Victoria County History presentation - The Chilterns

Chilterns Commons Project Simon Townley (VCH Oxfordshire): The Victoria County History: reconstructing historic landscapes

• National local history project (founded 1899)

• To write history of every village, town and parish

• London University since 1934; counties separately funded

• 230+ main-series volumes (Big Red Books)

• Websites

Main Series (Big Red Books): • each covers a particular area

• standard ‘parish’ histories include:

• landscape and settlement • manors and landed estates • economic (agricultural and commercial/industrial) history • social history • local (manorial and parish) government • religious history • buildings

Black Bourton in west Oxfordshire VCH reconstruction of the agricultural landscape c.1760 mixed sheep-corn husbandry (arable and livestock farming) • arable • (common) meadow • (woodland) • common pasture self-contained mix of agricultural resources within a single parish

Chilterns ‘strip’ parishes

Richard Davis’ Map of Oxfordshire (1797) (detail): a typical Chilterns landscape – small hedged closes – wood and wood pasture – - dispersed settlement – a few surviving areas of common pasture, furze or scrub

an old-established landscape..... e.g. Henley in 1690s Detail from Jan Siberechts, 'Henley from the Wargrave Road'; courtesy of the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames

Rotherfield Greys parish (near Henley) – c.1840 (Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Volume 16; copyright University of London 2011)

(Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Volume 16; copyright University of London 2011)

Hernes: estate documented from early C14 as Ardens (owned merchant Henry de Ardern) 1400: dower award of 29a. in various named crofts (Inquisitions post mortem; Bodleian deeds)

Hernes: estate documented from early C14 as Ardens (owned merchant Henry de Ardern) 1400: dower award of 29a. in various named crofts (Inquisitions post mortem; Bodleian deeds)

Highmoor: ‘assarting’ (piecemeal creation of small hedged crofts from cleared woodland and wood pasture) - divided by hedges or ‘shaws’ Process continues in C18

Residual open fields until early C16: when Robert Knollys incloses 245 acres (ambitious incoming lord) • takes in hand 80 a. arable previously let to 10 people and substitutes bailiff • takes in hand house and 30 a. formerly supporting 5 tenants and leases to Robert Baret and Thomas Springold (prominent Rotherfield taxpayers)

(Domesday of Inclosures)

Pasture and Wood Pasture: surviving common land near Greys Court enclosed 1738 by Wm Stapleton – who pays compensation to copyholders (Berkshire Record Office papers)


Shepherd’s Green

Greys Green

Shepherd’s Green and Greys Green: • both recorded as commons and settlements from C17

• almost certainly reflecting broad medieval pattern

• (not always in detail: e.g. Bix..)

• NB prevalence in area of settlements focused on roads, junctions, commons – or combination of all three

• place name Rotherfield = open/cleared land where cattle graze

Greys Green: • NB strip-like character along the road •1949 green and grass verges along either side of road declared common land (and acquired by NT 1978)

commons take all shapes and sizes..... vast open areas – village greens – wood pasture roadside commons and grazing e.g. the ‘roadside waste’ often mentioned in manorial surveys and tithe awards

urban greens and commons e.g. Witney

Rotherfield Peppard parish


Rotherfield Peppard parish

Wyfold – Rotherfield commons disputes and intercommoning • Cistercian grange (Thame Abbey) at Wyfold from C12

• area of intercommoning (1263 agreement concerning 300 acres of wood stretching from Kingwood Common into Checkendon)

• boundary gradually crystallizes re tithes, common rights, and woodland

• 1452 tithe dispute: Wyfold unequivocally in Checkendon parish

(Thame abbey cartulary; legal records including feet of fines)


Survival of Commons Commons eroded by:

• lordly policy from Middle Ages to C19 – piecemeal enclosure for demesne farming, exploitation of woodland, creation of parks • piecemeal assarting by tenants or freeholders

• building encroachment (early as well as recent – traceable through fines for purpestures or encroachments in manorial records) • Parliamentary enclosure from C18 Protected by: • manorial custom regulated through manor court (or other communal body) • C20 legislation and planning policies (local and national) • e.g. Nettlebed and District Commons Preservation Act 1906 - to preserve commons as public open spaces (promoted by Robert Fleming) • 1965 Registration of Commons

Kingwood Common: • early C20 housing development

• Peppard Chest Hospital (Sanatorium)

• WWII military camp and US hospital

• later converted to (temporary) housing..

• 1906: still entitled to take undergrowth and scrub for fuel and litter, and to graze up to 50 cattle, sheep and donkeys

• registered 1965 (no formal commoners, but grazing and wood gathering continued..)

Researching the history of commons......

Warborough 1606 (Corpus Christi College Oxford: owners of rectory estate) (Detail from Langdon Map CCC MS 533, vol. I, map 22, courtesy of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Copyright Corpus Christi College, Oxford)


Warborough 1606 (Corpus Christi College Oxford: owners of rectory estate)


Ewelme 1767 (Oxfordshire History Centre)


Inclosure and Tithe Award Maps - usually in county record offices and/or TNA

(Oxfordshire History Centre)


Inclosure and Tithe Inclosure Maps (usually in county record offices and/or TNA)


Researching the history of commons...... Written documentary evidence: • manorial documents and surveys, including court rolls

• title deeds and leases

• legal records

• monastic cartularies (many in print)

• Anglo-Saxon charter-boundaries (mostly in print)


Researching the history of commons...... So where is all this stuff..........? • a lot is in print..... (e.g. county record societies...)

• secondary sources (books and articles) including e.g. Hepple and Doggett, The Chilterns; VCH

• your county record office (tithe, enclosure and other early maps; manorial records including court rolls; legal records and disputes; title deeds; church records) • The National Archives at Kew

• Online aids: local record office websites TNA website A2A

Victoria County History presentation - The Chilterns

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