Crowmarsh Gifford
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Crowmarsh Gifford is the main village in the civil parish of Crowmarsh in the English county of Oxfordshire. The rest of the parish is taken up by the hamlet of Newnham Murren, which is now merged with the village; the hamlet of Mongewell, and the village of North Stoke, a few miles to the south. Crowmarsh Gifford is on the River Thames, on the opposite bank from Wallingford, the two being connected via Wallingford Bridge.
After the Norman Conquest most of the land was granted to Walter Giffard, later Earl of Buckingham. It later came into the possession of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and remained with his heirs until passing back to the Crown. Nearby Newnham Manor was originally granted by William the Conqueror to Miles Crispin, but by 1428 was owned by Thomas Chaucer. After his death it was passed to his daughter Alice, wife of William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk. Other land was granted to Battle Abbey.
In 1139 King Stephen built the first of a series of wooden forts in Crowmarsh, in opposition to Wallingford Castle, which supported his cousin Matilda, during the civil war known as The Anarchy. These were dismantled under the terms of the Treaty of Wallingford of 1153.
In 1701 agriculturist Jethro Tull invented his revolutionary seed drill here. In 1770 nearby Mongewell Park was acquired by Shute Barrington, then Bishop of Llandaff. He was buried in Mongewell Church. Mongewell Park later became the site for Carmel College. The stately home Howbery Park in Crowmarsh was built for local MP William Seymour Blackstone - it now houses HR Wallingford Ltd. Nearby North Stoke was the home of Dame Clara Butt, who was buried here in 1936.
In 1944 a Canadian Halifax bomber with a full bomb load caught fire over Wallingford. Most of the crew bailed out, but Flying Officer Wilding and Sergeant Andrew gave their lives to steer the plane away from the town and crash it into the fields of Crowmarsh. They are commemorated by an obelisk at the junction of Wilding Road and Andrew Road in Wallingford.
Crowmarsh Gifford is currently the administative headquarters of the South Oxfordshire district, being the home of South Oxfordshire District Council.
[edit] References
- Bradbury, J., (1996), Stephen and Matilda: the Civil War of 1139-1153, Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-7509-0612-X
- Pedgley, B. and Pedgley, D., (1990), Crowmarsh – A history of Crowmarsh Gifford, Newnham Murren, Mongewell and North Stoke, Crowmarsh History Group, ISBN 0-9516305-0-4.
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