Yelford is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in Hardwick-with-Yelford

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 ...

. It is about south of

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

Manor

In 1086 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 ...

records that Walter of Ponz held the manor of Yelford. Walter's other manors included

Eaton Hastings Eaton Hastings is a village and civil parish beside the River Thames about two-and-a-half miles (4 km) north-west of Faringdon. It was in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Eaton Hastings was once la ...

, and together his manors were sometimes called the

honour Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

of Hastings. By 1221 the overlord of the manor was one Philip of Hastings. In 1651 The Hastings family sold the manor of Yelford to

William Lenthall William Lenthall (1591–1662) was an English politician of the English Civil War, Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons for a period of almost twenty years, both before ...

, who was

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

during the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason. "Rump" ...

and

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the Ho ...

. The manor remained in the Lenthall family until 1949. Excavations under the hall floor in 1952 revealed pottery and bones that were dated to the 11th and 12th centuries. So the Saxon manor was probably on the same site as the current manor. The excavation went down only four feet, and it is possible that more and earlier remains still lay below. The foundations were revealed as large unmortared stones that came out as steps into the room. This was dated as very early in type - early medieval. The joint in the wall plate between the oriel and the wall of the hall was investigated with the help of the late Dr John Fletcher and declared to be late 13th century in type; much more complex than later joints and totally wind - and waterproof. In the latter part of the 15th century the Hastings family re-built 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 ...

as a timber-framed building with a moat. It was altered again in about 1600, when a first floor was inserted in what until then had been the great hall and a great stone chimneystack was added. Most of the south wing was demolished in 1848, but so little of it remains that it is difficult to imagine what this was originally like. Early in the 20th century the house was divided for use by three families and by the middle of the century it was derelict. It was purchased and restored in 1952 by the Babington Smith family. In the 1970s Jennifer Sherwood described the house as "The best, and certainly the most picturesque, large timber-framed house in the county."

Parish church

The small Church of England parish church of Saint Nicholas and Saint

Swithun Swithun (or Swithin; ang, Swīþhūn; la, Swithunus; died 863 AD) was an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. His historical importance as bishop is overshadowed by his reputation for pos ...

may have been founded as a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

by 1221, when Philip of Hastings was recorded as patron of the

living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...

. It was completely rebuilt in about 1500. It was restored at some time between 1869 and 1873, which may be when the

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

was added.

Parish

Yelford was always a small parish; in 1327, there were 16 taxpayers. By the 16th century were only 2 to 3 taxable households. By 1851 the population was only 17. The ancient parish became a civil parish in 1866, but in 1932 it was merged with the parish of Hardwick and parts of Ducklington and

Standlake Standlake is a village and civil parish in West Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and west of Oxford, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Brighthampton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,497. The River Windru ...

to form the civil parish of Hardwick-with-Yelford. Little is known of its history, but it is truly ancient. A mid- Acheulian hand axe was discovered around 1963 by Hugh Babington Smith beside the north wall of the church cottage. The axe head was actually found on a gravel bed, under an old flagstone path that lay just below the turf. Recollections of HBS, 3 Apr 2021. It was dated by the Ashmolean Museum to around 130,000 years ago and then gifted to

The Oxfordshire Museum The Oxfordshire Museum (also known as Oxfordshire County Museum) is in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, located in Fletcher's House, Park Street, opposite the Bear Hotel. It is a regional museum covering the county of Oxfordshire. The museum is ...

. Unfortunately a recent search of the museum database now shows it to be missing from the museum's records. Yelford

Romano-British pottery has been found in two locations north of the manor, but still within the parish. There is also an Anglo-Saxon burial ground between the Yelford-Hardwick road and Westfield farm. The Black Death decimated the village in 1348–1349 and this has been evidenced by subsequent archaeological exploration.

has a large archive of pottery and other artifacts with the great bulk of it is early medieval up to 1350. Then there is very little until 17th century slipware, which mainly came from round the manor. The Calender of State Papers has occasional snippets of information. One of these is relevant: a court case in which Hastings was sued for cutting down oaks in Boys Wood “for mending his manor house” in the third quarter of the 15th century. (There is no record of the outcome, but Boys Wood was part of the Yelford estate in 1947.)

References

Sources

* *

External links

Villages in Oxfordshire Former civil parishes in Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub