Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

78A disastrous fire on June 27th 1793 entirely destroyed 21 dwellinghouses,5 barns and many outbuildings in the village. A broadsheet appealingfor relief has survived (Bodl. Gough Oxon. 90 (20)). The survival of anumber of buildings earlier than this date shows, however, that destructionwas not total.The Compton Census of 1676 lists 66 conformists in the parish. Therector's return of 1738 stated that there were 70 houses, tenements andcottages. The census returns of C19th indicates a fairly steady rise inpopulation from 349 in 1801 to 555 in 1851, thereafter an overall declineinto the present century.VILLAGE ECONOMY AND FIELD SYSTEMToday a high proportion of the population of Stanton St. John finds itsemployment elsewhere - the outer fringes of Oxford are less than two milesaway. Until the present century, however, the economic base of the villageremained essentially agricultural.The historical development of the agricultural pattern of the parishis of considerable interest and variety. Evidence for its reconstructioncan be traced from the Domesday survey onwards, although it is not untilthe early C18th that a reasonably accurate picture of the entire parish'stopography can be drawn. The agricultural topography of the parish cannotbe followed in detail here, except to note the presence of the followingelements:-Open-Field Arable:The Domesday survey records at Stanton land for a total of 13i ploughteams,with 10 ploughs actually working - a ratio sometimes taken to indicateunder-cultivation in the C11th. The practices of open-field cultivationcan be traced from various later sources, such as the terrier of1472; but open fields never seem to have covered much more than about athird of the parish area. Evidence for it in the landscape is now scanty,the survival of ridge and furrow being very fragmentary - the only smallarea near the village is in the extreme eastern corner of the large fieldeast of the church, beyond the stream. Four common fields survive on thehigher ground in the western part of the parish in 1706. A further field,Woodperry Field, to the N of the village, still retained its furlongs in1766, but by that date comprised a consolidated block of holdings attachedto the Woodperry House estate. The remaining common fields were enclosedby an award dated 1778.Pasture and Meadow:The Domesday survey records 60 acres of meadow and 60 acres of pasture.Much of this appears to have been enclosed already by 1472. Thelargest extent, Madcroft and Broad Meadow, comprises a broad swathe acrossthe parish to E of its centre, but there are also a number of smallerblocks. The total acreage of meadow and permanent pasture is now around600 acres.Assarts and Enclosures:Around Woodperry House, Stowford and Minchincourt there is evidence forearly enclosures taken out of open field. Manor Farm in the village hadconsolidated its scattered holdings into three large enclosed fields and a