Oxhill is a village in South

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

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 ...

, off the

A422 road The A422 is an "A" road for east–west journeys in south central England, connecting the county towns of Bedford and Worcester by way of Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon. For most of its length, it is a narrow single ...

between Stratford-upon-Avon and

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...

. The population taken at the 2011 census was 305. It lies in the administrative

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Stratford-on-Avon in the area known as the Vale of the Red Horse. The village is mentioned 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 manus ...

as "Octeselve" and has a 12th-century

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

dedicated to Saint Lawrence. The indentions 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 ...

window

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s are believed by many to be the marks made by local archers sharpening their

arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

s. Because of the holiness and sacredness of the church, the blessed arrows were also presumed to have divine accuracy.Drogin, Marc. 1989. Biblioclasm: The Mythical Origins. Savage, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. Pages 32-33.

Myrtilla's Tomb

Negro slave gravestone in Oxhill Churchyard (geograph 2736686)

In the

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

St Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman ...

's Church there is the grave of Myrtilla, with a headstone dated 1706 (1705, in accordance with the Old Style or Julian calendar). It is one of the earliest known graves in

commemorating a person of African descent. The inscription reads:

Here lyeth the body of Myrtilla, negro slave to Mr. Thos Beauchamp of Nevis. Bapt. Oct. ye 20th. Buried Jan ye 6th, 1705.

The headstone identifies Myrtilla as being enslaved by Thomas Beauchamp, whilst in the church register, she is described as 'a negro girl of Mrs Beauchamp's'. Thomas Beauchamp is believed to be a sugar planter from

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

, who was married to Perletta Meese, a daughter of the

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 Oxhill, Nicholas Meese. The gravestone is a simple version of the local style, located on the south-east side of the church, and is

Grade II* 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 ...

listed.

References

External links

Village of Oxhill on the Web
* New village website 2021 https://www.oxhillcommunity.co.uk Villages in Warwickshire Civil parishes in Warwickshire Stratford-on-Avon District {{Warwickshire-geo-stub