| Waterstock | |
|---|---|
 St. Leonard's parish church | |
  Waterstock Location withinOxfordshire | |
| Population | 65 (2001 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SP6305 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX33 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Waterstock is a village andcivil parish on theRiver Thame about 4.5 miles (7 km) west of themarket town ofThame inOxfordshire. The parish is bounded to the north and west by the river, to the south largely by the A418 main road, and to the east largely by the minor road betweenTiddington andIckford Bridge across the Thame. On the north side of the parish, the river forms the county boundary withBuckinghamshire as well as the parish boundary with Ickford andWorminghall. Waterstock village is on a minor road north of the A418 and is surrounded by open farming land. In the village are about 50 houses and a farm along one main street.
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Waterstock's toponym is derived from theOld English for "Waterplace".[citation needed]
Waterstock Mill is recorded in theDomesday Book of 1086.[2] It was most likely on the same site as the current mill, which is a 15th-century building on a small island in the River Thame. The mill a two-storey L-shaped building, with a timber frame filled in with bricknogging.[2] It was rebuilt in theElizabethan period.[2] In 1957 it was converted[clarification needed] and sold.
Many of the parish's fields showridge-and-furrow strip cultivation. In 1279 there were probably about 200 inhabitants, but after theBlack Death the population decreased to 51 persons over the age of 14.[citation needed]
Waterstock's oldest buildings are the two thatched cottages, one thought to date from late in the 13th or early in the 14th century and the other from the 16th. Orchard End is a medievalcruck house, its smoke-blackened beams showing that it was originally a two-bay openhall house. The village's single street is flanked by cottages built of stone or local brick, some retaining the small buildings in the gardens, originally privies or pig-sties.[citation needed] At one end of the village, Home Farm is a 17th-century timber-framed house with its thatched barn and 17th-century granary. The 18th-century Park Farm is beyond.
The grounds of Waterstock House are next to the church. The manor house was built in 1787 to designs by the architectSP Cockerell.[3] It was demolished in 1953[2] or 1956[3] after the servants' quarters were converted into the present substantial residence. The stone-built stables are 18th-century[3] and probably contemporary with the 1787 house. They are now the Waterstock Equestrian Centre.
Near Waterstock Mill is Bow Bridge: a small, single-arch brick bridge built for Diana Ashhurst in 1790.[citation needed] By the entrance to Waterstock House is the Pump House dated 1898, a small building with a "Rhenish helm" roof reminiscent of aSaxon tower. Many of the villagers used to collect water from it until the village's mains water supply was installed in 1951.[citation needed]
Opposite the church are Church Farm Cottages and the Old Rectory, a substantial stone-built 18th-century house, the only other 'gentlemen's house'. In the 20th century it was the home of the violinistManoug Parikian, his wifeDiana Parikian, the antiquarian bookseller, and their two sons, until his sudden death on Christmas Eve 1987.[4] He is buried in St Leonard's churchyard.Richard Ellis the Californian astronomer lived in the Old School House while a graduate student at Oxford from 1971 to 1974.
Waterstock seems to have had aparish church since at least 1190.[2] The currentChurch of England parish church ofSaint Leonard was built at the end of the 15th century.[2] Thenave andchancel were rebuilt in 1790, and in 1858 theGothic Revival architectG.E. Street restored the building.[5] It is the burial place of the early-17th-centuryPuritan writerWilliam 'Eternity' Tipping.
Remnants of medieval window glass were recovered after theEnglish Reformation and have been inserted above the armorial Ashurst window. This window, together with monuments in the church, records the families of local squirearchy who inhabited the manor house and retained its patronage until 1957.[citation needed] As well as regular church services, meetings and concerts are held in the church.[citation needed]
Many of the houses in Waterstock have their ownstables.[citation needed]Waterstock House Training Centre was once the main equestrian centre of the area, and was once owned by the horse trainerLars Sederholm.
Junction 8A of theM40 motorway andOxford Servicesmotorway service station are in the parish. There is also a publicgolf course.[6] TheOxfordshire Way traverses the parish and crosses the River Thame by Bow Bridge near Waterstock Mill. There is a Waterstock and TiddingtonWomen's Institute.[7]
Media related toWaterstock at Wikimedia Commons
