Bicester Historian Issue: 60 August 2019 The monthly newsletter for Bicester Local History Society

Contents Mystery Solved Bicester, From a Brook . . . . . 2 Bicester Festival & Heritage Back in 2016 a Open Day ...... 3 mysterious structure Bygone Bicester ...... 4 was discovered hidden under ivy and trees at Talks Update ...... 5 Bicester Heritage, the Oxfordshire & The Norman former RAF Bicester Conquest Talk ...... 5 site. Despite historic research using old photographs and records, the use of the building remained a mystery. After a plea Dates For Your Diary for help from the public a number probably mounted on a stork. The of clues and suggestions helped most likely contender being a Stork September Newsletter investigators, overseen by Historic A.A. twin gun mounting. Submissions Deadline England, to explore further. Since January 2016 Historic 8th September England has given Bicester Heritage Earlier this year the investigation Bicester Advertiser Local revealed what appears to have been over £47,000 in grants to restore a number of buildings and structures History Article a gun mounting point centrally within 12th September the structure, made with beautifully on the site. In April this year they crafted rounded engineering bricks. provided a further £10,000 to help Annual General Meeting & Talk Bicester Heritage continue the work This would have been used to fire 16th September - 7:30pm they are doing in clearing, inspecting on enemy parachutists should they see page 5 have landed and tried to take over and repairing four brick and concrete the airstrip. The unusual weather built structures on the Heritage at Bicester Festival & Heritage proof tanking found on the outside Risk Register, including mushroom Day of the brickwork, which is unique pill boxes and the former mystery 21st September among all the defendable shelters structure. see page 3 found on the site, is likely to have Although the future of the many stunning buildings at this site of Oxford Walk protected the munitions held inside. 28th September But now the Historic England national historic importance is secure, several of the scheduled investigation team have even October Newsletter suggested which kind of gun may monuments, including some Submissions Deadline defensive structures, are still at risk. have been used. It was likely to have 4th October been a fairly light machine gun, The ongoing partnership between Bicester Heritage Bicester Advertiser Local and Historic History Article England is helping 10th October to improve the condition of these so that in the future they can be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register. - Matthew Hathaway

1 Bicester, From a Brook The Second Phase This is the second in a series of articles that were near the Old Brewery premises to join the other track originally published in the Bicester Advertiser in 1932. by a ford. Hereabouts the land was low-lying and liable to flood, the Priory monks therefore paved The Street Last time, the origin of Bicester was traced from the with stone and raised that part of it liable to flood some earthworks forming the Roman encampment to the feet above the level of the marsh. An elevated track is a building by a Celtic tribe of huts on the site now known causeway, therefore that portion of The Street leading as Crocwell. A trackway was gradually formed from the from Crockwell, on the Bicester House side of the brook, huts to the mill (now the Priory grounds) and another ran over the meadows to Priory gate in Church Lane trackway on the right bank of the brook was designated and thence over the brook, and was designated The simply “The Street”. This street and the Mill Way were Causeway. linked across the brook by a ford (now the Bicester Town If we return for a moment to the Mill Way (via Water Bridge) and another ford existed on the road to Bucknell, Lane or Chapel Street) we find that it had on its right where the present “stone burge” (bridge) now stands. side a raised bank formed by the widening of the brook. This bank is now occupied by the “Passive Resistor” and The diagram below illustrates the second phase, the other cottages on the west side of Chapel Street; it was further development of the configuration of the village known as The Green bank under the Canon’s wall, which by the making of the Causeway to the Priory buildings, indicates that the Priory was bounded on its east side by and the erection of St John’s Hospital on the site now the brook. occupied by the long block of premises on the Crocwell We have now discovered that the straight portion side of North Street. The dotted line is the brook. of Crocwell from the infants school to Albert Terrace is a definite part of the old mill way until blocked at the It should be explained that before the Causeway came Albert Terrace end. It is almost safe to assume, also, that into the plan the settlement had been extended by the the tchure, on which Dunkin’s cottage stands, was one advent of other tradesmen besides the miller and the terminus of The Street then running over the brook and blacksmith. The village consisted of two ends, separated through Bicester House grounds. by an intervening space. One end was composed of Some years elapse, and we find the monks building the Manor House, the Priory and the mill house, called St John’s Hospital on the site of the present “Cyclists’ Town End. For the time being the other end remained Rest”. A paved way led by this from Crocwell - “St Johns unnamed. Street”, of which a portion remains (that piece running In studying the plan of Bicester at that date it should from Albert Terrace into North Street). be distinctly borne in mind that Sheep Street had not The hospital became the home of a monk. John Puff been dreamt of. An open field was there. So far as can be kept the mill and a field, which was known as Puff’s gathered the track from Crocwell to the mill, on one bank Furlong. This was the topography of the village 200 years of the brook ran in practically a straight line through after Domesday Book. Albert Terrace, which is the oldest part of Bicester, over Now that we have studied the “roads” some attention the Rose and Crown site and along Water Lane. The may be given to footpaths at that time. The straightest present line of Sheep street is, of course, some 100 yards of them was that giving passage way to St Edburg’s Well or more distant from, though parallel with, the old Mill (near the Middleton Stoney Road) and took the form of a Way. grass track running between plough ridges on each side. “The Street” was on the opposite bank, and Hayward’s Path (that path of the Warden of the Hay) ran presumably came straight through from Crocwell and through a field near Bucknell parish.

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St. Edburg’s Church Bicester Heritage Open Day Saturday September 21st 2019 10 am to 4.00 pm THEN AND NOW Exhibitions, Tours & Family activities Refreshments all day A FREE EVENT

Dovecote Open Day

Saturday September 21st 2019 10 am to 4.00 pm Join BLHS at The Dovecote, Old Place Yard, for a rare look inside this mainly 17th Century Grade II listed building. Find out more about the history of the Augustinian Priory that once flourished in this historic area of Bicester. Join walking tours around the historic priory site at 11 am and 2.00 pm.

3 Bygone Bicester (Taken from the Bicester Advertiser) 4th August 1893 pictures, taken by MR J.W. SMITH’S EMPLOYEES’ EXCURSION Highfield science On Monday the men employed by Mr J.W. Smith, master Mr Fred builder, Sheep Street, went for their annual excursion. To Jeffs, are proof of defray the costs of which it is their custom to put by a that. certain amount per week, for a fixed period. The girls made Early in the morning they started to Oxford by “brake”, their clothes and from thence journeyed by the Great Western Railway from trade excursion for Southampton, which was reached about 9 patterns. They o’clock. After making a general inspection of the place do each process they took a boat to Cowes, which afforded them an themselves under opportunity of witnessing some of the places of interest supervision but and views of the Isle of Wight. without practical Afterwards a visit was paid to Portsmouth and an help. Miss Waite inspection made of the dockyards. said the subject The company accomplished the return journey about was very popular 12 o’clock and reached Bicester by the same means as in with the girls. the early morning they were conveyed to Oxford. The day Many of them was a thoroughly enjoyable one. make their own clothes at home. 13th August 1926 One of the HOLIDAY CHILDREN outstanding The first batch of 42 London children who had spent creations at the a fortnight in Bicester under the Children’s Country show was a tweed Holiday Fund, returned on Thursday in the last week to suit made by their homes in the more congested districts of London, Judith Barney, in and a similar number of newcomers took their place and her fourth year at return on Thursday next. The children, the majority of Highfield. Lingerie whom are Jewish, are in the charge of a superintendent, highlights and have greatly enjoyed their holiday. were made by Josephine Austin, 7th August 1959 Patricia Vincent AN ALL-OUR-OWN-WORK FASHION SHOW AT and Gillian Webb, HIGHFIELD SCHOOL while Ann Jeacock These elegant young ladies are fashion models with and Sylvia Keetch a difference. A significant difference too. They made the showed excellent clothes they modelled. The fashion models of the House tweed skirts. of Dior in Paris, or the salons of Hartnell in London, The merely wear the dresses and gowns their masters make. outstanding The teenage models of the House of Highfield go one second year better and make and model their own creations. students in the One of the end-of-term