Bicester Historian Issue: 32 April 2017 The monthly newsletter for Bicester Local History Society Contents Village History . 2 St Edburg’s Walk Bygone Bicester . 3 The Bicester Sports Oxfordshire History Centre . 5 Association land on Oxford Road is set to be the site of a Summer Walks . 5 new retail and leisure complex called St Edburg’s Walk. Roll of Honour . 6 The Association is a private trust which was established Talks Update . 6 to manage the land when it was purchased in 1929 and Marj’s Memories . 7 transferred into a trust. They Oxfordshire Castles . sold part of the land to Tesco, who built the supermarket Talk . 7 which has recently been demolished, and then later they sold another portion of the Dates For Your Diary site, mainly waterlogged and unusable pitches and the old Roman Pottery Talk shooting range, to Value Retail, Site plan 24th April - 7:30pm who built Bicester Village. see page 5 The BSA used the funds from the building and converting the remaining Bicester Village sale to buy land at original Victorian structure into a May Newsletter Submissions restaurant. This will be accompanied Chesterton where it invested in new Deadline 28th April facilities for cricket, shooting and by ten, 2/3 storey houses built on the football. They now plan to expand the current playing field and a restaurant Watlington Hoard Display garden in the centre of the site. facilities in Chesterton with the funds 13th May raised from the sale of the Oxford Road Any scheme that involves preserving grounds and bring all their sports the old building instead of demolishing - In Bicester Library it and building something new has to be facilities together in one, larger and Local History Talk more modern, place. praised for its consideration of the sites But the first stage of the St Edburg’s unique heritage and local importance. 15th May - 7:30pm Walk development doesn’t involve the But it does seem that the success of see page 5 sports grounds at all. In fact, it’s focussed any restaurant in that location would entirely on the redevelopment of the old depend entirely on the success of the rest St Edburg’s School site on Cemetery of the retail and leisure development. Lane. Otherwise it’s probably one restaurant The initial plan, outlined at an too many for a town whose town exhibition in the old school hall on the centre consists mainly of take-aways, 18th March, consists of demolishing the restaurants and empty shops. - Matthew Hathaway AVAILABLE NOW! 1960s and 1990s extensions to the school Our new DVD, Bicester’s Buildings, is on sale now. See the.. website for more details. Artist’s impression 1 Village History Merton The village of Merton lies to the James Harington, south of Bicester, close to where 1st Baronet, in the M40 crosses the River Ray. The 1613. In 1640 Sir toponym is derived from the Old James Harington, English for a hamlet, or settlement, 3rd Baronet, by the mere. married Katherine, Just before the Norman conquest daughter of Sir a Dane called Hacun held the Edmund Wright, manor of Meretone, as well as the Lord Mayor of nearby manor of Piddington. But London. the Domesday Book records that Sir James was by 1086 Countess Judith of Lens, a Member of a niece of William the Conqueror, Parliament from held the manor. Countess Judith 1646 until 1655 and St Swithun’s Church was betrothed to Simon de Senlis during the English but refused to marry him and fled Civil War he served as a major- panelling was sold. Then, in 1860, England. Then William confiscated general in the Parliamentarian the house was modernised and its her estates and allowed Simon to army. After the English Restoration Elizabethan porch, gables, stone marry Judith’s eldest daughter his baronetcy was forfeited for life roof and mullioned windows were all Maud. Simon then received estates in 1661 under the Indemnity and removed. The original kitchen and including Merton as the honour Oblivion Act. Sir James then fled to stone-arched cellar survive, and the of Huntingdon. In 1152 Simon’s the European mainland and died in cellar includes a well. A dairy wing son Simon II de Senlis, Earl of exile. was added late in the 19th century. Huntingdon, gave Merton to the Sir James’ father-in-law had The house’s 17th century square, Knights Templar. remained a Royalist throughout the two-storeyed dovecote also survives. In 1185 the manor covered seven Civil War and Commonwealth, which The house is now a nursing home. hides, making it the Templars’ largest helped Lady Katherine to claim she The parish church of Saint Swithun estate in Oxfordshire. In 1312 Pope did not share her husband’s politics. is Decorated Gothic, built early in the Clement V ordered the Templars’ In 1662 the Crown granted letters 14th century. It has a south aisle, dissolution and their English estates patent placing the estate in trust, linked with the nave by an arcade of were confiscated by Edward II, and upon Lady Katherine’s death in four bays. Late in the 15th century who granted Merton to the Knights 1675 it passed to her and Sir James’ the Perpendicular Gothic clerestory Hospitaller in 1313. In 1540 the eldest son, Sir Edmund Harington, was added to the nave. The chancel Hospitallers were suppressed in the 4th Baronet. windows and one window in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and The Harington baronets owned south aisle are also Perpendicular surrendered Merton to the Crown, Merton until Sir James Harington, 6th Gothic. The font is much older than which left it in the possession of the Baronet, ran up large sporting debts the church, dating from late in the Templars’ tenant, William Mablyston and in 1740 mortgaged Merton to Sir 12th century. of Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire. Edward Turner, 2nd Baronet, of the At one time the church also had a In 1554 the Mablystons’ lease neighbouring parish of Ambrosden. north aisle, but it was demolished in expired and Robert Doyley, of Sir James was a Jacobite who the 15th or 16th century. Its arcade Chiselhampton, and his son, John, supported the Stuart claim to the of three bays was blocked up but acquired the manor. John died in United Kingdom. In 1747 he joined remains visible in the north wall of 1593 and his widow Anne married Sir Charles Stuart in exile, and in 1749 the nave. The tower had a spire but Sir Edward Turner obtained Merton it became unsafe and in 1796 it was by foreclosing the mortgage. The removed. Turner (later Page-Turner) baronets A turret clock was made for the then retained Merton until 1930. church late in the 17th century. Its The Doyleys built the manor original dial had only an hour hand, house in the latter part of the 16th but in 1867 this was replaced with century. It is thought to have been a new dial that had both hour and L-shaped, but after Sir Edward minute hands. Some time after 1989 Turner bought the manor in 1749 a new turret clock was installed and he had the south wing demolished the 17th century original is now and the surviving wing turned into a displayed in the nave of the church. farmhouse. The Gothic Revival architect 17th Century clock mechanism In 1838 the house’s oak Charles Buckeridge restored St 2 Swithun’s from 1865 until 1872. have been built in the 15th or early school was enlarged in 1872 and St Swithun’s had been decorated 16th century. It has a queen post roof 1893. The number of pupils then with mediaeval wall paintings, and was thatched. In the late 20th declined and in 1913 the school was once brightly coloured but by 1823 century it was converted into four closed and 12 pupils were transferred described as “dim with age”. But homes. to Ambrosden. In 1930 the house during the restoration work it was In 1814 one of the earliest and school were sold and became a found impossible to remove the National Schools to be established private home. layers of whitewash covering them. under the auspices of the National Merton used to have a public A Congregational chapel was Society for Promoting Religious house, the Plough Inn, whose built in 1890 and was still in use for Education was opened in Merton. building is partly Tudor. In the 2000s worship in 1953. A new stone-built school building, the owners closed the pub and The Knights Templar established a complete with lodging for the applied for planning permission to watermill in the parish. The earliest matron, was completed in 1829. redevelop the site for housing. Since known record of it is from 1156–66. Ownership and management of the the Plough’s closure the village has West of the parish church is a school were transferred to the vicar held real ale festivals at least once a rubblestone tithe barn that may and churchwardens in 1870 and the year in its village hall. - Matthew Hathaway Bygone Bicester (Taken from the Bicester Advertiser) 2nd April 1863 Another item, lunacy, appears to be terribly on the THE BICESTER HOUNDS - The concluding run of the increase. On January 1st 1895 only three pauper lunatics season took place on Tuesday last. The meet was at were chargeable to the Bicester Union, whereas ten Chesterton Village. There was a very large assemblage. years later they numbered 34. No wonder that Littlemore The Hounds were taken to Gravenhill Wood, where Asylum is being much enlarged, and that poor rate they soon found, and went away at a swinging pace for payments increase faster than many people can keep Ambrosden Ruins.