Churchill, Oxfordshire
| Churchill | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 All Saints' parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP282241 |
| Location: | 51°54’54"N, 1°35’28"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 665 (2011, with Sarsden) |
| Post town: | Chipping Norton |
| Postcode: | OX7 |
| Dialling code: | 01608 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Oxfordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Witney |
| Website: | Churchill and Sarsden |
Churchill is a village in the Cotswolds of Oxfordshire, about three miles south-west of Chipping Norton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 665.
Name
The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the name as Cercelle. A pipe roll from 1168 records it as Cerzhulla.[1] A charter of the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford from about 1175 records it as Chirchehull.[2] Other late 11th-century, 12th century and early 13th-century variants include Cercell, Cercell’, Cercella, Cerchil, Cerchull and Cerchulla. A Close Roll from 1220 records it as Cerceill’. An entry in the Book of Fees for about 1235–36 records it as Cershull’. An assize roll from 1246–47 Latinises the name as Sercellis. A feudal aid document from 1346 records it as Cerccell.[1]
It is believed that the name is simply as it appears, 'church hill', which in Old English would be cirice hyll. The old parish church was not on top of the hill, but a hill the village certainly has. There is a barrow mound almost at the top of the hill.
History
Churchill was originally at the foot of a hill now called Hastings Hill, but on 31 July 1684 a fire destroyed 20 houses and many other buildings, and killed four people. The village was rebuilt higher up the hill, with stone houses instead of the old timber-framed and thatched cottages. The fire was apparently caused by a baker who, to avoid chimney tax, had knocked through the wall from her oven to her neighbour's chimney.[3] The old village can still be seen as grassy mounds in the pastures around the Heritage Centre.
The former Chipping Norton Railway, part of the Great Western Railway, passed near Churchill. The line had a small railway station, Sarsden Halt, a quarter of a mile north-west of Churchill. British Railways closed the halt to passengers in 1962[4] and closed the railway in 1964.
Churches
Old parish church
The old parish church, All Saints, is now 'the Churchill Heritage Centre'. The chancel is the last remaining part of that church, standing on what is thought to be the site of a Saxon church. In 1348 the church was built in the Decorated Gothic style. At that time it was at the centre of the village, but after the fire of 1684 the village moved up the hill, and the old parish church, All Saints, was left at the edge of the village. By the end of the 18th century the church was said to be in disrepair, and in 1825 James Haughton Langston (1796–1863), who had the living of Churchill and Sarsden, and who owned the Sarsden estate and most of Churchill, built a new one higher up the hill in what had become the centre of the village. The new All Saints was consecrated in 1827. The old church fell into disrepair, but the chancel was retained and used as a mortuary chapel and to house the memorials and in 1869 the Gothic Revival architect CC Rolfe added a new east window.[5]
A Preservation Society was formed in 1988 to campaign for retention of the church, as the last mediæval building in Churchill. The building was repaired and the Heritage Centre opened in 2001 in the restored chancel. It now houses a collection of maps and historical records of the village from 1600 to the present, as well as displays about Warren Hastings and William Smith.
New parish church
The Church of England parish church, also named All Saints was designed by James Plowman of Oxford in 1826. It is an architectural mixture of imitations. The tower is a two-thirds copy of the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, its hammerbeam roof a copy of the roof of Christ Church, Oxford, its buttresses are versions of those of the chapel of New College, Oxford,[6] and its windows are based on those from various Oxford Colleges. In a restoration appeal for the tower in 1975, Sir John Betjeman wrote of it:
It is a beautiful landmark and has [...] been an eye-catcher for miles around, and a delightful one. I am sure it was built with this object in view. Although the style is English Perpendicular Gothic, the Tower is in the great tradition of English landscape gardening. Its disappearance would be a grave loss to a rolling wooded landscape.
In imitation of the May morning celebrations at Magdalen College, villagers gather at sunrise on 1 May each year and sing from the stairs and pulpit.[7]
The church was damaged by fire on 11 August 2007: it was reopened after repairs 15 months later. The church is a Grade II* listed building..[8]
Methodist church
Churchill also has a Methodist church.
About the village
There are three notable monuments in the village. A monolith, made of stone found in nearby Sarsden Wood, was erected in 1891 at the behest of the 3rd Earl of Ducie, commemorates William Smith. A memorial fountain, erected in 1870 at the behest of Julia, Countess of Ducie, commemorates her father, James Haughton Langston. Jennifer Sherwood described this fountain as: "Memorably ugly. A squat, square tower with obelisks and flying buttresses carrying a dumpy spire. The water drips from a rude spout at the side."[5] There is also a parish war memorial.
The village has one pub, the Chequers, built in the late 18th or early 19th century.[9]
The village hall was built in 1870 at the behest of James Langston as a Reading Room for the village. It was converted into the village hall after the Second World War.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Churchill, Oxfordshire) |
- Churchill and Sarsden
- Churchill and Sarsden Heritage Centre
- "Churchill". War Memorials in Oxfordshire. Andy Parsons. http://www.wargunner.co.uk/more/mem_churchill.htm.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gelling 1954, Churchill
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. Churchill ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ Mann 2013, p. 36.
- ↑ Jenkins, Brown & Parkhouse 2004
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 545.
- ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, pp. 544–545.
- ↑ Anonymous 2010.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1053342: Church of All Saints (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1053341: The Chequers (Grade II listing)
- Anonymous (2010). All Saints Church Churchill (3rd ed.). Churchill: All Saints PCC.
- Megalithic Portal: Churchill Standing Stone
- Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. ISBN 0198691033
- Gelling, Margaret (1954). Smith, AH. ed. The Place-Names of Oxfordshire, Part II. XXIV. based on material collected by Doris Mary Stenton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the English Place-Name Society. Churchill.
- Megalithic Portal: Old Vicarage
- Jenkins, Stanley; Brown, Bob; Parkhouse, Neil (2004). The Banbury & Cheltenham Direct Railway. Lydney: Lightmoor Press. ISBN 1-899889-15-9.
- Mann, Ralph (2013). A History of Churchill and Sarsden. Churchill: Churchill Old Church Preservation Society. ISBN 978-0-9575690-0-3.
- Morton, John L (2001). Strata: How William Smith Drew the First Map of the Earth in 1801 & Inspired the Science of Geology. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1992-7.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2
- Watkins, Alan (1988). Churchill and Sarsden: A Portrait in Old Photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-9513622-0-8.