highlights at Highfield show where Secondary School in Bicester was a fashion show by girl Bridget Barney (skirt and blouse) and Patricia Makin students. It could rightly have been called an All-Our- (dress). Own-Work Show. Third and fourth year girls who showed dresses of Forty-six girls showed just what nimble needleworkers exceptional quality were Dorean Eyelard, Rita Wheeler, they are with a colourful and creative range of garments. Judith Barney, Sara Handcock, Madeleine Fields, Elfredia There were divided skirts and shortie nighties. There Hennah, Bronwen Spence, Valerie Jones, Diana Faulkner were negligees and blouses, dresses of cotton and wool, and Pamela Leach. tweed skirts and a tweed suit. Needlework and dressmaking at Highfield School is 20th August 1993 taught by Miss D.E. Waite and Mrs B. Hall. Miss Waite was NEW STATUE ADORNS CHURCH full of praise for her talented pupils. The purpose behind A new 11ft high statue of the Madonna has been the fashion show was, she said, to develop the girls’ dress hoisted on to the front of Bicester’s Roman Catholic sense and to give them confidence and poise. Church. Confidence and poise they certainly had. These The bronze statue, weighing about half a ton, was lifted 4 into position by crane. It replaces a small statue of Our RC Birmingham diocese has bought for the parish. The Lady of Lourdes that has stood in a niche above the front property was recently a secondhand furniture store door of the RC Church of the Immaculate Conception for called All Sorts. several years. Earlier the diocese bought the former restaurant The parish priest, Father Aldo Tapparo, said the new Toppers opposite the church. Fr Tapparo explained: “We statue came out of the £40,000 a late parishioner, Miss are not quite sure what we are going to do with Toppers. Margaret McCann, had left to the church in her will. He It was going to become a parish centre, but the All Sorts said: “It was a marvellous benefaction. We decided to building is bigger and being next door to our presbytery, use the money to improve the front of the church.” it is more convenient.” Already new steps plus a ramp for wheelchairs have been installed outside and the front doors have been brought forward. The statue was commissioned from a young sculptor, Mark Delf, of Stafford, who was a student at Cotton College, a Roman Catholic establishment for potential priests and lay students. The statue has been blessed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev. Maurice Couve de Murville. The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes will be kept and placed in the neighbouring property the

Talks Update Over the next few months we have a varied itinerary of talks that we hope will prove very interesting. Monday 16th September Monday 21st October Monday 18th November Our AGM and a talk by Bob Liz Woolley returns to tell us Everyone’s favourite newsletter Hessian based on the research of about Oxford’s suburbs in her editor attempts to tell you all the the late Gill King. talk, Oxford’s Base and Brickish story of Bicester’s Great War. Skirt.

