Cottisford is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, about south of
Brackley
Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inters ...
in neighbouring
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
. The parish's northern and northwestern boundaries form part of the boundary between the two counties. The parish includes the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of
Juniper Hill
Juniper Hill is a hamlet in the civil parish of Cottisford in Oxfordshire, England, south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire.
Juniper Hill was named after the common juniper, ''Juniperus communis'', which originally grew in the are ...
about northwest of Cottisford. The
2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 216.
The village stands beside Crowell Brook, which is a stream that passes the villages of
Hethe
Hethe is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.
Manor
The village's toponym comes from the Old English ''hæð'' meaning "heath, uncultivated ground".Lobel, 1959, pages 174-181
Before and after the Norman ...
,
Fringford
Fringford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded to the east by the Roman road that linked Alchester Roman Town with Roman Towcester, to the south by a brook that joins the River Bure, ...
and
Godington
Godington is a village and civil parish about northeast of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The parish is bounded on all but the west side by a brook called the Birne, which at this point forms also the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The pari ...
before entering
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of the
Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...
. Cottisford's
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
refers to a former ford across Crowell Brook. In the 13th century the village was called ''Wolfheysford'' or ''Urlfesford''.
[Lobel, 1959, pages 103–116]
Manor
The
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
records that in 1086
Hugh de Grandmesnil
Hugh de Grandmesnil (1032 – 22 February 1098), (known in French as ''Hugues'' and Latinised as ''Hugo de Grentmesnil'', aliter ''Grentemesnil'', etc.), is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle ...
was
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
overlord of Cottisford
Manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
and his son-in-law
Roger d'Ivry
Roger d'Ivry or d'Ivri or Rog'ive or Roger Perceval (died 1079) was an 11th-century nobleman from Ivry-la-Bataille in Normandy. He was the younger son of Robert de Breval and his wife, Albreda, daughter of Rodolph, Lord of Ivry.
He took part in W ...
was the lord of the manor. After d'Ivry's death his widow Adeline gave Cottisford to the
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
Abbey of Bec
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conc ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
. Bec Abbey owned
Ogbourne Priory
Ogbourne Priory was a priory in Wiltshire, England, from the 12th century until the early 15th.
There may have been a priory building in the 13th century, perhaps attached to the manor house at either Ogbourne St Andrew or Ogbourne St George; bo ...
in Wiltshire, which administered many of the abbey's English manors including Cottisford.
[
Ogbourne was an alien priory, ''i.e.'' it belonged to an abbey outside the English realm. In 1404 Henry IV was planning a military campaign in France so he granted Ogbourne Priory and all its manors jointly to his son ]John of Lancaster
John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford KG (20 June 138914 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son of ...
, the churchman Thomas Langley
Thomas Langley ( – 20 November 1437) was an English prelate who held high ecclesiastical and political offices in the early to mid-15th century. He was Dean of York, Bishop of Durham, twice Lord Chancellor of England to three kings, a ...
and the Prior of Ogbourne: William de Saint Vaast. The Prior died soon afterwards; in 1414 Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
suppressed the priory and by 1422 Thomas Langley had surrendered his share of the rights to the manors to John of Lancaster, whom Henry V had made Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...
.[
In 1435 the Duke died and in 1438 Henry VI granted Cottisford to his uncle ]Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 139023 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier, and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of E ...
. However, in 1440 Henry VI founded Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
and the following year he granted Cottisford to the new school. For several centuries the school leased out the manor to successive tenants who were lords of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...
. In 1885 the school sold the manor house and Warren Farm, and in 1921–22 it sold the remainder of its Cottisford estate.[
By the late part of the 14th century Ogbourne Priory was leasing out Cottisford Manor. Eton College continued the practice, commonly granting leases of 21 or 20 years. Richard Eyre, a son of the Reverend Richard Eyre, ]Prebendary
A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the ...
of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buildi ...
1710–45, obtained a lease on the manor in 1739 and renewed it in 1752. The younger Richard had spent 28 years working for the East India Company and became ''"a power in the village life"'' at Cottisford. In 1760, the year before Richard junior died, the school granted a lease to Thomas Bramston from Skreens in Essex and Richard junior's nephew Sir James Eyre. Bramston was a barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
at the Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
in London; Sir James was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...
