearths in 1672. (fn. 283) The southwest fireplace, the south-west entrance, and probably the main south-east doorway are of the 17th century, and the south-east porch added in the 19th century is composed from 16th- and 17th-century ornamental fragments. The service rooms at the south-west end had been added by the late 18th century. (fn. 284) The house, which was said in 1727 to contain six bays, (fn. 285) was occupied as a farmhouse by the Smith family for much of the 19th century and was much repaired shortly before 1857. (fn. 286) A short north-west range built parallel with the main block in the 19th century was extended c. 1993. (fn. 287)

The outbuildings, which included a great barn by the early 17th century, (fn. 288) stood almost in front of the farmhouse. (fn. 289) In 1839, to improve the accommodation of the adjacent vicarage house, a large barn south of the farmhouse was rebuilt further east and farm buildings along the south-west side of the farmyard were added to the vicarage grounds. (fn. 290) Some ranges on the north-east side date from the later 19th century.

Economic History.

In 1086 eleven hides in Turkdean were divided almost equally between two estates but all but one of the eleven ploughs they supported were on Robert Doyley's estate with its 4 demesne ploughs and its 6 ploughs shared by 12 villani. Robert's estate, which had decreased in value from £6 to £5, also included 8 servi and ancillae. On William Leuric's slightly smaller estate, which had decreased in value from £4 to 10s., nothing was in demesne and the single plough was shared by 3 villani and 2 bordars. (fn. 291)

Upper Turkdean, the part of the parish held from the honor of Wallingford, was assessed for tax in 1220 on nine ploughteams. (fn. 292) There is little evidence to show how much land in Upper Turkdean was kept in demesne and how much was held by tenants in the Middle Ages. Westbury college had leased its manor by 1509 (fn. 293) and it received £4 13s. 4d. from the farm and £3 15s. from assized rents in 1535. (fn. 294) Oseney abbey in 1280 maintained a permanent staff of farm servants and kept oxen and sheep on its Turkdean estate, which was then administered as part of the abbey's Bibury estate. (fn. 295) In 1291 the Turkdean estate comprised a ploughland in demesne and assized rents. (fn. 296) The demesne was later let at farm with the Turkdean rectory and the tenants' rents for £10, and by 1509 the abbey had leased pasture in Turkdean for 160 sheep to the farmer for £2. (fn. 297)

Llanthony priory in 1291 had two ploughlands in demesne in Lower Turkdean and Aylworth, in Naunton, but a greater part of the total value of the two estates came from assized rents. (fn. 298) The Turkdean demesne arable evidently comprised one ploughland (fn. 299) and in the later 14th century, when it was leased, the priory provided oxen and a plough for the lessees' use and reserved pasture for its sheep and other animals. (fn. 300) In the 15th and early 16th century all the demesne was leased (fn. 301) and in 1535, as in 1464, the demesne rent of 30s. was less than half the value of the priory's customary rents in Turkdean. (fn. 302) In 1401 eight tenants, of whom one was probably the lessee of the demesne, (fn. 303) held between them 5 yardlands, 11 half yardlands, and a few smaller holdings for cash rents, and a tenant at will held a cottage and some land from the priory for cash. By 1464, when the priory's rental was less, the number of tenants had fallen to three, not including the tenant at will, and the largest holding included 4 yardlands. (fn. 304) The rental remained the same at the Dissolution when some of the land was held with the demesne farm. (fn. 305) A yardland was later reckoned to contain c. 40 a. (fn. 306)

