Boars Hill

Coordinates: 51°42′57″N 01°17′31″W / 51.71583°N 1.29194°W / 51.71583; -1.29194
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Boars Hill
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townOxford
Postcode districtOX1
Dialling code01865
PoliceThames Valley
FireOxfordshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire
51°42′57″N 01°17′31″W / 51.71583°N 1.29194°W / 51.71583; -1.29194

Boars Hill is a

civil parishes of Sunningwell and Wootton. It consists of about 360 dwellings spread over an area of nearly two square miles as shown on this map from the long established Boars Hill Association. Historically, it was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire
.

History

The earliest known record of Boars Hill (or Boreshill) is from the 12th century. The greater part of Boars Hill was historically a manor of the parish of

Thames
valley. At that time many houses were built on Boars Hill, and the new residents planted trees and erected fences and walls; within a few decades they had hidden the celebrated views from all but a few places.

Churches

Church of England

Boars Hill does not have its own Church of England parish church. As it straddles two parishes the respective parts of Boars Hill are served by St. Peters, Wootton and St. Leonard's, Sunningwell.

Roman Catholic

St. Thomas More Roman Catholic chapel in Boars Hill[2] is part of the Roman Catholic parish of North Hinksey.[3]

Notable residents

Poets

The first poet to leave a record of a visit to the hill was Arthur Hugh Clough. In his diary for 1841, edited by Anthony Kenny, he describes how a walk across the hill inspired the ninth of his 'Blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realized'; however, he was concerned over his family's financial straits and his impending final exams, and he found the barrenness of the scene under a grey February sky depressing. When Matthew Arnold came up to Oxford later in 1841, Clough introduced him to Boars Hill, which later provided the inspiration and setting for two of his best-known poems, The Scholar Gipsy (1853) and Thyrsis (1866), the latter written in memory of Clough. The famous phrase in the latter "the dreaming spires" encouraged people to visit the hill and settle there.

Three prominent poets lived on the hill, the first being

Carmelite order for use as a priory and retreat.[5]

Other notable residents

The hill was also the home of

Sir Arthur Evans who lived on Boars Hill from 1894 until his death in 1941. His house, Youlbury, notable for its Minoan decoration, was bought after his death by his next-door-neighbour Arthur Lehman Goodhart, who later demolished it. Goodhart's son William Goodhart, Baron Goodhart built a modern house on its site, preserving the Victorian gardens.[7]
(Those of Margaret Woods, Robert Bridges and Gilbert Murray burnt down.)

Sir William Beveridge, Gilbert MurrayJohn Masefield and Robert Bridges.[9] The husband and wife historians Hugh Trevor Lambrick and Gabrielle Lambrick lived here. The composer Lennox Berkeley was born in Sunningwell Plains, Boar’s Hill, in 1903.[10] The historian Basil Joseph Mathews (1879–1951) lived at Triangle Cottage.[11] Catherine Octavia Stevens, astronomer, built a house and observatory on Boars Hill in 1910 and she lived there until 1956.[12] Sir Frederick Keeble, FRS and his wife, the noted actress Lillah McCarthy
built a house, Hammels, from old timbers and lived there in the 1920s.

The Carritt family

During the 1930s, Boars Hill was home to an infamous family of left-wing revolutionaries and intellectuals known as the Carritt family, notable for their deep involvement in anti-fascist activism, activism within the Communist Party of Great Britain, and academic achievements within Oxford University. Famous members of the Carritt family who lived in Boars Hill include:

  • Liesel Carritt: A German-Jewish refugee and communist revolutionary who fled Nazi Germany to Oxford with her family. She married into the Carritt family and later fought in the Spanish Civil War.
  • Michael Carritt: An Oxford University professor and communist spy who infiltrated the British civil service to pass on intelligence to Indian pro-independence activists.
  • Anthony Carritt: An anti-fascist revolutionary and the son of zoologist Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire. He was killed by fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
  • Edgar Frederick Carritt: English philosopher and Oxford University professor at University College.
  • Noel Carritt: Communist, aviation engineer, and anti-fascist revolutionary who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War.
  • Bill Carritt: British communist activist, politician, humanitarian aid worker, and foreign editor for the Daily Worker.

