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Waterstock is a village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
on the
River Thame The River Thame is a river in Southern England. A tributary of the River Thames, the river runs generally south-westward for about from its source above the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury to the Thames in south-east Oxfordshire. Course ...
about west of the
market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
of Thame in
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...
. The parish is bounded to the north and west by the river, to the south largely by the A418 main road, and to the east largely by the minor road between Tiddington and Ickford Bridge across the Thame. On the north side of the parish, the river forms the county boundary with
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-e ...
as well as the parish boundary with Ickford and Worminghall. Waterstock village is on a minor road north of the A418 and is surrounded by open farming land. In the village are about 50 houses and a farm along one main street.


History

Waterstock's toponym is derived from 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 settlers in the mid-5th ...
for "Waterplace". Waterstock Mill is recorded in 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. It was most likely on the same site as the current mill, which is a 15th-century building on a small island in the River Thame. The mill a two-storey L-shaped building, with a timber frame filled in with brick nogging. It was rebuilt in the
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...
period. In 1957 it was converted and sold. Many of the parish's fields show ridge-and-furrow strip cultivation. In 1279 there were probably about 200 inhabitants, but after the
Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
the population decreased to 51 persons over the age of 14. Waterstock's oldest buildings are the two thatched cottages, one thought to date from late in the 13th or early in the 14th century and the other from the 16th. Orchard End is a medieval
cruck A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
house, its smoke-blackened beams showing that it was originally a two-bay open
hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples w ...
. The village's single street is flanked by cottages built of stone or local brick, some retaining the small buildings in the gardens, originally privies or pig-sties. At one end of the village, Home Farm is a 17th-century timber-framed house with its thatched barn and 17th-century granary. The 18th-century Park Farm is beyond. The grounds of Waterstock House are next to the church. The manor house was built in 1787 to designs by the architect SP Cockerell. It was demolished in 1953 or 1956 after the servants' quarters were converted into the present substantial residence. The stone-built stables are 18th-century and probably contemporary with the 1787 house. They are now the Waterstock Equestrian Centre. Near Waterstock Mill is Bow Bridge: a small, single-arch brick bridge built for Diana Ashhurst in 1790. By the entrance to Waterstock House is the Pump House dated 1898, a small building with a "
Rhenish helm The Rhenish helm is a type of spire typical of Romanesque architecture, Romanesque church architecture of the historic Rhineland. It is a pyramidal roof on towers of square plan. Each of the four sides of the roof is rhomboid in form, with the lo ...
" roof reminiscent of a Saxon tower. Many of the villagers used to collect water from it until the village's mains water supply was installed in 1951. Opposite the church are Church Farm Cottages and the Old Rectory, a substantial stone-built 18th-century house, the only other 'gentlemen's house'. In the 20th century it was the home of the violinist
Manoug Parikian Manoug Parikian (15 September 1920 - 24 December 1987) was a British concert violinist and violin professor. Early life Parikian was born in Mersin to Armenian parents. He studied in London. Career Parikian made his solo début in 1947 and led s ...
, his wife
Diana Parikian Diana Margaret Parikian (née Carbutt, formerly Marriner; 20 October 1926 – 3 April 2012) was a British antiquarian bookseller. Early life Parikian was born in London, the eldest daughter of George Carbutt, a chartered accountant. She grew up in ...
, the antiquarian bookseller, and their two sons, until his sudden death on Christmas Eve 1987. He is buried in St Leonard's churchyard. Richard Ellis the Californian astronomer lived in the Old School House while a graduate student at Oxford from 1971 to 1974.


Parish church

Waterstock seems to have had a
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, ...
since at least 1190. The current
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 Leonard was built at the end of the 15th century. 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-typ ...
and
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. ...
were rebuilt in 1790, and in 1858 the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street restored the building. It is the burial place of the early-17th-century
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
writer William 'Eternity' Tipping. Remnants of medieval window glass were recovered after the
English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
and have been inserted above the armorial Ashurst window. This window, together with monuments in the church, records the families of local squirearchy who inhabited the manor house and retained its patronage until 1957. As well as regular church services, meetings and concerts are held in the church.


Economy

Many of the houses in Waterstock have their own stables. Waterstock House Training Centre was once the main equestrian centre of the area, and was once owned by the horse trainer Lars Sederholm.


Amenities

Junction 8A of the
M40 motorway The M40 motorway links London, Oxford and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately . The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry slip-r ...
and
Oxford Services Oxford services is a motorway service station next to junction 8A of the M40 motorway at Waterstock near Wheatley in Oxfordshire. It is named after the nearby city of Oxford. The services are owned by Welcome Break and opened in the summer of ...
motorway service station are in the parish. There is also a public
golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...
. The
Oxfordshire Way The Oxfordshire Way is a long-distance walk in Oxfordshire, England, with 6 miles in Gloucestershire and very short sections in Buckinghamshire. The path links with the Heart of England Way and the Thames Path. The path runs for from Bourto ...
traverses the parish and crosses the River Thame by Bow Bridge near Waterstock Mill. There is a Waterstock and Tiddington Women's Institute.Oxfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes
/ref>


Notes


References

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External links

{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire