Lyford
| Lyford | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 St Mary the Virgin, Lyford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU388939 |
| Location: | 51°38’35"N, 1°26’22"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 44 (2001) |
| Post town: | Wantage |
| Postcode: | OX12 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Vale of White Horse |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wantage |
Lyford is a little village in the Vale of White Horse in Berkshire. It stands beside the River Ock, half a mile east of Charney Bassett and about four miles north of Wantage.
The 2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 44.
The name 'Lyford' refers to a former ford on the Ock, now replaced with a bridge on the road to Charney Bassett. "Ly" is derived from the Old English lin, meaning "flax". In 1034 it was recorded as Linford.[1]
History
There were two manors in Lyford: Lyford Manor and Lyford Grange.
The manor of Lyford dates from at least 944, when Edmund I granted six hides of land there to one Ælfheah. The manor was enlarged by a grant of a further two hides of land by Canute the Great in 1034. The Domesday Book of 1086 records Lyford as Linford.[2] The present manor house was built in the latter part of the 16th century and extended in 1617.[3] It is a Grade II* listed building.[4]
Lyford Grange, just east of the village, was originally a moated manor house of Abingdon Abbey built in a quadrangle. The present house was built between 1430 and 1480. It is timber-framed, with a post-and-truss roof[5] including one queen post. It is a Grade II* listed building.[6] In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Grange belonged to a recusant]] family, the Yates, who harboured a community of Bridgettine nuns]].[2] In 1581 the house was searched, three priests were eventually found and arrested by the government agent, George Eliot. They were subsequently tried and hanged. In 1690 an informer reported that a small estate in the parish had been reserved to build a nunnery "when Popish times should come".[2][7]
In the early 1960s the digging of a soakaway in a cottage garden opposite the vicarage unearthed a small pottery bottle from the late 13th or early 14th century, and a bronze scale-pan.[8] An open field system of farming continued in the parish until Parliament passed an Inclosure Act for Lyford in 1801.[2]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin was built as a chapelry of Hanney in the first half of the 13th century.[2] There is a Mass dial scratched on the south wall. The wooden bell-turret was added in the 15th century,[2] has a scissor-braced timber frame and three bells. The Perpendicular Gothic[9] clerestory was added either at the same time or early in the 16th century.[2]
The church was restored in 1875 under the direction of the Gothic revival architect Ewan Christian. It is a Grade II* listed building.[10] St Mary's parish is now part of the united Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield.
The Reverend Michael Camilleri (circa 1814–1903), sometime vicar of Lyford, translated the New Testament into Maltese.
Pictures
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lyford) |
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Lyford manor house -
The west end of the nave in St Marys' -
Monument in St Mary's -
18th-century thatched cottage in Lyford -
St Mary the Virgin
References
- ↑ Arkell 1942, p. 6.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 A History of the County of Berkshire - Volume 4 pp 285-294: Parishes: Hanney (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Pevsner 1966, p. 173.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1048351: Manor Farmhouse and attached wall (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Fletcher 1968, p. 76.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1283468: Lyford Grange (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ "Original record of court proceedings (National Archive E126/14)". http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT6/E126/E126no14/IMG_0022.htm.
- ↑ Sturdy & Case 1963, p. 90.
- ↑ Pevsner 1966, p. 172.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1199327: Church of St Mary, The Green (Grade II* listing)
Sources
- William Joscelyn Arkell (1942). "Place-Names and Topography in the Upper Thames Country: A Regional Essay". Oxoniensia (Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society) VII: 6, 22. SSN 0308-5562. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1942/arkell.pdf.
- Fletcher, John (1968). "Crucks In the West Berkshire and Oxford Region". Oxoniensia (Oxford Architectural and Historical Society) XXXIII: 74, 76. SSN 0308-5562. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1968/fletcher.pdf.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Berkshire, 1966; 2010 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-12662-4
- Sturdy, David; Case, Humphrey (1963). "Notes and News". Oxoniensia (Oxford Architectural and Historical Society) XXVIII: 90. SSN 0308-5562. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1963/notes.pdf.