Steeple Barton
| Steeple Barton | |
| Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
 St Mary the Virgin, Steeple Barton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP447250 |
| Location: | 51°55’19"N, 1°21’4"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,523 (2011) |
| Post town: | Bicester |
| Postcode: | OX25 |
| Dialling code: | 01869 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Oxfordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Witney |
| Website: | Steeple Barton Parish Council |
Steeple Barton is a scattered village beside the River Dorn in the heart of Oxfordshire, about eight snd a half miles east of Chipping Norton, a similar distance west of Bicester and nine miles south of Banbury. Most of the parish's population lives in the village of Middle Barton, about a mile north-west of the settlement of Steeple Barton itself.
The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,523.
History
Near Barton Lodge are two Hoar Stones[1] that are the remains of Neolithic chamber tombs.[2]
The Domesday Book of 1086 records that a manor of 10 hides at Barton was one of many manors under the feudal overlordship of Odo of Bayeux.[1] Late in the 12th century Thomas St John had a set of fish ponds made that were fed by the River Dorn.[1] Their remains are visible about 990 yards north of the parish church.
The former manor house at Sesswell's Barton was built in about 1570 for John Dormer and altered for the recusant Ralph Sheldon in 1678–79.[1] The house was remodelled between 1849 and about 1862 to Tudor Revival designs by the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon.[1] In about 1860 it was renamed Barton Abbey on the false assumption that the Augustinian Osney Abbey had a cell here.[1][2] The house was altered again in either the 1890s[2] or the early years of the 20th century.[1]
Philip Constable of Everingham in Yorkshire was a Royalist in the Civil War who was connected with Steeple Barton and was made a baronet in 1642. After the Parliamentarians won the war, they deprived him of all his estates. He died in 1644 and is buried in the south aisle of St Mary's parish church. Like the Sheldons, later members of the Constable family were recusants, including Humphrey Constable who was reported as such in 1663 and 1682 and Michael Constable who was reported in 1706.[1]
Anne Greene was born in the parish in 1628 and later became a domestic servant at the manor house in the neighbouring parish of Duns Tew.[3] In 1650 she was convicted of infanticide on apparently doubtful evidence, was hanged at Oxford Castle but survived and was pardoned.[3]
The agricultural lands of Steeple Barton and Westcott Barton were worked as a single unit.[1] An open field system of farming prevailed in the two parishes until an Inclosure Act for their common lands was implemented in 1796.[1]
The main road between Bicester and Enstone traverses the parish east–west. It was turnpiked in 1793, disturnpiked in 1876 and is now classified the B4030 road.
Parish church
The parish church, St Mary the Virgin had been built by 1190, by which time it had been given to Osney Abbey.[1] Little of the original building is recognisable except the Norman font.[2] The south aisle was added in the 14th century.[2] Its surviving original features include the south porch and five-bay arcade, both of which are Decorated Gothic.[2] The Perpendicular Gothic[2] west tower was added in the 15th century.[1] The chancel was rebuilt and the nave and south aisle drastically restored in 1850–51 under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect John Chessell Buckler.[1][2]
Sport and leisure
- Football: Middle Barton F.C., founded in 1928
- Middle Barton Sports and Social Club on Worton Road
- Tennis
- Bowls
- Amateur dramatics: Middle Barton Drama Group[4]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Steeple Barton) |
References
- Alsager, Richard Vian. "Anne Greene". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co..
- A History of the County of Oxford - Volume 11 pp 59-75: @ (Victoria County History)
- Michael Maclagan (1947). "The Family of Dormer in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire". Oxoniensia (Oxford Architectural and Historical Society) XI–XII: 90–101. SSN 0308-5562. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1946-7/maclagan.pdf.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, 1974 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09639-2page 788
