Drayton St. Leonard 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 authorit ...

on the

River Thame The River Thame is a river in Southern England. A tributary of the River Thames, the river runs generally south-westward for about from its source above the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury to the Thames in south-east Oxfordshire. Course ...

in Oxfordshire, about southeast of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

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 manus ...

of 1086 does not list Drayton separately. At that time the land was part of the

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

's estate of Dorchester. The village developed as a subsidiary of Dorchester. Upon the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dorchester Abbey The Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul, more usually called Dorchester Abbey, is a Church of England parish church in Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire, about southeast of Oxford. It was formerly a Norman abbey church and was built on the ...

surrendered its lands to

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

and Drayton remained with the Dorchester estate. By the 18th century the

Earl of Abingdon Earl of Abingdon is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 30 November 1682 for James Bertie, 5th Baron Norreys of Rycote. He was the eldest son of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey by his second marriage to Bridget, 4th Barones ...

was the principal landowner. In the 19th century the family still held the largest acreage, but

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

had also become a significant landowner in the parish. Most of the land of the parish was farmed on 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 acr ...

until it was

enclosed 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 ...

in 1861.Lobel, 1962, pages 71–81

Church and chapel

The Church of England parish church of Saint Leonard and Saint Catherine existed by 1146, when it was a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

of the peculiar of Dorchester Abbey. The

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

doorways in the north and south walls date from this time. In the 13th century a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

al chapel was added on the north side and new windows were inserted in the nave, all in the

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 ...

style. The bell tower is timber, which is unusual for Oxfordshire, (though there is a similar timber tower with a pyramid roof at

Berrick Salome Berrick Salome is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about north of Wallingford. Since the 1992 boundary changes, the parish has included the whole of Roke and Rokemarsh (previously largely in the parish of Benson) an ...

). The oldest bell was originally

cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

in 1470, which could also be the date that the tower was built. In the 16th century two of 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 ...

windows were enlarged in the Perpendicular Gothic style. A stained glass portrayal of St Leonard in the lancet window in the north wall of the chancel originates from the middle of the 14th century, but most of the present pieces of its glass date from the 1859 restoration.

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect; one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishment of churches, and the de ...

and William Bucknall made the stained glass in the three-light east window of the chancel and two-light south-east window of the nave in 1894. The latter is based on a painting by the 15th century

Early Netherlandish painter Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian Netherlands, Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. ...

Dirk Bouts Dieric Bouts (born c. 1415 – 6 May 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts may have studied under Rogier van der Weyden, and his work was influenced by van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. He worked in Leuven from 1457 (or possibly earlie ...

in St. Peter's Church, Leuven in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

. In 1859, the building was drastically restored under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect

G.E. Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford, London, Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Gothic Revival architecture, Vi ...

. The external arch of the Norman south doorway was removed, all

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

was removed from the chancel windows, and a Sanctus bell turret and sundial were removed from the eastern gable of the nave. In 1884, the bell tower was strengthened, shingled and fitted with a clock. In 1552 St. Leonard's was recorded as having three bells. In 1884 when the tower was strengthened, Mears and Stainbank of the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

recast the three original bells and cast three new ones to make the present

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of six. Saints Leonard & Catherine is now a member of the Dorchester Team Ministry. The Old Rectory, which was sold into private ownership after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, was designed by the architect John Billing and built in 1862 in the

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style for the new rector the Reverend Arthur Williams and his large family. The first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel in Drayton is said to have been built in 1814. It was replaced with a new building on a different site in 1879. The chapel was still used for worship in 1958.

War Memorial

The village War Memorial is a sandstone cross, designed by

Sir Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

, architect of many well-known buildings including Buckingham Palace and Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. It was unveiled by Major General Sir Robert Fanshawe KCB, DSO in 1923. The memorial was restored with funds provided by the War Memorials Trust in 2015.

Secular buildings

The oldest secular building in Drayton is a timber-framed barn. Its date is unknown but it is thought to be about 1400. There are at least 15 houses and cottages dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, several of which are

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. The village has one public house, the

Catherine Wheel Catherine wheel may refer to: * wheel or breaking wheel, an instrument of torturous execution originally associated with Saint Catherine of Alexandria * Catherine wheel (firework), a firework that rotates when lit Arts and entertainment * Cather ...

. Licensing records show that it was a public house by 1841. For a time the village had a second public house, the Three Pigeons. The building is now a private house but retains its pub name. For many years Morrells of

controlled the Catherine Wheel but it is now a free house. The present structure dates from the 1930s, and replaced an earlier building that was destroyed by fire. A National School was completed and opened next to the parish church in 1855. In 1925 it was reorganised as a junior school, with older pupils being schooled in Dorchester. The school was closed in 1947 and is now the

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

Amenities

* The village has a small private airstrip. It is suitable only for

microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

s and STOL aircraft. * The Aston Martin Heritage Trust Museum is located in the village.

Gallery

File:DraytonStLeonard StainedGlass ChancelNorth.JPG, Stained glass of St. Leonard of Noblac in the parish church: mid-14th century, restored in 1859 File:DraytonStLeonard ChancelArch.JPG, Chancel of St. Leonard & St. Catherine's parish church, showing late 12th-century chancel arch and 1894 east window by Comper & Bucknall File:DraytonStLeonard nave southeast.JPG, Southeast corner of nave of parish church, showing Perpendicular Gothic window with 1894 glass by Comper & Bucknall and blocked arch of 12th century window File:Drayton St. Leonard church window.jpg, Wild animal window in parish church File:Drayton St Leonard War memorial.png, Drayton St Leonard War Memorial

Manor

Church and chapel

War Memorial

Secular buildings

Amenities

Gallery

References

Sources

External links