By the early modern period the village was surrounded by meadow and pasture closes. Two or three of those on the east side may have been created at the expense of parts of open fields or commons in the late 15th or early 16th century by Westbury college's tenant. (fn. 307) Beyond the closes in the early 17th century two adjacent open fields took in most of the parish north and north-east of the village; one extended as far as Notgrove and, in the north-west, down into the Turkdean valley to include a few strips on the valley's west side, and the other, called the nether field, extended as far as Cold Aston. (fn. 308) The fields, which were farmed on a two-course rotation with a fallow in the second year, were known in 1640 as the north field and the east field. (fn. 309) The varying width of holdings in them in the mid 18th century was presumably in part the result of some consolidation of strips. (fn. 310) Lower Turkdean had separate open fields described in the mid 1380s as a north and a south field. (fn. 311) A large part of those fields may have been inclosed by the mid 17th century, when the estate acquired by John Rich included 160 a. in two several fields and 8 a. arable in a close called New Tynings, (fn. 312) but in 1727 the rectory estate included 19½ a. dispersed in a field called Sir Henry Nelthorpe's field, mostly in pieces of ½ a. bounded by land belonging to Nelthorpe and to Edmund Waller. (fn. 313) Later the Nelthorpe family's estate included an 'in field' and an 'out field', the latter south of the former and on the Hazleton boundary. (fn. 314)

Before inclosure the valley bottoms were used mostly as grassland, those in the east, upstream of Broadwater bottom, being divided into small meadows. (fn. 315) Parts of several other meadows, in Lower Turkdean, were ploughed up and planted with corn in the late 17th century. (fn. 316) The largest commons were on the high ground farthest from the village, in the east by the Foss way above Broadwater bottom and in the north-west beyond the Turkdean valley, and elsewhere there were smaller commons on some of the steeper hillsides. (fn. 317) In the early 17th century the commons were stinted at 3 cattle, 1 horse, and 50 sheep-pastures to a yardland. (fn. 318) In the early 1670s William Bannister, the lord of Turkdean manor, disputed William Dewey's claim that the rectory estate had owned manorial rights over one common by the mid 16th century. (fn. 319) The common in dispute was presumably on either Bicknells hill, by the Foss way leading out of Broadwater bottom, or Greendean hill, northeast of the village descending to the floor of the Turkdean valley. In the early 17th century both pastures had been regarded as part of the rectory estate (fn. 320) but in the 18th century rights in them between Lady Day and Lammas were divided three to one between Edmund Waller, the lord of Turkdean manor, and the rector. (fn. 321)

Although the common in dispute in the early 1670s had been open for many years to cattle from 3 May and to sheep from Michaelmas, (fn. 322) the principal sheep pastures were the open fields following the harvest. In the late 14th century, according to regulations for the commoning of sheep enforced in Llanthony priory's court, sheep were excluded from the Lower Turkdean fields until Martinmas. (fn. 323) Oseney abbey and Llanthony priory kept sheep in Turkdean in the 13th and 14th centuries; (fn. 324) when in 1366 the priory leased the demesne arable of its Lower Turkdean estate it reserved a sheephouse and pasture rights for sheep and placed on the lessee the duties of providing a fold for its flock and employing a shepherd to look after those sheep between Lady Day and All Saints. (fn. 325) At least two shepherds lived in Lower Turkdean in 1381. (fn. 326) In the early 17th century, when a shepherd was among the Turkdean men named in a muster roll, (fn. 327) there was a sheephouse on the rectory estate. (fn. 328) In the early 18th century the same estate had pasture rights for sheep in both Upper and Lower Turkdean, the greater part being in the Upper Turkdean fields. (fn. 329) Early evidence of dairying is provided by storage of sold cheeses at Lower Turkdean in 1667. (fn. 330)

Turkdean was inclosed in 1793 under an Act of the previous year. The inclosure award, which commuted the tithes of the parish, allotted 1,964 a. of open-field and common land in Upper and Lower Turkdean and confirmed a series of exchanges in which some allotments and many old closes, some with buildings on them, changed hands. As a result of the exchanges Edmund Waller received 1,323 a., including 582 a. for the rectory estate, and James Dutton, Lord Sherborne, received 364 a., including 94 a. allotted to Mary Radway for an estate she held of him. Of the other beneficiaries the vicar received 167 a., Mary Humphris 87 a., the Revd. Harry Waller 15 a., and the parish clerk less than 1 a. ex officio. The award also designated nine small pieces of land as quarries for the repair of the parish roads. (fn. 331)

