Lyford,_Oxfordshire

Lyford, Oxfordshire

Lyford, Oxfordshire

Village and civil parish in Vale, England

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]

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Manors

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

Lyford Manor

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • 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

  1. [1]
    Page & Ditchfield 1924, pp. 285–294
  2. [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. [3]
    Arkell 1942, p. 6.
  4. [4]
    Pevsner 1966, p. 173.
  5. [5]
    Historic England. "Manor Farmhouse and attached wall (Grade II*) (1048351)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  6. [6]
    Fletcher 1968, p. 76.
  7. [7]
    Historic England. "Lyford Grange (Grade II*) (1283468)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  8. [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. [9]
    Foley 1877, pp. 279, 280, 284
  10. [10]
    "Original record of court proceedings (National Archive E126/14)". Anglo-American Legal Tradition website.
  11. [11]
    Pevsner 1966, p. 172.
  12. [12]
    Historic England. "Church of St Mary, The Green (Grade II*) (1199327)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  13. [13]
    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. [14]
    Sturdy & Case 1963, p. 90.
  15. [15]
    "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. [16]
    "Richard Briers". Latest News. Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  17. [17]
    Coward, Noël. "Lie in the Dark and Listen". Poetry of Direct Personal Experience. Aircrew Remembered. Retrieved 13 November 2015.

Sources

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