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Milton is a 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
about west of Didcot and a similar distance south of Abingdon. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,290.


Toponymy

From the 10th to the 13th century the village's name was ''Middeltune''. From the 13th to the 15th century it evolved as ''Middelton'' and ''Midelton'', and from the 15th century to the 17th century it was ''Mylton''.


Archaeology

On land near Sutton Road, northeast of the village, is the site of an
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
cemetery. Archaeologists had investigated the western part of the cemetery by the early 1930s. In 2014 what appeared to be the easternmost part of the cemetery was found and more than 40 human burials were excavated. Few grave goods were found, apart from two metal knives and another metal object too corroded to be identified.


Manor

In 956 King Eadwig granted 15 hides of land at Milton to his
thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...
Alfwin, who in turn gave the estate to the
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
Abingdon Abbey Abingdon Abbey (formally Abbey of Saint Mary) was a Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Abingdon-on-Thames in the modern county of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. Situated near to the River Thames, it was founded in 675 AD and was ...
. In the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s the abbey surrendered its lands to
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 ...
. Milton was among a number of estates that
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
granted to Baron Wriothesley in 1546. Wriothesley sold Milton that same year to Thomas Calton, a goldsmith of London, whose descendants retained it for the next 218 years. In 1709 Paul Calton married Catherine, daughter of Admiral John Benbow. In 1764 Catherine, Martha and Mary Calton sold the estate to Bryant Barrett, in whose family the property remains. Bryant Barrett was a Roman Catholic, so, by English law, could not own property. He and his brother Isaac agreed that the latter should buy the house and estate on Bryant's behalf for £10,600. Milton Manor House is a yellow and red brick
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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
built for the Calton family in the 17th century. The actual date is unknown: in 1696 it was described as "newly built" but Sir
Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...
believed that it could not be much later than the 1660s. The original building is of five bays and three storeys and may have been designed by
Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...
. In 1772 short two-storey wings designed by Stephen Wright were added to the house for Bryant Barrett. The house is a
Grade I 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 ...
. There was also a
dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish estate (house), estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house fr ...
, where Admiral Benbow lived in the 1690s.
Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
of Russia is said to have stayed at Milton House around this time, probably in order to consult Benbow on shipbuilding. No trace of the dower house remains. The manor house, gardens and park are open to the public between 2pm and 5pm on certain dates between Easter Day and 31 August each year.


Churches


Church of England

The
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 ...
is dedicated to
Saint Blaise Blaise of Sebaste (, ''Hágios Blásios''; martyred 316 AD) was a physician and bishop of Sivas, Sebastea in historical Lesser Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey) who is venerated as a Christian saint and martyr. He is counted as one of the Fourteen ...
as he is the patron saint of the wool trade, which was a major part of Milton's medieval economy. The church seems to have been built in the 14th century but only the porch, the lower part of the
bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...
and part 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 ...
including the west window survive from this time. The upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 18th century and the nave,
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
and four- bay north
aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...
were rebuilt by the Gothic Revival architect Henry Woodyer in 1849–51. Under the chancel arch is the Barrett family vault, in which the Roman Catholic bishop Richard Challoner (1691–1781) was buried until 1946 when his remains were translated to
Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Ch ...
. The church 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 ...
. The tower has a ring of eight bells, all cast by
Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...
in 2001. Previously there was a ring of six, four of which were cast in 1682. At least three of the 1682 bells were cast by Richard Keene, who had foundries at
Woodstock, Oxfordshire Woodstock is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish, north-west of Oxford in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census recorded a parish population of 3,521, up from t ...
and Royston, Hertfordshire. Another of the bells had been cast in 1787 and the tenor was cast by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1906. When the new bells were hung in 2001, five of the old bells were sold to St Michael and All Angels' parish church, Hackthorn,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
. One of Richard Keene's 1682 bells has been retained at St Blaise but is not used.


Methodist

By 1924 Milton had a nonconformist corrugated iron chapel. Milton Methodist church now has a modern brick building and is a member of the Wantage and Abingdon
Methodist Circuit The organisation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is based on the principle of connexionalism. This means that British Methodism, from its inception under John Wesley (1703–1791), has always laid strong emphasis on mutual support, in ...
.


Economic and social history

Two
watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...
s in the parish are recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086 and again in a record from 1401. There is still a Milton Mill on Ginge Brook. 42A and 42B High Street is an early 14th-century timber-framed cruck cottage, extended in the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building. Milton
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
primary school was founded in 1796. In about 1770 Thomas Bowles of Abingdon inclosed land on Milton Hill about south of the village as a park and had Milton Hill House built there. His son Thomas (died 1837) enlarged both the park and the house. The library was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott for John Samuel Bowles. It remained the Bowles family seat until 1905 when it was sold by Col. Thomas John Bowles. It is now a DeVere hotel. An
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 ...
of farming continued in the parish until 1808–09, when Parliament passed an inclosure act for Milton. In 1841 the
Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of t ...
was built through the parish about south of the village. In 1955 a British Railways excursion train was derailed at Milton, killing 11 people and injuring 163. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
had a large depot on land between Milton village and the railway line. The site is now Milton Park business park. In the 1970s a new dual carriageway was built through the parish as part of the realignment and enlargement of the A34 road. Milton Interchange was built just south of the railway line as a junction between the A34 and the A4130.


Amenities

Milton has one
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 ...
, which for many decades was called the Admiral Benbow, and latterly it was controlled by Greene King Brewery. It is now renamed The Plum Pudding.The Plum Pudding
/ref>


Sport and leisure

Milton has a
Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...
club, Milton United F.C., whose home ground is at Potash Lane.


References


Sources

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External links


Parish of Milton (Archived)
{{Authority control Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Vale of White Horse Villages in Oxfordshire