Following the inclosure Turkdean was divided between a few farms and most parishioners depended directly on agriculture. In 1811 only 5 out of 32 families were supported chiefly by trades or crafts (fn. 332) and in 1831 50 parishioners worked as agricultural labourers. (fn. 333) In 1851 the main farms, two each in Upper and Lower Turkdean, ranged in size from 300 a. to 710 a. and their workforces from 5 to 41 labourers. (fn. 334) The four farms remained virtually intact in the late 19th century (fn. 335) and the one centred on Lower Dean Manor included the vicarial glebe for at least part of that period. (fn. 336)

In the early 20th century A. E. Moss took Leygore farm in hand but W. A. Rixon increased the number of tenanted farms on his estate from three to four by keeping the vicarial glebe, one of the smaller holdings, as a separate farm following his acquisition of it in 1908. (fn. 337) Of seven farms and smallholdings returned for the parish in 1926, three farms had over 300 a. each and another over 150 a. (fn. 338) In 1932 and 1933 Rixon, having cancelled the leases of his existing tenant farmers, took on new tenants, including W. W. Mustoe, and later he granted leases of Rectory and Glebe farms, the former rectory estate and vicarial glebe, to W. H. Johnston. For much of the 1950s, following the acquisition of the estate by the Milne family trust, Johnston farmed over 900 a. in partnership with W. G. Milne, (fn. 339) and in 1956 six other farms, one with over 300 a., another with over 150 a., and the rest with under 15 a., were returned for Turkdean. (fn. 340) The break up of the Turkdean estate started in the late 1950s led to a reorganization of the farms, part of Rectory farm being added to the Leygore estate and the part of Glebe farm on the north side of the parish being incorporated in the Notgrove estate. Much of the land was farmed by its owners and of the six farms returned for Turkdean in 1986 the three largest had over 200 ha. (494 a.) and the others under 30 ha. (74 a.). In 1999 the Mustoe family farmed nearly 404 ha. (1,000 a.), Rectory farm comprised over 161 ha. (400 a.), (fn. 341) and Leygore farm, which had been in hand until the mid 1990s, was leased to the farmer of the adjoining part of Northleach parish. (fn. 342) In 1926 the farmland provided regular employment for 27 labourers, (fn. 343) but by 1986, when the smaller farms were worked part-time, eight labourers were hired on a regular basis (fn. 344) and in 1999 only two farmworkers lived in the village. (fn. 345)

In the early 19th century Turkdean was devoted to arable and sheep farming. The 654 a. recorded under arable crops in 1801 grew roughly similar areas of wheat, barley, oats, and turnips; (fn. 346) according to at least one farmer turnips were the best food for increasing the size of sheep. (fn. 347) Two shepherds lived in the parish in 1841. (fn. 348) The crop rotation included also large areas of grass and clover in the mid 19th century and only 141 a. was returned as permanent grassland compared with 1,816 a. as arable and 12 a. as fallow in 1866. (fn. 349) The animals returned in that year included 856 sheep, 187 cattle, including 27 milk cows, and 46 pigs. (fn. 350) Substantial cattle sheds were among the farm buildings erected at Leygore during that period. Sheep farming remained important in the late 19th century and most if not all of the farms had their own shepherd at that time. (fn. 351) The amount of arable land fell and the area of grazing land increased; in 1896, when at least 70 a. was fallow, 462 a. was returned as permanent grassland and 25 a. as heath land, presumably rough grazing. The animals returned in 1896 included 922 sheep, 137 cattle of which only 5 were in milk, and 145 pigs. (fn. 352)

The reduction in the area of arable farming continued in the early 20th century (fn. 353) and in 1926, when 504 a. was described as permanent grassland and 452 a. as rough grazing, only 396 a. was under cereals and 8 a. was fallow. The livestock returned included 384 ewes, 286 cattle of which 24 were in milk, 95 pigs, and, among the poultry, 742 chickens. (fn. 354) In 1956, when at least 703 a. was given over to grazing and 664 a. to growing cereals, 431 a. was described as permanent grassland and the livestock included 483 ewes, 415 beef and dairy cattle, 198 pigs, and 1,604 poultry. (fn. 355) From the mid 20th century the number of cattle fell and in 1986, when at least 163 ha. (403 a.) was grassland and 22 ha. (54 a.) rough grazing, 528 ha. (1,305 a.) was used for growing cereals and the farm animals returned for the parish included 945 ewes and 242 cattle. Of the three largest farms one mostly grew cereals and another raised cattle and sheep. (fn. 356) In 1999 the Mustoes, who had ceased dairy farming in 1946 and had sold their beef cattle some years later, had three quarters of their farm, the largest in Turkdean, under arable crops, including oilseed rape and linseed as well as corn, and owned a flock of several hundred ewes and a herd of 40 suckling cows. (fn. 357)

There is no evidence to indicate more precisely the location of a mill that in 1291 belonged to Llanthony priory's estates in Turkdean and Aylworth. (fn. 358) The route on the north side of Turkdean known in 1614 as mill way (fn. 359) probably led to a mill in Cold Aston. (fn. 360)

The earliest reference to quarrying in Turkdean is the presentment in 1386 of the vicar for digging stones at the cliff, (fn. 361) presumably the steep bank between Upper and Lower Turkdean where quarries perhaps in use in the late 19th and the early 20th century (fn. 362) had been long abandoned by 1999. Two tunnels dug in the bank, below the Northleach road, before the mid 20th century (fn. 363) were possibly abortive stone mines. Most stone quarried in Turkdean, including by the Foss way, (fn. 364) was presumably for local use. In the mid 17th century John Wheeler quarried perhaps more than 60 loads of stones in one common in the parish for rebuilding the farmhouse on the rectory estate. (fn. 365) Local stone was used in walls bounding medieval closes (fn. 366) and post-inclosure fields. In the mid 20th century farmer Mr. W. Mustoe excavated a new quarry in a field north-west of the village to provide stone for a long wall built alongside a section of the Notgrove road. (fn. 367) One of the earliest known Turkdean masons and builders worked in the late 1650s in an area including Maugersbury. (fn. 368) In the early 19th century several Turkdean residents were masons, including by 1835 William Mustoe (fn. 369) (d. 1902), (fn. 370) whose son continued his business and whose grandson, W. W. Mustoe (d. 1943), established a building firm in Northleach before taking up farming in Turkdean in the early 1930s. (fn. 371)

In 1608 a few Turkdean men followed the trades of smith, carpenter, tailor, and weaver. (fn. 372) In the mid 19th century, when most men living in the parish were agricultural labourers, Upper and Lower Turkdean each had a blacksmith and a carpenter. (fn. 373) A few other trades, including that of shoemaker, were also represented in Turkdean in the later 19th century but most trades died out in the early 20th century. (fn. 374) A grocer's shop was perhaps one of two stores in Upper Turkdean in 1851 (fn. 375) and its owner also ran a post office by 1889. (fn. 376) The village ceased to have a post office before the Second World War (fn. 377) and its sole shop in the mid 20th century, a confectionery shop in Upper Turkdean, closed before 1982. (fn. 378)

Local Government.

By the later 13th century Cirencester abbey had exempted Llanthony priory's tenants in Turkdean from suit of hundred court (fn. 379) and the priory held view of frankpledge in Turkdean for Lower Turkdean. (fn. 380) According to its surviving rolls, for the years 1375–92, the priory's Turkdean court was sometimes held more than twice a year and, although it enforced the assize of ale and supervised the maintenance of roads and streams, its main business was as a manor court for the priory's estates in both Turkdean and Aylworth. (fn. 381) Following the division of Nether Turkdean manor in the mid 17th century the parts were regarded as separate franchises. (fn. 382) That the southernmost part of Turkdean adjoining the Foss way and the ancient route along the south boundary used to be called gallows furlong suggests that a gibbet once stood there or near by. (fn. 383) Leet jurisdiction in Upper Turkdean belonged to the honor of Wallingford (later the honor of Ewelme) and was exercised in a court held at Little Rissington. The earliest surviving roll of the court is for 1422 (fn. 384) and the Turkdean constable attended the court until at least 1808. (fn. 385) Oseney abbey held a court for Turkdean and records of that court survive for 1427, 1499, (fn. 386) and 1511. (fn. 387)

