Tetsworth
Tetsworth | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | Thame | |
Postcode district | OX9 | |
Dialling code | 01844 | |
Police | Thames Valley | |
Fire | Oxfordshire | |
Ambulance | South Central | |
UK Parliament | ||
Website | Tetsworth Parish Council | |
Tetsworth is a village and
History
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 Tetsworth did not exist as a separate manor.[5] One summary of the village history states that Tetsworth lands were included in the Bishop of Lincoln's Thame manor of 60 hides".[6] In the 12th century, benefactors gave land in the area to the Cistercian Thame Abbey and these lands were brought together as an estate under the abbey's control.[5] Records indicate that during 1209–12 "Peter Talemasch and Robert Danvers were returned as joint lords of Tetsworth", of lands not owned by the abbey.[7] By about 1225 the abbey held 20 virgates of land at Tetsworth, initially called the Grange but from 1365 called a manor.[5] In 1316 Simon Danvers and the Abbot of Thame were the joint lords of Tetsworth.[8]
In 1539 Thame Abbey was suppressed under the
Thomas's grandson Henry Phillips sold Tetsworth to Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, in 1756.[5] Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon, sold the manor again in 1810.[5] In 1810, the manor was "apparently" sold to the Rev. Samuel Ryder Weston and he left it to Charlotte Weston on his death; Charlotte retained ownership for some years but by 1859, it was owned by the Matthews family who sold the manor and farm in about 1866 to a local farmer, Joseph Cornish.[10] As of 1872, the manor was owned by a Miss Weston.[11]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of Saint Giles was originally Saxon. It was largely rebuilt in the 12th century[5] in the Norman, with some fine features including the tympanum over the south door.[12] The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, and in the 15th century new Perpendicular Gothic windows were inserted in the nave. St. Giles was a prebendal chapel of the parish of Thame until 1841, when Tetsworth was made a separate ecclesiastical parish.
The first incumbent of the new parish was Rev. John W. Peers, a member of the Peers family of
The architect John Billing designed the new church in the Early English Gothic style. Sherwood and Pevsner described the new building as "a clumsy design" and the bell-tower as "excessively heavy".[12] By the end of the 18th century the old church had a ring of six bells.[14] They were re-hung in the new church, and Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry re-cast them all in 1936.[15] The Old Vicarage has been Grade II listed since 1963 as "Vicarage, now house. c.1846"[16] and the Church of Saint Giles was also Grade II listed since that year. The summary for the latter includes this description:[17]
Church. c.1855, by J. Billing of Reading. Coursed squared stone; old plain-tile roof to nave, aisle, chancel and vestry; stone tower. 5-bay nave with south aisle, 2-bay chancel, tower to south, vestry to north. Early English style. 2-centre arched doorway to base of tower with double-leaf plank doors.
Chapel
In the 19th century Tetsworth was an "open village" without such strong control from a
In 1842 it joined the local Congregational Association but five years later it appointed a Baptist pastor and the Congregational Association withdrew its support. Subsequently the chapel had Wesleyan pastors but in 1864 it was readmitted to the local Congregational Association. In 1890 a new chapel was built and the old one became the Sunday School. In the 20th century the congregation dwindled until in 1958 it had only four members.[5]
Economic and social history
By 1502 Tetsworth had two inns, The Crown and The Swan. Tetsworth also has a Sports and Social Club.
By 1818, a private day school had been founded by Isaac Caterer who became a minister of the Congregational church in 1828.[29][30][31] In 1847 Rev. John Peers and other subscribers paid for a Church of England school to be built in the centre of the village. It later became a National School. In 1938 it was reorganised as a junior school, with secondary pupils attending schools in Thame.[5] It is now a County Primary School.[32]
Although the village was primarily agricultural, the 1851 Census specified that certain tradesmen were operating: "5 butchers and grocers and a baker, 7 milliners, dressmakers, and drapers, a tailor, a hairdresser and a shoemaker .... 4 wheelwrights, 2 blacksmiths and their journeymen, a saddler, a harnessmaker, and a joiner". By this time, the London road had minimal importance to the village since the railroad had reached this area.[33] The 1870-72 Imperial Gazetteer provided a summary of the community:[34]
a parish, with a village, in Thame district, Oxford; 3 miles SSW of Thame r. station. It has a head post-office, and a hotel; and it carries on a manufacture of pillow lace. Acres, 1,172. Real property, £2,827. Pop., 481. Houses, 108. ... The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £130 ... The church was recently rebuilt. There are an Independent chapel and a national school.
A Council report indicates that the community has always been primarily agricultural and that it experienced poverty during the early 19th century but had regained some prosperity by 1851. However, by 1931, the population had dropped from 500 in the mid 1850s to under 300. By the 2011 Census, that had increased to about 700 people.[35]
References
- ^ "Area: Tetsworth CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
- ^ Tetsworth Parish Council
- ^ TETSWORTH in Oxfordshire (South East England)
- ^ Tetsworth Today
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Lobel, 1962, pages 147-160
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Tetsworth Oxfordshire
- ^ a b Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 805.
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, South Oxfordshire Branch Archived 26 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Davies, Peter (21 May 2007). "Tetsworth S Giles". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
- ^ The Old Vicarage
- ^ CHURCH OF ST GILES
- ^ Emery 1974, pp. 172–173.
- ^ a b Emery 1974, p. 173.
- ^ Church and chapel in Oxfordshire, 1851: the return of the census of religious worship Page 102
- ^ Salzman, Louis Francis (1962). The Victoria History of the County of Oxford. University of London, Institute of Historical Research.
- ^ Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 11 Page 845
- ^ The Swan Antiques Centre and Restaurant
- ^ The Swan Hotel
- ^ TETSWORTH PAST & PRESENT
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Old Red Lion Archived 15 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Old Red Lion
- ^ Church and chapel in Oxfordshire, 1851: the return of the census of religious worship Page 102
- ^ Salzman, Louis Francis (1962). The Victoria History of the County of Oxford. University of London, Institute of Historical Research.
- ^ Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 11 Page 845
- ^ "Tetsworth School – Tetsworth Primary School, Tetsworth Oxfordshire". www.tetsworth.oxon.sch.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ Parishes: Tetsworth Pages 147-160
- ^ Tetsworth Oxfordshire
- ^ Tetsworth Past and Present
Sources
- Emery, Frank (1974). The Oxfordshire Landscape. The Making of the English Landscape. London: ISBN 0-340-04301-6.
- Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1962). A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 7: Dorchester and Thame Hundreds. Victoria County History. pp. 147–160.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
External links
Media related to Tetsworth at Wikimedia Commons