Glympton 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 ...
on the
River Glyme
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...
about north of
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 Wo ...
. The
2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 80. The village and church are owned by the
Glympton Park estate.
History
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 funct ...
in the southern part of the parish, just north of Grim's Dyke Farm, was dug in the 1st century.
The surviving section is about long and is a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
The first known record of Glympton's existence is a charter from about 1050 in which it is given as a witness's address. In the reign of King
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
, Wulfward the White, a
thegn
In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...
of Edward's consort Queen
Edith
Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and vari ...
, held the
manor of Glympton. Wulfward survived the
Norman conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
but by 1086
King William I had granted the manor to
Geoffrey de Montbray
Geoffrey de Montbray (Montbrai, Mowbray) (died 1093), bishop of Coutances ( la, Constantiensis), also known as Geoffrey of Coutances, was a Norman nobleman, trusted adviser of William the Conqueror and a great secular prelate, warrior and adminis ...
,
Bishop of Coutances
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Coutances (–Avranches) (Latin: ''Dioecesis Constantiensis (–Abrincensis)''; French: ''Diocèse de Coutances (–Avranches)'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Its mother church is the Cathe ...
. By 1122
Geoffrey de Clinton
Geoffrey de Clinton (died c. 1134) was an Anglo-Norman noble, chamberlain and treasurer to King Henry I of England. He was foremost amongst the men king Henry "raised from the dust". He married Lescelina.
Life
Clinton's family origins are a litt ...
, chamberlain of
Henry I of England
Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in ...
held the manor.
[
]
Both 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 ...
of 1086 and the Hundred Rolls The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named after the hundreds by which most returns were recorded.
Th ...
of 1279 record Glympton as having 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 ...
. The mill was rebuilt in 1292 and 1326, but by 1362 was in such disrepair as to be worthless. In 1632 Glympton was said to have two mills but in 1659 there was only one. It was last recorded in 1724 and had gone by 1767.[ In 1154 woodland in the south of the parish was taken into the royal forest of ]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 barr ...
.[ To some extent this was disafforested in about 1300. At about the same time villagers expanded their fields by ]assarting
Assarting is the act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes. In English land law, it was illegal to assart any part of a royal forest without permission. This was the greatest trespass that could be committed in a ...
, which is the process of clearing woodland for cultivation. At least of assart land changed hands in 1322, by 1426 one of the manors had of assart land, and in 1631 the parish's assarts were estimated at . Fields or furlong
A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use in hors ...
s with names ending in ''"-ley"'' suggest an origin as assarts, including Lutches Ley, Edamesley, and Bradeley.[ The name of Glympton Assarts Farm, about south of the village, is further evidence that villagers assarted southwards into the Wychwood.
]
From about 1585 Thomas Tesdale
Thomas Tesdale (1547–1610) was an English maltster, benefactor of the town of Abingdon in the English county of Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) and the primary founding benefactor of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Life and career
Thomas was born in ...
of Abingdon leased the manor from the Cupper family who had held it since John Cupper bought it in 1547. Tesdale was a malt
Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.
Malted grain is used to make beer, wh ...
ster, but at Glympton he raised cattle and grew woad
''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...
for dyeing. Tesdale died in 1610 leaving £5,000 for scholarships and fellowships from 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 ...
to Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
. His widow Maud Tesdale died in 1616. Thomas is commemorated by a brass memorial on the chancel floor in St Nicholas' parish church. He and Maud are also commemorated by an alabaster double monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
set into the north wall of the chancel, in which almost life-size effigies of the couple kneel opposite each other at a prayer desk.[
In 1633 the manor was bought by William Wheate, whose grandson Thomas Wheate was created a ]baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
in 1696. The Wheate Baronetcy became extinct on the death of the 6th Baronet in 1816, but the family and their descendants continued to hold the estate until 1944.[ In 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 opposin ...
Major Frank Wheate Barnett (1906–40) was a staff officer
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
in the King's Royal Rifle Corps
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...
and died of wounds at the Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk (french: Bataille de Dunkerque, link=no) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on ...
on 2 June 1940.
Glympton village used to be grouped around the parish church. However, William Wheate moved the entire village about southeast to make way for the landscaping of Glympton Park, apparently in the 1630s or 1640s, leaving the parish church isolated in its original position. The gate lodge to Glympton Park was probably built at this time,[ and despite a restoration in 1880 the lodge remains essentially a 17th-century house. Glympton Park is a ]country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
that was built for the Wheate family in the 18th century. At the same time the River Glyme was dammed to form the lake in the park.[ Apart from the parish church, no trace remains of the original village. Of the relocated 17th century village none of the original houses survives either. One 18th century inn survives as a private house. All the remaining houses in the relocated village were either remodelled in the 19th century or built new in the 20th century.][
Glympton's farmland 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 ...
earlier than that of many other parishes. There were records of some enclosures having taken place by the early parts of the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries. After William Wheate bought the manor in 1633 he began enclosing the remainder, and after 1690 Sir Thomas Wheate, 1st Baronet
Sir Thomas Wheate, 1st Baronet (6 September 1667 – 25 August 1721), of Glympton Park, Oxfordshire was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1721.
Early life
Wheate was the o ...
completed the process by agreement with his tenants.[ The main road through Glympton was once part of the main road between London and ]Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...
. It and the Oxford — Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
main road through the parish were made into turnpikes in 1729. Both roads ceased to be turnpikes in 1878.[ Since the 1920s the road has been classified as the B4027 and the Oxford – Stratford road has been the ]A44 A44 may refer to :
* A44 road (Great Britain), a road connecting Oxford, England and Aberystwyth, Wales
* A44 motorway (Germany), a road connecting Aachen at the German-Belgian border and Kassel
* A44 motorway (Netherlands), a motorway in the Nethe ...
.
Glympton's first record of a public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
is from 1648. By 1780 it had two inns, the Pole Axe and the Swan, presumably deriving some of their trade from the then turnpike roads passing through the parish. The Pole Axe had closed by 1784 and The Swan in about 1853.[ In the 18th century a ]Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
limestone, possibly part of the Taynton Limestone Formation
The Taynton LimestoneWeishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Middle Jurassic, Europe)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 5 ...
, was quarried at Glympton and used to build parts of Glympton Park house and Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non- episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, on ...
. It had poor resistance to frost, so at Blenheim John Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restora ...
used it only for internal walls or for backing external walls that were faced with better stone. If it was used originally for facing at Glympton Park, it must have been replaced when the house was rebuilt in 1849, as its facing is now entirely in Bath stone
Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...
. The village school was built in 1849 and became a Church of England School
A Christian school is a school run on Christian principles or by a Christian organization.
The nature of Christian schools varies enormously from country to country, according to the religious, educational, and political cultures. In some count ...
in 1903. It was reorganised as a junior school in 1922 and closed in 1932. In 1950 the building was converted into 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 ...
.[
By 1869 Glympton had 22 cottages.][ cited in ] A government report found them to be soundly built, let at a rent of 30 shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
per year, and ''"often paid for by selling the product of the apricot tree planted against the side of their houses"''.[ The village post office was opened in 1887][ and continues to serve the village. In 1949 the owner of Glympton Park had a row of four ]almshouse
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...
s built at Glympton. When their site was being prepared, a hoard of coins from the reigns of James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
and Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
was found, possibly dating from the English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. In 1646 Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
troops requisitioned food and carts from the village and in 1648 up to 50 Parliamentarian soldiers were billeted here.[
Prince ]Bandar bin Sultan
Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud (born 2 March 1949) is a retired Saudi Arabian diplomat, military officer, and government official who served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He is a member of the House of Saud. Fro ...
of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
owned Glympton Park and its estate from 1992 to 2021, when it was sold to the King of Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa ( ar, حمد بن عيسى بن سلمان آل خليفة '; 28 January 1950) is King of Bahrain since 14 February 2002, after ruling as Emir of Bahrain from 6 March 1999.
He is the son of Isa bin Salman ...
.
Parish church
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
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 ...
was originally 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 ...
and still has its Norman 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 ...
. 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 ...
was rebuilt in the later Middle Ages.[ The ]bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
was added in the 16th or 17th century. The 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 ...
was rebuilt and the nave was rebuilt again in the 1730s.[ In 1872 the ]Gothic Revival
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 ...
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 ...
had the chancel rebuilt, the Norman chancel arch enlarged, new windows inserted in the nave and a new porch and vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
added. The tower has a chime of five bells, the oldest of which was cast in 1784. The building also has a Sanctus bell that was cast in 1705.[ St Mary's is now part of a single ]benefice
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
with Asterleigh, Kiddington
Kiddington is a village on the River Glyme in the civil parish of Kiddington with Asterleigh about southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. The village is just north of the A44 road between Woodstock and Chipping Norton.
Manor
The toponym ...
and Wootton.
See also
* Clinton
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{Authority control
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
G. E. Street buildings
Villages in Oxfordshire
West Oxfordshire District