Oxfordshire & the Norman Conquest Talk On Monday 15th July Julie Ann men in England would take his life to Normandy with Edward and Godson came to talk to us about and his kingdom. In response, he Æthelred. When Cnut became King Oxfordshire in the Norman Conquest. ordered the deaths of all Danes living of England in 1016, Edward again She started by explaining that in England, which led to the St Brice’s went into exile. In 1017 his mother Oxfordshire’s involvement in the Day massacre on 13th November married Cnut and in the same year Norman Conquest started between 1002. The massacre in Oxford was Cnut had Edward’s last surviving 1003 and 1005 when Edward the justified by Æthelred in a royal elder half-brother, Eadwig, executed, Confessor was born in Islip. Edward charter of 1004 explaining the need leaving Edward as the leading Anglo- was the seventh son of Æthelred the to rebuild St Frideswide’s Church Saxon claimant to the throne. Unready, and the first by Ethelred’s (now Christ Church Cathedral). Edward remained in exile in second wife, Emma of Normandy. This provoked the Viking invasions Normandy until 1041 when Cnut’s England had been suffering under Sweyn Forkbeard and his son, son, Harthacnut, knowing that he Danish raids since 997, and in 1002 Cnut. Following Sweyn’s seizure didn’t have long to live, named the king was told that the Danish of the throne in 1013, Emma fled Edward as his successor to the 5 throne. Harthacnut died on 8th June 1042 and Edward became king, later being crowned in Winchester Cathedral on 3rd April 1043. During his reign Edward, knowing that his celibate life would produce no heirs, seems to have promised the succession to the throne to both William, Duke of Normandy, and Harald Hardrada, of Norway. But on his deathbed he entrusted the kingdom to Harold Godwinson, Earl of East Anglia. He then died on 5th January 1066 and was buried in Westminster Abbey the following A section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing Harold meeting Edward shortly before his death. day. The same day that Harold on 28th September and quickly After Wigod’s death, William was crowned king. This obviously erected a wooden castle at Hastings. appointed Robert as the lord of upset William and Harald, who both Harold marched back south and Wallingford, and ordered him to decided to invade England and take on 14th October the two sides met fortify Wallingford Castle. He also what they each considered to be at Hastings. It is believed that the inherited Wigod’s lands. theirs by right. numbers on each side were about His brother Nigel’s son was Robert Harold, expecting an invasion equal, but ultimately William had the Doyley, the founder of Osney Priory, from Normandy, spent most of the superior and well-rested forces and Oxford. He was also an ancestor of summer on the south coast with he won the day. Henry D’Oyly, one of the major feudal a large army and fleet. But the After his victory at Hastings barons of the Magna Carta. bulk of his forces were militia who William marched to London, but Robert was appointed High Sheriff needed to harvest their crops, so was unable to storm London Bridge of Oxfordshire. Oxford Castle was on 8th September Harold dismissed and reach the capital. He moved up built under his orders in 1071, and them, just as Hardrada started his the Thames Valley to cross the river the collegiate church of St George’s invasion of northern England. Harold at Wallingford. He then travelled within the castle was founded by him marched north to meet the invading through the Chilterns and towards in 1074. The church of St Peter-in- army, gathering troops as he went. London from the north-west, the-East was first mentioned in 1086 The Battle of Stamford Bridge, on fighting further engagements along as a possession of Robert’s although 25th September 1066, saw Harold the way. Eventually the English it is possible that he merely acquired victorious, but it would prove to be a leaders surrendered to William it, along with St Mary Magdalen’s costly victory. Harold’s army was left at Berkhamsted, in Hertfordshire Church. in a battered and weakened state, and he was crowned King on 25th He is also credited with the and far from the English Channel. December, in Westminster Abbey. construction of a series of stone A few days later William launched Robert d’Oilly, one of the Norman bridges at Grandpont, which formed his invasion from Normandy, noblemen who came with William, a causeway over the River Thames. bringing with him an army that was left in charge of Wallingford. He This is now Folly Bridge. It is possible, included cavalry and archers. They married Ealdgyth, the daughter of however, that he merely fortified an Wigod, the Saxon lord of Wallingford. older crossing point. landed at Pevensey, in Sussex, - Matthew Hathaway Committee & Contacts Editor: Committee Members: Meetings Address: Matthew Hathaway Bob Hessian (Chairman) The Clifton Centre [email protected] [email protected] Ashdene Road 01869 350662 Bicester Sally James (Treasurer) OX26 2BH 01869 243804 Sally Dexter (Minutes Secretary) Postal Address: John Roberts (Membership Officer) BLHS c/o Sally James Matthew Hathaway 14 George Street Website: Peter Crook Bicester www.blhs.org.uk OX26 2EG 6