Lyford, Oxfordshire

Village and civil parish in Vale, England

Human settlement in England

Lyford

St Mary the Virgin parish church,
seen from the north

Lyford

Location within Oxfordshire

Population| 44 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference| SU3994
Civil parish|

* Lyford

District|

* Vale of White Horse

Shire county|

* Oxfordshire

Region|

* South East

Country| England
Sovereign state| United Kingdom
Post town| Wantage
Postcode district| OX12
Police| Thames Valley
Fire| Oxfordshire
Ambulance| South Central
UK Parliament|

* Witney

List of places

England
Oxfordshire

51°38′42″N 1°26′17″W﻿ / ﻿51.645°N 1.438°W﻿ / 51.645; -1.438

Lyford is a small village and civil parish on the River Ock about 4 miles (6 km) north of Wantage. Historically it was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Hanney.[1] Lyford was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The 2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 44.[2] Lyford's name refers to a former ford across the river 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.[3]

## Manors

[edit]

There were two manors in Lyford: Lyford Manor and Lyford Grange.

### Lyford Manor

[edit]

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 King Canute in 1034. The Domesday Book of 1086 records Lyford as Linford.[1] The present manor house was built in the latter part of the 16th century and extended in 1617.[4] It is a Grade II* listed building.[5]

### Lyford Grange

[edit]

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[6][clarification needed] including one queen post. It is a Grade II* listed building.[7] In the reign of Elizabeth I the Grange belonged to a recusant family, the Yates, who harboured a community of Bridgettine nuns.[1] In 1581 the house was searched; three priests were eventually found and arrested by the government agent, George Eliot: Thomas Ford, John Colleton and the renowned Jesuit, Edmund Campion.[8] They were subsequently tried and martyred.[1][9] The Mass is held annually in the village in commemoration of this event.[9] The raid and martyrdoms did not stop recusancy at Lyford. In 1690 an informer reported that a small estate in the parish had been reserved to build a nunnery "when Popish times should come".[1][10]

## Parish church

[edit]

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.[1] There is a Mass dial scratched on the south wall. The wooden bell-turret was added in the 15th century;[1] it has a scissor-braced timber frame and three bells. The Perpendicular Gothic[11] clerestory was added either at the same time or early in the 16th century.[1] The church was restored in 1875 under the direction of the Gothic revival architect Ewan Christian. It is a Grade II* listed building.[12] St Mary's parish is now part of the United Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield.[13] Rev. Michael Camilleri (c. 1814–1903), sometime vicar of Lyford, translated the New Testament into Maltese.[citation needed]

## Social and economic history

[edit]

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.[14] An open field system of farming continued in the parish until Parliament passed an Inclosure Act for Lyford in 1801.[1]

### Almshouses

[edit]

Oliver Ashcombe founded Lyford almshouses in 1611. The present quadrangle of brick-built almshouses and a chapel appear to be 18th century.[1][4] The quadrangle was completed as 20 houses, which were still tenanted as such in the early 1920s.[1] More recently they have been combined into eight larger units.[13]

## Air crash

[edit]

On 8 April 1945 an Avro Lancaster B.I Special bomber aircraft, HK788 of No. 9 Squadron RAF based at Bardney in Lincolnshire, had taken part in a raid on a benzole factory in mainland Europe. On its return flight the plane caught fire and crashed in a field barely 400 yards (370 m) south of the parish church and Manor Farm.[15] All seven aircrew were killed. Six were members of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. The seventh was a warrant officer from the Royal Canadian Air Force. All are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of Botley Cemetery on the outskirts of Oxford.[15] Flight Sergeant Gordon Symonds, who was born and raised in Wantage, was killed just a couple of miles from his home. In October 2008 the widow of one of the crew provided a plaque commemorating the seven dead. It was installed in the parish church; the actor Richard Briers attended the ceremony[16] and read Noël Coward's poem Lie in the Dark and Listen.[15][17]

## See also

[edit]

* Cowleaze Wood in southeast Oxfordshire, where an RAF Handley Page Halifax Mk III bomber aircraft crashed in 1944.

## Gallery

[edit]

* Lyford manor house

* The west end of the nave in St Mary the Virgin parish church, showing the scissor-braced 15th-century frame supporting the bell-turret