The Carritt family's home in Boars Hill became famous as a hub for left-wing intellectual debate, attracting a wide number of people including communist trade union leader

WH Auden[2] and Stephen Spender.[3] The Carritt family were also friends with another family of left-wing activists which lived close to them called the Thompsons, whose famous members included the historian E. P. Thompson and his brother Frank Thompson.[1] The children of both families attended Dragon School together.[4]

Sites

Arthur Evans had

Ripon Hall. When Ripon Hall moved to Cuddesdon, the site became known as Foxcombe Hall, and was the regional headquarters of the Open University. In 2016 the site was purchased by Peking University. From 1955 to the mid-1970s, Boar's Hill was home to Plater College.[14][15]

Some digs in 2002 near Lincombe Lane cul-de-sac, 3 metres left and 8 metres forward of the first bend in the road, left of the footpath, uncovered underground walls and a hearth 6 foot deep, which are alleged to be a Roman kiln.

From 1976 to 1996, Warnborough College, occupied the former Plater College facilities, the Bishop's palace of the Diocese of Oxford, and Yatscombe Hall, having moved from Warnborough Road in North Oxford. The college attracted controversy due to alleged links to Oxford University[16] and was eventually sued with the site repossessed.[17] Soon after the repossession squatters moved in and the site of the former Bishop's palace and Yatscombe Hall has been subject to numerous planning disputes ever since.[18] Yatscombe Hall was destroyed by fire in December 2003[19] and all the buildings on the site were demolished and a retirement village was planned.[20] However eventually a development of a four large country homes was built on the site by Millgate Homes.[21]

Remains of Yatscombe Hall in January 2004

Brideshead Revisited

Boars Hill is twice mentioned in the 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966). First, Cousin Jasper advises the young Charles Ryder upon his coming up to Oxford, "Keep clear of Boar's Hill." In contrast, Sebastian Flyte describes a model student at Oxford as one who "smokes a great pipe and plays hockey and goes out to tea on Boar's Hill and to lectures at Keble...".

See also

References

  1. ^ "Victoria History of Berkshire: Cumnor". British-history.ac.uk. 13 December 1907. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  2. ^ "Oxfordshire Churches & Chapels: Boars Hill". Oxfordshirechurches.info. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  3. ^ "Thames Isis Catholic Pastoral Area". North Hinksey Parish. Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  4. .
  5. ^ "History of the Carmelite Priory at Boars Hill". Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  6. TheGuardian.com
    . 18 January 2000.
  7. ^ "Oxfordshire property for sale". 18 November 2015.
  8. ^ Hopkins (2005), p.382
  9. ^ Margaret Digby, Horace Plunkett, An Anglo-American Irishman, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1949, p. 258.
  10. ^ "Lennox Berkeley timeline".
  11. ^ "MATHEWS Basil Joseph of the Triangle Cottage Boars Hill" in Probate Index for England and Wales (1951), p. 786, probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 10 February 2021
  12. ^ Catherine Octavia Stevens - Obituary British Astronomical Association. [pdf]
  13. ^ Oxford Preservation Trust Archived 25 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Joseph Kirwin Obituary Oxford Mail[permanent dead link] 31 March 2005.
  15. ^ "Old Oxford The Pullens, Pullens Lane". Headington.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  16. Seattle Times
    , 11 October 1995
  17. ^ King, Tim (1996-10-25). Oxford College Sued in US is Repossessed. The Daily Telegraph (UK)
  18. ^ "MP bids to break deadlock", Oxford Mail, 7 February 2004
  19. ^ "Fire Destroys Former College", BBC News Online, 9 December 2003
  20. Oxford Times
    , 23 June 2006
  21. ^ Boar's Hill Archived 29 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Millgate Homes, United Kingdom.

Sources

  • Bright Rix, Mary (1941). Boars Hill, Oxford. Oxford: Hall the Printer.
  • Candy, James S (1984). A Tapestry of Life: An Autobiography. Merlin Books. .
  • .
  • Evans, Arthur (1933). Jarn Mound. With Its Panorama And Wild Garden Of British Plants. Oxford: Joseph Vincent.
  • Hopkins, Claire (2005). Trinity: 450 years of an Oxford college community. Oxford University Press. .

External links