Swyncombe intro - Victoria County History

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 1
VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress
SWYNCOMBE
Swyncombe lies in the Chiltern hills about 3 miles (5 km) south of Watlington and 7
miles (11 km) north-west of Henley-on-Thames. 1 In the Middle Ages the manor
belonged to the Norman abbey of Bec, and later to minor lay lords who occupied
Swyncombe House, built in an isolated location next to the parish church. On the
separate Ewelme Park estate building on a grander scale took place in the 17th
century, when a mansion house was assessed on 41 hearths. That house was soon
demolished, however, and was not replaced until 1913. 2
Settlement in the parish is dispersed, most inhabitants living in the hamlets of
Cookley Green, Park Corner, and Russell’s Water, which lies mostly in Pishill. The
population has probably never exceeded its mid 19th-century peak of 446, when all
but a few households worked in the parish’s woods, farms, and brick industry. Up to
ten farms operated at that time, and a similar number remained in the late 20th
century, though by then probably no more than a tenth of the population worked in
agriculture. Most other employment was based outside the parish, whose attractive
setting appealed to commuters in professional and managerial occupations. 3
Parish Boundaries
In the late 19th century the ancient parish covered 2,708 acres, forming a relatively
compact block. 4 Parts of the boundary followed early roads, notably Icknield Way on
the north-west, parts of the roads linking Britwell Salome, Russell’s Water, and
Watlington on the north and north-east, and Digberry Lane on the south. 5 The
eastern boundary with Bix and a detached part of Ewelme followed a more complex
and irregular course through woods and fields, while the south-west boundary near
Ewelme Park followed a straighter course partly along the contours of Harcourt Hill. 6
1 This account was written in 2011–12.
2 Below, manor.
3 Below (settlement and popn); econ. hist.; social hist.
4 OS Area Bk (1878); OS Map 1:10560, Oxon. L (1883 edn); OHC, tithe map. Cf. Census,
1831–71, estimating the acreage at 2,320 a. and 2,646 a.
5 Below (roads).
6 For northern and eastern boundaries, cf. VCH Oxon. VIII, 43, 131, 210–11; XVI, 196–7.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 2
From there the boundary with Ewelme crossed the downs to rejoin Icknield Way,
leaving the foothills (Ewelme Downs) within Ewelme parish.
The northern and eastern boundaries coincided with those of the hundred,
which were established before the Norman Conquest and possibly by the 9th or 10th
century. 7 Elsewhere, the boundaries presumably derived from the estates created in
the area before and after the Conquest, as the vast Benson estate became
fragmented. A 2½-hide holding at Swyncombe existed by 1086, although parts of the
later parish may have still been included within Benson, or in one of the four large
Ewelme manors recorded in Domesday. 8 A church was built on Swyncombe manor
in the late 11th century, however, and by the 12th or 13th century it seems likely that
the later parish bounadries were broadly established. 9 Even so the Ewelme manors
retained some property in Swyncombe, notably at Cookley Green, while woodland on
Swyncombe’s south-east edge remained a detached part of Ewelme parish. 10
Swyncombe
ancient parish
and its
surroundings:
from An
Historical
Atlas of
Oxfordshire,
ed. K. Tiller
and G. Darke
(ORS 67,
2010), 3.
7 M. Hammond, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Estate of Readonora and the Manor of Pyrton,
Oxfordshire’, Oxoniensia 63 (1998), 23–42; L.W. Hepple and A.M. Doggett, ‘Stonor: a
Chilterns Landscape’, in J. Thirsk (ed.), Rural England (2000), 266–9; VCH Oxon. VIII, 1–3,
128–30; XVI, 197; above, vol. intro.
8 e.g. the 2½-hide Peverel fee (above, Ewelme, manors); firm evidence is lacking, however.
9 Below, relig. hist. The whole parish was titheable to Swyncombe church, and no evidence
has been found of late medieval boundary changes.
