Woodeaton or Wood Eaton 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 ...
about northeast 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 ...
, England. It also has a special needs school called Woodeaton Manor School.
Archaeology
There was a
Romano
Romano may refer to:
Food
* Pecorino Romano, a hard, salty Italian cheese
* Romano cheese, an American English and Canadian English term for a class of cheeses
Places Italy Municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium
* Arcinazzo Ro ...
-
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic temple north of where the
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
now stands, and probably a
Romano-British settlement and shrine as well. The shrine was used successively by
Roman pagans and Christians. A small square temple was built in the first century AD.
This was replaced with a more substantial building that had moulded stonework and decorated plasterwork, and a rectangular perimeter wall was added that enclosed an area around the temple building.
[ Numerous notable bronze artefacts have been discovered at and around the site][ and are now housed in the ]Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...
in Oxford. A sixth-century Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
pendant has also been found at the site, but the reason for its presence at a Roman site is not clear.
Manor
The Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
was originally ''Eatun''. By the 12th century it had become Wood Eaton, perhaps to distinguish it from Water Eaton just over to the west. 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 ...
records that by 1086 the Norman nobleman Roger d'Ivry held the manor of Eaton. In about 1160 Helewis Avenel gave a virgate of land at Woodeaton to Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlie ...
. The Abbey had a grange
Grange may refer to:
Buildings
* Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906
* Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682
* Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery
Geography Australia
* Grange, South Austral ...
and manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
court house in Woodeaton, recorded in 1366, but no trace remains. The Manor remained with the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.
At the centre of the village, by the village green, are the base and shaft of a 13th-century stone cross. The cross is both 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 ...
and a Grade I listed building. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 the manor of Woodeaton was bought and sold by two speculators in succession. Then in 1544 Richard Taverner
Richard Taverner (1505 – 14 July 1575) was an English author and religious reformer.
He is best known for his Bible translation, commonly known as Taverner's Bible, but originally titled .
Life and works
Taverner was born at Brisley (a ...
(1505–75), the translator of Taverner's Bible
Taverner's Bible, more correctly called ''The Most Sacred Bible is the holy scripture, the old and new testament, translated into English, and newly recognized with great diligence after most exemplars by Rychard Taverner'', is a minor revision ...
, bought the manor. He retired to the village and had a 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 ...
built in the 1550s, and he is buried in Holy Rood churchyard. Woodeaton remained in the Taverner family until 1604. The manor then passed through various hands until it was bought by the Nourse family from Middleton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
sometime between 1623 and 1625. In 1774 John Nourse, the last of the male line, died and left the manor to his daughter Elizabeth Weyland, wife of John Weyland.
In 1775 Weyland had the old manor house demolished and the present Woodeaton Manor built. The new house has a modest exterior but in 1791 the architect Sir John Soane enhanced its main rooms with marble chimneypieces, added an Ionic porch of Coade stone, a service wing and an ornate main hall. The manor remained with the family until 1912 when Captain Mark Weyland sold the house and part of the land. Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
now owns most of the former manor lands. Since 1950 Woodeaton Manor House has been an Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. It is an elected body responsible for some local government services in the county, includ ...
school for children with special educational needs. The current head teacher of this school is Simon Bishop The house is a Grade II* listed building.
Parish church
Woodeaton has had a parish church since the early or middle part of the 11th century, when a Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
timber one was built. This was destroyed by fire by about 1080 at the latest. The present 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 the Holy Rood
A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church.
Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixion ...
originates from an early 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 ...
stone church that was built between 1070 and 1120 to replace the destroyed Saxon one. It was a small building, dominated by a western tower. The original Norman layout is not entirely certain: there may have been a small nave east of the tower and an even smaller 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 ...
beyond that, or the tower may have been a "tower-nave" with only a chancel to the east of it. In about 1180–1220 a late Norman 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, parl ...
and possible south chapel were added and in about 1200–50 the chancel was extended. An Early English Gothic
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
doorway in the south wall of the chancel is of a style that suggests a date of 1200–30.
Several Early English lancet window
A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...
s in the chancel also date from this period. 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 about 1250–1300. Later in the Middle Ages, the east and south walls of the chancel were rebuilt and were given late Perpendicular Gothic
Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...
windows. The eastern window in the south wall of the nave was also revised with Perpendicular tracery. The Perpendicular Gothic belltower was added in either the 14th or 15th century. Unusually the tower is built on columns erected inside the nave. This seems to be because the ground falls away west of the church to an extent that precluded building a tower conventionally to the west of the nave. The south porch was built in the 18th century. In 2010 the church roof was restored, re-using many of the original Stonesfield slates. Holy Rood church is a Grade I listed building.[
]
Bells and clock
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 five bells, all of which were cast by Henry II Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
in 1680. Holy Rood also has a Sanctus bell cast by Richard Keene of Burford
Burford () is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswolds, Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located west of Oxford and southeas ...
[ in 1674.][ The tower has a turret clock similar to that at ]St Nicholas' Church, Islip
St Nicholas' Church, Islip is the Church of England parish church of Islip, Oxfordshire, a village about east of Kidlington and north of Oxford.
Parish church
Tradition holds that Edward the Confessor (''circa'' 1004–66) was baptised in a c ...
, except that the iron bars of its frame are nutted together rather than wedged. It may have been made in about 1700. In the 1960s Dr. C.F.C. Beeson described it as ''"long disused, rusted"''.
Furnishings and internal decoration
In the 14th century a large image of Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is veneration, venerated by several Christianity, Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Deciu ...
was painted on the north wall inside the nave. Restoration work in 2010 exposed remnants of an early 14th-century crucifixion scene above the rood beam over the chancel arch. Both the chancel and the nave have pews with 15th-century carved wooden bench ends. The wooden screen in the chancel arch and some of the nave seating was added late in the 15th or early in the 16th century. Reportedly there was a rood tympanum but this had been removed before 1846. In the 18th century the wooden pulpit, tester and reading desk were added, along with the wooden panelling and west gallery. Some timbers from the chancel screen tympanum seem to have been re-used in the 18th-century reading desk and pew floors. There is also one box pew at the front of the nave, presumably for the manorial family.
Pioneer balloon flight
James Sadler, the first English balloonist, landed near the village after his first ascent from Christ Church Meadow in Oxford on 4 October 1784. He had flown a distance of about and reached a height of about .
Amenities
Woodeaton is a small village with no shop or 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 ...
. Woodeaton Wood is about southeast of the village, on the southwest side of Drun's Hill.
Demography
The 2011 Census incorporated its figures into an output area accordingly used to enlarge the civil parish definition of Elsfield to the south due to the small population of Woodeaton.Parish: Key Statistics: Population.
( 2011 census In particular the maps annexed to both definitions and data sets are identical. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
References
Sources and further reading
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External links
{{authority control
Villages in Oxfordshire
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire