Cote is a hamlet 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. History The Toponymy, place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest kno ...

and north of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

West Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire is a local government district in northwest Oxfordshire, England, including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, Carterton and Witney, where the council is based. Area The area is mainly rural downla ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Cote is part of the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney. The hamlet of Cote stretches along Cote Lane, which seems to have originated as a road to a former crossing of the River Thames at

Shifford Shifford is a hamlet in the civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney in the West Oxfordshire district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the north bank of the River Thames about south of Witney. Archaeology There was a ...

.''A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 13: Bampton Hundred (Part One)'', Crossley & Currie (eds.), 1996, pages 62-66

Archaeology

Cropmark Cropmarks or crop marks are a means through which sub-surface archaeological, natural and recent features may be visible from the air or a vantage point on higher ground or a temporary platform. Such marks, along with parch marks, soil marks a ...

s have been found east of Cote Lane that suggest prehistoric occupation. There have been isolated finds of Neolithic and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

items near the north end of Cote Lane and

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

pottery and a brooch have been found south of Cote House. In the 19th century two

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...

were found at Cote: one each from the reigns of

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

(reigned AD 98–117) and

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

(reigned 117–138). Other cropmarks on river gravel terraces east of Cote suggest

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

sunken huts.

Manor

In the Anglo-Saxon era Cote was part of the manor of Bampton.Crossley & Currie, 1996, pages 66-69 The earliest known written record of Cote dates from 1203. Cote may be the site of a

messuage In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contracts ...

and building plot for a manor that Henry III granted to one Imbert Pugeys in 1238. The present Cote House is largely 16th and 17th century but may be on the site of the medieval buildings. The east front of Cote House includes two-light 13th century windows with

plate tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 558 that is not in its original position but may well have been salvaged from the medieval house. Alan Horde of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

bought Cote manor in 1553. The hall range and west wing of Cote House were probably built after 1583 for either Thomas Horde (died ''circa'' 1607) or Sir Thomas Horde (died 1662). The west wing and hall still have an early 17th-century staircase and fireplaces and some 17th-century panelling. In 1665 Cote House was assessed at 11 hearths for

Hearth Tax A hearth tax was a property tax in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on wealth. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, or fireplaces, within a municipal area and is con ...

.Crossley & Currie, 1996, pages 69-74 A new main entrance was added to the north front of Cote House in about 1700, presumably for Thomas Horde (died 1715). The principal rooms were refurbished at the same time, including the present panelling of the drawing room. One set of iron gates is dated 1704Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 557 and bears the initials of Thomas Horde. Late in the 16th century Thomas Horde was convicted of

recusancy Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

and

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

seized two-thirds of his manor for non-payment of fines. When he died in 1607 his remaining debts were pardoned and the seized part of his manor was restored to his heirs.

Economic and social history

By 1239 Cote and

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Located immediately to the north-west of Birmingham city centre, Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a wards of the United Kingdom, war ...

shared a single

open field system The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acr ...

. Cote Common was often called Cote Moor. In 1497 Mary, Lady Hastings and Botreux, demolished a tenant's house at Cote and

enclosed Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...

its landholding as pasture. In the 1660s the

Lord of the Manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

Thomas Horde enclosed about close to Cote House and promoted a general enclosure of the manor, but most tenants enclosed no more than or each. The open meadows tended to flood and in 1668 new channels were dug to drain them. Cote Farmhouse and Cote Cottage were built in the 17th or early in the 18th century. Milton Lodge was rebuilt in about 1720 with a symmetrical five- bayed front. East of Cote is a Windmill Field but no

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

has survived. In 1834 tenants of Aston and Cote sought enclosure and initially Caroline Horde supported them. However, most proprietors did not and the proposal was defeated. Parliament finally passed an Enclosure Act for Aston and Cote in 1852 and the land award was completed in 1855. Most landholdings both before and after enclosure were mixed farms. In the 19th century the Gillett family of Cote House Farm were noted Oxford Down sheep breeders. In 1862 Charles Gillett won prizes at the

Royal Agricultural Show The Royal Show, also known as the Royal Agricultural Show, was an annual agricultural show held by the Royal Agricultural Society of England every year from 1839 to 2009. The event encompassed all aspects of farming, food and rural life - from ...

. In the middle of the 19th century a new straight road was built northwards from the end of Cote Lane for a distance of just over to where it joined the road between

Yelford Yelford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hardwick-with-Yelford, in the West Oxfordshire district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is about south of Witney. In 1931 the parish had a population of 17. Manor ...

and Lew. By 1876 Cote Lodge Farm had been built west of the new road and around the same time new farm labourers' cottages were built. Sir Thomas Horde built a malthouse in 1657 but by 1659 it was making a loss. There is another isolated record of a

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

ster in Cote in 1725. Cote had a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, the Black Horse, from 1779 to 1801. In the 1840s Cote House Farm produced cider. The hamlet had a beerhouse from 1869 (when Parliament passed the Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869) but it closed after 1939. Other trades in Cote in 1939 included a

hurdle A hurdle (UK English, limited US English) is a moveable section of light fence. In the United States, terms such as "panel", "pipe panel" or simply "fence section" are used to describe moveable sections of fencing intended for agricultural u ...

-maker and a

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

r. In 1893 Cote suffered a

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

epidemic that may have been caused by contaminated wells. Cote had a mains gas supply by 1939, mains electricity by 1949 and mains water from about 1967.

Chapels

Cote has never had a

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 ...

. Cote was part of the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Bampton,Crossley & Currie, 1996, pages 75-76 and Cote residents would have worshipped at the chapel of ease at

until it became derelict some time between 1772 and 1784.Crossley & Currie, 1996, pages 77-78 Cote appointed a

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

for Shifford chapel probably in the 15th century and continued to do so for the rebuilt chapel late in the 19th century.Crossley & Currie, 1996, pages 74-75 A

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

congregation was established in Cote in about 1656, initially sharing a minister with the Baptist congregation at

Longworth Longworth is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, England. Historically within the north-west projection of Berkshire, boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire in 1974. The village is between Faringdon, to the west, ...

on the opposite side of the Thames. Cote's first Baptist chapel was completed and registered for worship in 1704. It was replaced by the present building in 1756, and chapel membership grew from 85 in 1772 to more than 100. In 1850-51 attendance at Sunday morning worship averaged 200. Benjamin Arthur, who was pastor from 1856 to 1882, had the chapel interior extensively reordered in 1859. The present single gable on the east front of the chapel was added at the same time, replacing a previous double gable and hiding a central roof valley. During Rev. Arthur's ministry, membership rose to about 195 and congregations regularly numbered around 400. For a number of lengthy periods in the 20th century the Baptist congregation lacked a minister and the

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

managed the chapel. Membership declined to 92 in 1906 and 52 in 1935. It had recovered to 104 by 1971 but fell again to about 85 in 1990. The chapel was still in use for worship in 1992 but is now disused. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and is now managed and maintained by the

Historic Chapels Trust The Historic Chapels Trust is a British Registered Charity set up to care for redundant non-Anglican churches, chapels, and places of worship in England. To date, its holdings encompass various nonconformist Christian denominations and Roma ...

References

Sources

* * {{West Oxfordshire Hamlets in Oxfordshire