Turkdean had two churchwardens in 1498 and later. (fn. 388) Of the other parish officers there were two surveyors of the highways in 1768 and 1824. (fn. 389) Poor relief, administered by one overseer by 1799, cost £49 in 1776 and £112 in 1803. It took the usual forms, but by 1799 and until 1804 the parish bought wool for a few women to card and spin under the supervision of a master; during that period the annual cost fluctuated considerably and sometimes exceeded £200. In 1803 there were 17 people in receipt of regular help and 4 occasional help (fn. 390) and in 1815, when the cost was £168, 14 people received regular and 13 occasional help. (fn. 391) Between 1825 and 1834 the cost fell from £215 to just over £100. (fn. 392) Turkdean joined the new Northleach poor-law union in 1836 (fn. 393) and became part of Northleach rural district in 1895 (fn. 394) and part of Cotswold district in 1974.

Church.

In the early 12th century Ralph Basset, the justiciar, gave Turkdean church to his son Ralph, a clerk, and by 1151 the younger Ralph had granted it to Oseney abbey. (fn. 395) In the later 12th century the church was held for a time under its rector by a farmer, who received two thirds of demesne tithes in Turkdean in the name of a canon of St. George's church in Oxford castle until that canon's death. (fn. 396) St. George's church had been granted those tithes in the later 11th century and Oseney abbey owned them from 1149. (fn. 397) About 1176 the abbey granted William son of Henry and his immediate successor each the right to present once to the church, their priests to pay a pension to the abbey and the right of patronage to revert to the abbey. (fn. 398) The abbey was allowed to appropriate the church c. 1215, and it ordained a vicarage, (fn. 399) first recorded in 1289. (fn. 400) The living remained a vicarage (fn. 401) and in 1967 it was united with Cold Aston and Notgrove. (fn. 402) From 1986 Turkdean was served with other parishes by a priest-incharge based in Northleach. (fn. 403)

The advowson of the vicarage belonged to Oseney abbey (fn. 404) and after the Dissolution it passed with the impropriate rectory to the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford. (fn. 405) Although in 1635 the king was said to be the patron, the dean and chapter exercised the patronage themselves (fn. 406) and retained it after the sale of the rectory estate in 1911. (fn. 407) In 1964 the patronage passed by exchange to the bishop (fn. 408) and from 1967 he had the right to present at every third vacancy in the united benefice. (fn. 409)

In 1614 the vicar's glebe comprised a house, an adjoining close, 2 yardlands of arable, and pasture for 100 sheep, 6 beasts, and 2 horses. The ancient endowment of the living also included the corn tithes of 3 yardlands, some hay tithes, and all the small tithes, including those of lambs and wool, of the parish. (fn. 410) The hay tithes were taken in particular meadows and in the late 17th century, when some of those meadows were under the plough, the lessee of the rectory, which included all the other tithes of the parish, successfully impleaded the vicar for the right to the tithe of corn grown there. (fn. 411) In 1720, in response to grants worth £210 from Thomas Edwards and Edward Colston, Queen Anne's Bounty awarded £200 for the living's augmentation, (fn. 412) and in 1722 those sums were used to buy land in Badgeworth. (fn. 413) At the inclosure of Turkdean in 1793 the vicar's tithes were commuted for land and 6s. 6d. in rents, and a farmhouse and other buildings in the village were assigned to the living in exchanges of land, leaving the glebe with c. 172 a. in Turkdean. (fn. 414) The living is said to have been augmented by another grant of £200 in 1820 (fn. 415) and a meadow near the vicarage house was added to the glebe in the 1870s. (fn. 416) The Turkdean land was sold to W. A. Rixon in 1908 (fn. 417) and the Badgeworth land remained the property of the benefice until 1951. (fn. 418)

Turkdean church was valued at £5 in 1291. (fn. 419) The vicarage was valued at £7 in 1522, (fn. 420) £10 in 1535, (fn. 421) and £40 in 1650. (fn. 422) In 1750 the living's value excluding the augmentation from Queen Anne's Bounty was put at £36 (fn. 423) and in 1856 it was £228. (fn. 424)

