| Kirtlington | |
|---|---|
 St Mary the Virgin parish church | |
  Kirtlington Location withinOxfordshire | |
| Area | 14.51 km2 (5.60 sq mi) |
| Population | 988 (2011 Census) (parish, including Northbrook) |
| • Density | 68/km2 (180/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | SP5019 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Kidlington |
| Postcode district | OX5 |
| Dialling code | 01869 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Kirtlington Oxfordshire |
| |
Kirtlington is a village andcivil parish inOxfordshire about6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) west ofBicester. The parish includes thehamlet ofNorthbrook. The2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 988.[1]
The parish measures nearly 3 miles (5 km) north–south and about2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) east–west. It is bounded by theRiver Cherwell to the west, and elsewhere mostly by field boundaries. In 1959 its area was 3,582 acres (1,450 ha).[2]
ThePortway is a pre-Roman road[2] running parallel with the Cherwell on high ground about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the river. It bisects Kirtlington parish and passes through the village. A short stretch of it is now part of the A4095 road through the village. Longer stretches form minor roads toBletchingdon andUpper Heyford.
Akeman StreetRoman road bisects the parish east–west passing just north of Kirtlington village. A 4-mile (6.4 km) minor road linking Kirtlington withChesterton uses its course.Aves ditch is pre-Saxon.[2] One end of the ditch is in Kirtlington parish about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village.
Just east of the parish school is amoated site that is aScheduled Ancient Monument.[3] Just east of the moated site are the remains of fish ponds.
Thetoponym "Kirtlington" is derived from theOld English for "the enclosure (tūn) ofCyrtla's people". The earliest known record of it is asCyrtlinctune in aSaxon charter of AD 944–6, now included in theCartularium Saxonicum.[4]
In theAnglo-Saxon era, Kirtlington was a king'svill.[5] TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 977 KingEdward the Martyr held awitenagemot atKyrtlingtun attended byDunstan,Archbishop of Canterbury.[2]
TheDomesday Book of 1086 records thatCertelintone,Cortelintone orCherielintone had been a royalmanor ofEdward the Confessor and was now held by the conqueringNorman monarchy. The Domesday Book records the manor being a large and valuable estate of 11½hides yielding an income of £52 a year.[2][6] ThePipe rolls of 1190 record it asKertlinton.[4] It remained a royal manor until 1604 whenthe Crown sold it to two wealthyLondoners.[2]
Themanor house is recorded to have had a date-stone of 1563, but this has now been lost.[7] The house is L-shaped, has a polygonal stair-turret on the south side and a corbelled chimney-stack in the west side.[7][8]
The earliest known record of aparish church at Kirtlington is in theDomesday Book of 1086.[2] The oldest visible parts of the Church ofSt Mary the Virgin include the early 12th-centuryNorman arches supporting the centralbell tower, and atympanum of the same date that is now over thevestry door.[9] Beneath the floor of thechancel are the foundations of a formerapse that also was built early in the 12th century.[9]
About 1250 thenave was rebuilt and north and southaisles were added, each linked with the nave byarcades of threebays.[9] Thetranseptal chapel ofOur Lady on the south side of the tower may be of the same date, and the apse was replaced with a rectangular chancel late in the 13th century.[2]
The west window of the nave dates from the 14th century, as do two windows flanking a blocked 13th-century doorway in the north aisle.[10] The east window of the chancel, west doorway of the nave and south doorway of the south aisle are also 14th-century. In the 15th century aclerestory was added to the nave and a porch was added to the south door.[2] TheLady Chapel was also rebuilt in the 15th century, and other late medieval additions include thePerpendicular Gothic windows of the south aisle and another Perpendicular Gothic window in the north aisle.[10]
By 1716 the Lady chapel was ruinous andSir Robert Dashwood, 1st Baronet had it converted into a family chapel andburial vault.[2] In 1770 the tower was unsafe and was demolished,[10] leaving its arches between the nave and chancel. In about 1853 Sir Henry William Dashwood, 5th Baronet had the bell tower rebuilt[2] by theGothic Revival architectBenjamin Ferrey in a Norman Revival style.[9] In 1877 Sir Henry and Lady Dashwood had the chancelrestored[2] by SirGeorge Gilbert Scott.[9] At the same time the organ was installed in the Dashwood Chapel, obscuring a 1724 memorial to the first threeDashwood baronets and other members of the family.[2] St Mary's is aGrade I listed building.[11]
The rebuilt bell tower has aring of eight bells. Henry III Bagley ofChacombe,[12]Northamptonshire cast three of the bells in 1718,[13] presumably at his thenbellfoundry inWitney. AbelRudhall of Gloucester[12] cast the tenor bell in 1753.[13] Two bells came from theWhitechapel Bell Foundry: one cast by Charles and George Mears in 1853[13] and the other by Mears and Stainbank in 1870.[13] The current ring of eight was completed whenJohn Taylor & Co ofLoughborough cast the treble in 1938.[13] St Mary's has also aSanctus bell cast by Henry III Bagley in 1718.[13]
St Mary the Virgin is now part of the AkemanChurch of England Benefice, which includes the parishes of Bletchingdon,Chesterton,Hampton Gay,Middleton Stoney,Wendlebury andWeston-on-the-Green.[14]
Kirtlington's firstnonconformist meeting house was licensed in 1821 and was a member of the OxfordMethodist Circuit by 1824. AWesleyan chapel was built in 1830 and replaced by a stone-built chapel in 1854. In 1867 it belonged to theUnited Methodist Free Churches, which in 1907 became part of theUnited Methodist Church. By 1954 the chapel had only about six members.[2] It has since closed and is now a private house.[15]