* Monument in St Mary's parish church to the crew of RAF Lancaster HK788

* 18th-century thatched cottage in Lyford

* St Mary the Virgin parish church: the south side of the chancel (right) and part of the south side of the nave (left)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Page & Ditchfield 1924, pp. 285–294
2. ^ "Area selected: Vale of White Horse (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
3. ^ Arkell 1942, p. 6.
4. ^ a b Pevsner 1966, p. 173.
5. ^ Historic England. "Manor Farmhouse and attached wall (Grade II*) (1048351)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
6. ^ Fletcher 1968, p. 76.
7. ^ Historic England. "Lyford Grange (Grade II*) (1283468)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
8. ^ Ford, David Nash (2011). "The Arrest of St. Edmund Campion". Royal Berkshire History. Nash Ford Publishing. Archived from the original on 11 October 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
9. ^ a b Foley 1877, pp. 279, 280, 284
10. ^ "Original record of court proceedings (National Archive E126/14)". Anglo-American Legal Tradition website.
11. ^ Pevsner 1966, p. 172.
12. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Mary, The Green (Grade II*) (1199327)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
13. ^ a b Archbishops' Council. "Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield". A Church Near You. Church of England. Archived from the original on 16 September 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
14. ^ Sturdy & Case 1963, p. 90.
15. ^ a b c "07/08.04.1945 No, 9 Squadron Lancaster I HK788 WS-E F/O. Jeffs". Archive Report: Allied Forces. Aircrew Remembered. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
16. ^ "Richard Briers". Latest News. Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
17. ^ Coward, Noël. "Lie in the Dark and Listen". Poetry of Direct Personal Experience. Aircrew Remembered. Retrieved 13 November 2015.

## Sources

[edit]

* Arkell, WJ (1942). "Place-Names and Topography in the Upper Thames Country: A Regional Essay" (PDF). Oxoniensia. VII. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society: 6, 22. ISSN 0308-5562.
* Fletcher, John (1968). "Crucks In the West Berkshire and Oxford Region" (PDF). Oxoniensia. XXXIII. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society: 74, 76. ISSN 0308-5562.
* Foley, Henry (1877). Records of the English province of the Society of Jesus: historic facts illustrative of the labours and sufferings of its members in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Burns & Oates. pp. 279, 280, 284. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
* Hadland, Tony (1992). Thames Valley Papists: from Reformation to Emancipation 1534–1829. Hadland Books. ISBN 0-9507431-4-3. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012.[page needed]
* Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire. Victoria County History. Vol. 4\. assisted by John Hautenville Cope. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 285–294.
* Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 172–173.
* Sturdy, David; Case, Humphrey (1963). "Notes and News" (PDF). Oxoniensia. XXVIII. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society: 90. ISSN 0308-5562.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lyford, Oxfordshire.

* The geographic coordinates are from the Ordnance Survey.

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The District of the Vale of White Horse

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* Didcot and Wantage County Constituency
* Oxford West and Abingdon County Constituency
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Towns|

* Abingdon-on-Thames
* Caldecott
* Faringdon
* Wantage
* Belmont

Large villages|

* Blewbury
* Cumnor
* Chilswell
* Cumnor Hill
* Dean Court
* Farmoor
* Swinford
* Drayton
* East Challow
* East Hendred
* Grove
* Harwell
* Kennington
* Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor
* Kingston Bagpuize
* Southmoor
* Marcham
* Cothill
* Milton
* North Hinksey
* Botley
* Harcourt Hill
* Radley
* St. Helen Without
* Dry Sandford
* Shippon
* Shrivenham
* Stanford in the Vale
* Bow
* Steventon
* Sunningwell
* Bayworth
* Boars Hill
* Foxcombe Hill
* Sutton Courtenay
* Watchfield
* Wootton
* Boars Hill
* Henwood
* Lamborough Hill

Other civil parishes
(component villages
and hamlets)|

* Appleford-on-Thames
* Appleton-with-Eaton
* Appleton
* Eaton
* Ardington and Lockinge
* Ardington
* Ardington Wick
* East Lockinge
* West Lockinge
* West Ginge
* Ashbury
* Idstone
* Kingstone Winslow
* Baulking
* Besselsleigh
* Bourton
* Buckland
* Gainfield
* Buscot
* Charney Bassett
* Childrey
* Chilton
* Coleshill
* Compton Beauchamp
* Knighton
* Denchworth
* East Hanney
* Eaton Hastings
* Fernham
* Frilford
* Fyfield and Tubney
* Fyfield
* Tubney
* Netherton
* Garford
* Goosey
* Great Coxwell
* Hatford
* Little Hatford
* Hinton Waldrist
* Duxford
* Kingston Lisle
* Letcombe Bassett
* Letcombe Regis
* Little Coxwell
* Littleworth
* Longcot
* Longworth
* Lyford
* Pusey
* Shellingford
* South Hinksey
* Hinksey Hill
* Sparsholt
* Uffington
* Upton
* West Challow
* West Hanney
* West Hendred
* East Ginge
* Western Valley
* Woolstone
* Wytham
* Seacourt

Former districts
and boroughs|

* Municipal Borough of Abingdon
* Abingdon Rural District
* Faringdon Rural District
* Wantage Urban District
* Wantage Rural District

Former
constituencies|

* Oxfordshire County Constituency
* Abingdon Borough Constituency
* Berkshire North or Abingdon County Constituency
* Abingdon County Constituency
* Wantage County Constituency

* List of parliamentary constituencies in Oxfordshire
* List of places in Oxfordshire
* List of civil parishes in Oxfordshire

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