Buckland, Oxfordshire

Buckland
St Mary the Virgin parish church
Buckland House with a wooded escarpment which mark one edge of the parish before the Vale of the Ock (White Horse) and the North Wessex Downs visible beyond .
Buckland  Buckland shown within Oxfordshire
Area	18.23 km2 (7.04 sq mi)
Population	588 (parish, including Gainfield) (2011 Census)
– density	32/km2 (83/sq mi)
OS grid reference	SU3498
Civil parish	Buckland
District	Vale of White Horse
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Faringdon
Postcode district	SN7
Dialling code	01367
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Wantage
List of places UK England Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°40′44″N 1°30′22″W / 51.679°N 1.506°W / 51.679; -1.506

Buckland is a village and large civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Faringdon^[1] in the Vale of White Horse District. Buckland was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 588.^[2]

Geography

The River Thames forms the northern boundary of the parish, just over 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village. St Mary the Virgin parish church is at grid reference SU342982 and Buckland House at grid reference SU338981.^[3]

The soil of the parish is a rich, sandy loam on a geology of Corallian Limestone and Oxford Clay.^[4]

Toponym

Buckland's toponym evolved through spellings that include Boclande in the 10th century,^[5] Bocheland in the 11th century, Bochelanda in the 12th century, and Boclonde, Bokeland and Bikeland in the 13th century.^[4]

Manor

The earliest known record of Buckland is from AD 957 in a charter in which King Edgar the Peaceful granted Ælfheah ten hides^[5] of land at Buckland. In the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066) Ulvric Chenp held the manor of Buckland.^[4] The Domesday Book of 1086 lists Buckland as part of the lands of Bishop Osbern of Gamesfel Hundret (now called Gainfield).^[5] However, his right was not established and the case had already been sent before King William the Conqueror. The estate was assessed as eight hides and consisted of a mill, four fisheries and a dairy farm producing 10 wheys of cheese a year. Its value was given as £8.^[4]

Hugh de Buckland is recorded as the next holder and occupier of the manor, as well as another estate in Buckland.^[4][6] At the end of the 12th century William de Buckland, probably the great-grandson of Hugh de Buckland, held the manor. He died about 1215^[4] leaving three daughters as his heirs – Maud Davranches, Hawise de Boville and Joan de Ferrers. His Buckland estate passed to Maud, wife of William Davranches.^[4] In 1230 Maud's husband died. She was then married Hamo de Crevequer, and in 1245, they bestowed the manor on their daughter Agnes and any future heirs.^[4] Hamo de Crevequer died in 1262, survived by Maud and their daughters Agnes, Elenanor, Isabel and Iseult. Buckland was assigned to Iseult, wife of Nicholas de Lenham.^[4] Iseult died shortly after her father. She and Nicholas left a son, John, a minor. In 1263, wardship of Buckland was given to Eubold de Montibus who in turn have the manor to Philip Bassett until John came of age. In 1267 John de Lenham took possession of the manor.^[4]

Before 1545 the manor of Buckland was held by the De La Poles, Dukes of Suffolk.^[7] In 1545 it passed to the Yate family.^[7] In 1690 it passed by marriage to the Throckmortons of Coughton Court in Warwickshire. They went on to build much of the current estate.^[8] In the mid-1750s, Sir Robert Throckmorton had a new house built, Buckland House. The old manor house became his stables.

For the later history of the manor, see Buckland House.

Notable buildings

Buckland House

Buckland House is a large Georgian stately home and the manor house of Buckland. It is a masterpiece of Palladian architecture designed by John Wood, the Younger and built for Sir Robert Throckmorton in 1757.^[6]

Other manor houses

Buckland Manor House was the manor house of Buckland until Buckland House was built in 1757 and it was converted into stables.^[4] However, in the mid-20th century, the building again became a private house. It was built late in the 16th century and is a two storey eastward facing rectangular block, refaced in Georgian Gothic Revival style.

Barcote Manor or Park is a Tudor Revival house built in 1876 for Lady Theodora Guest. She sold it to the millionaire, William West, Director of the Great Western Railway, in 1881. It later became a boarding school, the Barcote School of Coaching, and has now been converted into flats.^[9] A previous building on the site was the home of the Holcott family from 1230 to 1586.^[4]

Carswell House is a gabled building originally built by John Southby, both JP and MP for Berkshire, in the early 17th century. Major additions were added in the Victorian period. The Southbys lived on the site from 1584 to 1892.^[4]

Churches

The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is largely a 12th-century building, with 13th-century chancel, tower and transepts and some minor Victorian additions. The main north and south nave doors are unusual in having a matching pair of Norman arches. In the chancel is a triangular locker containing the heart-burial (1575) of William Holcott of Barcote Manor. He was a staunch Protestant who only just avoided being burnt at the stake by Mary Tudor. After the Reformation, he became a zealous lay preacher, often gracing the pulpit in his "velvet bonnet and damask gown...sometimes with a gold chain". There is a number of 14th century tomb recesses, an inscribed slab with a floriated cross to Dame Felice la Blonde and a number of monuments to the Yates of Buckland Manor, including the brass of John Yate (1578). The church has a 14th-century octagonal font, a late 12th-century Crusader chest, hatchments to the Throckmortons. The Barcote Chapel is noted for its decorative mosaic (1890–92) in memory of Clara Jane, wife of William West, of Barcote Manor.^[4]

The crossing tower had a ring of six bells^[4] until 1915, when they were increased to eight by the addition of a new treble and second bell.^[10] In 1636 Roger I Purdue of Bristol cast what are now the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh bells.^[4] In 1721 Abraham II Rudhall of Gloucester cast the tenor bell. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the third bell in 1898 and the new treble and second bell in 1915, and recast the seventh bell in 1960. St Mary's has also a Sanctus bell that John Warner and Sons of Cripplegate cast in 1854.^[10]