. However Richard Eyre's widow Martha Eyre remained at the manor house until her death in 1772, and the following year the lease was sold by order of her executors.[
The buyer was the Reverend ]John Russell Greenhill
Rev. John Russell Greenhill (baptised 11 December 1727 – 20 December 1813) was an English cleric, known as the owner of Chequers, Buckinghamshire.
Life
He was the son of Samuel Greenhill (died 1749) of Swyncombe, Oxfordshire of the East India ...
, Rector of Fringford
Fringford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded to the east by the Roman road that linked Alchester Roman Town with Roman Towcester, to the south by a brook that joins the River Bure, ...
, who held the lease until his death in 1813. His son Robert Greenhill-Russell
Sir Robert Greenhill-Russell, 1st Baronet (1763 – 12 December 1836), born Robert Greenhill, was a British politician.
He was born in 1763 to the Rev. John Russell Greenhill and Elizabeth Noble. He was the grandson of Elizabeth Russell, who be ...
, Member of Parliament for Thirsk
Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby.
History
Archeological fin ...
, inherited the lease but gave it up in 1825. A succession of tenants then owned the lease until 1885, when the school sold the freehold of the manor house and Warren Farm to its tenant, Edwards Rousby. His son FR Rousby inherited the estate but later sold it to Robert Brooke-Popham
Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham, (18 September 1878 – 20 October 1953) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a wing commander and senior staff o ...
.[
Manor Farm is a 14th century ]manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
built of rubble masonry
Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...
. Surviving 14th century details include two windows and an octagonal chimneystack. Four more windows date from the 15th century. The house has a solar and originally had a medieval hall, but in the 16th century an intermediate floor was inserted to create upstairs rooms. Also in the 16th century a south wing containing a parlour was added. The house was enlarged again in the 19th century. A 12th-century window in the north gable of the house is not original to the house and must have been salvaged from a building elsewhere. The house is a Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. On Crowell Brook just below Manor Farm is a set of fishponds, the earliest record of which is from 1325.[
Cottisford House is a newer manor house built before 1707. It is of coursed rubble with ]ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s and has a hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
with attic dormer
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s. William Turner, who leased the house from 1825,[ had the house altered and enlarged in about 1830. In its grounds is a square dovecote.][
]
Other estates
The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives
Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives (, literally ''Saint-Pierre on Dives'') is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. owned one hide of land at Cottisford until 1237, when it granted the estate to the Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
Biddlesden Abbey
Biddlesden was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by Arnold de Bosco (de Bois), steward to the Earl of Leicester. Abbot William Wibert was deposed in 1198 for fraud, gross immorality and bribery. In the 14th to 15th centuries there was a long run ...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
. Some time after 1266 Biddlesden quitclaimed
Generally, a quitclaim is a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaims renounces or relinquishes a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in land. Originally a c ...
the hide to the Abbey of Bec, which continued to let it separately from the main manor that it controlled through Ogbourne Priory.[
In 1527 a member of the Fermor family of Somerton bought six yardlands of land at Cottisford. The land was later sold but Thomas Fermor (died 1580), lord of the manor of Hardwick retained grazing rights on the land after its sale. Anthony Cope of Hanwell Castle owned the estate by 1606, in which year he also bought another of land at Cottisford. At some point the Cope baronets sold their land at Cottisford, and by the early part of the 18th century the Fermors, now living at ]Tusmore Park Tusmore Park can mean
* Tusmore Park, a country estate in Oxfordshire, England
* Tusmore Park, a public park in Adelaide, South Australia
{{geodis ...
, owned 23 yardlands at Cottisford including the former Cope estate. When Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham, DL (23 August 1806 – 5 February 1889), styled Lord Howard from 1837 to 1845, was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
Background and education
Howard was the eldest son of General Kenneth Howard, ...
bought the Fermors' Tusmore estate in 1857 it included the land at Cottisford. His heir Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham (7 February 1837 – 4 May 1898) was an English peer, styled Lord Howard from 1845 to 1889.
He was educated at Harrow School, Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, and served as a cornet (rank), cornet in the Oxfor ...
died in 1898, and between then and 1920 Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham
Henry Alexander Gordon Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham, DL (15 August 1866 – 6 May 1927), styled Lord Howard from 1889 to 1898, was an English peer and member of the House of Lords. He inherited the earldom from his father, Henry Howard, 3rd Earl ...
broke up and sold the estate at Cottisford.[
]
Parish church
It has been suggested that parts of the Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
of Saint Mary the Virgin
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
may be Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
. It has proportions like those of a Saxon church: long and narrow, and taller than it is wide. The quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
at all four corners of the building are a puzzle. On the one hand they are a mixture of long flat slabs and tall narrow blocks, like Saxon quoins in many other buildings. On the other hand, the quoins are not laid in the strict long-and-short alternation diagnostic of Saxon work.
All the windows are certainly later work, but in the nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
the windows in the west wall and in the western parts of the north and south walls are high up, in positions similar to where Saxon windows would have been positioned. Low down in the east wall is a blocked arch very roughly made of uneven stones. It is of such rough workmanship that it could be from any period, but if it were Saxon it would be the wall of a ''porticus
A porticus, in church architecture and archaeology, is usually a small room in a church. Commonly, porticus form extensions to the north and south sides of a church, giving the building a cruciform plan. They may function as chapels, rudimentary ...
''.
Cottisford certainly had a parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
by 1081, when Hugh de Grandmesnil gave it, along with its tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...
income and a hide of land, to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche The Abbey of Saint-Evroul or Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche (''Saint-Evroult-sur-Ouche, Saint-Evroul-en-Ouche, Saint-Evroult-en-Ouche, Abbaye de Saint-Evroult, Sanctus Ebrulphus Uticensis '') is a former Benedictine abbey in Normandy, located in the present ...
. In 1167 St. Evroul Abbey transferred its property, tithes and land at Cottisford to Bec Abbey, which by then owned the manor of Cottisford.[
St. Mary's was rebuilt in the 13th century. It is a small building with only a ]nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
, chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
and south porch. The porch is Early English Gothic
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
and has a sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
. The east window of the chancel dates from about 1300. The Gothic Revival architect Charles Buckeridge
Charles Buckeridge (''circa'' 1832–73) was a British Gothic Revival architect who trained as a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He practised in Oxford 1856–68 and in London from 1869. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of B ...
restored the building in 1861 and the present font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
was added at the same time.[ There is no bell tower but there is a belfry in the apex of the roof. The church had two bells in the 16th century.][ These have not remained but the church now has two bells cast in 1710 and 1858 and a small 17th century sanctus bell. In the churchyard are the base and shaft of a medieval stone cross. St. Mary's is a ]Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
St. Mary's is now part of the Shelswell
Shelswell is a hamlet in Oxfordshire about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire.
Manor
Shelswell's toponym comes from Old English and suggests that the settlement may originally have been the well belonging to ''Scield'', a Saxon ...
group of parishes.
Social and economic history
A watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...
was built in about 1230, presumably on Crowell Brook. In 1292 the parish had both the watermill and a windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
. Neither mill's fate is clear, but by the second half of the 18th century the estate seems to have been using a mill at Fringford instead.[
An ]open field system
The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acre ...
of farming prevailed in the parish until 1854. Attempts by successive lords of the manor to get Parliament to pass an inclosure act
The Inclosure Acts, which use an archaic spelling of the word now usually spelt "enclosure", cover enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1 ...
for Cottisford's common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person ...
s were defeated in 1761, 1777 and 1809. Parliament finally passed an enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
act for the parish in 1848 but the enclosure award to redistribute the land was not settled until 1854.[
The enclosure award included setting aside a plot of land for a village school. In 1856 the school and adjoining schoolmistress's cottage were built with funds provided by Eton College. The parish church ran it as a National School until it closed in 1920. ]Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. It is an elected body responsible for some local government services in the county, includ ...
reopened it as a county school in 1924 and reorganised it as a junior school in 1929. It was still open in 1954[ but has since been closed.
The author ]Flora Thompson
Flora Jane Thompson (née Timms; 5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet best known for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, ''Lark Rise to Candleford''.
Early life and family
Thompson ...
Friends of Flora Thompson
/ref> (1876–1947) grew up in Juniper Hill and was a pupil at Cottisford School. She wrote the ''Lark Rise to Candleford
''Lark Rise to Candleford'' is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. The stories were previously published se ...
'' trilogy of novels, in which she modelled the village of "Fordlow" on Cottisford.[
]
References
Sources and further reading
*
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
Cottisford
Cottisford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire. The parish's northern and northwestern boundaries form part of the boundary between the two counties. The parish includes the ha ...