10 Above, Ewelme, par. intro. (par. bdies); manors.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 3
In 1952 the parish gained 868 a. from Bix, including woods, farms, and
houses at Maidensgrove, 11 and in 1991 the area was unchanged at 3,576 a. (1,447
ha.). A small area in the south-east was lost to Bix in the early 21st century. 12
Landscape
The parish extends from the scarp to the summit of the Chiltern hills, and lies mostly
on chalk, covered along the ridge by a mantle of clay-with-flints. 13 The relief is
uneven, and from Cookley Green (at 224 m. almost the highest point in the parish)
the land falls away north-westwards to 140 m. at North Farm and to 111 m. near
Warren Bottom in Ewelme, giving spectacular views across the vale. In between, the
deep dry coombs of Swyncombe Downs create a secluded and intimate landscape
typical of the Chilterns, although one generally more wooded from the late 19th
century than earlier. 14
Swyncombe
in 1767:
from
Jefferys’s
map of
Oxfordshire
The church and manor house lie in a sheltered hollow at around 160 m. From
there the ground rises southwards to a plateau of c.200–215 m. at Park Corner and
Ewelme Park, the site of a late medieval deer park associated with Ewelme manor.
11 Census, 1961; VCH Oxon. XVI, 198, 202. The added areas had a population of 50.
12 OS Map 1:25000, sheet 171 (1999 and 2009 edns); Census, 1961–2001. For changes to
the ecclesiastical parish, below, relig. hist. (par. organization).
13 Geol. Surv. Map 1:50000 (solid and drift), sheet 254 (1980 edn).
14 OS Maps 1:10560, Oxon. L (1883 edn); 1:25000, sheet 171 (2009 edn); Jefferys, Oxon.
Map (1767); Bryant, Oxon. Map (1824); OHC, tithe map; H.J. Massingham, Chiltern Country
(1940), 13–14; below, econ. hist. (agric. landscape).

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 4
Remnants of the wooded parkland survived in the 19th century, when tree stumps
marked the parish boundary amidst open arable closes, and 20th-century
plantations, including larch and conifers, afforded more modern owners opportunities
for fox-hunting and shooting. 15 As elsewhere in the Chilterns, numerous tanks and
wells provided the inhabitants with water until piped supplies gradually became
available. 16
Communications
The ancient Icknield Way, running along the scarp face of the Chiltern hills, marked
the parish’s north-western boundary, 17 while the Roman road from Dorchester to
Henley crossed the south-western corner of the parish near Ewelme Park, continuing
along the line of Digberry Lane between Swyncombe and Nettlebed. 18 From the
Middle Ages the chief route through the parish ran north–south from Watlington to
Nettlebed, part of it along a ridgeway called Red Lane from the colour of the subsoil.
19 The hamlets of Cookley Green and Park Corner both developed alongside it. 20
Branch roads included parallel north–south routes called Coates Lane and Reading
Lane, the east–west Church Lane and White Hill (which joined Icknield Way), a
medieval road to Bix with a link (Law Lane) to Russell’s Water, and a track to
Ewelme Park which continued along the Ewelme–Nuffield parish boundary. 21 All
those survived in the early 21st century as minor access roads or bridleways,
connected by a dense network of footpaths. 22
15 OS Maps 1:10560, Oxon. L (1883 edn); 1:25000, sheet 171 (2009 edn); Sale Cat., Ewelme
Park (1934): copy in OHC, P SWYN/631.2; Sale Cat., Parkcorner Farm (1956): copy in OHC,
SC 212; for Ewelme Park, below, manor (other estates); econ. hist.; social hist.
16 OS Map 1:10560, Oxon. L (1883 edn); B. Read, Henley Rural: A History of Henley Rural
District Council 1894–1932 (2003), 58–9; Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1939 edn); below, local govt.
17 The Viatores, Roman Roads in the South-East Midlands (1964), 53–5; HER, PRN 8929;
Hepple and Doggett, Chilterns, 8–11, 44–5; VCH Oxon. XVI, 4; Oxon. Atlas, 28–9, 50–1;
above, vol. intro. (communics).