In or before the 17th century the vicarage house was, to judge from a chamfered beam, thick walls, and external quoining, a range aligned NE.–SW. The vicar Henry Massey, who is said to have rebuilt the house in 1733, (fn. 425) possibly raised the building and extended it on an L plan, and a later vicar Thomas Bowen, who is said to have 'made it more complete' in the later 18th century, (fn. 426) presumably filled in the south angle. The rooms in that angle are taller and they were refitted c. 1820. (fn. 427) The house stood right up against the yard of the rectory farmhouse, to the north-east, and in 1839, to improve the vicar's accommodation, a strip of land containing farm buildings was added to the vicarage grounds; one of the outbuildings was retained and converted by the vicar Frederick Biscoe as a stable, coach house, and laundry. (fn. 428) In 1847 the house, which had two storeys with attics and was roughly square with a north-west entrance, was enlarged and reoriented for Biscoe by the Cirencester builder Thomas Bridges; rooms were added on the north-west front and an entrance bay with a stepped gable was created in the centre of the south-west front, which gave access to a new hall. (fn. 429) From 1947 the incumbent lived outside the parish and in 1948 the house was sold. (fn. 430) In the 1960s a new staircase was inserted in the Victorian hall; (fn. 431) the flight from the 1st floor to the attics survives in place from the pre-1847 house. (fn. 432)

In 1340 the bishop appointed a priest to administer the living of Turkdean as assistant to the vicar and the following year another man, from Arlington, became vicar on the death of the incumbent. (fn. 433) John Stackhouse, vicar 1535–60, (fn. 434) was unable to recite the Ten Commandments and expound the Apostles' Creed in 1551. (fn. 435) His successor Richard Edmunds, vicar of Little Barrington, resided in Turkdean and served both cures; in 1563 he was presented for not performing services at Turkdean at the appropriate times and for keeping a mistress. (fn. 436) Gilbert Hodson, vicar from 1572, was not a graduate and was categorized in 1593 as a sufficient scholar but no preacher. (fn. 437) Presented in 1602 for not preaching, (fn. 438) he retained the living until the early 1630s. (fn. 439) Rowland Wilde, vicar in 1642, (fn. 440) also acquired the livings of Stowon-the-Wold and Lower Swell (fn. 441) and in 1643 he handed possession of Turkdean church to Thomas Wilde. (fn. 442) Lewis Jones, the resident clergyman at Turkdean by 1649, (fn. 443) continued to serve the church as curate in the early 1660s. (fn. 444) Thomas Wilde, who secured the vicarage at the Restoration, (fn. 445) employed another curate in 1669 and had resigned the living by 1673. (fn. 446)

Henry Massey, vicar 1731–57, was the first of a succession of graduates of Christ Church college, Oxford, holding the perpetual curacy of Aldsworth in plurality with Turkdean, by the gift of the dean and chapter of Christ Church, between 1736 and 1837. (fn. 447) Massey, who was also assistant master at Northleach grammar school, (fn. 448) provided full services at Turkdean except in the winter. (fn. 449) Thomas Bowen, vicar 1757–98, (fn. 450) lived in Turkdean. (fn. 451) George Illingworth, vicar 1798–1807, employed a curate there and retained a living in Hampshire. (fn. 452) In 1817 the living was under sequestration and a stipendiary curate was appointed to serve Turkdean and Aldsworth from Turkdean, but in 1825 George Hornsby, vicar 1807–37, (fn. 453) resided and the church had a single Sunday service alternately in the morning and afternoon. (fn. 454) Frederick Biscoe, vicar 1837–80, (fn. 455) had Turkdean as his sole benefice and in 1859 conducted two Sunday services in the church. (fn. 456) Turkdean continued to have its own incumbent until just after the Second World War, but from 1947 it was served by a priest living outside the parish. (fn. 457) In 1999 there was a Sunday service in the church every other week.

Turkdean church was dedicated to ALL SAINTS probably by the later 18th century; (fn. 458) it bore a dedication to St. Mary in 1558 (fn. 459) and allegedly to St. Michael in 1735. (fn. 460) The church comprises chancel, nave with north porch and south aisle, and west tower, and the chancel floor is much higher than that of the rest of the building. The site is very close to the former rectory buildings, to the south. Fragments of decorated stone of the mid 11th century incorporated in the west wall may indicate the presence of an 11th-century church on the site, but the oldest standing fabric, notably the west end of the nave, dates from the early 12th century and was possibly built by Ralph Basset, the justiciar.

