Berrick Salome 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 ...
in
South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...
, England, about north of
Wallingford. Since the 1992 boundary changes, the parish has included the whole of
Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
and Rokemarsh (previously largely in the parish of
Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
) and Berrick Prior (previously part of the parish of
Newington). The
2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 326. In 1965,
Reginald Ernest Moreau (1897–1970), an eminent
ornithologist, and a Berrick Salome resident from 1947, realized that he could build up a picture of the village as it had been in the decades before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, based on the recollections of elderly villagers. His study, which was published in 1968 as ''The Departed Village: Berrick Salome at the Turn of the Century'', also included an introduction to local history. This provided much of the information for "A Village History" which appeared in ''The Berrick and Roke Millennium Book'' and is the major source for this article.
Toponym
''Berewic'' is
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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...
for "barley farm"
and ''Salome'' is from the surname "Sulham". In the 13th century, Aymar de Sulham held the manor.
[ There is a ]Britwell Salome
Britwell Salome is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England centred northeast of Wallingford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 204.
Toponym
"Salome" is derived from the surname Sulham. There is a Berrick Sa ...
about to the east, and Sulham
Sulham is a village in West Berkshire, England. The larger village of Tidmarsh is adjacent to Sulham on the west side, with Tilehurst on the east side.
Governance
The two villages of Sulham and Tidmarsh share the combined civil parish council o ...
is a parish in Berkshire on the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
near Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
. ''Prior:'' Berrick Prior is the corn farm belonging to the Prior of Canterbury (see below: 'Middle Ages'). Liam Tiller gives early versions of the name as ''Berewiche'' (1086) and Berewick (1210, 1258). Moreau quotes later versions found in ''The Place-names of Oxfordshire'', as Berrick Sullame (1571), Berwick Sallome (1737, 1797), and, by the time of the 1863 Inclosure
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 ...
Award, Berrick Salome. In fact, the modern spelling can be found much earlier: the 1830 OS one inch map, reproduced in Ditmas, shows Berwick Salome, though in a smaller typeface than Berwick Prior.
Geography
Berrick seems to have been first settled because it had a reliable source of water. Springs rise to the north-east of the parish at the junction of the Upper Greensand
Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and c ...
and Gault
The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in ...
clay. The most significant of these springs rises near Grove Barn, and is the source of the brook which enters the village along Hollandtide Bottom and flows, culverted in places, past the village pond (which it does not feed) before turning south to run under the forecourt of the Chequers Inn, under the road and across fields, passing east of Lower Berrick Farm and then turning west toward the Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. Until the mains water was connected in the village, people in the northern part of Berrick drew their water from this brook, outside what is now the Chequers car park, leaning over a railing to scoop the water using what Moreau refers to as a "big dipper" which was kept on the bank there. He also notes that, as late as the 1960s, a resident of Berrick Littleworth could be seen crossing Back Street to draw water from a roadside brook flowing from Hillpit Spring.
Parish Church
Church history
Saint Helen's parish church is about east of the Chequers, well away from any houses, and at the dead end of a lane which is the surviving part of Keame's Hedge Way, an ancient track closed in the 19th century as part of the Inclosure
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 ...
process, which joined the east–west route along Hollandtide Bottom just north of the church. Christine Holmes, in ''Benson: A Village Through its History'' identifies a "straight Roman road running east from Dorchester along which the churches of Shirburn
Shirburn is a village and civil parish about south of Thame in Oxfordshire. It contains the Grade I listed, 14th-century Shirburn Castle, along with its surrounding, Grade II listed park, and a parish church, the oldest part of which is from ...
, Pyrton
Pyrton is a small village and large civil parish in Oxfordshire about north of the small town of Watlington and south of Thame. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 227. The toponym is from the Old English meaning "pear-tre ...
, Cuxham, Brightwell Baldwin, Berrick Salome and Warborough all lie". This road would have run through Hollandtide Bottom from Berrick to Brightwell. It has been suggested that, when St Helen's was built, there may have been houses grouped around the church,[ and that the village centre may have moved later to the junction where the track along Hollandtide Bottom meets routes to ]Chalgrove
Chalgrove is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Rofford and the former parish of Warpsgrove with which it merged in 1932. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
, Newington, Warborough, and Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
.
