North Aston 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 ...
about south of
Banbury
Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census.
Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...
and north 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 ...
. The
2001 Census recorded its population as 212. The
2011 Census did not publish its population separately, but gave a combined total of 316 for the parishes of North Aston and
Middle Aston. The village is on a ridge about above sea level. The parish measures almost wide east – west and about north – south. It is bounded to the east by the
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell ( or ) is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Hellidon, Northamptonshire and flows southwards for to meet the Thames at Oxford in Oxfordshire.
The river gives its name to the Cherwell local g ...
, and to the north by a stream that flows east to join the Cherwell. The
A4260 road
The A4260 is a road that leads from the A422 Henneff Way, Banbury to Frieze Way near Oxford.
History Romans
The route followed by the road is that of a prehistoric ridgeway between the valleys of the rivers Cherwell and Evenlode. The Roman ...
linking Oxford and Banbury forms part of its western boundary. Field boundaries form the southern boundary and the remainder of the western boundary. In 1983 the parish covered an area of .
Manor
Overlords
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 ...
records that in 1086
Edward of Salisbury,
High Sheriff of Wiltshire
This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire.
Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle.
On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Go ...
, held the over-lordship of the
manor of North Aston, and that through him it became attached to the manor of
Amesbury.
[ From Edward, North Aston descended through his son Patrick to his grandson ]Patrick of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Patrick of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Salisbury ( 11221168) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and the uncle of the famous William Marshal.
His parents were Walter of Salisbury and Sibyl de Chaworth. Before 1141, Patrick was constable of Salisbury, a po ...
(died 1168).[ The overlordship descended with the Earls of Salisbury to ]Margaret Longespée
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...
, 4th Countess of Salisbury and thence to her daughter and heiress Alice de Lacy, 3rd Countess of Lincoln (died 1348) who was also 5th Countess of Salisbury.[ Alice was married to ]Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster
Thomas of Lancaster, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, 2nd Earl of Leicester, 2nd Earl of Derby, ''jure uxoris'' 4th Earl of Lincoln and ''jure uxoris'' 5th Earl of Salisbury (c. 1278 – 22 March 1322) was an English nobleman. A member of the House of Pl ...
but in 1322 he was deposed by a party of barons and executed.
One of the barons, Hugh Despenser the Younger
Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser (c. 1287/1289 – 24 November 1326), also referred to as "the Younger Despenser", was the son and heir of Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester (the Elder Despenser), by his wife Isabella de Beaucham ...
, obtained North Aston, which was now a manor of two and a half knight's fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish h ...
s.[ However, in 1326 Despenser was executed for treason. It is not clear whether ]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 ...
re granted the manor of North Aston immediately after Despenser's death, but by 1389 William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury
William Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, 4th Baron Montagu, King of Mann, KG (25 June 1328 – 3 June 1397) was an English nobleman and commander in the English army during King Edward III's French campaigns in the Hundred Years War. He was one ...
held it with the manor of Amesbury.[ By the late 14th century the Earls of March held an estate of one knight's fee at North Aston as part of the barony of ]Clifford Castle
Clifford Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Clifford which lies 2.5 miles to the north-east of Hay-on-Wye in the Wye Valley in Herefordshire, England (). It was the ''caput'' of the feudal barony of Clifford, a Marcher Lordship (owing a ...
.[ This is likely to be because Margaret Longespée inherited the barony of Clifford from her grandfather Walter de Clifford (died 1263).][
]
Lords of the Manor
In 1086 Edward of Salisbury's tenant at North Aston was Anchetil de Greye Anchetil de Greye (c. 1046 – after 1086) was a Norman chevalier and vassal of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the great magnates of early Norman England.
He is regarded as the ancestor of the noble House of Grey, branches of whi ...
.[ The tenancy had passed to the Trivet family by 1279 and to the Anne family by the middle of the 15th century.][ In 1554, on the death of a John Anne, North Aston passed to Sir ]Robert Broke
Sir Robert Broke SL (died 5 or 6 September 1558) was an English judge, politician and legal writer. Although a landowner in rural Shropshire, he made his fortune through more than 20 years' service to the City of London. MP for the City in fi ...
, Lord 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 othe ...
; possibly through the marriage of John Anne's granddaughter to Robert Broke's son.[ The manor descended ''via'' Broke's son John and grandson Sir Basil (died 1646) to Thomas Brooke. Sir Basil Brooke and his son were ]recusants
Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
and Thomas was a 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 governm ...
, so in 1653 the Commonwealth authorities sequestrated his estates.[ The Parliamentarian Major John Wildman, who speculated in confiscated lands, bought North Aston][ but in 1655 he was jailed. Thomas Brooke seems to have recovered the manor thereafter, as his sister Frances was married there in 1656.][ Thomas's grandson Basil inherited North Aston in 1687, and it remained in the Brooke family until Basil's widow Winifred died in 1716 leaving North Aston to another recusant: Henrietta Fermor, sister of James Fermor of Tusmore.][
Soon afterwards Henrietta seems to have sold the estate to Anthony Rowe, ]Clerk of the Green Cloth
The Clerk of the Green Cloth was a position in the British Royal Household. The clerk acted as secretary of the Board of Green Cloth, and was therefore responsible for organising royal journeys and assisting in the administration of the Royal ...
.[ Rowe's son-in-law ]Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough
Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough (1693 – 5 May 1742) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and politician who sat in the Irish House of Commons from 1713 to 1715 and in the British House of Commons from 1715 to 1722.