Kirtlington had twowater mills on the River Cherwell. They are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in subsequent documents in about 1240, 1538 and 1689. All documents thereafter refer to only one mill in the parish. There was once ahorse mill in the village.[2]
There were smallenclosures of farmland in the parish in the 13th century and 99 acres (40 ha) had been enclosed by 1476, but at that stage most of the parish was still farmed under anopen field system. By 1750 the enclosed land totalled about of which 900 acres (360 ha), and the remainingcommon lands were enclosed in 1815.[2]
In 1583 adraper called John Phillips bequeathed the rental income from a house inWoodstock to employ a schoolmaster in Kidlington. His bequest did not provide for a schoolhouse, so a tenement called Church House was used. In 1759 the school had to close because the house in Woodstock had decayed to the point that it was unfit to be let. In 1766 the house was let on a repairing lease toGeorge Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough and between 1774 and 1778 the school reopened. The vicar andSir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet were the governors, and it seems that subsequently the Dashwoods as well as the Phillips endowment supported the school.[2]
By 1808 two other schools had been founded in Kirtlington, and by 1814 one of them was aNational School. In 1833 the three schools were effectively merged and in 1834 a purpose-built schoolhouse was opened. In 1947 it was reorganised as a junior and infants' school and in 1951 it became avoluntary aided school.[2] It is now Kirtlington Church of England School.[16]
The annual village festival is called the Lamb Ale. By 1679 it was an established tradition that would start the day afterTrinity Sunday and last for two days.[2] That yearThomas Blount and Josiah Beckwith wrote:
AtKidlington inOxford-shire the Custom is, That on Monday after Whitson week, there is a fat live Lamb provided, and the Maids of the Town, having their Thumbs ty'd behind them run after it, and she that with her mouth takes and holds the Lamb, is declaredLady of the Lamb, which being dress'd with the skin hanging on, is carried on a long Pole before the Lady and her Companions to the Green, attended with Musick and aMorisco Dance of Men, and another of Women, where the rest of the day is spent in dancing, mirth and merry glee. The next day the Lamb is part bak'd, boyld and rost, for the Ladies feast, where she sits majestically at the upper end of the Table and her Companions with her, with musick and other attendants, which ends the solemnity.
It is considered that the reference to Kidlington was a mistake, and that Kirtlington was the correct location.[citation needed] Later the festival extended to a whole week and in 1849 threespecial constables were sworn in "for the better preservation of peace and order at the ensuing Lamb Ale Feast".[2] The custom died out early in the 1860s.
In 1979 Kirtlington Morris was formed and revived the tradition[17] in a modified form.[2] Every year since the Ale has been held at the end of May or in early June. Typically about 20 morris sides attend the festival.
Kirtlington Park is aPalladiancountry house[18] about1⁄2 mile (800 m) east of the village,[19] built in 1742–46. It is a Grade I listed building.[20] It is set in 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of parkland, landscaped byLancelot "Capability" Brown,[21] with views over the gardens to theChiltern Hills.[22]
The house was built forSir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet (1715–79), after he had married an heiress, Elizabeth Spencer. In 1740 he was elected aknight of the shire (MP) forOxfordshire. Kirtlington Park, still unfinished at Dashwood's death,
Kirtlington remained in the family until 1909, when Sir George John Egerton Dashwood, 6th baronet, sold the house to theEarl of Leven and Melville. By 1922 it was owned by Hubert Maitland Budgett.[23]
In theSecond World War the park was used as avictory garden.[24] Kirtlington Park is licensed to holdcivil weddings.[19]
In 1926 Hubert Budgett founded thepolo club after Major Deed, who had lived inArgentina, persuaded him to play the game.[24] In 1954, after the Second World War, Hubert Budgett's son Alan reopened the club and added a second ground. By 2005 a sixth polo ground had been added. Famous players who started by playing at Kirtlington Park include Malcolm Borwick,Henry Brett, Robert Thame[22] and Thor Gilje.[citation needed]
Kirtlington Park polo school was founded in 1994 by Melissa Wadley with David Heston-Ellis.[25] They celebrated 30 years ofKirtlington Park Polo School in 2024.
Kirtlington has an 18th-centuryhotel, the Dashwood Hotel and Restaurant,[26] and an 18th- or 19th-centurypub, the Oxford Arms.[27] The village used to have asub-post office andvillage store, which closed in early 2020.
There was a tea shop by the Oxford Canal at Pigeon Lock. It was open only two Saturdays and Sundays a month, and only from April to October.[28] It is now closed.
Kirtlington has aWomen's Institute.[29] Kirtlington Golf Club[30] is about2⁄5 mile (1 km) southwest of the village. Kirtlington Football Club plays behind the village hall.[31]
The nearest railway station isTackley on theCherwell Valley Line, 1 mile (1.6 km) from Kirtlington.
Grayline bus route 24 serves Kirtlington, linking the village with Oxfordvia Bletchingdon andOxford Parkway in one direction and BicesterviaWeston-on-the-Green andWendlebury in the other. Buses run from Mondays to Saturdays, six times a day in each direction. There is no late evening service, and no service on Sundays orbank holidays.[32]
The A4095 road passes through the village, as do theOxfordshire Waylong-distance footpath and the OxfordshireCycleway. Junction 9 of theM40 motorway is about 3 miles (5 km) east of the village.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