It is uncertain when the church was first established in Berrick but the fact that it is dedicated to Saint Helen suggests that it may have been founded (or refounded) in the late eighth century when King Offa of Mercia recaptured the Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
area from Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
. Holmes writes "St. Helen – an unusual dedication for Oxfordshire but allegedly a favourite of Offa".[Holmes, C, in ] Apart from Berrick and Benson churches, there is only one in the county dedicated to St Helen, at Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
(near Thame
Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...
).[ There is a view, not universally accepted, that parts of the present building, and, in particular, the font , predate the ]Norman conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
of England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The font has interlacing ornament of a style originating in Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
in the early days of English Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. The architectural historians, Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
describe the font as 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 ...
, while Liam Tiller comments, "It is surprising that such a high quality font should be found in such a small rural 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 ...
", and suggests that it may have been brought to Berrick from a larger church, perhaps Chalgrove
Chalgrove is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Rofford and the former parish of Warpsgrove with which it merged in 1932. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
, at a later date.[ Also, Moreau observes that Berrick church is not included in the Taylors' comprehensive work on ]Anglo-Saxon architecture
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with tha ...
.
Saint Helen's, Berrick has long been a chapelry of St Mary's, Chalgrove
Chalgrove is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Rofford and the former parish of Warpsgrove with which it merged in 1932. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
, and identical lists of incumbents displayed in both churches show that, at least from the 11th century, the two parishes have always had the same priest, although they have had no common boundary since Berrick Prior was transferred to Newington parish in the reign of King Canute
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norw ...
(as explained below). Moreau drew attention to another ecclesiastical oddity in the relationship; the incumbent is Vicar
A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...
of Chalgrove but Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Berrick. He/she lives in the vicarage
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
in Chalgrove, more than from Berrick church, and has no rectory in Berrick. The arrangement of boundaries (See below: '18th and 19th centuries') seems to have caused some uncertainty about parish responsibilities so that, in the middle of the 19th century, "Berrick Salome and Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
had been linked under the ministry of an assistant curate from Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
". At that time, as will be seen below, most of the houses in Roke, but only two in Berrick, fell within Benson parish, and in the same period, as Moreau records, there was an unusual protest against the 'discontinuance and stopping', under the Inclosure
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 ...
Award of 1853, of Keame's Hedge Way which provided a short cut for the residents of Roke going to Berrick church.[
Also unusual is the story Moreau had from the Treasurer of Christ Church, Oxford, about the intervention, in 1853, by the ]vicar
A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...
of Beckley, some away, who persuaded Christ Church to buy a plot of land to build a new church at Berrick Littleworth because "the present church at Berwick is very badly situated for the people at Berwick and very far from Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
". No new church for Berrick was built and control of the land, in Berrick parish, was given to the incumbent of Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
until it was sold over a century later. Perhaps the college preferred not to give control to the then Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Berrick, the radical Robert French Laurence, for fear that he would use the land to house the poor.
Church building
The church is long and the top of the tower
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
Towers are specifi ...
is only about above the roof 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 ...
. In 1615, an earlier nave roof was replaced by "one of typical queen-post
A queen post is a tension member in a truss that can span longer openings than a king post truss. A king post uses one central supporting post, whereas the queen post truss uses two. Even though it is a tension member, rather than a compression ...
type with a complex timber truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
". In 1676, a wooden gallery was added with dormer windows. "The circular stairway to the gallery at the west end of the central 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 ...
appears to have blocked the doorway to the tower."[ As there were only 80 'conformists' in Berrick in 1676, the gallery probably provided accommodation for the church choir and band.][ The names of the ]churchwarden
A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...
s responsible for both these improvements are recorded on now-faded signs.[ Sherwood and Pevsner commend the medieval tiles found in 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.
Ov ...
[ as one of the more notable collections in the county, along with those at Nuffield and ]Somerton Somerton may refer to:
Places Australia
* Somerton, New South Wales
* Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb
** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach
* Somerton, Victoria ...
