Westwell is a small 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 southwest of the market town of

Burford Burford () is a town on the River Windrush, in the 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 southeast of Che ...

in Oxfordshire. It is the westernmost village in the county, close to the border with

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Manor

The oldest part of the

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 ...

was built in about 1545. The east wing of the house was added in about 1750 and the north and south wings in about 1840. The house was altered and restored in 1920. Close to the Manor House is a

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

that was built in the 17th century. It is still in use as a dovecote. Adjoining the Manor House to the northeast is a barn that was probably built in the 18th century, but has a Tudor arched entrance with a mullioned window above. The Manor House, dovecote and barn are all

Grade II* listed buildings 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 Irel ...

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

and was built in the 12th century. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

arch may have originally been Norman, but if so it was later altered in the Transitional style from Norman to

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 ...

. The chancel's east window may also be Transitional, but the windows in its north and south walls are Early English lancets. The south porch was added in the 14th century and to the east of it one 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 ...

windows is Perpendicular Gothic. The other windows of the nave are Victorian. In 1869 the nave was extended one bay to the west and the bell-turret was added. St Mary's is a

Grade I 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 Irel ...

. The parish is now part of the Benefice of Shill Valley and Broadshire, which includes also the parishes of Alvescot,

Black Bourton Black Bourton is a village and civil parish about south of Carterton, Oxfordshire. The village is on Black Bourton Brook, a tributary of the River Thames. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 266. RAF Brize Norton adjoins the par ...

, Broadwell, Broughton Poggs,

Filkins ''For people with the surname, see Filkins (surname).'' Filkins is a village in the civil parish of Filkins and Broughton Poggs, about southwest of Carterton in Oxfordshire. Church and chapel Church of England The Gothic Revival architect ...

, Holwell,

Kelmscott Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...

, Kencot, Langford,

Little Faringdon Little Faringdon is a village and civil parish in West Oxfordshire, about north of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 63. Manor In the late Anglo-Saxon era Little Faringdon was part of a larg ...

and

Shilton Shilton may refer to: Places *Shilton, Oxfordshire, England *Shilton, Warwickshire, England **Shilton railway station, a former station Other *Shilton (surname) *Earl Shilton, a town in Leicestershire, England *Chilton (disambiguation) *Shelton ( ...

. The Rectory (now the Old Rectory) was built at or before the end of the 17th century. It is a five-bayed building of ashlar Cotswold stone. It is a Grade II* listed building.

War memorial

The Westwell war memorial was erected after 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 ...

. It incorporates a numeral from a face of the clock of the Cloth Hall, Ypres. The

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...

had fought in the

First Battle of Ypres The First Battle of Ypres (french: Première Bataille des Flandres; german: Erste Flandernschlacht – was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. The battle was part of the Firs ...

in 1914 and the Battle of Passchendaele near

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality c ...

in 1917.

References

Sources and further reading

* *

External links

{{Authority control Villages in Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire District Civil parishes in Oxfordshire