Cumnor is a village and civil parish 3½ miles (5.6 km) west of the centre of Oxford, England. The village is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of Botley and its centre is west of the A420 road to

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

. The parish includes Cumnor Hill, (a ribbon development between Cumnor village and Botley), Chawley (at the top of Cumnor Hill), the Dean Court area on the edge of Botley and the outlying settlements of Chilswell, Farmoor, Filchampstead and

Swinford Swinford () is a town in County Mayo, Ireland. It is surrounded by a number of smaller villages, including Midfield and Meelick. It is just off the N5 road, located 18 km (11 mi) from Ireland West Airport Knock (formerly known as K ...

. It was within

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

until the 1974 local government boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 5,755.

Amenities

Cumnor has two public houses, the ''Vine'' and the ''Bear and Ragged Staff''. It has a butcher, a hairdresser, a sub-post office and greengrocer and a complementary health clinic. The newsagent closed in 2018. It has three churches: 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 St Michael in the centre of the village, Cumnor United Reformed Church in Leys Road and Living Stones Christian Fellowship, which meets in the Primary School. The village has football and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

clubs, both located in Appleton Road. Cumnor Primary School has produced many notable pupils, who have attended schools such as Matthew Arnold School,

Abingdon School Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...

, Magdalen College School, Oxford High School for Girls, Our Lady's Abingdon and the School of St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon. The Oxford School of Music is in Cumnor Hill. Notable residents in October 2008 included novelist Philip Pullman and celebrity chef Sophie Grigson. The composer and conductor

Christopher Whelen Christopher Whelen (17 April 1927 – 18 September 1993) was an English composer, conductor and playwright, best known for his radio and television operas. Because much of his work was written for specific theatre productions in the 1950s, or dire ...

lived in Cumnor for several years until his death in 1993. Cumnor pub

AlexanderDennis Enviro400H HY11 BRD Cumnor

Public transport

Cumnor is served by the Oxford Bus Company routes 4 and 4B to Abingdon and Oxford and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire Gold route S9 to Oxford and Wantage.

Rivers and streams

Cumnor parish adjoins the River Thames on its south bank near Bablock Hythe. The centre of Cumnor village lies 1.5 miles to the east. The source of the

Osse Stream The Osse Stream or Osse Ditch, otherwise known as the Appleton Brook, is a small stream in the Vale of White Horse in historic Berkshire, since 1974 in Oxfordshire. The stream is a tributary of the River Ock, with its confluence near Marcham Mill ...

is a pond in Cumnor.

History

The earliest known record of Cumnor appears in a Saxon charter of 931 CE as ''Cumanoran''. The Domesday Book of 1086 terms it ''Comenore''. Other medieval spellings include ''Colmonora'' and ''Colmanora''. The name derives from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for "Cuma's hill-slope". However, a Benedictine called Cumma was Abbot of Abingdon about 730 CE. The parish in the Middle Ages was among the largest in Berkshire. It included Wytham, Seacourt, North Hinksey, South Hinksey and Wootton and was one of several in the Hundred of Hormer. In 1560 Cumnor Place saw the accidental death and rumoured suicide or murder of

Amy Robsart Amy, Lady Dudley ( née Robsart; 7 June 1532 – 8 September 1560) was the first wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of Elizabeth I of England. She is primarily known for her death by falling down a flight of stairs, th ...

, ailing wife of

Lord Robert Dudley Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ov ...

. The house was pulled down in 1810, because, it was said, her ghost gave locals trouble. In reality the house had become decrepit. Cumnor includes some houses by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect noted for his designs for Portmeirion. His Cumnor houses are some of his earliest commissions, including his first commission, Larkbeare (1903–04, completed 1907) on Cumnor Hill, designed whilst he was still a student at the

Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in t ...

. The other examples are Cutts End House (1911, Appleton Road), Hurstcote (1922, Appleton Road), and Larkbeare Cottage (1910, Cumnor Hill; originally a gardener's cottage associated with Larkbeare). He also designed Cumnor Rise Hospital at a similar time to Larkbeare (designed 1903–1904, completed 1907) but this was demolished in the 1990s. The Kimmeridge Clay Formation outcrops near Cumnor. The dinosaur ''

Cumnoria prestwichii ''Cumnoria'' is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a basal iguanodontian that lived during the Late Jurassic period ( Kimmeridgian age) in what is now Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Description The holotype of ''Cumnoria'' is ...

'' was discovered near Cumnor before 1879 and was named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1888.

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

based Lumsdon on Cumnor in his novel '' Jude the Obscure''. Cumnoria_NT

References

Sources and further reading

* * *

External links

Cumnor Parish CouncilCumnor Parish Record
from the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

, Oxford University {{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Vale of White Horse