Marsh Baldon

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Coordinates: 51°41′24″N 1°11′02″W / 51.690°N 01.184°W / 51.690; -01.184
Marsh Baldon

St. Peter's parish church
Marsh Baldon

 Marsh Baldon shown within Oxfordshire
Population 289 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference SU5699
Civil parish Baldons
District South Oxfordshire
Shire county Oxfordshire
Region South East
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Oxford
Postcode district OX44
Dialling code 01865
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK Parliament Henley
Website Welcome to Marsh Baldon
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire

Marsh Baldon is village and is within the civil parish of Baldons located about 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Oxford in Oxfordshire.

Archaeology

The course of the Roman road that linked Dorchester on Thames with Alchester passes through the parish on a north-south axis, and the eastern boundary of the village green approximately follows it.[2] Roman coins and Romano-British pottery have been found in the parish.[2]

About 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village, just east of the Golden Balls roundabout on the A4074 road, is the site of a set of Roman kilns.[3] The site is now a scheduled monument.[3]

Manor

In the 11th century a Saxon called Azur held a manor of 10 hides at Marsh Baldon.[2] After the Norman conquest of England this manor was one of numerous estates granted to Miles Crispin, a Norman baron who may have been the first castellan of Wallingford Castle.[2] Marsh Baldon remained part of the Honour of Wallingford until at least 1166.[2]

Baldon House was built in the 17th century[4] or earlier as the manor house.[5] It was extended in the 18th century,[4] and wings were added in the 19th and early in the 20th centuries. Baldon House is a Grade II* listed building.[5]

Parish church

Perpendicular Gothic south window in the chancel of St Peter's, containing heraldic stained glass and re-used fragments.

The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter dates from the 12th century, with 14th and 15th century alterations.[6] St. Peter's was restored in 1890 by the architect Somers Clarke and builder J.T. Micklethwaite.[6] It is a Grade II* listed building.[7]

In the north aisle is a painting of the Annunciation by the Italian master Pompeo Batoni (1708–87) after Guido Reni.[6] It hung in the chapel of Corpus Christi College, Oxford until 1794, when Sir Christopher Willoughby had St. Peter's church remodelled and donated the painting.[6] Marsh Baldon is not the only Oxfordshire parish church to have a painting by Batoni. The parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Weston-on-the-Green, 12 miles (19 km) north of Marsh Baldon, has a Batoni altarpiece of the Ten Commandments.[8]

St. Peter's 14th century bell tower[6] has a ring of five bells,[9] the oldest of which was cast by John White of Reading[10] in about 1480.[9] Ellis I Knight of Reading[10] cast two more, including the tenor bell, in about 1628.[9] Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry[10] cast another bell in 1902 and finally the treble bell in 1954.[9] There is also a Sanctus bell that was cast in about 1760 by Robert Wells[9] of Aldbourne, Wiltshire.[10]

Economic and social history

Most of Marsh Baldon's houses and cottages are arranged around the village green, which is an irregular square shape with an area of more than 1.2 acres (0.5 ha).[11] The green is common land that was used for grazing. Until the 20th century the road through Marsh Baldon was gated at both ends of the village to prevent livestock from straying.[12]

It may be that the earliest settlement was clustered around St. Peter's church.[11][12] The large green north-east of this original settlement would subsequently have been reclaimed from marshland early in the Middle Ages and then surrounded by houses.[11][12]

School

The parish has a Church of England primary school.[13] It was founded at Toot Baldon in 1771, when Elizabeth Lane left the house and four acres of land at Herbert's Farm for the purpose.[2] The farmhouse accommodated the schoolmaster, the four acres were for a site for the school and an orchard as its endowment.[2] Elizabeth Lane's bequest funded free education for six boys and six girls; other families paid fees for the school to educate their children. By 1866 the school had 56 pupils.[2]

The present building at Marsh Baldon was erected in 1873 and a second classroom was added in 1897.[2] In 1929 the school was reorganised for junior pupils only, with children over 11 years old going to the Church of England school at Dorchester on Thames from then onwards.[2] The number of pupils enrolled in the reorganised school rose from 40 in 1929 to 52 in 1952.[2]

Amenities

The Seven Stars public house

Marsh Baldon has a public house, the Seven Stars.[14] Marsh Baldon and Toot Baldon share a cricket club.[15]

In the southeast of the parish, next to the boundary with Nuneham Courtenay, are two woods: Old Common and Bluebell Wood. The latter contains Harcourt Arboretum, which is part of the University of Oxford's Botanic Garden.

Gallery

  • Sundial at St Peter's church, 11th or 12th century

  • Porch of St Peter's church, 14th or 15th century

  • Perpendicular Gothic east window of St Peter's church, 15th century

  • Perpendicular Gothic south window of chancel in St Peter's church, 15th century. The base of the window is dropped to form sedilia

  • Perpendicular Gothic piscina of St Peter's church, 15th century

  • Jacobean pulpit of St Peter's church, 17th century

  • Monumental plaque in St Peter's church to Anna Cawley, 1701

  • War memorial in St Peter's church

  • Gateways, a late 17th or early 18th century vernacular cottage in Baldon Lane

  • Vernacular thatched cottage overlooking The Green

  • Late 17th or early 18th century vernacular cottages at 37–39 The Green

References

  1. ↑ "Area: Marsh Baldon CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 18 March 2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 Lobel 1957, pp. 30–47.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Site of Roman kilns". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 699.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Baldon House Baldon House East Wing Baldon House West Wing". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 698.
  7. ↑ "Church of St Peter". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  8. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 833.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Davies, Peter (12 October 2007). "Place: Marsh Baldon S Peter". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 16 December 2010. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Dovemaster (25 June 2010). "Bell Founders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 16 December 2010. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Rowley 1978, p. 33.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Rowley 1978, p. 35.
  13. ↑ Marsh Baldon CE Primary School
  14. ↑ The Seven Stars
  15. ↑ The Baldons Cricket Club

Sources

  • Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1957). A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5: Bullingdon Hundred. Victoria County History. pp. 30–47. 
  • Rowley, Trevor (1978). Villages in the Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. pp. 33, 35. ISBN 0-460-04166-5. 
  • Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 698–699. ISBN 0-14-071045-0. 

External links

Media related to Marsh Baldon at Wikimedia Commons

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