Sibford Gower
| Sibford Gower | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 The Wykham Arms | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP352379 |
| Location: | 52°2’18"N, 1°29’16"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 508 (2011, with Burdrop) |
| Post town: | Banbury |
| Postcode: | OX15 |
| Dialling code: | 01295 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cherwell |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Banbury |
| Website: | thesibfords.org.uk |
Sibford Gower is a village in Oxfordshire, six and a half miles west of Banbury and on the north side of the Sib valley opposite its smaller sister village, Sibford Ferris. Sibford Gower civil parish includes the village of Burdrop: the church parish includes both Sibfords.
The 2011 Census recorded the civl parish's population as 508.
Much of the village is a conservation area.
Manors
The Domesday Book of 1086 records two manors at Sibford Gower. In 1086 William, son of Corbicion held 10 hides there, which was assessed as one knight's fee. By 1122 Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick held this manor. The last known reference to its feudal overlordship was under Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick in 1458.[1] By 1190 the feoffee of the Beaumont manor was another Norman, William Goher. In the 1220s the family seem to have rebelled against the Crown and forfeited their lands, but by 1242–43 Thomas Goher had recovered the estate. The "Gower" part of the village's toponym is derived from a variant of "Goher".[1]
The other manor was of 11 hides and was held by Hugh de Grandmesnil, whose son Ivo mortgaged the family estates to Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan in 1102, the latter's family assuming ownership after Ivo's death. By the 1480s, the manor was owned by Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, a supporter of Richard III in the Wars of the Roses, and one of the subjects of the rhyme 'The cat, the rat, and Lovel our dog, Rulen all England under an hog.'. He survived the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, but the victorious Henry VII ordered the forfeiture of Lovell's his titles.[1]
In about 1225 William of Wheatfield, feoffee of the de Quincy manor, granted land in Sibford Gower to the Knights Templar, who had held land in neighbouring Sibford Ferris since the middle of the 12th century. Slightly later the elder Alan la Zouche also granted land to them. In 1314, when the last of the Templars were suppressed, their estate at Sibford Gower was 10 yardlands and was assessed as a quarter of a knight's fee.[1]
Sibford Gower Manor House was built in the 17th century. Frank Lascelles, who grew up in the village, had it substantially remodelled between 1907 and 1915.[2][3]
Until 1773, Sibford Gower had a single open field of 80 yardlands. In 1774 the inclosure award for Sibford Gower divided 1,666 acres between 48 landholders. The largest award was 257 acres to New College, Oxford, which had held the rectory of Swalcliffe since 1389[1] and over the years had extended its estates into Sibford Gower.
Meeting-house, chapel and church
A Quaker congregation was established in the village by 1669, when it met in the home of the clockmaker Thomas Gilkes. In 1678[1] or 1681[4] a Quaker meeting-house was built on land bought for the purpose by Bray D'Oyley, Thomas Fardon and Thomas Gilkes.[4] By 1682 it had a burial ground. In 1736 a gallery was added inside the meeting-house to accommodate its growing congregation. The 1851 Census recorded that 112 people attended its Sunday meeting. In 1865 the old meeting-house was replaced with the present[1] one south-west of the village, on the road to Hook Norton.
Sibford Gower had a Wesleyan congregation by the first decade of the 19th century, for which a chapel was built in 1827. The 1851 Census recorded that it held two Sunday services, with congregations of 95 and 112.[1] It became part of the Methodist Union in 1932 and was a member of the Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold Circuit. The chapel was refurbished in 1962–63, but closed in June 2014.[5]
Sibford Gower was part of the Church of England parish of Swalcliffe until 1841, when a new ecclesiastical parish of Sibford Gower, with Sibford Ferris and Burdrop was created. The parish church, Holy Trinity, is in Burdrop; built in 1840 to serve the new parish.[1]
Sibford Gower had a school by 1612 and its first schoolroom was built in 1623. A new cottage for the schoolmaster was built in 1818. In 1825 the school had 59 pupils, but this declined to 40 in 1833. The vicar of Swalcliffe complained in 1837 that the charity was mismanaged, its buildings were ruinous and the master and his wife were not competent. In 1866 the buildings were replaced with a new school and master's house. Pupil numbers recovered to 56 in 1871 and 68 in 1890. Quakers and Wesleyans in the parish held a public meeting in 1891 at which they objected to the school provide a specifically Church of England education, and the Charity Commission confirmed that this was not required. The school was enlarged and in 1903 could accommodate 139 pupils, but actual attendance averaged 81.[1] It is now an Endowed Primary School.[6]
In 1782 Sibford Gower had only one pub, the King's Arms. The Wykham Arms was licensed as an ale-house by 1793. It was built in the 17th century, possibly as a farmhouse.[7] The King's Arms is no longer trading
Clockmakers
Sibford Gower became associated with clockmaking in the 17th century. Thomas Gilkes was born in Sibford Gower in about 1665[8] and pioneered clockmaking in north Oxfordshire.[1] There is no known record of where he learnt his trade, but as he was a Quaker he would have been apprenticed to a fellow Quaker; possibly Richard Gilkes of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in London.[9] Thomas Gilkes died in 1743.[8] Thomas Gilkes trained two of his sons as clockmakers: a third Thomas (1704–57), who then worked in Charlbury as both a clockmaker and a Quaker minister, and Richard (1715–87) who established his business in West Adderbury.[9] John Fardon (1700–43) of Deddington also served his apprenticeship with the elder Thomas Gilkes in Sibford.[9]
Gilkes pioneered a clockmaking industry in north Oxfordshire villages with such success that his fellow-Quakers, including several further members of the Gilkes and Fardon families, dominated the trade in parts of the district for the next 150 years.[9] Later clockmakers in Sibford Gower were also Quakers. John Wells' date of birth is unknown but he was married in the Friends' Meeting House in 1785.[10] He moved his business to Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, and he died in 1809.[10] Ezra Enock or Enoch (1799–1860) was born in Sibford Gower.[11] From 1827 he traded in Whitechapel in Middlesex, but in 1832 he returned to Sibford Gower where he remained for the rest of his life.[11] His son John Enock (1834–83) traded as a clock repairer in adjoining villages.[11]
About the village
The village has one pub left, the Wykham Arms, which is now a 'gastropub'.[12]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sibford Gower) |
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Crossley 1972, pp. 225–260.
- ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 767.
- ↑ Ryan 1999, pp. 159–179.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Beeson 1989, p. 16.
- ↑ "Sibford Gower". Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold Methodist Circuit. http://chippingnortonandstowmethodistcircuit.webplus.net/sibfordgower.html.
- ↑ Sibford Gower Endowed Primary School
- ↑ National Heritage List 1046801: The Wykham Arms Public House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Beeson 1989, p. 104.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Beeson 1989, p. 105.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Beeson 1989, p. 149.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Beeson 1989, p. 96.
- ↑ The Wykham Arms
- Beeson, C.F.C. (1989). Simcock, A.V. ed. Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. ISBN 0-903364-06-9.
- A History of the County of Oxford - Volume 10 pp 225-260: Parishes: Swalcliffe (Victoria County History)
- Ryan, Deborah (1999). "The man who staged the Empire: Remembering Frank Lascelles in Sibford Gower, 1875–2000". in Kwint, Marius; Breward, Christopher; Aynsley, Jeremy. Material Memories: Design and Evocation (Materializing Culture). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 159–179. ISBN 1859732526.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2page 767