Idbury
| Idbury | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 St. Nicholas' parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP235199 |
| Location: | 51°52’40"N, 1°39’33"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 240 (2011, with Bould and Foscot) |
| Post town: | Chipping Norton |
| Postcode: | OX7 |
| Dialling code: | 01993 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Oxfordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Witney |
Idbury is a village in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, about four and a half miles south-east of Stow-on-the-Wold in neighbouring Gloucestershire.
The wider parish includes such hamlets as Bould and Foscot: the 2011 Census recorded this parish's population as 240.
History
About a quarter of a mile west of the village is a hillfort, Idbury Camp. It was used in the Iron Age, Roman occupation and Anglo-Saxon eras, and possibly earlier. The village's name is derived from the Old English for 'Ida's burh' (fort), in reference to the hillfort.[1] The remains of its rampart are about 33 feet wide, up to 16 inches high, and enclose an area of about 9 acres. The fort is a scheduled monument.[2][3]
Idbury had a Church of England school from 1845 until 1966. The building is now a private house. The engineer Sir Benjamin Baker, noted for his work on the Forth Bridge, London Victoria station and the first Aswan Dam, is buried in the churchyard in Idbury.[4]
The Countryman
J. W. Robertson Scott[5] moved to Idbury Manor in 1922 and founded The Countryman[6] magazine there in 1927. In 1924 the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner rented a cottage in Idbury from Robertson Scott. In 1934 the Canadian poet Frank Prewett moved to Idbury where he briefly worked as assistant editor of The Countryman.[7]
In 1949 Robertson Scott retired and the magazine moved to Burford. Apart from a short period in a London office, the magazine remained at Burford until 2003, when publication moved to Broughton Hall in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Parish church
The Church of England parish church, St Nicholas was originally Norman, but little survives from this period except the ornate north doorway.[8] Early in the 14th century the bell-turret, north aisle, south porch and south doorway were added, new windows were inserted in the chancel and the chancel arch was altered.[8] The east window is Decorated Gothic.[8] The bell tower was added shortly afterwards.[8] Later a clerestory was added to the nave and other windows were added to the nave and north aisle, all of them Perpendicular Gothic.[8]
The church is a Grade I listed building.[9]
The tower has three bells, two of which are mediæval. The second and tenor bells were cast in about 1420 by an unknown bellfounder, and the treble was cast in 1749 by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester.[10] There is also a Sanctus bell that was cast in about 1320[10] and hangs in a bellcote on the gable end of the nave above the chancel arch.
The tower also has an early turret clock of a type that is unusual for Oxfordshire:[11] it has a wooden frame more characteristic of elsewhere in the Midlands.[12] Early in the 18th century the clock was modified with the addition of a new escapement of unusual design,[12] but the clock itself is considerably older.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Idbury) |
References
- ↑ VCH 2014, p. 1.
- ↑ Harden 1954, pp. 142, 143.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1014558: Idbury Camp hillfort (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ Kerrigan 1998, p. 123.
- ↑ John William Robertson Scott (1866–1962); author of England's Green & Pleasant Land and other works
- ↑ The Countryman Magazine
- ↑ "Frank Prewett in Idbury and Fifield". Idbury. http://www.idbury.com/prewitt.shtml.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 657.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1367780: Church of St Nicholas (Grade I listing)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Davies, Peter (22 December 2011). "Idbury S Nicholas". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Idbury&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=IDBURY.
- ↑ Beeson, Northcote & Simcock 1989, p. 166.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Beeson, Northcote & Simcock 1989, p. 170.
- Beeson, C.F.C.; Northcote, L.S.; Simcock, A.V. (1989). Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. pp. 44, 166–170. ISBN 0-903364-06-9.
- Harden, D.B. (1954). "Scheduled Monuments in Oxfordshire". Oxoniensia (Oxford Architectural and Historical Society) XIX: 137–145. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1954/harden.pdf.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2
- Idbury Victoria County History of the County of Oxford, Volume 9