Great Milton

Great Milton

St Mary the Virgin parish church
Great Milton
Great Milton shown within Oxfordshire
Area 7.90 km2 (3.05 sq mi)
Population 1,042 (2011 Census)
• Density 132/km2 (340/sq mi)
OS grid reference SP6302
Civil parish
  • Great Milton
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Oxford
Postcode district OX44
Dialling code 01844
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK Parliament
Website Great Milton, Oxfordshire

Great Milton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 7 miles (11 km) east of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,042.[1]

History

The toponym appears to refer to the "Middle Town" of a group.

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Remigius de Fécamp, Bishop of Lincoln held a large estate of 31 hides of land at Great Milton.[2] The estate had presumably belonged to the Diocese of Dorchester,[2] of which Remigius had been consecrated bishop in 1070. The see of Dorchester had been absorbed into that of Lincoln in 1072, and Remigius had been translated to Lincoln as bishop of the newly united diocese.

The Domesday Book lists two water mills in the parish.[2] By the time of the Hundred Rolls in 1279 there was a third watermill and in about 1500 there was a fourth mill.[2] There is no known subsequent record of the third and fourth mills, but both of the others seem to have survived until the 17th and in at least on case the 18th century.[2] By the 19th century both mills were disused.[2]

In 1322 there was at least one windmill in the parish, and possibly two.[2] The parish still had two windmills in 1838 and about 1900.[2] One a post mill with four sails. In about 1901 Henry Taunt photographed it, by which time it had lost one pair of sails and appeared derelict.[3]

In 1762 a fire destroyed 16 houses in the village.[4]

The King's Head when it was a public house

By 1822 the parish had at least three public houses: the Bell, the Bull and the Red Lion.[2] The Bell and the Red Lion ceased trading in the 1990s. Greene King Brewery controlled The Bull until 2013, when 110 villagers including chef Raymond Blanc bought it and turned it into a community pub.[5]

Parish church

The nave and chancel of the Church of England parish church of Saint Mary were built shortly after the Norman Conquest of England. The building was damaged by fire in the 13th century. During the 14th century the chancel was enlarged and the north and south aisles were added. At this time the church served a parish including the villages of Chilworth Valery and Chilworth Muzzard, the hamlets of Combe and Little Milton, and the manor of Ascot. In 1850 St Mary's was restored at a cost of £2,000.

In 1552 St Mary's had four bells plus a Sanctus bell, and in 1631 Ellis I Knight of Reading, Berkshire cast a ring of five bells.[2] It now has a ring of eight. Ellis II & Henry III Knight recast what are now the fifth and eighth bells in 1673.[2][6] Thomas Rudhall of Gloucester cast the treble, second and third bells in 1771 and the tenor bell in 1772.[6] In 1848 William Taylor of Loughborough, who at that time also had a foundry at Oxford, cast the sixth bell.[6] In 1825 W & J Taylor also cast the present Sanctus bell.[6]

St Mary's has a church clock that was made in 1699 by Nicholas Harris of Fritwell.[7]

Amenities

Great Milton post office

The village has a Church of England Primary School, a public house, the Bull Inn, and a post office and general store. The manor house is now the French chef Raymond Blanc's restaurant and hotel, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons.

Notable residents

Sports

The village was also the original base of Great Milton Hockey Club, a mixed-sex field hockey team that plays annually in the Oxfordshire Gladiators' Cup.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Area: Great Milton CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lobel 1962, pp. 117–146
  3. ↑ Graham 1972, Windmill, Great Milton, 1901.
  4. ↑ Emery 1974, p. 167.
  5. ↑ Hughes, Pete (20 March 2018). "Feature: Raymond Blanc's little-known second eatery in Great Milton, The Bull". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Great Milton S Mary V". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Beeson & Simcock 1989, p. 47.
  8. ↑ Little, Reg (3 January 2014). "Labour of love restoration of Great Haseley windmill could be completed later this year". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Hinton, Graham. "EMS: The Inside Story".
  10. ↑ Oxfordshire Gladiators' Cup

Sources and further reading

  • Beeson, C.F.C. (1989) [1962]. Simcock, A.V., ed. Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Museum of the History of Science. pp. 46–47. ISBN 0-903364-06-9.
  • Emery, Frank (1974). Hoskins, W.G, ed. The Oxfordshire Landscape. The Making of the English Landscape. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 117, 167, 218. ISBN 0-340-04301-6.
  • Graham, Malcolm (1973). Henry Taunt of Oxford: A Victorian Photographer. Headington: Oxford Illustrated Press. ISBN 0-902280-14-7.
  • Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1962). A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. VII: Thame and Dorchester Hundreds. London: Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research. pp. 117–146.
  • Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 620–623. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.