Although small, the 12th-century church was very elaborately decorated. Its aisleless nave, which was slightly wider on the north than the present nave, was divided externally into bays by short, three-stage buttresses; there are three similar, graduated buttresses on the west wall with a carving of a human head set above the central one. The corbel table was of grotesque heads and abstract architectural forms. The nave had north and south doors, fragments of which survive; that on the north had an inner order comprising a multi-scalloped capital and chipcarved impost supporting three bands of chevron ornament and an outer hoodmould with two rows of syncopated billets. The south door appears to have been similar and was apparently covered by a porch. The form of the 12thcentury east end is unknown as the chancel has been entirely rebuilt apart from the round chancel arch, which is plain and stands on chamfered imposts, but it is possible that the upper part of a narrow 12th-century doorway, blocked and reset in the chancel south wall, was part of a priest's door; it has a pelleted and diapered tympanum, diapered hoodmould and imposts, and a large inner roll on cushion capitals.

Much of the church was rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century. The south aisle, which has a blocked door, was added, and the north wall was partly rebuilt within the line of the previous north wall and with a porch. The tower was probably added at the same time. The nave arcade is of three bays with double chamfered arches on octagonal piers and bases. The north door has a Tudor-arched head with a square surround and there are blank shields in the spandrels; the hoodmould has male and female headstops like that on the entrance to the porch. There are two contemporary squareheaded windows in the nave north wall. The tower, which was built inside the west end of the nave, has low, flat chamfered arches to the nave and to the north and south. In 1500 there was a light dedicated to St. Anthony in the church. (fn. 461)

The chancel, the maintenance of which was the responsibility of the lessee of the rectory from 1633 if not before, (fn. 462) appears to have been almost entirely rebuilt since the Reformation. Its south wall contains a datestone of 1741, and Thomas Willan claimed to have spent a considerable sum of money on the fabric between 1806 and 1809. (fn. 463) In the 1850s parts of the church's fabric and fittings were described as unecclesiastical and unsightly. The chancel, which contained several box pews, had been reroofed; it had a round-headed east window, and the upper parts of the two lancets on its south side had been replaced by timber lintels. (fn. 464) A small west gallery had been erected (fn. 465) and the pews at the east end of the nave and aisle faced northwards towards the pulpit. (fn. 466) In 1859, as part of extensive repairs and alterations instigated by the vicar Frederick Biscoe, (fn. 467) the east window and the lancets in the chancel were restored, the gallery was removed, and box pews were replaced by low open seats. On the north side of the nave the window that the gallery had obscured was restored and a more recent rectangular window over the pulpit was blocked. During the restoration the church's 14thcentury font was damaged and a copy of it made; the late-medieval stone pulpit, which had been stored under the tower after it had been superseded by an oak pulpit, was reinstated in the nave; and some new fittings were introduced. Ceilings in the chancel and nave were taken down a few years later. (fn. 468) New roofs were built in 1897 when, during restoration work designed by Charles Lloyd Tudor, a relative of the then vicar, the chancel arch was opened up fully by the removal of the lectern from within its north side, the steps from the chancel to the nave were renewed, the pulpit was placed south of the arch, and the nave seating was reorganized to face east and leave the aisle free of pews. (fn. 469) The chancel and nave were repewed in the late 20th century. (fn. 470)

During the restoration of 1897 an altar stone was excavated together with fragments of 12thcentury capitals and columns at the west end of the aisle. (fn. 471) Traces of medieval and later decoration in the nave are the only survival of paintings uncovered in 1967. (fn. 472) The church bells comprise a ring of three, of which the second dates from the 14th century and the others were cast by Edward Neale of Burford (Oxon.) in 1641, and a sanctus cast by Neale in 1663. (fn. 473) In 1999 only the tenor was chimed; the second was not used and the treble and the sanctus were on the belfry floor in need of repair. (fn. 474) The plate includes a chalice and paten of 1717 and a salver of 1754, (fn. 475) the latter bought with a bequest from Anne Coxwell (fn. 476) (d. 1736). Most of the stone memorials remaining in the church are ledgers that once marked the graves of members of the Bannister and Coxwell families; (fn. 477) many were used in 1859 to make a narrow central walkway between the pews and were relaid again in 1897 to make the aisle floor. (fn. 478) Some of the chancel windows have later 19th-century stained glass and one aisle window contains a glass memorial by Henry A. Payne to Lady Bolton (d. 1924) installed in 1937 at the expense of her husband W. A. Rixon. (fn. 479) A painted rood screen by Peter Falconer (fn. 480) was given in memory of A. E. Moss (d. 1943) and his son-in-law F. W. D. Main (d. 1949) and dedicated in 1949. (fn. 481) The parish registers contain entries from 1572. (fn. 482)

