| Woodeaton | |
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Woodeaton
Woodeaton shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 80 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP5312 |
| Parish | Woodeaton |
| District | South Oxfordshire |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX3 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Henley |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Woodeaton or Wood Eaton is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Oxford.
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There was a Romano-Celtic temple north of where the parish church now stands, and probably a Romano-British settlement and shrine as well.[2] The shrine was used successively by Roman pagans and Christians.[3] Some notable bronze artefacts were discovered at the site and are now housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.[4]
The Old English toponym was originally Eatun. By the 12th century it had become Wood Eaton, perhaps to distinguish it from Water Eaton just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west.[3]
The Domesday Book records that by 1086 the manor of Eaton belonged to Roger d'Ivry. In about 1160 Helewis Avenel gave a virgate of land at Woodeaton to Eynsham Abbey. The Abbey had a grange and manor court house in Woodeaton, recorded in 1366, but no trace remains. The Manor remained with the abbey until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1538.[3]
At the centre of the village, by the village green, are the base and shaft of a 13th century Early English Gothic stone cross.[5]
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 the manor of Woodeaton was bought and sold by two speculators in succession. In 1544 Richard Taverner (1505-75), the translator of Taverner's Bible, bought the manor. In the 1550s he retired to the village and had a manor house built.[3] Taverner is buried in Holy Rood churchyard. The manor remained in the Taverner family until 1604. It then passed through various hands until it was bought by the Nourse family from Middleton Keynes, Buckinghamshire somewhen between 1623 and 1625. In 1774 John Nourse, the last of the male line, died and left the manor to his daughter Elizabeth Weyland, wife of John Weyland.[3]
In 1775 Weyland had the old manor house demolished and the present Woodeaton Manor built. The new house has a modest exterior but in 1791 the architect Sir John Soane enhanced its main rooms with marble chimneypieces, added an Ionic porch of Coade stone, a service wing and an ornate main hall.[6] The manor remained with the family until 1912 when Captain Mark Weyland sold house and part of the land. Most of the land is now owned by Christ Church College, Oxford.[3]
Since 1950 Woodeaton Manor house has been an Oxfordshire County Council school for children with special educational needs.[7]
The Early English Gothic Church of England parish church of the Holy Rood was built in the latter part of the 13th century. Several lancet windows and the priest's doorway in the chancel survive from this period. In the 14th century a large image of Saint Christopher was painted on the north wall inside the nave.[8] Restoration work in 2010 exposed remnants of an early 14th century crucifixion scene above the rood beam over the chancel arch.[9]
The belltower is either the 14th[5] or 15th century.[3] Unusually the tower is built on columns erected inside the nave. The tower has a ring of five bells, all of which were cast by Henry II Bagley of Chacombe,[10] Northamptonshire in 1680.[11] Holy Rood has also a Sanctus bell cast by Richard Keene of Burford[10] in 1674.[11]
Both the chancel and the nave have pews with 15th century carved wooden bench ends.[5]In the 18th century the south porch was built and the west gallery and wooden panelling inside the church were added.[3] In 2010 the church roof was restored, re-using many of the original Stonesfield slates.[12]
James Sadler, the first English balloonist, landed near the village after his first ascent from Christ Church Meadow in Oxford on 4 October 1784. He had travelled a distance of about 6 miles (10 km) and reached a height of about 3,600 feet (1,100 m).
Woodeaton is a small village with no shop or public house.
Woodeaton Wood is about 0.5 miles (800 m) southeast of the village, on the southwest side of Drun's Hill.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Woodeaton Woodeaton] at Wikimedia Commons