. Saint Helen's has a timber-framed tower, much like that at Drayton St Leonard
Drayton St. Leonard is a village and civil parish on the River Thame in Oxfordshire, about southeast of Oxford.
Manor
The Domesday Book of 1086 does not list Drayton separately. At that time the land was part of the Bishop of Lincoln's estate ...
where there is a "low west tower with a pyramid roof and entirely timber-framed, unusual in Oxfordshire." Waterperry
Waterperry is a village beside the River Thame, about east of Oxford in Oxfordshire and close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin is partly Saxon and has notable medieval ...
also has a timber-framed tower while Lyford parish church has a wooden bell turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
.
"A photograph of Saint Helen's taken just before the restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in 1890 shows it had then merely been faced with simple weather-boarding carried nearly to the top, where, as now, horizontal apertures were contrived to release the sound of the bells." In 1890, the church was restored under the direction of the architect A. Mardon Mowbray. ''The Builder
''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...
'' magazine criticised the restoration, saying that it "exceeded real necessity", and it was condemned by 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 ...
as "a hideous application of all the trappings of fashionable late 9th century
The 9th century was a period from 801 ( DCCCI) through 900 ( CM) in accordance with the Julian calendar.
The Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking raids occurred within this period. In the Middle East, the House of Wisdom was founded in Abba ...
domestic architecture to a church."[ The tower has a ]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 bells. Henry I Knight of Reading, Berkshire
Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...
cast the second and fourth bells in 1621. Alexander Rigby of Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...
[ cast the third, fifth and tenor bells in 1692.][ John Taylor & Sons 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 ...
, Leicestershire cast the treble bell in 1836,[ presumably at their then foundry in ]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 ...
.[
]
Economic and social history
Middle Ages
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 ...
values ''Berewiche'' (Berrick) at £5 a year, compared with £30 and £15 respectively for the neighbouring parishes of Bensingtone (Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
) and Neutone ( Newington). The survey enumerates 4 serfs, 10 villeins
A villein, otherwise known as ''cottar'' or '' crofter'', is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and social status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them ...
and 6 bordars;[ the total population, including wives and children, was probably between 50 and 70. None of the men in the categories listed are freemen; all are within the hierarchy of ]serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which deve ...
, a modified form of slavery. "Villeins typically held land of their own in the village fields, but conditional on payment of dues and provision of labour to the lord 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 seig ...
, while ''bordari'' ordars or cottarsusually held smaller holdings, or cottages and surrounding plots only and owed heavy labour services obliging them to work on the lord's demesne",[Holmes, C, in ] and serfs, the lowest category, although they could not be sold as individuals, could be transferred with the land which they worked.[
The northern boundary was set in the early 11th century when a manor, bounded to the south by Hollandtide Bottom, was forfeited to ]King Canute
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norw ...
. He gave it to his wife, Emma of Normandy
Emma of Normandy (referred to as Ælfgifu in royal documents; c. 984 – 6 March 1052) was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the ...
, who passed it to the Prior of Canterbury. Ditmas shows this transfer as occurring in 997, five years before Emma's first marriage, to Æthelred the Unready
Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...
. As Newington parish was a peculiar[''Chambers Concise 20th Century Dictionary'' (1985) defines a 'peculiar' as a parish exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop] of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the manor, which came to be called Berrick Prior, was taken into that parish, as was Britwell Prior, which seems to have been part of the same gift.[ With its ecclesiastical connection came exemption from the jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Oxfordshire, and, even into the 20th century, it was still referred to, in some directories, as 'the ]Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
of Berrick Prior', although 'liberties' had been abolished in the 19th century. The transfer resulted in the northern boundary of Berrick Salome passing through the centre of the village and taking both the village pub and the village pond into Newington parish.
The village boundaries seem to have developed haphazardly from the earliest times and remained complicated even after the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882 which, locally, resolved only the position of some distant water meadows and invasive parts of Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
. A county-wide rationalisation in 1931 sorted out 'amongst others a patchwork of detached elements east of the village. Finally, in 1993, the four hamlets were unified within simple boundaries. Outside its eastern boundary, Berrick Salome parish included five exclaves
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
, all beyond the Ewelme
Ewelme () is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, north-east of the market town of Wallingford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,048. To the east of the village is Cow Common and to the ...
