| Marsh Gibbon | |
|---|---|
 A view of the village | |
  Marsh Gibbon Location withinBuckinghamshire | |
| Population | 969 (2011 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SP645235 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Bicester |
| Postcode district | OX27 |
| Dialling code | 01869 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Marsh Gibbon is a village andcivil parish inBuckinghamshire, England. It is close to theA41 and the border withOxfordshire about 4 miles (6.4 km) east ofBicester.
In the centre of the village the buildings are largely built of local stone, and roofed in tiles, slate and thatch. Many of which arelisted buildings.[2] The centre and east of the village are designated as the Marsh Gibbon Conservation Area,[3] including the Greyhound pub, The Plough, the Manor House and the Church.
In the south of the parish, formerly part of the ancientBernwood Forest, the landscape and habitat has been designated as the Upper Ray Meadows[4] Nature Reserve, whileLong Herdon Meadow is a nationalSite of Special Scientific Interest.
The village name comes from the English word 'Marsh', describing the typical state of land in the area due to the highwater table of theAylesbury Vale district. The affix 'Gibbon' derives from the family name 'Gibwen', theLords of the manor in the twelfth century. Inmanorial rolls of 1292 the village was recorded asMersh Gibwyne, though earlier (in 1086) it was known simply asMerse.
One of the two entries in theDomesday Book for the village is unique in having the only comment of any kind, namely "Graviter et miserabiliter". In translation the complete entry reads:
Ailric held it in King Edward's time but now holds in farm of William heavily and miserably.
Ailric's manor, now named Westbury Manor, was given byKing Edward IV to theCompany of Cooks inLondon, though it was sold in 1883 to Thomas H. Phipps, whose family still owns the manor.[5]
The larger manor was the property of theabbey ofGrestein inNormandy,France. In 1348 the lands of the Abbey of Grestein, including Marsh Gibbon and the manors of Ramridge[6] in Hampshire andConock in Wiltshire, were seized byEdward the Black Prince during theHundred Year’s War, as ransom for the capture of Jean de Melun, Comte de Tancarville[7] during theCrecy campaign. He in turn assigned these and other manors in payment of debt to Tideman de Lymbergh[8] of theHanseatic League, who in 1350 by licence of the king demised them toMichael and Thomas de la Pole, sons ofWilliam de la Pole[8]
In 1442 Michael de la Pole’s descendantWilliam Duke of Suffolk granted these three manors to the almshouse trust founded by himself and his wifeAlice Chaucer atEwelme in Oxfordshire.The Ewelme Almshouse Trust[9] has held these lands ever since.
In 1617James I granted the Mastership of theEwelme Trust to the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford in whose hands it remains today. Its manor house is Elizabethan and situated just south of the thirteenth-century church and about 200 metres from Westbury Manor to the West.
Following a skirmish atHillesden in 1645, the parliamentarian troops were garrisoned in Marsh Gibbon before marching on toBoarstall. The ground works of their encampment were visible in the field to northwest of the Ewelme manor house but have since been flattened in the late 1950s.
In 1858Sir Henry Acland was appointed to the post of Regius Professor of Medicine and Master of the Trust, a post he retained until 1894. He was appointed to the Royal Sanitary Commission[10] on public health in 1869, and took a great interest in the welfare and sanitation of rural villages like Marsh Gibbon. In order to improve the distressed condition of village housing, he had 28 new stone houses built for residents in the period 1860-1880 – each had half an acre of land, anearth closet and a pigsty. Along with the houses, a dispensary was introduced and a Reading Room started. At the time all water in the village was supplied by wooden pipes from the Stump Well, which can still be seen in the field behind the manor. In 1884, Acland publishedHealth in the Village (1864),[11] an influential book based on his experience in Marsh Gibbon and presenting “a broad view of the circumstances most favourable to the good order and happiness of a rural population” – it includes a map of the village and a plan of the houses that were built, describing them as model labourer’s cottages.
The landscape is predominantly pastoral, with significant areas of archaeological and biological interest.[12] The geology of the area comprisescornbrash limestone to the west, andKellaway beds and Oxford Clay to the east and south of the parish. To the east of the village is the hamlet ofLittle Marsh and to the south east is the hamlet ofSummerstown.
The parish church of Marsh Gibbon is dedicated toSt Mary the Virgin.Robert Clavering, who later became theBishop of Peterborough, was therector from 1719.[13]The village has two pubs, the Greyhound and the Plough.
North of the village and just outsidePoundon, is Tower Hill Business Park. This was previously Poundon Hill Wireless Station, aFCO/MI6signals intelligence station.[14]
Marsh Gibbon Church of England School is a mixed,voluntary aided primary school, with approximately 100 pupils. It takes children from the age of four through to the age of eleven.
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