Eydon
| Eydon | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 St Nicholas' parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP5450 |
| Location: | 52°8’47"N, 1°12’34"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 422 (2011[1]) |
| Post town: | Daventry |
| Postcode: | NN11 |
| Dialling code: | 01327 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Daventry |
| Website: | Eydon Parish Council |
Eydon is a village and parish in the Chipping Warden Hundred of Northamptonshire, about eight miles north-east of Banbury in neighbouring Oxfordshire. The village is between 510 and 540 ft above sea level on the east side of a hill, which rises to 580 ft and is the highest point in the parish. The parish is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the south by a stream that is one of its tributaries, and to the east and north by field boundaries.
The villages name means 'Aega's hill'.[2]
The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 422.[1]
Contents
Manor
In the 11th and 12th centuries the manor of Eydon was assessed at two hides.[3][4] The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded that one Hugh held "Egedone" of Hugh de Grandmesnil.[3] In the 12th century Richard Fitz Wale held "Aydona" of the fee of Leicester.[4]
Eydon Hall
- Main article: Eydon Hall
Eydon Hall is a stately home that was built in 1789–91.[5] It is a Grade-I listed building.[6]
Parish church
The oldest part of the Church of England parish church of Saint Nicholas is the Norman baptismal font.[5][7] A north aisle of two bays was added to the nave early in the 13th century.[5] The west tower was added early in the 14th century.[5] The north windows and (now blocked) doorway of the north aisle and the south windows of the chancel are 14th-century Decorated Gothic.[7] The west window of the north aisle is late mediæval, being late Perpendicular Gothic.[7]
In 1864–5 the church was restored under the direction of the Gothic-Revival architect R.C. Hussey.[5] Hussey added a south aisle, extended the north aisle eastwards to four bays, added a northeast vestry, and moved to the vestry a recumbent effigy of a lady that dates from about 1340.[5] The church's other notable monument is a wall-mounted tablet in grey and white marble to Rev. Francis Annesley, who died in 1811.[7] It was carved by John Bacon the younger and it is now in the south aisle.[7] In the windows of the north aisle are some stained glass heraldic shields made in about 1830.[7]
The west tower has a ring of six bells. One of the Newcombe family of bellfounders of Leicester[8] cast the fifth bell in 1603.[9] Matthew III Bagley of Chacombe[8] cast the second bell in 1770.[9] John Briant of Hertford[8] cast the third bell in 1822.[9] John Taylor & Co of Loughborough cast the tenor bell in 1872 and the treble and fourth bells in 1981.[9]
St Nicholas' is a Grade-II* listed building.[7] The parish is part of the Benefice of Aston le Walls, Byfield, Boddington, Eydon and Woodford Halse.[10]
Economic history
The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded that Eydon had "a mill".[3] In mediæval usage this usually meant a watermill.
The village has an unusual layout of two streets in parallel (High Street and Lime Avenue).[11] Lime Avenue now has gaps and fields between some houses on its west side, but earthworks suggest that in earlier centuries cottages were continuous on both sides.[11]
Traces of traditional ridge-and-furrow ploughing survive in much of the parish, many in the S-shaped pattern characteristic of ox-drawn ploughs.[11] They are evidence of the open-field system of farming that prevailed in the parish until 1760, when Parliament passed the Inclosure Act for Eydon.[11]
Northwest of the village, west of Woodford Road and Manitoba Way, are 20 acres of shallow hollows and mounds.[11] They are the remains of small pits and spoil heaps created by the quarrying of Northampton Sand, an iron-rich sandstone, probably in the Middle Ages.[11]
In 1872 the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway (from 1910 part of the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (SMJR)) was opened between Blisworth and Farthinghoe. It passed through the east of Eydon parish about 1,000 yds north-east of the village. Its nearest stations were at Morton Pinkney and Byfield, each of which was about 2¼ miles away.
In the 1899 the Great Central Main Line to London Marylebone was built through the same part of Eydon parish, passing about 700 yds north-east of the village. Its nearest station was at Woodford and Hinton (later renamed Woodford Halse), about a mile and a half north of Eydon. British Railways closed the SMJR line in 1951, Woodford Halse station in 1963 and the GC main line in 1966.
Amenities
Eydon has a 17th-century[12] public house, the Royal Oak.[13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Area: Eydon (Parish); Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11123304&c=Eydon&d=16&e=62&g=6452467&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1384638447324&enc=1.
- ↑ "Key to English Place-names". http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Northamptonshire/Eydon.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Adkins & Serjeantson 1902, p. 331
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Adkins & Serjeantson 1902, p. 370
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Pevsner & Cherry 1973, p. 211
- ↑ National Heritage List 1040463: Eydon Hall
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 National Heritage List 1040476: Church of St Nicholas
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Dovemaster (31 October 2012). "Bellfounders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Dawson, George (8 March 2007). "Eydon S Nicholas". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Eydon&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=EYDON.
- ↑ Archbishops' Council (2010). "Benefice of Aston-le-Walls, Byfield, Boddington, Eydon and Woodford Halse". Church of England. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=28/007BT.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 RCHME 1982, p. 53
- ↑ National Heritage List 1190417: Royal Oak Public House
- ↑ The Royal Oak at Eydon
Bibliography
- Adkins, W.R.D.; Serjeantson, R.M., eds (1902). A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History. 1. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 331, 370.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1973). Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 211. ISBN 0-14-071022-1.
- RCHME, ed (1982). "Eydon". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire. 4 – Archaeological sites in South-West Northamptonshire. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. p. 53. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=126552.
Outside links
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