St Mary's church is a Grade I listed building.^[11] Its parish is part of the Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield.^[12]

St George's Roman Catholic Church is a Gothic Revival building, completed in 1848^[13] for the Throckmortons of Buckland House. It has a chancel, north chapel, nave, south porch and western bellcote.^[4]

Other buildings

Buckland used to have a post office reporting to Faringdon.^[1] A photograph sold by a commercial website shows the post office in existence in 1965.^[14] The building is unow a private home called the Old Post House.^[15] The former Draper's shop, built in the 18th century, is now a house called Hedges.^[16]

In 1793 Henry Southby of Carswell House founded a free school for boys and girls in Buckland. Others contributed further funds for the school and in 1868 it had an income of £60 per annum, £40 from Henry Southby and £20 from other charities.^[7]

The Lamb Inn, Buckland

The main part of The Lamb Inn is 17th-century^[17] or 18th^[18] century, and the restaurant was added toward the end of the 20th century.^[17] In 2008 the Lamb Inn was owned by Peta and Paul Barnard who previously owned The Plough at Clanfield (the winner of a Michelin star).^[17]

In 1240 an almshouse was founded and stood in a place now called Warnfords.^[4]

Statistics

19th and 20th century

Various sources have been collated by the University of Portsmouth and others to give an insight into Buckland in the 19th and 20th centuries. The information quoted is for the civil parish of Buckland as defined at each period.

The earliest published figure for the population of Buckland is from the 1801 Census, which recorded it as 727 people. The population increased until the 1851 Census, which recorded 987 people living in the parish. Thereafter was a decline until the 1901 Census recorded Buckland's population as 665. It varied a little over the next 50 years, and the 1951 Census recorded a decline to 636. The 1971 Census recorded a rise to 597.^[19] The 2001 Census recorded the population as 553, of whom 292 lived in the village itself.^[20]

The 1831 Census recorded that 70.7% of the male Buckland population over 20 were working as labourers or servants. 13.3% were small farmers, master and skilled workers. 10.8% were employers and professionals.^[21] A more detailed breakdown shows that 54.4% of people were employed as agricultural labourers, 12.9% in retail and handicrafts as well as 8.8% as servants.^[22] (Based on 249 males aged 20 and over.)

Literature

In 1774 Henry James Pye, Poet Laureate to George III, wrote the poem Faringdon Hill. Part of it refers to Buckland:

See Buckland here her lovely scenes display,
which rude erewhile in rich disorder lay
til Taste and Genius with corrective hand
spread Culture's nicest vesture o'er the land,
and called each latent beauty to the fight;
clothed the declining slopes with pendant wood,

and o'er the sedge grown meadows poured the floor.^[5]

References

Sources and further reading

• Hamilton, NES, ed. (1868). The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland. London: JS Virtue. 
• Page, WH; Ditchfield, PH, eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire. Victoria County History. 4. assisted by John Hautenville Cope. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 453–460. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 103–106. 
• Wilson, John Marius (1870–72). Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co. 
• Wright, Andrew SN (1996) [1966]. The History of Buckland in the County of Berkshire. Oxford: Holywell Press. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buckland, Oxfordshire.

• The Church of St Mary The Virgin The United Benefice of Cherbury with Gainfield
• The Lamb At Buckland
• The Dovecote
• Pictures of and around Barcote Manor in about 1965

The District of the Vale of White Horse
Oxfordshire County Council elections District Council elections Wantage County Constituency Oxford West and Abingdon County Constituency
Towns	Abingdon Caldecott Faringdon Wantage Belmont
Large villages	Blewbury Cumnor Chilswell Cumnor Hill Dean Court Farmoor Swinford Drayton East Challow East Hendred Grove Harwell Kennington Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Kingston Bagpuize Southmoor Marcham Cothill Milton North Hinksey Botley Harcourt Hill Radley St. Helen Without Dry Sandford Shippon Shrivenham Stanford in the Vale Bow Steventon Sunningwell Bayworth Boars Hill Foxcombe Hill Sutton Courtenay Watchfield Wootton Boars Hill Henwood Lamborough Hill
Other civil parishes (component villages and hamlets)	Appleford-on-Thames Appleton-with-Eaton Appleton Eaton Ardington and Lockinge Ardington Wick East Lockinge West Ginge West Lockinge Ashbury Idstone Kingstone Winslow Baulking Besselsleigh Bourton Buckland Gainfield Buscot Charney Bassett Childrey Chilton Coleshill Compton Beauchamp Knighton Denchworth East Hanney Eaton Hastings Fernham Frilford Fyfield and Tubney Fyfield Tubney Netherton Garford Goosey Great Coxwell Hatford Little Hatford Hinton Waldrist Duxford Kingston Lisle Letcombe Bassett Letcombe Regis Little Coxwell Littleworth Longcot Longworth Lyford Pusey Shellingford South Hinksey Hinksey Hill Sparsholt Uffington Upton West Challow West Hanney West Hendred East Ginge Woolstone Wytham Seacourt
Former districts and boroughs	Municipal Borough of Abingdon Abingdon Rural District Faringdon Rural District Wantage Urban District Wantage Rural District
Former constituencies	Oxfordshire County Constituency Abingdon Borough Constituency Berkshire North or Abingdon County Constituency Abingdon County Constituency
List of Parliamentary constituencies in Oxfordshire List of places in Oxfordshire List of civil parishes in Oxfordshire