Stonor is a mostly cultivated and wooded village centred north of

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

in South Oxfordshire, England. It takes up part of the Stonor valley in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

which rises to 120 meters above sea level within this south-east part of the civil parish. Stonor House close to the village centre has been the home of the Stonor family for more than eight centuries. The house and park are open to the public at certain times of the year. The house has a 12th-century private chapel built of flint and stone, with an early brick tower. There are also signs of a prehistoric stone circle in the park, which gives the place name its etymology.

History

For most of its history Stonor was called Upper Assendon and was a hamlet in an

exclave 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 ...

of Pyrton parish. In 1896 the detached part was made into a new civil parish of Stonor, named after the adjacent

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

at Stonor Park. In 1922 Stonor and

Pishill Pishill is a hamlet in Pishill with Stonor civil parish about north of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire. It is in the Stonor valley in the Chiltern Hills about above sea level. History The earliest known records of the toponym of Pi ...

civil parishes were merged. During and 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 ...

the Stonor family and many other local gentry were recusants. In 1581 the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priests Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons lived and worked at Stonor Park, and on 4 August 1581 a raid on the house found a press on which Roman Catholic publications had secretly been printed. The elderly Lady Cecily Stonor, her son John, the Jesuit priest William Hartley, the printers and four servants were taken prisoner, and in 1585 Hartley was exiled. Despite continued prosecutions and fines the Stonors and a number of Upper Assendon families remained Roman Catholic throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, attending Mass at the Stonors' 12th century private chapel. Between 1716 and 1756

John Talbot Stonor John Talbot Stonor (1678–1756) was an English Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1715 to 1756. Born in 1678, he was appointed the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District and Titular Bishop of ' ...

, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District used Stonor Park as his headquarters. In the first half of the 19th century, the number of Roman Catholics in Upper Assendon increased, partly by local people converting, possibly aided by the fact that the only local school at the time was a Roman Catholic one endowed by the Stonors. The 1851 census recorded 50 Catholics in the village, but in the final quarter of the 19th century the numbers sharply declined.

Stone circle

The house was built on the site of a prehistoric stone circle or henge and this has given it its name. The remains of the circle are still visible with one stone incorporated into the south-east corner of the chapel.

Demography

The civil parish is more than 90% greenspace (10.61 km²) as at 2005 and had 139 homes in 2011.Key Statistics: Dwellings; Quick Statistics: Population Density; Physical Environment: Land Use Survey 2005
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Amenities

Stonor

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 striki ...

Club was founded in 1797. It has occupied its current ground overlooking Stonor Park for more than a century.Stonor Cricket Club
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References

Sources

External links

{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire