|
Wychwood
Wychwood or Wychwood Forest is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Witney in Oxfordshire. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 1, and an area of is a national nature reserve The site contains a long barrow dating to the Neolithic period, which is a scheduled monument. In past centuries the forest covered a much larger area, since cleared in favour of agriculture, villages and towns. However, the forest's area has fluctuated. Parts cleared for agriculture during Britain's centuries under Roman rule later reverted to forest. The existence of the ancient Wychwood is recognised by the authoritative Victoria County History, but the planned Volume XIX has yet to be completed. Etymology Wychwood is derived from an Old English name ''Huiccewudu'' meaning 'wood of a tribe called the Hwicce. The Hwicce were the Anglo-Saxon people living in the area from some time in the 6th century until the assimilation of the Old English peoples into the wider Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ascott-under-Wychwood
Ascott-under-Wychwood is a village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about south of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 560. Toponym The village is one of three named after the historic forest of Wychwood; the others being Shipton-under-Wychwood and Milton-under-Wychwood. “Ascott” is derived from the Old English ''ēast'' (east) and ''cot'' (cottage). Manor and castle Ascot d'Oilly Castle was built in about 1129–50 and a stone tower was added to it in the 13th century. The castle bailey is now occupied by the manor house, which is mainly 16th and 17th century but contains some 13th century buttressed and other stonework. Parish church Holy Trinity Church of England parish church was built in about 1200 in a transitional style from Norman to Early English. Surviving transitional work includes the south porch, and the four-bay arcade between the nave and the north aisle. The chancel arch and the lancet wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shipton-under-Wychwood
Shipton-under-Wychwood is an English village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about north of Burford, Oxfordshire. The village is one of three named after the ancient forest of Wychwood. The others are Milton-under-Wychwood immediately to the west of the village and Ascott-under-Wychwood about to the east. The 2011 Census recorded Shipton-under-Wychwood's parish population as 1,244. Manors Langley About southeast of the village is the farmhouse of Langley, a largely mid-19th-century building. It is on the site of a royal hunting lodge that was built for Henry VII. Most of the Tudor monarchs stayed there when hunting in Wychwood Forest. King James I stayed at Langley in August 1605, and a French servant who died was buried at Shipton. The de Langley family were hereditary keepers of Wychwood Forest, Oxon. The office carried with it the tenancy of the manor of Langley in Shipton-under-Wychwood parish. The heir was Simon Verney (d. 1368) whose brother was William Ver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milton-under-Wychwood
Milton-under-Wychwood is an English village and civil parish about north of Burford, Oxfordshire, just off the A361 road between Burford and Chipping Norton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,648. History The village is one of three named after the ancient forest of Wychwood. The others are Shipton-under-Wychwood immediately to the east of the village and Ascott-under-Wychwood about away. In the 18th century Milton had its own clockmaker, William Green (1722–70). The Church of England parish church of St. Simon and St. Jude was designed by the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street and built in 1853–54. Street also designed the village school (now closed) and teacher's house, which were built at the same time. Amenities and economy The village has one public house, The Hare, which is a gastropub. For many years it was the Quart Pot pub, latterly controlled by Greene King Brewery, which closed it in 2010. The brewery sold the pub, and Acres Develo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leafield
Leafield is a village and civil parish about northwest of Witney in West Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Langley, west of Leafield village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 945. The village is above sea level in the Cotswold Hills. It was the highest point in Oxfordshire until the 1974 county boundary changes enlarged the county. Archaeology There are a number of tumuli in the parish, including Leafield Barrow, locally called Barry's Hill Tump, on top of the hill just to the north of the village. Leafield Barrow also has archaeological evidence for being the site of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle called Leafield Castle. The castle would be situated at a position in the village which would have given it a commanding view of the settlement. There are visible earthworks present which would add to the castle's defensive capability. The castle is believed to form a similar shape to that of Ascot d'Oilly Castle. History The parish is within ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Forest
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the original medieval sense was closer to the modern idea of a "preserve" – i.e. land legally set aside for specific purposes such as royal hunting – with less emphasis on its composition. There are also differing and contextual interpretations in Continental Europe derived from the Carolingian and Merovingian legal systems. In Anglo-Saxon England, though the kings were great huntsmen, they never set aside areas declared to be "outside" (Latin ''foris'') the law of the land.H. R. Loyn, ''Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest'' 2nd ed. 1991:378-82. Historians find no evidence of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs (c. 500 to 1066) creating forests. However, under the Norman kings (after 1066), by royal prerogative forest law was widely applied. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witney
Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ''Wyttannige'' in a Saxon charter of 969. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as ''Witenie''. Notable buildings The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin was originally Norman. The north porch and north aisle were added in this style late in the 12th century, and survived a major rebuilding in about 1243. In this rebuilding the present chancel, transepts, tower and spire were added and the nave was remodelled, all in the Early English style. In the 14th century a number of side chapels and some of the present windows were added in the Decorated style. In the 15th century the south transept was extended and the present west window of the nave were added in the Perpendicular style. The tower has a peal of eight bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hwicce
Hwicce () was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of the Battle of Cirencester. The ''Tribal Hidage'' assessed Hwicce at 7,000 hides, an agricultural economy akin to either the kingdom of Essex or Sussex. The exact boundaries of the kingdom remain uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–680, the early bishops of which bore the title ''Episcopus Hwicciorum''. The kingdom would therefore have included Worcestershire except the northwestern tip, Gloucestershire except the Forest of Dean, the southwestern half of Warwickshire, the neighbourhood of Bath north of the Avon, part of west Oxfordshire and small parts of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and north-west Wiltshire. Name The etymology of the name "the Hwicci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Leigh Roman Villa
North Leigh Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa in the Evenlode Valley about north of the hamlet of East End in North Leigh civil parish in Oxfordshire. It is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to the public. It was enlarged over time from the late 1st century AD to the early 5th century and eventually became a very large, luxurious ''villa rustica'' with 19 mosaic floors, and included a large agricultural estate with housing for farm workers and possibly slaves. Life there was very comfortable with access to the best local agricultural products and imported luxuries from sophisticated nearby towns such as Cirencester. It remains the only visible and visitable Roman building in Oxfordshire. Excavations The architect Henry Hakewill excavated the ruins in 1813–16. Professor Francis Haverfield conducted further excavations in 1910. Aerial archaeology in 1943 photographed the previously unknown plan of the southwest wing. Excavations for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stonesfield
Stonesfield is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish about north of Witney in Oxfordshire, and about 10 miles (17 km) north-west of Oxford. The village is on the crest of an escarpment. The parish extends mostly north and north-east of the village, in which directions the land rises gently and then descends to the River Glyme at Glympton and Wootton, West Oxfordshire, Wootton about to the north-east. South of Stonesfield, below the escarpment, is the River Evenlode which touches the southern edge of the parish. At the centre of Stonesfield stands the 13th-century church of James the Great, St James the Great as well as a Wesleyan Church, Wesleyan chapel, Stonesfield Methodist Church, slightly further west. The village is known for Taynton Limestone Formation, Stonesfield slate, a form of Cotswold stone mined particularly as a roofing stone and also a rich source of fossils. The architecture in Stonesfield features many old Cotswold stone properties roofed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a market town and civil parish, north-west of Oxford in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 3,100. Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is next to Woodstock, in the parish of Blenheim. Winston Churchill was born in the palace in 1874 and buried in the nearby village of Bladon. Edward, elder son of King Edward III and heir apparent, was born in Woodstock Manor on 15 June 1330. In his lifetime he was commonly called Edward of Woodstock, but is known today as the Black Prince. In the reign of Queen Mary I, her half-sister Elizabeth was imprisoned in the gatehouse of Woodstock Manor. History The name Woodstock is Old English in origin, meaning a "clearing in the woods". The Domesday Book of 1086 describes Woodstock (''Wodestock, Wodestok, Wodestole'') as a royal forest. Æthelred the Unready, king of England, is said to have held an assembly at Woodstock at which he issued a legal code no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grim's Ditch
Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different functions. Purpose The purpose of these earthworks remains a mystery, but as they are too small for military use they may have served to demarcate territory. Some of the Grims Ditches may have had multiple functions. Etymology The name "Grim's Ditch" is Old English in origin. The Anglo-Saxon word ''dīc'' was pronounced "deek" in northern England and "deetch" in the south. The method of building this type of earthwork involved digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has resulted in the name ''dīc'' being given to either the trench or the bank, and this evolved into two words, ''ditch'' and '' dyke'' in modern British English. The origin of the name ''Grim'' is shrouded in mystery, but there are se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornbury
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (28 November 1661 – 31 March 1723), styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was an English aristocrat and politician. Better known by his noble title Lord Cornbury, he was propelled into the forefront of English politics when he and part of his army defected from the Catholic King James II to support the newly arrived Protestant contender, William III of Orange. These actions were part of the beginning of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Cornbury's choice to support his cousin Anne instead of William after the rebellion cost him his military commission. However, Cornbury's support of King William's reign eventually earned him the governorship of the provinces of New York and New Jersey; he served between 1701 and 1708. As a High Tory governor, his primary mission was to protect the colonies during the War of the Spanish Succession (known in the Americas as Queen Anne's War, or the 2nd French and Indian War; 1701–1714). His admin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
