Somerton, Oxfordshire
| Somerton | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 St James the Apostle parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP498286 |
| Location: | 51°57’14"N, 1°16’30"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 305 (2011) |
| Post town: | Bicester |
| Postcode: | OX25 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cherwell |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Banbury |
| Website: | somertonoxon.co.uk |
Somerton is a village in Oxfordshire, in the valley of the River Cherwell about six miles north-west of Bicester. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 305.
History
Fourteen Anglo-Saxon or early mediæval graves have been discovered at Somerton's former Free School.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records that William the Conqueror's step-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, held most of the manor of Somerton.[1]
The manor passed down through the de Grey family, and then to their descendants the Deincourts and then the Lovells of Minster Lovell. In 1485 Francis Lovell was created 1st Viscount Lovell: he was deprived of his estates after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and is believed to have been killed in 1487 in the Battle of Stoke Field that finally ended of the Wars of the Roses.[1] Thereafter the Crown held the manor.
In 1512 the Crown granted the manor to William Fermor of Witney, who built a new manor house, above the village. It remained the Fermor home until about 1625 when Richard Fermor made Tusmore the family's principal home.[1] In the 18th century most of Somerton manor house was demolished, but part of the hall wall still remains.[2] In the 16th century the south aisle of St. James' church was converted into the Fermor family chapel.[2] However, after the Reformation the Fermors were Recusants and had a private Roman Catholic chapel at the manor house.
When Thomas Fermor died in 1580, his will provided for the founding of a "free school" for Somerton boys to be instructed in "virtue and learning".[1] Somerton's present school building dates from the 18th and 19th centuries, but includes a late 16th-century window which may be from the original building.[2]
In 1815 William Fermor sold the manor to George Villiers, 6th Earl of Jersey. As the Free School accepted only boys, Julia, Lady Jersey, opened a girls' school in Somerton.[1] Lady Jersey was the daughter of Sir Robert Peel. A century later George's son Victor Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey died and the Somerton estate was sold.[1]
Somerton was farmed in an open field system of four fields until William Fermor secured an inclosure act from Parliament in 1765.[1] Thereafter Somerton's population grew, reaching 400 in the 1821 census.
The stretch of the Oxford Canal between Banbury and Tackley was completed in 1787.[3] It runs along the Cherwell valley, and at Somerton it passes between the river and the village. Somerton Deep Lock was built to the north of the village.
Building of the Oxford and Rugby Railway between Oxford and Banbury began in 1845. By the time the line opened the Great Western Railway had taken it over. In Somerton the railway threads along the valley between the Oxford Canal and the foot of the hill on which the village stands, and a bridge carries it over the road to North Aston. The Great Western opened a station just south of the bridge in 1855;[4] originally named 'Somerton', it was renamed 'Fritwell & Somerton' in 1907, although Fritwell is two miles away. The station attracted the opening of a public house, the Railway Inn.[1] British Railways closed the station in 1964. The Railway Inn has since followed suit.
Some of the land on which the railway was built belonged to the Free School, and some of the money that the Great Western paid in compensation was spent on repairs to the school.[1] In the 19th century the village population grew and the school population grew with it. In a reorganisation of schools in 1930 the Free School became a junior school and senior pupils from Somerton had to go to Fritwell. The school was still open in the 1950s[1] but has since closed.
Churches
Parish church
The parish church, St James the Apostle, is known to have existed by 1074.[1] A Norman carved doorway in the nave dates from this period. Much of the building, however, including the bell tower, is Decorated Gothic from the first half of the 14th century. St James' also has features from the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries.[5] St James' is a Grade I listed building.[6]
In the churchyard is a standing cross, which itself is a Grade I listed structure.[7]
The tower has a ring of eight bells.[8]
Recusancy
Even after the Fermors moved to Tusmore, the Roman Catholic Mass continued to be celebrated at the Somerton manor house chapel. In 1738 St. James' Church of England rector reported that 47 Roman Catholics attended Mass at the manor house chapel once a month. Somerton's Roman Catholics were respectful to the Anglican rector, good farmers, and so neighbourly to Anglican fellow-villagers that there were numerous intermarriages between the two denominations. The rector concluded that the two denominations "are so blended and united together" that it would be inadvisable to enforce the laws against Roman Catholicism that made it an offence to celebrate the Mass or for anyone to harbour Roman Catholic clergy.[1]
About the village
After the First World War the Rev Dr Barnes, who had been Rector of Somerton since 1875, organised the building of the first village hall. It was completed in 1924, the year after his retirement, and it was named the 'Barnes Memorial Hall' in his memory.[9]
The Oxford Canal runs by the village.
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Lobel 1959, pp. 290–301
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 768
- ↑ Compton 1976, p. 37.
- ↑ Compton 1976, p. 117.
- ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, pp. 767–768.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1225707: Church of St James, Church Street (Grade I listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1225734: Churchyard Cross north of the Church of St James (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Somerton". Tower Guide. Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, Banbury Branch. http://www.parishes.oxford.anglican.org/bell-ringers/banbury/Somerton.htm. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
- ↑ "Village Hall History". The Village. http://somertonoxon.co.uk/?page_id=159. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- Blomfield, James Charles (1888). History of Middleton and Somerton. London.
- Chambers, R.A. (1977). "Observations at Somerton, Oxon., 1973". Oxoniensia (Oxford: Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society) XLII: 216–226. SSN 0308-5562.
- Compton, Hugh J. (1976). The Oxford Canal. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 37, 117. ISBN 0-7153-7238-6.
- A History of the County of Oxford - Volume 6 pp 290-301: Parishes: Somerton (Victoria County History)
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2
- "Topography of Somerton, Oxfordshire". The Gentleman's Magazine: 115. 1827.