-Chalgrove
Chalgrove is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Rofford and the former parish of Warpsgrove with which it merged in 1932. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
road, in an area where there were also detached parts of both Benson and Ewelme parishes, while the southern boundary used to wind around the houses in Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
and Rokemarsh so that most of the residents were in Benson. Only the western boundary was relatively simple, but even there, the parish had once included water meadows 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
...
, south-west of Newington and about from Berrick. Within the boundaries, there were, in the centre of Berrick, midway between the Chequers and the southern fork, two houses and some plots of land which were detached parts of Benson parish.
18th and 19th centuries
St Helen's parish church is the only significant building and, as the Rev George Villiers A.M., rector from 1722 to 1748, reported to a diocesan visitation in 1738, "there is no family of note". Until the Berrick Salome Inclosure
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 ...
Award was made by the Inclosure Commissioners in 1863, most of the land in the village was still worked on the 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 ...
and there were few enclosed fields. Thomas Newton, who acquired Crowmarsh Battle Farm in 1792, started the move towards enclosure in Berrick. The farm name does not commemorate a local battle; it was recorded in the Domesday Survey "as land of the church of Labatailge attle Abbey. Newton made "his first documented attempt to promote enclosure at Benson in 1807".
Thomas Newton persisted for decades and, in 1827, promoted a Parliamentary Bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
which other farmers opposed. The opposition was led by three substantial farmers: John Franklin of Ewelme
Ewelme () is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, north-east of the market town of Wallingford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,048. To the east of the village is Cow Common and to the ...
, Edward Shrubb of Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
and John Hutchings of Berrick Salome; who were all concerned because "the common fields of Benson were so intermixed with those of Berrick and Ewelme that no measure could succeed unless it dealt with all three parishes." The opposition was successful, largely thanks to the work of their lawyer, George Eyre
Sir George Eyre (before 1782–15 February 1839) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Vice-Admiral of the R ...
, of another Ewelme farming family. However the Bill was presented again every November at the start of each new parliamentary session, opposed on each occasion, and in November 1830, local farm workers took part in the Swing Riots which, though directed against enclosures, involved Luddite
The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver ...
-style machine breaking. Some of the rioters were punished with transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
.
It was not until 1852, after the death of Thomas Newton, that the 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 Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
, Berrick Salome and Ewelme
Ewelme () is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, north-east of the market town of Wallingford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,048. To the east of the village is Cow Common and to the ...
was finally passed, and the Inclosure Commissioners then took another 11 years to make their Award. This must have affected nearly half the households in Berrick Salome, but Moreau found no impression that the change had disrupted village life. And the Inclosure Award did provide two great benefits to the villagers. The first was the allotment of 3 acres, 2 roods and 25 poles (about 1.5 hectares) "unto the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as a place for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants."[Inclosure Commissioners, ''Berrick Salome Inclosure Award'', 1863] In Moreau's day the annual 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 str ...
match was still held on this field. In the 19th century and early 20th century when every Saturday afternoon in the cricket season there was a match and Berrick Salome 'never got beat' (according to one old man interviewed by Moreau in the 1960s). The second was the allocation of 2 acres and 10 perches (about 0.84 hectares) to "the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor" of Berrick Salome "to be held by them and their successors in trust as an allotment for the labouring poor of the said parish."[ If his family were not to go hungry, the now landless peasant needed his pig, his garden and his allotment. Until well into the 20th century, few of the rural poor had any employment opportunities other than that as farm labourers.