18 F.J. Malpas, ‘Roman Roads South and East of Dorchester’, Oxoniensia 52 (1987), 31–2;
below (early settlement).
19 Grundy, Saxon Oxon. 102–4; Bridge, Swyncombe, 15–19; M. Hammond, ‘The Anglo-Saxon
Estate of Readonora and the Manor of Pyrton, Oxfordshire’, Oxoniensia 63 (1998), 36; OS
Map 1:25000, sheet 171 (2009 edn); above, vol. intro. (communics). In 2011 the road’s
classification was B481.
20 Below (medieval and later settlement).
21 Jefferys, Oxon. Map (1767); Davis, Oxon. Map (1797); Bryant, Oxon. Map (1824); OHC,
tithe map; OS Maps 1:63360, sheet XIII (1830 edn); 1:10560, Oxon. L (1883 edn); VCH
Oxon. VIII, 43–4; XVI, 199–200.
22 OS Map 1:25000, sheet 171 (2009 edn); below, local govt.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 5
In the mid 19th century a carrier from Watlington to Reading passed through
the parish on Saturdays. 23 The local carrier Thomas Hayes provided a similar service
from Park Corner, and travelled to Henley on Thursdays (market day). 24 The service
was continued by his daughter Alice until the 1890s, 25 after which inhabitants
presumably used carriers from Nettlebed and Watlington. 26 From the 1920s
motorized buses ran between Watlington and Reading with increasing frequency,
and an occasional service continued in 2011. 27
Post was delivered from Nettlebed in the 19th century, and later from Henley.
A sub-post office at Park Corner, opened in the 1850s, was managed first by the
blacksmith Stephen Wixen and in the 1860s by the farmer John Parker. 28 From the
1880s it was run by women, and continued until the early 20th century when a post
and telegraph office opened at Cookley Green. 29 A second sub-post office at
Russell’s Water was short-lived, 30 and the post office at Cookley Green closed in
1967. 31
Settlement and Population
Early Settlement
Flint axes and other implements of Mesolithic to Neolithic date have been found on
the northern, eastern, and western edges of the parish, while a flint dagger suggests
Bronze-Age activity. 32 On the southern boundary with Nettlebed prehistoric
enclosures and other features have been identified from cropmarks, 33 and in the
23 PO Dir. Oxon. (1854 and 1864 edns).
24 TNA, HO 107/881; HO 107/1725; ibid. RG 9/884; RG 10/1428; PO Dir. Oxon. (1854 and
later edns); VCH Oxon. XVI, 101.
25 TNA, RG 11/1491; RG 12/1159; Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1883–91 edns). In 1901 Alice was
described as a charwoman: TNA, RG 13/1372.
26 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1895 and later edns), s.v. Watlington; VCH Oxon. VIII, 232–3; above,
Nettlebed, par. intro. (carriers).
27 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1924 and later edns); below, local govt. In 2011 four buses a week
stopped at Cookley Green and Park Corner.
28 PO Dir. Oxon. (1847 and later edns); TNA, RG 9/884; RG 10/1428.
29 TNA, RG 11/1491, s.v. Frances Sarney; Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1883 and later edns); below,
local govt.
30 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1915).
31 OHC, PC 265/A/3, s.a. 1967; OS Map 1:2500, SU 6990 (1973 edn); Sale Cat., Old Post
Office (1976): copy at NMR.
32 HER, PRN 2021 (near Ewelme Park), 12750 (near Coates Farm), 2067, 15428, 15434 (all
near Russell’s Water); H. Case and J.R. Kirk, ‘Archaeological Notes’, Oxoniensia 19 (1954),
118–19; VCH Oxon. XVI, 201; for context, Hepple and Doggett, Chilterns, 18–30.
33 HER, PRN 13887–9; above, Nettlebed, par. intro. (early settlement).

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 6
north a prehistoric ring ditch lies next to Icknield Way. 34 A late 3rd-century Roman
coin hoard discovered along the Roman road south of Ewelme Park may not indicate
settlement, although Roman occupation is known nearby. 35
The most significant archaeological remains are also the most enigmatic and
difficult to date. A boundary dyke running along the northern edge of the downs for
about a mile, and commanding Icknield Way, may be of Bronze-Age or Anglo-Saxon
origin, and could have been intended either for defensive or agricultural use. 36 A
square enclosure at Digberry Farm is also problematic, but possibly marks an Anglo-
Saxon farmstead. 37 More certain evidence of Anglo-Saxon activity is afforded by the
parish’s place names. Swyncombe means pig valley, the element cumb being
particularly characteristic of the Chilterns. Cookley is probably derived from Cuca’s
lēah (or wood-pasture), and several field names also include Anglo-Saxon
elements. 38 Park Corner was known in the 18th century as Stanley or Stanvill, the
Old English stān presumably referring to the abundant flint in the area. 39
Population from 1086
No tenants were recorded on the manor in 1086, when it was presumably
administered as demesne. The late 11th-century church nevertheless suggests a
small resident population. 40 Around 26 tenants were named c.1248, and in 1279
there were 10 serfs or servi and 11 cottars, suggesting a population of 80–100. 41
Seven people including the prior of Bec paid tax in 1306, but mid 14th-century plague
seems to have had a serious long-term effect, since in 1377 only 16 adults aged over
14 paid the national poll tax. 42 In 1524 the parish was taxed with places in Nuffield,
34 HER, PRN 5344.
35 Ibid. 2019; C.M. Kraay, ‘A Third Century Hoard of Roman Coins from Ewelme’, Oxoniensia
17/18 (1952/1953), 234–5; VCH Oxon. XVI, 201.
36 HER, PRN 13608; VCH Oxon. II, 307, 343; Bridge, Swyncombe, 20.
37 HER, PRN 2026; Bridge, Swyncombe, 20–1; C.R. Hart, ‘Digberry Farm, Swyncombe’, CBA
Group 9 Newsletter 4 (1974), 29; O.G.S. Crawford, ‘The Chiltern Grim’s Ditches’, Antiquity 5
(1931), 170–1; above, Nettlebed, par. intro. (early settlement).
38 PN Oxon. I, 136–8; Oxon. Atlas, 22–4; above, Nuffield, par. intro. (early settlement).
39 Par. Colln, III, 300; OHC, par. reg. transcript, s.a. 1726–7; cf. Oxon. Atlas, 22; below (built
character).
40 VCH Oxon. I, 419; below, relig. hist.
41 M. Chibnall (ed.), Select Documents of the English Lands of the Abbey of Bec (Camden 3rd
ser. 73, 1951), 87–9; Rot. Hund. II, 757–8; M.T. Pearman, ‘Notes on Swincomb’, OAS Trans.
48 (1906), 6–8. For their social status, below, econ. hist. (medieval agric.); social hist.
42 TNA, E 179/161/10; Poll Taxes 1377–81, ed. Fenwick, II, 295; below, social hist.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 7
and few Swyncombe people contributed to the lay subsidies of the later 16th
century. 43
Thereafter the population rose slowly. From the 1570s baptisms usually
outnumbered burials, averaging 4.6 a year (compared with 3.2 burials) in the period
1570–1700. 44 Thirteen households were assessed for hearth tax in 1662, 97 adults
were mentioned in 1676, and a population of about 200 was reported in 1718. 45
During the 18th century the average number of baptisms rose to 5.8 a year
compared with 4.5 burials, 46 and 40 houses were mentioned in 1738, rising to 50 in
1759 and 55 in 1771. 47 By 1801 there were 53 houses and a population of 285, rising
to 70 houses and 367 people thirty years later. 48
The population peaked in 1861, when 446 people occupied 80 houses.
