Sandford St Martin
| Sandford St. Martin | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 St Martin's parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP420265 |
| Location: | 51°56’11"N, 1°23’25"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 209 (2011) |
| Post town: | Chipping Norton |
| Postcode: | OX7 |
| Dialling code: | 01608 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Oxfordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Witney |
| Website: | Sandford St Martin & Ledwell |
Sandford St Martin is a village in the west of Oxfordshire, in the Cotswolds about seven miles east of Chipping Norton and about twelve miles south of Banbury. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 209.
The village is built around a former ford across the Tyte Brook, a tributary of the River Dorn.
About a mile north of the village is the hamlet of Ledwell, which is on Cockley Brook.[1] In the north of the parish is Grove Ash, which is the site of a deserted Mediæval village that used to be a separate township.[2]
History
The village was called Sandford until about 1884, when the suffix "St Martin" was added to distinguish it from Sandford-on-Thames elsewhere in Oxfordshire and Dry Sandford in neighbouring Berkshire.[2]
The centre of the village is a small triangular green, on which is a stone cross]]. The base is Mediæval. The shaft probably dates from a restoration in 1856 by the Gothic Revival]] architect George Edmund Street. The head is of the 20th-century.[3]
Sandford's current manor house was built about 1715, but it may include parts of an earlier house.[4]
Opposite the parish church is Sandford Park, which was built about 1700 and has a later 18th-century west wing. A north wing was added in the early 20th century and demolished in 1954. The house is a Grade II* listed building.[5]
In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a pub in Sandford near the Manor House. In 1774 it was licensed as the Silver Tavern. It was briefly renamed the Taylor's Arms, and from 1788 was called the Crown. It ceased trading early in the 1880s and was converted to a house, allegedly because Edward Marshall, then occupant of the Manor House, objected to its being so near his home.[2]
Parish church
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Martin include the north arcade, which is of three bays and has octagonal columns. The chancel may have been completed in 1273, which is when the church was rededicated. The south door and vaulted porch are Decorated Gothic. Later in the Middle Ages, Perpendicular Gothic features were added, notably the clerestory of the nave and the embattled west tower. On the east side of the chancel arch is a painting of the arms of Queen Elizabeth I[6] on a panel of wood.[7]
The church was restored in 1856 to designs by GE Street, who had the chancel rebuilt. One window in the church has stained glass made in 1974 by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens to symbolise the Legend of Martin's cloak.[7] St Martin's is a Grade II* listed building.[6]
The west tower has a ring of six bells. Nathaniel Bolter and Humphrey Keene of Buckingham cast the third and fourth bells in 1629. James Keene of Bedford, who had a foundry at Woodstock, cast the second and tenor bells in 1630. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the treble and fifth bells in 1871. The church has also a Sanctus bell that Richard Keene of Woodstock cast in 1695.[8]
The parish is part of the Dorn and Ridge Benefice, which was formed in March 2015 by the amalgamation of the benefice of Over Worton and Nether Worton with that of Westcott Barton, Steeple Barton, Duns Tew and Sandford St Martin.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sandford St Martin) |
References
- ↑ A History of the County of Oxford - Volume 11 pp 169-181: Sandford St Martin (Victoria County History)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Crossley et al. 1983, pp. 169–181.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1286017: Wayside cross (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1052504: The Manor House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1286006: Sandford Park (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 National Heritage List 1052510: Church of St Martin (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Anonymous 2012, p. 5.
- ↑ Davies, Peter (1 September 2017). "Sandford St Martin S Martin". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Sandford+St+Martin&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=SANDFORD+S.
- ↑ Dorn and Ridge Benefice
- Anonymous (2012). John Piper and the Church a Stained-Glass Tour of Selected Local Churches. Dorchester-on-Thames: Friends of Dorchester Abbey.
- A History of the County of Oxford - Volume 11 pp 169–181: Wootton Hundred (northern part) (Victoria County History)
- Marshall, Edward (1866). An Account of the Parish of Sandford in the Deanery of Woodstock. James Parker and Co.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2