Hill was the eldest son of M ...
inherited North Aston from him but sold it in 1733.[ The buyer was Charles Oldfield, a Jamaica merchant who on his death in about 1740 gave the estate to his friend Charles Bowles.][ Three generations of the Bowles family held the estate, the last being Charles Oldfield Bowles who in 1862 sold it to William Foster-Melliar.][ When Foster-Melliar died in 1906 a Captain John Taylor of Southgate, Middlesex bought North Aston, which included a estate.][ In 1911 Capt. Taylor moved to North Aston Manor and sold North Aston Hall, and part of the village to ]Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford
Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford, KP, MVO (19 October 1864 – 21 August 1915), known as Lord Silchester until 1887, was an Irish peer and soldier.
Biography
Born in Dublin, Longford was the eldest son of William Pakenham, 4th Earl of Lo ...
.[ ]Lionel Hichens
William Lionel Hichens (1874–1940) was a British industrialist, chairman of Cammell Laird from 1910.
Early life
He was the second, posthumously-born son of John Ley Hichens, army surgeon, and his wife, Catherine Bacchus (1843–1924), and was k ...
, chairman of Cammell Laird, bought North Aston Hall in 1929 and his family still owned it in 1980.[
]
Manor House
The present North Aston 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 ...
is an H-shaped building of which the central part was probably the hall of a 15th-century house or earlier. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 the neighbouring and ultimately much larger North Aston Hall became the primary home of the 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 ...
of North Aston, while the manor house became one of the main farm houses of the estate. Occupied by various tenants, the property was called Great House Farm during the 18th and 19th centuries, later Manor House Farm. In the 1930s Captain John Vickris Taylor had a new house built on land that had once formed part of the tract associated with Great House Farm, and called this Manor Farm. In 1976 the Captain's son, Colonel Anthony Taylor, sold the Manor itself to Charles Mackenzie Hill, who subsequently also bought North Aston Hall.
North Aston Hall
North Aston Hall is a large Jacobethan country house built in the 17th century The ten- bay front was added in the 18th century and the present windows and parapet were added in about 1850.
Parish church
The Church of England parish church 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 ...
existed by 1151, when William of Aston gave it to the Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
Bradenstoke Priory
Bradenstoke Priory was a medieval priory of Augustinian canons regular in the village of Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, England. Its site, in the north of the county about west of Lyneham, is on a ridge above the south side of Dauntsey Vale. In th ...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
.[ The present building is mostly ]Decorated 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 ...
, with early 14th-century windows and north and south arcades. However, the south aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
ends in a chapel that has a 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic east window and the nave has a 15th or 16th-century clerestory. The baptismal font is in an unusual style and it is not known in what era it was carved. Sherwood and Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
suggested it might be 14th century; English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
says it is probably 17th century but might be earlier.[
One of its panels has been carved into a shield but the others are blank and the carving seems incomplete. In 1867 the building was restored and enlarged to designs by George Gilbert Scott, who had the north aisle extended to be as long as the south aisle. The church 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 Ir ...
.[ The tower has a ring of six bells. Henry III Bagley, who had bell-foundries at ]Chacombe
Chacombe (sometimes Chalcombe in the past) is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about north-east of Banbury. It is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary and to the south-east by the ...
and 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 ...
, cast the tenor bell in 1741. John Warner and Sons of London[ cast the fourth and fifth bells in 1866.][ ]John Taylor & Co
John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...
of Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...
[ cast the treble, second and third bells in 1979.][ Since 1976 St Mary's has been part of a united Church of England Benefice with the neighbouring parishes of ]Steeple Aston
Steeple Aston is a village and civil parish on the edge of the Cherwell Valley, in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire, England, about north of Oxford, west of Bicester, and south of Banbury. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
and Tackley
Tackley is a village and civil parish beside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It is about west of Bicester and north of Kidlington. The village consists of two neighbourhoods: Tackley itself, and Nethercott. The 2011 Census reco ...
.
Economic and social history
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 ...
records 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 ...
in the parish, probably on the River Cherwell.[ The Gambon family were the millers for most of the 13th century, and it continued to be called Gambon's Mill until the 18th century.][ From the latter part of the 16th century until early in the 18th century it seems to have been a double mill with two millraces and two separate tenants.][ The last known record of a double mill is from 1733.][ The Rose family were millers here continuously from 1673 until its commercial closure in 1938, although grain continued to be milled for local use throughout the period of the Second World War, and for a brief time afterwards. The Mill was sold off by the Estate in 1950 and by 1955 had been converted into a private home. Its machinery has been restored and in 1980 remained ''in situ''.][
The stretch of the ]Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames ...
between Banbury and Tackley
Tackley is a village and civil parish beside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It is about west of Bicester and north of Kidlington. The village consists of two neighbourhoods: Tackley itself, and Nethercott. The 2011 Census reco ...
was completed in 1787. It runs along the Cherwell valley and for a short distance it forms the eastern boundary of North Aston parish. A village school was built in 1844 and was supervised by the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
Diocese of Oxford
The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contain ...
.[ In 1872 it moved to new premises when William Foster-Melliar converted the original coach house to the North Aston Hall into a schoolroom with two teachers' cottages attached. In 1923 it was reorganised as a junior school and senior pupils were transferred to the school at ]Steeple Aston
Steeple Aston is a village and civil parish on the edge of the Cherwell Valley, in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire, England, about north of Oxford, west of Bicester, and south of Banbury. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
. After the second World War the number of pupils steadily declined, and in 1955 North Aston school was closed. For some twenty years the old schoolroom was a village hall for the community, but in 1976 the building was converted into a private house.
Current economy and amenities
North Aston has a substantial garden centre
A garden centre (Commonwealth English spelling; U.S. nursery or garden center) is a retail operation that sells plants and related products for the domestic garden as its primary business.
It is a development from the concept of the retail plant n ...
, Nicholsons Nurseries.
Climate
Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
subtype for this climate is " Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/ Oceanic climate).
References
Sources
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External links
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
Country houses in Oxfordshire
Villages in Oxfordshire