Thereafter it fell to 308 in 72 houses by 1891. In the 20th century the population
fluctuated between 342 (in 1901) and 280 (in 1981), the number of households rising
from 79 to 102 during the same period. In 2001 a total of 260 people occupied 112
houses. 49
Medieval and Later Settlement
As elsewhere in the Chiltern uplands, medieval settlement was dispersed. The
origins of individual hamlets and farmsteads are generally untraceable, although
some must have existed by the late 11th century when the present church was built.
Any tenant housing next to the church was probably removed in the 16th or 17th
century, when the mansion house was rebuilt by resident lords, 50 and in the early
18th century about half of the parish’s 40 houses were reportedly situated at Park
Corner, with a further eight at Cookley Green and the same number at Russell’s
Water, which lay mostly in Pishill parish. Then and presumably earlier the houses at
Cookley Green and Park Corner were arranged around small greens, 51 while a few
43 TNA, E 179/161/198; E 179/162/258; E 179/162/317; E 179/162/346; E 179/163/381;
above, Nuffield, par. intro. (popn).
44 OHC, par. reg. transcript (based on decennial totals 1570–1699).
45 TNA, E 179/164/504; Hearth Tax Oxon. 40 (listing only 7 houses); Compton Census, ed.
Whiteman, 424; B.J. Enright, ‘Rawlinson’s Proposed History of Oxfordshire’, Oxoniensia 16
(1951), 70.
46 OHC, par. reg. transcript (based on decennial totals 1700–99).
47 Secker’s Visit. 157; ORO, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 557, f. 98; d 563, f. 129.
48 Census, 1801–31.
49 Ibid. 1841–2001.
50 Below, manor (Swyncombe House); relig. hist.
51 Jefferys, Oxon. Map (1767); Davis, Oxon. Map (1797); Par. Colln, III, 300; Enright,
‘Rawlinson’s Proposed History of Oxfordshire’, 70; VCH Oxon. VIII, 131–2.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 8
additional cottages were built on the edges of commons or in the woods. 52 A lodge
existed in Ewelme Park probably from the early 15th century, when the park was first
created, and in the early 17th century it was briefly superseded by a short-lived but
exceptionally large mansion house. Coates (or Bacon) Farm was established by the
16th century, and possibly from the Middle Ages. 53
In the mid 19th century Park Corner (including Digberry Lane) remained the
largest of the hamlets, with around 25 of the parish’s 80 houses. Cookley Green and
Russell’s Water each contained around 18 households, while the remainder lay
dispersed at Swyncombe House, the rectory house, Ewelme Park, Lower Farm,
Coates Farm, Seymour Green, and Down Cottages. 54 Thereafter the settlement
pattern remained largely unchanged, the number of houses increasing only to 85
until the boundary changes of 1952. 55 Subsequent decades witnessed relatively little
new development. 56
The parish
war
memorial
on Cookley
Green,
around
which
settlement
is loosely
scattered.
52 TNA, E 315/388/1; below, social hist. (16th to 18th cents).
53 Below, manor (other estates); econ. hist. (farming in 16th to 18th cents).
54 OHC, tithe award and map; TNA, HO 107/881; HO 107/1725.
55 Census, 1951; OS Maps 1:25000 SU 68 (1960 edn); 1:25000 SU 69 (1959 edn); above
(par. bdies).
56 OS Map 1:25000, sheet 171 (2009 edn); below, local govt.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p. 9
The Built Character
Swyncombe’s vernacular buildings are broadly typical of the Oxfordshire Chilterns.
