| Chiselhampton | |
|---|---|
 Saint Katherine's parish church | |
  Chiselhampton Location withinOxfordshire | |
| OS grid reference | SU5998 |
| Civil parish | |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX44 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | The Parish of Stadhampton.com |
| |
Chiselhampton is a village in thecivil parish ofStadhampton, on theRiver Thame, in theSouth Oxfordshire district, in the county ofOxfordshire, England. It is about 6 miles (10 km) southeast ofOxford. In 1931 the parish namedChislehampton had a population of 136.[1] On 1 April 1932 the parish was abolished and merged with Stadhampton.[2]
"Chisel" is derived from theold Englishceosel orcisel meaning "gravel" or "shingle", referring to the river gravel beside the Thame on which some of the village is built. In a document dated 1147 thetoponym is speltChiselentona.[3]Chislehampton came into use later in the same century and was still in use in 1974.[4] A document dated 1517 calls the villageChessyllyngton. It has been colloquially calledChisleton.[3]
TheDomesday Book of 1086 does not mention Chiselhampton by name, but it ascribes afee of land here toWilliam Fitz-Ansculf ofDudley Castle. For some time thereafter, asDudley passed to successive families, Chiselhampton remained with theHonour of Dudley.[3] In 1536 the principalmanor of Chiselhampton passed to Thomas Doyley ofHambleden inBuckinghamshire. The Doyley family built a substantial house in Chiselhampton, possibly towards the end of the 16th century. Maps of 1628 and 1743 record it as a four-gabled mansion with a largedovecote and an orchard, and an estate plan of 1741–42 shows the house's west front as having eightbays.[3]
Chiselhampton's oldest building is Camoys or Camoise Court, amoated stone-built farmhouse of the 14th century.[5] It was in existence by 1318 when its owner, Sir Richard de Louches ofGreat Milton, was licensed tocrenellate it. The house's name comes fromThomas de Camoys, who acquired it when he married Elizabeth de Louches. Part of the 14th-century building and traces of its moat survive, along with a wing that was added in the 17th century and altered in 1880. At some point the Doyley family, who had bought the main manor in 1748, also acquired the Camoys manor and Camoys Court.[3] Camoys Court is aGrade II* listed building.[6] Several cottages and houses[7] with timber frames and brick infill were built in the 17th century and survive today. They include Chiselhampton's onlypublic house, the 17th-century Coach and Horses Inn.[3][8][9]
In the 18th century the Doyley family's wealth declined, so in 1748 Sir Thomas Doyley sold the Chiselhampton and Camoys manors toCharles Peers ofOlney, Buckinghamshire. The combined manor was still with the Peers family in 1958.[3] In the 1740s a surveyor for the Doyleys reported that the late-16th-century mansion was "a very old inconvenient building part brick, part stone" whose outbuildings were ruinous, and concluded that they and the house would "scarce pay for pulling down and yet were not good enough to keep up".[3] Only thedovecote and the walls of thekitchen garden were fit to retain. The Doyleys seem to have lacked the means to rebuild the house, but in 1766 the new owner Charles Peers had a new house designed. In 1768 it was completed on a new site overlooking theRiver Thame and the old Doyley mansion was demolished.
Peers' Chistleton or Chiselhampton House is a brickGeorgiancountry house of fivebays.[10] The exterior is plain but the entrance hall has a fine, curved,cantilevered staircase, galleries at the first and second floors and is lit by a glass umbrelladome.[5] Anorangery was added in either 1790[3] or 1820.[5] In 1820 the house was enhanced with the addition of a number of marble fireplaces and apilastered entrance porch that the Victoria County History states isDoric[3] but Pevsner and Sherwood state isIonic.[5] Chiselhampton House is aGrade II* listed building.[11]
By 1146 Chiselhampton had achapel dedicated toSaint Mary. It was aRoyal Peculiar ofDorchester Abbey and seems not to have been an independent parish. St Mary's had no graveyard: villagers buried their dead atStadhampton, which was another of Dorchester Abbey's chapels and Peculiers.[12] St Mary's chapel remained under Dorchester Abbey until thedissolution of the monasteries in 1536, when Stadhampton became a parish separate from Dorchester. Chiselhampton seems then to have become a chapelry of Stadhampton. Despite this new status, until about 1835 clergy for both Chiselhampton and Stadhampton were licensed not by theBishop of Oxford but by the peculier of Dorchester. After theEnglish Reformation Chiselhampton and Stadhampton always shared the same parish clergy.[12]
Until 1706 St Mary's chapel was reported to be in a good state of repair, but by 1717 the parish curate had taken the villagers to the peculiar court in Dorchester for failing to pay the church rate for the building's upkeep. In 1763Charles Peers told the court that St Mary's was in"so ruinous and decayed a condition that the inhabitants cannot assemble for worship without manifest hazard[to] their lives", and so he requested permission to demolish the chapel and build a new one.[3] In 1763 Charles Peers had the Medieval chapel demolished and the materials re-used to build aGeorgian church on a new site beside the mainOxford -Stadhampton road. That same year it was completed andJohn Hume, Bishop of Oxfordconsecrated it. Peers provided the new church with a graveyard to spare villagers from having to bury their dead at Stadhampton. He dispensed with theNorman chapel's dedication to Saint Mary and had the new church dedicated toSaint Katherine. With the new church Chiselhampton was made a parish in its own right, but it continued to share the same parish clergy as Stadhampton.[3]
St Katherine's is aneoclassical building whose architect is unknown.[13] It has abell-turret and clock over the west door. The interior is fitted withbox pews, awest gallery onTuscan columns,[13] a carved altarpiece and aJacobeanpulpit which is presumed to have been re-used from St Mary's chapel.[14] In 1952–54 the church was restored[3] after an appeal for funds supported by the poetJohn Betjeman who wrote verses for it[15] and the artistJohn Piper who repainted the clockface. Concealed electric lighting was installed in the pews in 1956 but St Katherine's is still largely lit by its candle-litcandelabras.[3] The church is aGrade II* listed building.[16] The church has since been made redundant and the ecclesiastical parish reunited with Stadhampton. Thecivil parishes had already been reunited in 1932. St Katherine's church is vested in theChurches Conservation Trust.[17] Services are still held in St Katherine's three or four times a year, including reenactments ofhistoric Anglican liturgy andwest gallery music.
Chiselhampton has long been important as a crossing over theRiver Thame. A bridge has existed since at least 1398, when apresentment complained that "the King's road" at "Cheselhampton Brygwey"[18] was flooded so that "men with horses and carts cannot pass thereby".[19] In 1444 the villagers of Chiselhampton were grantedpontage: the right to levy a toll to maintain the bridge. At that time it had timber spans built on stone piers. A 1628 estate map recorded the bridge as "Doyley Bridge". Over the years it has been rebuilt with stone arches, altered by successive repairs, extended, and in 1899 widened with steel troughing. It is now 178 feet (54 m) long and has eight stone arches,[3] of which the southern four are substantially 16th-century.[20][21]
By the time theEnglish Civil War broke out in August 1642 Chiselhampton was a stronglyPuritan community. In November of that yearKing Charles I withdrew his court toOxford.Royalist control of the bridges over the River Thame became vital to Oxford's defence, and by March 1643 the Royalists had gated Chiselhampton Bridge and allowed none to cross it "but on market days and sometimes during the daytime". By June 1643 the bridge was reported too damaged for vehicles to use, but still passable on horseback. On the night of 17 JunePrince Rupert led about 1,000 cavalry and 800 infantry from Oxford across the bridge[3] to try to capture the payroll of theParliamentarian army of theEarl of Essex. The payroll evaded capture, but on the morning of 18 June the Prince overpowered Parliamentarian garrisons atPostcombe andChinnor. The Prince returned his infantry to Chiselhampton to secure the bridge while his cavalry ambushed a pursuing force in askirmish atChalgrove Field, mortally wounding one of the Parliamentarian commanders, ColonelJohn Hampden. The victorious Prince and his force then returned to Oxford over the bridge bringing 120 prisoners, most of them from Chinnor.[22]
After theEnglish Civil War the damage to the bridge was repaired. Its west face and parapet are 20th-century, from when the bridge was widened.[21] The bridge is aScheduled Ancient Monument.[23] Historically theOxford–Stadhampton main road has been called Oxford Lane where it passes through Chiselhampton. In 1664John Doyley was licensed to divert part of the road to make room for him to enlarge his mansion. In the village it is joined by a road fromClifton Hampden. This forms part of the route betweenAbingdon andStadhampton and historically in Chiselhampton it has been called Abingdon Lane. Both roads are shown on estate maps dated 1628 and 1743.[3] The name of the Coach and Horses public house suggests that the main road may have been astagecoach route, but there is no evidence that either road was ever aturnpike.[24] Since the early 1920s the main road has been classified B480 and the Clifton Hampden road has been classified B4015.
On 5 July 1941 anArmstrong Whitworth Whitley V bomber aircraft, Z6667 ofNo. 10 Operational Training Unit RAF based atAbingdon,[25] was on a night training flight when it broke up over Oxfordshire, crashed on Chiselhampton Hill and caught fire on impact. The crash was variously attributed to either aLuftwaffenight fighter orfriendly fire by a localanti-aircraft unit. All six crewmen were killed.[26] The pilot, RAFFlt Sgt AEW Lynch, is buried atHeston in Middlesex. Three of his crew were members of theRoyal Canadian Air Force. Two are buried atBrookwood Cemetery in Surrey, and the other is buried atTomnahurich in Inverness-shire. The other two crewmen were members of theRoyal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. They are buried atAcklam andCottingham in Yorkshire[26]