Another, and less welcome, feature of the Award was the declaration of several dozen traditional roads, ways and tracks (mainly crossing common land) as 'discontinued and stopped'. Writing a century after the Award, Moreau found that resentment of the closure of Keame's Hedge Way was still remembered, and he records that there had been an unsuccessful attempt to keep it open by the curious device of carrying a corpse along the track. It ran south-east from a junction with Hollandtide Bottom, near Church Cottage, past the church, crossing the surviving road to ]Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
at Berrick Littleworth and emerging in Roke opposite Chapel Lane. While it survived, Keame's Hedge Way provided a more direct and shorter route to church for the residents of Roke. The stretch onwards from Berrick Littleworth remains as a public footpath. Moreau could find no explanation of the name. By the end of the 19th century, rural roads were in poor condition, being poorly maintained by casual labourers who scattered broken stone from local quarries or collected from fields. At that time, steam rollers were not used on rural roads so the loose stones were not compacted into a stable surface. This neglect had a tragic consequence in 1894 when a woman traveller, passing through Berrick, was "killed by falling from a tricycle in consequence of its coming into contact with a large flint." The coroner referred the case to the Watlington Highway Board, with some disapproval.[
Rev. Robert French Laurence (1807–85), who was vicar of ]Chalgrove
Chalgrove is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Rofford and the former parish of Warpsgrove with which it merged in 1932. The 2011 Census recorded the parish populatio ...
and Berrick Salome for the last 53 years of his life, was secretary of the local agricultural workers' trades union.[ He was a ]social reformer
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...
who campaigned for better housing for the agricultural workers and had new thatched cottages built for them in 'the parish'[ of Chalgrove, presumably, as the vicarage is in that parish. There was, for nearly 30 years, an infant school at ]Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
, funded by Christ Church, Oxford which held the advowson
Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living ...
to the Chalgrove-cum-Berrick living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* ...
. The school had closed by 1884, after which the infants joined the older children walking to Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
School. Moreau records that boots for that purpose were provided out of Mary White's bequest, a small charitable income left in 1729, to teach reading to the children of the poor in Berrick. Within living memory infant classes were held in the Band Hut.
Moreau recorded five licensed premises selling mainly beer to a local population of about 300 at the turn of the century. Four were within the parish boundaries: The Chequers in Berrick Prior and the Home Sweet Home in Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
were public houses
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 ...
, while the Plough and Harrow in Berrick Salome and The Welcome in Roke were off-licence
A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...
s. The fifth was the Horse and Harrow pub which, although in the centre of Rokemarsh, stood just outside the Berrick parish boundary. There were several small shops and post offices at different times; Moreau records that between 1890 and 1910 four different cottages hosted the Berrick post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
. His book includes photos of three of them, one of which is still known as The Old Post Office.
20th century
Moreau reported that, at the turn of the century, an adult 'day man' ull-time adult workerwas paid about 12 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 ...
a week (60p). He commented that this figure that had not increased much for a long time, but it seems possible that his informants understated the rates of pay. "Around this time agricultural wages in Oxfordshire were some of the lowest in the country, on average 14s 6d (72p) a week in 1902". However, the rapid spread of mechanisation, beginning with the appearance of the first tractors shortly before the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, brought about a steady decline in the number of farm labourers. As farms became more mechanised, young men sought other employment. Alison Reid writes "By 1930, the Morris car factories at Cowley, reached by bicycle and later by works bus, attracted workers from places as distant as Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
". By 1938 five residents of Berrick were working at Morris Motors
Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, William Morris's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same veh ...
. In 1930, the average weekly pay in the motor industry was £3.16s (£3.80), whereas the base rate of pay for agricultural workers set by the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act 1924 was £1 11s 8d (£1.58). Some rode motorcycles and bought their petrol from the shop next to the Chequers which at that time met most of the needs of the villagers.
The village is still surrounded by farmland but, by the end of the century, there was only one working farm left in Berrick – Manor Farm – and that was run by the farmer and his wife. There are six other properties which still bear the names of the little farms which used to occupy their sites. Today the cottages of Berrick Salome are likely to be owned and inhabited by business people or independent professionals. By 1999, none was occupied by a farm worker.[: by reference to the stated occupations of residents of old cottages] 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 ...