Farmhouses and cottages of 17th- to 19th-century date are thinly scattered
throughout the parish, built mostly of brick, flint, and clay tile. Though varying in size
and style, none (with the exception of Swyncombe House and Ewelme Park) stands
out as particularly distinctive. 57 The early 18th-century Park Corner Farm, flint-built
with brick quoins and dressings, brick stacks, and a tiled hipped roof, is typical of the
better tenanted farmhouses. Two-storeyed with attic gables, it has a three-bay front
and a double-pile plan, its rooms lit by windows with 19th- and 20th-century sashes
and casements. 58 In the 19th century it was covered with ivy, and its enclosed yards
included brick and timber barns, stables, and sheds, variously roofed with tile, slate,
or thatch. 59 Later outbuildings used ‘iron and other materials’. 60
On the same estate the 18th-century Ewelme Park Farm, of rendered brick
with a tiled gabled roof, 61 was replaced by a larger brick and slated residence in the
late 19th century. The original farmhouse was sub-divided for use as labourers’
accommodation, supplementing several tied cottages which were let on service
tenancies into the mid 20th century. 62 On the Swyncombe manor estate, the 17thcentury
Home Farm was extended and remodelled in the 19th century, though the
flint, brick, and tile of its main ranges remained wholly characteristic. 63 Among the
estate’s farm buildings, the 17th-century aisled barn of four bays with a queen-post
roof at Coates Farm is particularly impressive. Built on a brick and flint base, it is
weatherboarded with a tiled roof. 64 Timber and thatch were probably once more
common on both estates, and at Lower Farm were used in the barns and stable
mentioned in the late 18th century. 65
Other 18th-century farmhouses include Darkwood and Little Parkcorner (or
Chear’s) Farms, built in different styles but using the same materials of brick, flint,
and tile. Decorative features at Little Parkcorner Farm include segmental brick arches
over windows and door, while Darkwood Farm has a notable M-shaped gabled
57 Above, vol. intro. (bldgs). For manorial and ecclesiastical buildings, below, manor
(Swyncombe House; Ewelme Park House); relig. hist. (rectory house; church archit.).
58 Bldgs List, IoE 247569.
59 Sale Cat., Ewelme Park (1889): copy in Bodl. GA Oxon. b 92*; OHC, Ta. XI/ii/3.
60 Sale Cat., Parkcorner Farm (1956): copy in OHC, SC 212.
61 Bldgs List, IoE 247555.
62 Sale Cat., Ewelme Park (1889); OHC, Ta. XI/ii/3; TNA, MAF 32/919/233, no. 1; Sale Cat.,
Parkcorner Farm (1956).
63 Bldgs List, IoE 247559.
64 Ibid. 247565.
65 OHC, Brakspear X/1, p. 156; ibid. QSD/L/273, s.a. 1794.

VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Swyncombe (Apr. 2012) • © University of London • p.
10
roof. 66 Such buildings reflected the widespread agricultural prosperity of the period,
when the profits of farming enabled landowners to replace the small, old-fashioned
houses mentioned in mid 17th-century hearth taxes and inventories with more
modern and comfortable residences. 67 Rebuilding also extended to many of the
parish’s cottages, of which several were newly built or substantially enlarged in the
18th century. 68
The number of inhabited houses rose from 53 in 1801 to 80 in 1851, although
the increase did not always keep pace with population, resulting in subdivision and
overcrowding. In 1831, for example, 88 families were accommodated in 70 houses. 69
Like the earlier buildings most were of brick and flint and were unexceptional, and at
the beginning of the 20th century many still belonged to the parish’s major
landowners. 70 By then population was falling, and several houses were vacant:
twelve in 1881, eight in 1891, and six in 1901. 71 A few council houses were built at
Park Corner in the 1920s, and private development in the 1970s and 1980s raised
the number of households from 95 to 113. Over all, however, the built character of
the parish’s hamlets remained remarkably unchanged. 72
66 Bldgs List, IoE 247570, 247572–3; Sale Cat., Little Parkcorner Farm (1972): copy in OHC,
P NETT/631.2.
67 VCH Oxon. XVI, 11, 18; above, vol. intro.; below, social hist.
68 Bldgs List, IoE 247566–7 (Digberry Lane), 247571 (Park Corner), 247578–9 (Cookley
Green).
69 Census, 1801–51.
70 OHC, DV XII/59; Sale Cat., Swyncombe Est. (1921): copy in OHC, SC 140.
71 Census, 1881–1901.
72 OHC, PC 265/A/2, s.a. 1923, 1926; Census, 1921–91; below, social hist.