Swyncombe intro - Victoria County History

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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).
Page 1 and 2: VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progre
Page 3: VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progre

Swyncombe intro - Victoria County History

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?