In the churchyard are many richly carved headstones of the 18th century and the early 19th. Of the few tombchests, that of the vicar Thomas Bowen (d. 1798) is the only monument in the narrow part of the churchyard south of the church. (fn. 483)

Nonconformity.

Seven parishioners were enumerated as nonconformists in 1676 (fn. 484) and among several people not attending the parish church in the 1680s John Arkell was named in a royal pardon granted to nonconformists in 1686. (fn. 485) No other evidence of nonconformity in Turkdean has been found before 1830 (fn. 486) when a Stroud minister registered a cottage there as a place of worship. That mission may have been revived in 1835 when a Wesleyan Methodist minister from Stroud registered another house and, several weeks later, a Leckhampton man registered the house of George Draper (fn. 487) (d. 1860), also a Wesleyan Methodist. (fn. 488) The Wesleyan meeting, which Cheltenham preachers regularly visited, had an attendance of 34 in 1851. (fn. 489) The following year the Wesleyans registered another house in Turkdean and, although in 1859 they had no meeting house there, in 1865 their meeting had 14 members. Turkdean remained on the circuit plan until 1894. (fn. 490)

Education.

In 1592 a parishioner was teaching without a licence. (fn. 491) A day school established after 1825 (fn. 492) taught 15 children at their parents' expense in 1833. (fn. 493) It had closed by the later 1840s when separate Sunday schools, supported voluntarily, taught 20 boys and 21 girls in the church. (fn. 494) A mixed day school opened in 1850 taught in a room provided by the vicar Frederick Biscoe until a proper schoolroom was built for it in 1851. (fn. 495) Run as a National school by 1856, (fn. 496) it was re-established in 1874 in a new schoolroom near the church. The new school taught junior boys and girls and infants and it was supported by voluntary contributions and pence with a promise by local farmers to meet any deficit in income. (fn. 497) The average attendance was 30 in 1889 (fn. 498) and it had fallen to 18 by 1910. (fn. 499) In 1916 the school was closed for the remainder of the First World War, during which the pupils attended Hampnett school, and in 1919 it reopened with 21 pupils. (fn. 500) The average attendance was 19 in 1922 and 16 in 1938. (fn. 501) The school closed in 1950 and the children were transferred to Northleach school. (fn. 502) Later some Turkdean children attended Cold Aston school. (fn. 503) After its closure the Turkdean schoolroom may have been used as an agricultural store (fn. 504) before the building was enlarged and converted as a house.

Charity for the Poor.

Edmund Waller (d. 1810) by will left the income of £5,000 stock in reversion to provide bread, clothing, and blankets twice a year for the poor of Upper Turkdean, Farmington, and Beaconsfield (Bucks.). By 1835, when the bequest became operative, the principal had been reduced by the costs of litigation to £3,692 stock, (fn. 505) and in 1870 Upper Turkdean's share of the income was £36. (fn. 506) In 1887 the charity was divided into three and separate trustees were appointed for Upper Turkdean and for the other two parts. (fn. 507) Upper Turkdean's income, c. £30, was distributed in cash payments of £1 a head in the mid 20th century and in clothing and coal to up to half a dozen people in the late 1960s, when the charity occasionally benefited parishioners living outside Upper Turkdean. In 1970 a Scheme extended the charity's area to the entire parish and permitted cash payments and the provision of goods and services, (fn. 508) and in 1999 the charity was dispensed at Christmas in vouchers used mostly for fuel. (fn. 509)

Footnotes