, indoor plumbing was introduced. At the turn of the Millennium, according to ''The Berrick and Roke Millennium Book'', there were 18 houses in Berrick Prior, 46 in Berrick Salome, 40 in Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
, and 24 in Rokemarsh.[: numbers of houses shown on the maps, with The Chequers and Hollandtide Cottage counted as Berrick Prior, and Roke Farm Cottages as Rokemarsh.] The increase in population may be related to the building of the M40 motorway. The M40 was built from London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to Stokenchurch in 1967, and extended through the Vale 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 ...
in 1974.[ M40 motorway, accessed 21 May 2013] Thereafter, London was about an hour's journey away.
Other local trades also declined in the 20th century. As noted above, there were five licensed premises in 1900. The Plough and Harrow (now Plough Cottage) and The Welcome closed early in the century, and the Horse and Harrow closed in 1988 after the death of its last landlord, Jim Austin, only a few years before the parish boundary change moved it into Berrick parish. The building is now a private house but retains the name Horse and Harrow. As Moreau mentions, there was a long series of post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
s, and other small shops. The last, which closed in the 1980s, was a combined shop and post office in the annexe of the Chequers. Moreau includes a photo of The Chequers showing the shop fascia board, and a drawing of the same view, by David Gentleman, appears as the heading to Moreau's chapter 12. The former shop and post office is now the pub toilets. Another casualty of the same era was the garage at Woodbine Cottage in Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
, generally remembered only for a single derelict petrol pump that was removed in the 1980s. Janette Baker, now living in Rokemarsh, grew up in Roke, in the bungalow next door to Woodbine Cottage, and recalls passing "the garage" on her way home from the school bus.
Queen Emma's gift had the incidental result of putting the Berrick village pond into Newington parish. In the 1930s, according to Moreau, "the person who had acquired the little properties to the north-east of the pond enclosed it he pond and, although the Berrick villagers objected strongly, only Newington had the right to challenge the 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 ...
under the Commons Act 1876. Newington apparently took no action. In ''The Berrick and Roke Millennium Book'', the owners of the house provide another view of the event. The three little properties had been combined into one by Alan Franklin in the mid-1930s and were sold to a Mrs Hills in 1936. "Rumour has it that she fenced in the drover's pond. However the Title Deeds quite clearly show the pond was included in the land transferred to her."
Berrick Salome's population increased towards the end of the 20th century. The 1901 Census recorded 103 inhabitants, the 1971 Census recorded 99,[''1971 Census County Report for Oxfordshire (Part 1)''; Bullingdon RD; Berrick Salome] but the 1981 Census recorded 152[''1981 Census: Ward and Civil Parish Monitor – Oxfordshire'', pp. 18, 19] and the 1991 Census recorded 163.[''1991 Census: Ward and Civil Parish Monitor – Oxfordshire'', p. 10] These census figures for both population and household numbers relate only to Berrick Salome parish within its pre-1993 boundaries. Moreau reckoned that "around 1900 there were about 75 households in the whole group of hamlets, 35 of them within the boundaries of Berrick Salome parish" and "when I came to live in Berrick Salome in 1947 there were 28 households strictly within the boundaries of the parish, another 8 just outside them to the north in Berrick Prior, about 11 more in the Benson Benson may refer to:
Animals
*Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain
Places Geography
Canada
*Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality
*Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet
United Kingdom
* Benson, Oxfordshire ...
part of Roke
Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome
Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...
, and 14 in Rokemarsh... 61 altogether". He adds that "one block of three ne-up and one-downcottages, now n 1968
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
occupied by one old lady, is said to have at one time housed twenty people".[ The number of households increased from 36 in the 1971 Census][ to 52 in the 1981 Census][ and to 56 in the 1991 Census.][
]
Acknowledgments
*The late Mrs Irene Franklin – lifelong Berrick Prior resident who died early in 2013.
*Susan Radice – Berrick Salome resident who, in 1999, researched the original 'Village History' for inclusion in ''The Berrick and Roke Millennium Book''. Her work was added to Wikipedia in 2005 and forms a major source for this article.
*Chris and Mary Whittle – former Berrick Salome residents
See also
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Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Berrick and Roke Village Website
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{{authority control
Villages in Oxfordshire
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire