Parishes: Headington

HEADINGTON

In 1928 the greater part of the parish of Headington (1,529 a.) was incorporated in the City of Oxford, under the Oxford Extension Act. It became part of the civil parish of St. Giles and St. John. The remainder was dispersed among the neighbouring parishes of Elsfield (1a.), Forest Hill (46 a.), Stowood (252 a.), and Horspath (127 a.). (fn. 1) This concluded a series of changes in local government boundaries. In 1881 the area of the parish was estimated at 2,171 acres; in that year it was enlarged by the addition of land towards Shotover, including Elder Stubbs. (fn. 2) In 1891 the area was 2,257 acres. (fn. 3) In 1889 216 acres of the parish were included in the city boundaries and were annexed to St. Clement's parish in 1894. (fn. 4) The parish of Headington became an urban district in 1927, (fn. 5) but this was dissolved almost at once under the Oxford Extension Act. Its final dismemberment marked the end of a long process of encroachment of town upon country—a process which is reserved for fuller treatment under the City, together with the history of the parish after its incorporation.

The parish boundary before 1881 left the Marston road at Copse Lane, turning north and east to join Bayswater Brook but making a wide sweep beyond it to include Wick Farm. Rejoining the brook near Bayswater Bridge, the boundary turned south-east over Sand Hill to the main road from Oxford to High Wycombe and London, at a point three miles distant from the city; then south-west, skirting the quarries, crossing the old road to Shotover and continuing as far as Brasenose Farm. After turning north along the Slade, the boundary made a second southward bend to join the Horspath road near Cowley Marsh and followed it to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. From this point it turned along the line of Divinity Road to the Warneford Hospital and to Pullen's Tree; (fn. 6) and so along the footpath to the Marston road. (fn. 7)

The whole of this area once lay within the bounds of the forest of Shotover and Stowood and, until recent times, traces of common scrub and woodland could be found on the high ground to the south-east of the parish in Open Magdalen, Open Brasenose, and Brasenose Wood. Under the slopes of Shotover are the upper Coralline Beds where the famous Headington stone was quarried. (fn. 8) Beyond the quarries the sandy uplands continue at a height of some 300 ft. to the western and northern limits of the parish, where the level drops sharply to the water meadows of the Cherwell and the marshy ground bordering Bayswater Brook.

There have been some prehistoric finds in the parish (fn. 9) and more considerable evidences of Roman settlement, notably in the villa site at Wick and the kiln at Harry Bear's Bottom; the Roman road from Alchester to Dorchester crossed the eastern end of the parish. (fn. 10) The name Headington is derived from a Saxon personal name 'Hedena' (fn. 11) and the village, as the nucleus of a great royal manor, may perhaps have been more important in Saxon and Norman times than at any later period. The only surviving traces of this age are to be found in the foundations of an ancient building known to the Ordnance Survey as 'Ethelred's Palace' in Court Close, adjoining Manor Farm. The village lies a mile and a half east of Oxford between the main road to London via High Wycombe on the south and the by-pass on the north. It is now called Old Headington to distinguish it from the modern suburbs which surround it, and retains something of the appearance of a typical Oxfordshire village with many stone houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 12) It may be approached from the London road along Old High Street. The Bull Inn and No. 56 on the west side, and Nos. 33 and 69 (the Hermitage) are of 17th-century origin though much restored. In North Place there is a 17th-century rubble cottage and adjoining it are a number of 18th-century cottages. At the corner of Old High Street and Barton Lane is the Black Boy Inn, which has been entirely rebuilt; but an inn of this name existed here as early as 1667. (fn. 13)

On the south side of Church Street are a number of houses of coursed rubble. No. 10 is probably of 17th-century origin, refaced in the 18th or 19th century; it has two stories and one gabled attic dormer; inside there is some 18th-century panelling. The White Hart Inn (No. 12) is a stone building of two stories with cellar and attics and a tiled roof; it retains some of its original panelling and doors. No. 16, of the same date, has a contemporary stone fireplace. Laurel Farm, the property of Corpus Christi College, is also built of rubble with a tiled roof. The south wing is probably of 16th-century origin, but was altered in the 18th century. On the other side of the road is Mather's Farm, the property of Magdalen College, on the corner of Larkin's Lane. It is a 17th-century L-shaped rubble house of two stories and attics with a tiled roof, stone mullioned windows and a moulded flat hood on the southern front. It contains some 18th-century panelling and an original stone fireplace. Larkin's Lane has two 17th-century stone cottages (Nos. 1 and 2) with slate roofs. No. 14 Church Lane is also a 17thcentury cottage. Stoke House, north of the church, is a mainly modern house incorporating an 18thcentury cottage. The Croft, behind Church Street, has several old houses. No. 8, built in 1706, is a T-shaped house built of rubble with a slate roof. The Court is an early-17th-century house, the property of Magdalen College, with two stories, cellars, and attics. It has been extensively modernized but retains an original fireplace in the hall. Manor Farm, north-west of the church, has also been much altered, but was built in the 17th century. It is of rubble with a tiled roof and contains two original stone fireplaces and some panelling.

Of the larger houses in and around the village the oldest is the Rookery, formerly the home of Sir Michael Sadler, now used by Ruskin College as a hostel. The earliest part of the house, which is built of ashlar and rubble, may be of the 16th century or early 17th century. The south elevation has modern sash windows, but in the north wing are some original three- and four-light mullioned windows and two stone fireplaces. Headington House, approached by a drive leading from the High Street, is of three stories with an ashlar front and a Welshslate hipped roof. It was built between 1775 and 1783. (fn. 14) The Manor House, now used as a nurses' home, was built for Sir Banks Jenkinson before 1779 (fn. 15) and became the residence of the Whorwood family in 1801–2. It has an ashlar front with a central block of three stories and recessed wings of two stories. Other substantial houses of the late 18th and early 19th century include Bury Knowle, which stands in its own park at the east end of the village and is now used as a branch of the City Library, and White Lodge, a Regency villa, still used as a private house.

At the time of the Domesday survey two watermills belonged to the manor of Headington, together worth 50s. per annum. (fn. 16) One of these was probably King's Mill, which stands on the Cherwell at the point at which the parishes of Headington, St. Clement's, Marston, and Holywell converge. It was granted by name to the Canons of Missenden by Stephen and continued to appear among their properties until the 15th century; but they never seem to have had possession of it. (fn. 17) From 1166 to 1174 Osbert of Blockesham (Osbert the door-keeper) held it at a yearly rent of 50s.; (fn. 18) from 1174 to 1178 it was held jointly by his son and by Peter de Buris. (fn. 19) In 1179 it was granted to Oliver de Pluggenait, who held it until 1187. (fn. 20) From 1195 to 1231 Parnel, wife of Geoffrey de Fleccar, was in possession; in the latter year she granted it to St. John's Hospital, and it passed in due course to Magdalen. (fn. 21) In 1477 Magdalen agreed to sell the mill to Merton; but the agreement was annulled within a few years because a new mill which Merton had made stopped the flow of water at Holywell. (fn. 22) Thereafter Magdalen retained the property and the mill did not stop working until 1832. (fn. 23) Less is known of the two windmills in the parish, one of which stood near the Isolation Hospital and the other at the angle of the Old Road and Windmill Road. (fn. 24) One may probably be identified with the medieval mill described as standing in a forest clearing in 1303. (fn. 25) Both were reported to be ruinous in the 18th century, but the Windmill Road mill, recently rebuilt 'on the most modern lines', was evidently working when it was offered for sale in 1823. (fn. 26) There was also a large wayside stone cross in the parish, mentioned in 1498 in a description of the lands of Katharine Rede. (fn. 27) This description and the name High Cross Bush, which survived into the 19th century, would seem to place the cross at the corner of Windmill Road and London Road, (fn. 28) although Anthony Wood thought that it had stood at the top of Headington Hill as a parish boundary. (fn. 29)

The strategic importance of Headington Hill, from which the eastern approaches to Oxford could be commanded, made the control of the village an objective to both sides in the Civil War. It was occupied from time to time by parties of royalist horse, more particularly when the Oxford garrison expected Essex to advance from Thame; (fn. 30) a serious epidemic broke out among the troops quartered here in June 1643. (fn. 31) In 1645, when Fairfax advanced upon Oxford and made his headquarters at Marston, Headington became a look-out post for the parliamentary forces. When the royalists discovered that 'the rebels fought only with perspective glasses', (fn. 32) they made a successful sally and engaged the enemy on Headington Hill. (fn. 33) With the renewal of the siege in the following summer, Fairfax moved his headquarters to Headington. At a council of war held there on 2 May, it was decided that a major fortress should be built on Headington Hill to hold 3,000 men, with a line of subsidiary fortresses to encircle the king's position at St. Clement's. (fn. 34) Fairfax ordered his officers to pay for the troops' quarters at Headington, the army having for some time past lived in free quarters to the utter undoing of the inhabitants. (fn. 35) The village may on the other hand have derived some profit from the free market which Fairfax proclaimed there in the hope of deflecting country produce which would otherwise have been taken to Oxford to relieve the garrison. (fn. 36) Four or five cartloads of provisions taken to the Headington market were captured there by a royalist party of horse in 1645. (fn. 37)

The two medieval hamlets within the parish were Barton and Wick, both lying north-east of the main village. In the earliest record of Barton (1246) it is already called Old Barton; (fn. 38) in 1279 it had eleven peasant households. (fn. 39) In the 15th and 16th centuries it was much frequented by masons and quarrymen. (fn. 40)

Two 17th-century cottages, built of rubble, have survived, as well as part of a larger house known as the Manor House, a two-story building of ashlar dating from the 17th century, with moulded eaves and cornice and three original attic dormers with gables. The west side was refronted in the late 18th century. Inside is a late-17th-century staircase. The modern Fox Inn has a 17th-century outhouse. (fn. 41) This group of houses is now separated from Headington village by the northern by-pass and submerged by a post-war housing estate. Wick lies beyond the brook. Even in 1279 it appears that this hamlet consisted of one large farm, for one tenant then held 4½ virgates, and there were in addition only three cottages. (fn. 42) In Elizabeth I's reign the farm was estimated at 5 virgates and was described in the 17th century as the largest in the parish (fn. 43) after the manor farm. The tenants were Richard Lyde or Joyner of Cuddesdon and his son Francis (1595–1614). (fn. 44) Unton Croke of Marston held it from 1665, and Sir William Walter of Sarsden from 1685. (fn. 45) Later owners included the families of Acton, Stebbings, Bishop, and Morrell. (fn. 46) The farm-house dates from the 17th century but was largely rebuilt about 1840 after a severe fire. In the farmyard is an ancient well with a stone canopy and a hooded garden gate, and a handsome pair of gate piers with moulded caps are contemporary with the oldest part of the house. (fn. 47)

Although for manorial purposes Wick continued as a separate unit until the 19th century, electing its own tithing man, it was superseded in the 17th century by the new settlement which had grown up round the quarries; (fn. 48) 18th-century vicars unhesitatingly state that there were two hamlets in the parish and that these were Barton and Quarry. (fn. 49) It is possible that the aula and cottages belonging to the hereditary foresters of Shotover in the 13th century were situated here; (fn. 50) but no connexion can be traced between the Mimekans' estate and the cottages which grew up for the use of the quarry workers in the 17th century. Quarry Farm, now demolished, was an L-shaped house of two stories with a red-tiled roof, which dated from this period. It had blocked stone mullioned windows on the north and west. (fn. 51) The village has some good ashlar cottages of the 18th and early 19th centuries with massive porches of the same material. They were built at irregular levels on the site of disused mounds and diggings. (fn. 52) The Chequers Inn was in existence in 1805, when Catherine Mather's endowed school opened there; it was extensively altered in 1930. (fn. 53) The 'Crown and Thistle' is itself modern but stands on the site of Titup Hall, an inn which served the needs of travellers using the old road to London over Shotover Hill. Until the end of the 18th century, when it was superseded by the turnpike road through Headington, this was the main road from Oxford to London. The name 'Titup' indicates that at this point the road was sufficiently level for horsemen to canter. (fn. 54) A mounting-stone, nearer to Shotover, was given by Dr. Bracegirdle, a physician of Oxford, before 1631, 'out of a good intent to ease passengers there to mount their horses'. (fn. 55) In 1850 Quarry hamlet was made into a separate ecclesiastical parish. (fn. 56) Although the census of the following year shows that twelve inhabitants were still employed as masons and brick-makers, (fn. 57) the quarries were already in decline; nevertheless the hamlet began to make rapid growth as a residential suburb of Oxford.

The modern suburb of New Headington had its origin in the rectangle made by London Road, Windmill Road, Old Road, and Gipsy Lane, although it has now outgrown these boundaries. Apart from the Britannia Inn, on the corner of Lime Walk, which is mentioned in 1828 (fn. 58) and appears to be on the site of an older inn marked as the 'White House' on Davis's map of 1797, there was little or no building in this area before 1860 (fn. 59) and expansion was not rapid until the present century, when Highfield Farm was sold for building sites. In 1910 a new ecclesiastical parish was formed, (fn. 60) taking the name of Highfield, and shortly after its incorporation in the city, this parish had a population (3,927) exceeding that of Headington Quarry (3,796) and of Old Headington (3,295). (fn. 61) The progress of urbanization of the whole area covered by the three ecclesiastical parishes can best be indicated by the census figures: 1801, 669; 1841, 1,668; 1881, 2,766; 1911, 4,488, and 1921, 5,328.

A characteristic feature of the development of the area was the number of public institutions built in the parish. Local stone was used for Headington Workhouse, now a hospital and known as The Laurels. It was built in 1858 for the Headington Poor Law Union (established in 1834) to accommodate 250 inmates. (fn. 62) In 1813, 10 acres of land were purchased for the erection of a lunatic asylum attached to the Radcliffe Infirmary, opened in 1826. Through the benevolence of Dr. S. Warneford, the philanthropic Rector of Bourton-on-the-Hill (Glos.), the asylum was endowed in order to receive patients 'able to pay a moderate fee but too straitened to bear the expense of suitable provision'. (fn. 63) It was managed by an independent body of governors; in 1841 there were 48 patients. (fn. 64) This was the first of many foundations to choose the parish of Headington as a healthy and convenient site for the treatment of patients both from Oxfordshire and from more distant counties. The Wingfield Convalescent Home was opened in connexion with the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1876, transformed into an Orthopaedic Hospital when in military hands in 1917, and subsequently rebuilt through the generosity of Lord Nuffield and renamed the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital. (fn. 65) The Isolation Hospital, now used as a school for defective children, was built at the corner of the road to Stanton St. John in 1906. (fn. 66) The Sunnyside Convalescent Home and the Osler Pavilion for the treatment of tuberculosis were built on the Manor House estate as branches of the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1928. (fn. 67)

Manor.

The manor of HEADINGTON was part of the Saxon royal demesne and remained in the king's hands after the Conquest. Ethelred's charter to St. Frideswide's in 1004 was witnessed 'in villa regia quae vocatur Hedindona', (fn. 68) and there is a strong tradition that a royal residence of some kind existed there before the Conquest. Wood speaks of a nursery for the royal children; (fn. 69) or perhaps it was a hunting lodge. Whatever its purpose, it seems to have fallen into disuse when Henry I made Woodstock the favourite royal residence in the county, and in his daughter's time the manor was alienated from the Crown. The grant to Hugh de Pluggenait, (fn. 70) one of Maud's Breton followers, cannot have been later than 1142, when Oxford fell into Stephen's hands. Its terms are not known, but what Hugh de Pluggenait received was valued at £42 10s., compared with the Domesday valuation of £60. (fn. 71) In the intervening period fisheries and watermeadows on the Thames and Cherwell had been separated from the manor and given to the religious houses of Oxford; but the manor remained an important administrative unit extending far beyond the parish of Headington. For this reason estimates of its value, acreage or population in the Middle Ages afford unreliable evidence for the parish itself.

Hugh de Pluggenait was a generous benefactor to St. Frideswide's, as well he might be, since one of his Breton relatives, staying with him at Headington at Eastertide, had sight, hearing, and the use of his right arm miraculously restored at the shrine of the saint. (fn. 72) The jury of 1279 afterwards said that Hugh de Pluggenait held the manor for his life only, (fn. 73) but two of his sons appear to have had some interest in it: Josceus, who assented to some of his father's grants and confirmed a conveyance, (fn. 74) and Alan, whose widow Clemence later received the rent paid to the Exchequer by way of dower. (fn. 75) After the death of Hugh de Pluggenait in 1201, (fn. 76) the manor was held for short periods by Hugh de Neville and by Gilbert Bassett at the old valuation of £42 10s., (fn. 77) but in 1203 it was granted to Thomas Bassett and his heirs at an annual rent of £20. (fn. 78) His daughter Philippa, the widowed Countess of Warwick, succeeded to his estates in 1220; she afterwards displeased the king by her second marriage to Richard Siward, a man warlike from his youth up, twice exiled for his share in the baronial wars. (fn. 79) His private war with Richard, Earl of Cornwall, extended to their Oxfordshire estates. In 1233 the demesne crops at Headington were seized at the king's order by Earl Richard, who was authorized in the following year to carry off the Headington cottages as a reprisal for the burning of his Beckley tenants' houses by Richard Siward. (fn. 80) In 1265 at the death of Philippa, who had divorced Richard Siward but had not remarried, (fn. 81) her estates were divided between the three coheirs of the younger sister Alice, who had married John Biset. They were Margaret, wife of John de Riviers, Ela, wife of John of Wootton, and Isabel, the youngest daughter. Margaret's share descended to her eldest son John, but Isabel's husband Hugh de Plescy obtained it by an exchange of manors. (fn. 82) He also bought out the interest of Ela on condition that the first mowing of the demesne meadows should be appropriated to the maintenance of one of his nephews, William of Wootton, in the schools of Oxford. (fn. 83)

Hugh de Plescy, who thus became sole lord of the manor, quarrelled with his ecclesiastical neighbours, (fn. 84) was imprisoned for taking the king's venison under cover of a licence to hunt beasts of the chase, (fn. 85) and oppressed his tenants by attempting to enforce uncustomary labour services. (fn. 86) After the death of his wife in 1280, he surrendered the manor to the Crown in exchange for £200, and the manor of Long Compton (Warws.). (fn. 87) In addition to finding the rent of £20, he had fulfilled his knight service in person, following the king for 40 days at his own charges and afterwards, if required, at the king's expense. (fn. 88) For the following 30 years the manor was administered by royal bailiffs. (fn. 89) In 1299 it had been granted to Queen Margaret as part of her dowry and thereafter its rent frequently, though not invariably, formed part of the revenues of the queens of England. (fn. 90) When in 1317 the manor was again alienated, the grant to Sir Richard Damory, constable of Oxford castle and sheriff, stated that the rent formerly paid would be discovered by reference to the Exchequer. (fn. 91) Whether by accident or design, the Exchequer fixed the rent at £81, a charge which the manor was quite unable to sustain; for an extent of 1281 showed that the annual yield, exclusive of the profits of jurisdiction, amounted to £47 8s. 5½d. (fn. 92) On the death of the elder Sir Richard Damory in 1330, his widow Margaret held a third part of the manor in dower, but was excused her share of the rent in consideration of her husband's good services to the king. (fn. 93) Her son, the younger Sir Richard, was answerable for the remaining two-thirds, but £40 was excused to enable him to maintain the dignity of knighthood, (fn. 94) and the remaining £14 was cancelled in 1340 on condition that £27 should be paid on the death of Margaret and the full rent on the death of Sir Richard. (fn. 95) By 1354, however, Sir Richard's debts to the Crown amounted to £2,000, and he was required to surrender his Oxfordshire estates to Sir John Chandos, receiving them back as a life-tenant only. (fn. 96) In 1362 the Exchequer was instructed to stay its demands upon Sir Richard, who had crossed to Normandy on the king's service. (fn. 97) On his death in 1375 the manor passed to the heirs of Sir John Chandos, (fn. 98) who also defaulted in the payment of their rent. In 1379, 'for a fit cause laid before the Council', the Exchequer was restrained from laying a distress upon the Headington tenants, (fn. 99) and in 1399 the manor was deemed to have lapsed to the Crown through non-payment of rent. (fn. 100)

When in the same year the manor was regranted to William Willicotes of North Leigh, the rent was fixed at £40. (fn. 101) His two sons, who in turn inherited the Headington property, were both killed in the French wars. (fn. 102) The widow of the younger son held the manor in dower until 1466, when it passed to the coheiresses of William Willicote's youngest daughter, Elizabeth Palmer and Philippa Catesby. (fn. 103) The former surrendered her rights to the son of the latter, the William Catesby who was attainted of treason in the first parliament of Henry VII. Three years earlier, however, he had exchanged the manor of Headington with John Brome, a kinsman presumably of Robert Brome (or Browne) of Holton, (fn. 104) for properties in Ipwell and Walcote. (fn. 105) In the possession of the Bromes, the manor followed the same descent as Holton, which remained the principal seat of the family. After the marriage of Ursula Brome to Sir Thomas Whorwood of Sandwell (Staffs.), the Whorwoods resided for a time at Headington, living at Mason's Farm, (fn. 106) for the medieval manor-house no longer existed. Royal bailiffs in the 13th and 14th centuries had been charged with repairs to the 'aula'; (fn. 107) we know that it was called Westcourte to distinguish it from the Mimekans' forest lodge, and that tolls were charged for carts driven through its gates to the village; (fn. 108) but it appears to have fallen into decay after the beginning of the 15th century when the Willicotes and Bromes had no need of it.

Sir Thomas Whorwood's numerous Chancery suits show him to have been an aggressive and truculent relative, neighbour, and landlord. (fn. 109) He was involved in litigation with the Exchequer, which questioned the validity of his title to the Brome estates on his father-in-law's death in 1613. (fn. 110) The rent paid to the Exchequer for the manor of Headington was still the £40 fixed in 1399; yet the annual receipts from Holton and Headington together were now estimated at £1,000, a striking example of the Crown's dilemma in an age of sharply rising prices. The Exchequer failed to make good its case for a resumption of Crown land and the Whorwood family remained in possession until the 19th century. When the only son of Brome Whorwood and his wife Jane (fn. 111) was drowned in 1657, (fn. 112) the legitimate line failed; but a natural son Thomas was adopted as his father's heir and took the name. (fn. 113) In 1800, shortly after Henry Mayne Whorwood had succeeded to heavily encumbered estates on coming of age, the manors of Holton and Headington were offered for sale. (fn. 114) Holton was sold to Elisha Biscoe but, whether for lack of a purchaser or for other reasons, the sale of Headington did not go forward and the Whorwoods came into residence at the Manor House in 1801 or 1802. (fn. 115) Henry Mayne Whorwood died in 1806 and was survived by twin brothers. The elder, Thomas Henry Whorwood, vicar of the parish, was heir-atlaw and succeeded as lord of the manor, but the estates were left to the younger, William Henry Whorwood, a captain in the Royal Navy, who found it necessary to sell some of the property in 1813. (fn. 116) Both brothers died in 1835 and the remainder of the estate was offered for sale by the heir, the Revd. T. H. Whorwood, in 30 lots. (fn. 117) The manorial rights were sold with the manor farm to the trustees of William Peppercorn in 1849. (fn. 118) The manor-house was bought by John Matthews, solicitor, in or before 1847; it had previously been let to Mrs. Butler and used as a ladies' seminary. (fn. 119) Mrs. Matthews sold the house in 1858 for £4,900 to E. W. Taylor of Kerston Hall (Northants.), from whose family Col. James Hoole, C.M.G., purchased it in 1895. In 1906 Col. Hoole also bought the manorial rights and the manor farm from the heirs of William Peppercorn. The reunited properties were purchased from Francis William Hoole in 1917 by the trustees of the Radcliffe Infirmary as a site for future development. (fn. 120)

Economic and Social History.

As tenants in ancient demesne the men of Headington could collectively refer disputes with their lord to the arbitrament of the king's justices. They took advantage of this privilege in 1277, when Hugh de Plescy, in common with many landlords in the later 13th century, was attempting to enforce uncustomary services. The composition then made carried the authority of the courts and was valued for 200 years as a local charter of liberties; it was confirmed in 1297, 1355, 1358, when additional clauses were added, 1392, 1400, and 1464. (fn. 121) The survival of copies of the composition in the Boarstall Cartulary, and in the archives of Magdalen and New College further testifies to the importance which was attached to it. (fn. 122) To this composition we owe most of our knowledge of the medieval economy of Headington.

The composition fixed the money rents at 10s., 8s., and 5s. a virgate, according to custom. The services due were fixed at the rate of sixteen days for 1 virgate and proportionately less for the smaller holdings. These rents and services conform closely to the actual conditions of tenure described in the nearly contemporary Hundred Rolls survey of 1279. (fn. 123) The 16 days' work was distributed as follows: 2 days' ploughing and harrowing for the winter crop; 2 days' ploughing and harrowing for the spring sowing; 1 day's hoeing in early summer and 1 day's stirring of the fallow between hay-time and harvest. Two days' work was required for mowing; one for turning and one for carrying the hay to the lords' barns and stacking it. For this service a payment of 5s. was required. At harvest time each tenant was bound to reap 1 acre of corn at his own charge and 4 more days' reaping were done at the lords' expense. On one of these days the men had to bring their whole household, leaving at home only the wife and someone to tend the cattle; the lord provided dinner for all and the men stayed to supper. In return for their harvest work the men enjoyed the right to pasture their beasts in the demesne pastures. On the sixteenth day they gathered nuts in Stow Wood.

The composition also fixed the rate of relief and merchet. A tenant entering upon possession of a customary holding paid twice the first year's rent with an additional bonus of not more than 4s. No merchet was payable for tenants' daughters married within the manor, but 2s. was due for those married outside in compensation for the chattels taken with them. No mention is made in the composition of heriot, though the court rolls give examples of the payment of the best beast at a tenant's death. View of frankpledge was to be held not more than once a year, when tenants were to be amerced only by their peers and in proportion to their offences. When the king tallaged his demesne the men were to be quit on payment of 5 marks to the lord. In the confirmation of 1358 the men were exempted from the unpopular manorial offices of bailiff, reeve, reaper, and clerk of accounts. The last recorded confirmation of the composition was in 1464; by this date labour services had lost their significance. The demesne had in 1281 consisted of 400 acres of arable besides meadow and pasture; a compact holding of 62 acres lay on either side of the Court, but the rest was dispersed throughout the common fields. (fn. 124) In 1401, however, William Willicotes had leased almost the whole of it to St. John's Hospital, (fn. 125) and no longer required labour services. Whether the traditional right of access to the courts at Westminster continued to be of any value to the tenants in the next century is uncertain. We know that in the reign of James I the tenants brought a collective action against Sir Thomas Whorwood for breaches of manorial custom, but the case has not yet been traced. (fn. 126)

The fact that the composition had been confirmed (1358) without substantial revision only a few years after the Black Death suggests that Headington had not been so severely affected by the plague as some of the neighbouring parishes. A period of decline seems to have come a century later in Headington. In 1442 and 1444 half the taxation due from the parish was remitted and in 1451 the vicarages of Headington and Marston were united, both on grounds of special poverty. (fn. 127) There is no evidence to throw light upon the process of recovery, but that Headington had lost ground in comparison with Marston is suggested by a customary payment in the reign of Elizabeth I to which Headington contributed 4s. 4d., and Marston 5s. 8d. (fn. 128) The size of the village at this date cannot be estimated. The hearth tax returns of 1665 give 36 taxpayers and 6 persons discharged by poverty, (fn. 129) the Compton Census records 237 churchgoers in 1676, and the earliest of the 18thcentury vicars' estimates gives 75 families. (fn. 130)

In the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I the court rolls begin to be a useful source of information. (fn. 131) The Court Baron was concerned with the business arising from the transference of copyhold tenures; tenants in ancient demesne could initiate proceedings in respect of their lands in the court and could be penalized for taking action in other courts. (fn. 132) The court leet and view of frankpledge concerned themselves with many other affairs; they enforced the assize of bread and ale and the Tudor legislation concerning unlawful games, inns and alehouses, vagabonds, unlicensed cottages, housing of inmates, and maintenance of highways. They dealt with cases of assault, petty theft, and disturbance of the peace. The villagers would not restrict their exercise to the practice of archery as the Statute required, but obstinately preferred 'illoyal games': ball games in the time of Henry VII and the bowling alley in Elizabeth I's reign. It is often difficult to say whether the court was in fact administering the royal justice or providing the machinery whereby a largely selfgoverning community could regulate its own affairs. It is certainly in this latter capacity that the court did its most important work, enforcing penalties for failure to scour ditches or to lay open illegal enclosures; for ploughing up the verges of highways and removing landmarks; above all for infringement of the stringent pasture restrictions. From 1562 to 1728 these matters were often regulated by ordinaciones or by-laws.

A study of the by-laws suggests that shortage of pasture was the limiting factor in the agricultural system. The land afforded little natural meadow or pasture save where the high ground drops sharply to the Brook towards Wick Farm and where the parish boundary for a short distance abuts upon the road from St. Clement's to Marston. In the former area were the pastures of Wick Marsh and Beyondthe-Brook; in the latter Hedley, Lammas Close, College Leys and, pleasantest of all Headington fieldnames, Shiver-de-Sham. (fn. 133) Allotments of meadowland beyond the Cherwell which had once belonged to the manor, but not to the parish, were still attached to some properties. (fn. 134) Headington tenants enjoyed free pasture rights in Shotover and Stow Wood for their cattle and pigs; we hear of their customary pastures in Bastard's Grove near Stowford and 'Bythendthehaye' in Elsfield. When Shotover was disafforested in the reign of Charles II, Headington was compensated by the allotment of 250 acres in Quarry Coppice. (fn. 135) The stubble of the cornfields made an essential contribution to the pasture system; it was therefore necessary to determine by regulation the day, and sometimes even the hour, at which the fields could be laid open to horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, to stint their numbers and measure their tethering ropes.

The arable appears to have been cultivated on a three-field system from the 13th to the 19th century. There is much irregularity in the distribution of the fields, attributable no doubt in part to the gradual cultivation of forest clearings. The three main fields were South Field, running down to St. Bartholomew's and Cowley; Brockholes, west of the village, sloping down towards the Cherwell; and Quarry Field lying east and south-east of the village towards the forest boundary. (fn. 136) To what extent the hamlets of Barton and Wick had their own fields is uncertain. Around the village and its hamlets were the usual small closes and orchards; but apart from them there is no evidence of early inclosure. The absence of rich pasture and the relatively poor quality of much of the arable gave little incentive to follow the example of Marston, (fn. 137) and in Headington initiative and enterprise were concentrated upon the exploitation of the quarries.

The earliest documentary evidence of the use of Headington stone (fn. 138) is in the New College building accounts of 1396–7. (fn. 139) From the beginning of the 15th until the middle of the 18th century the Headington quarries were the chief source of supply for Oxford buildings. There are references to their use at Queen's (1398–9), Oriel (1410–11), All Souls (1438–43), Merton (fn. 140) (1448–50), Magdalen (1498–9), and at Wolsey's foundation in 1525. The building activity of the next century created a still heavier demand. Headington stone was used at Wadham (1610–13), the Schools quadrangle (1612–24), Merton (1608–10), St. John's (1634), the Botanic garden (1632), the Sheldonian (1664–9), and the Old Ashmolean (1679–83). The demand was maintained in the early 18th century for the Clarendon Building (1712), All Saints' church (1707–8), the Peckwater Quadrangle and Library at Christ Church (1706–16), Queen's (1713–21), the new building at Magdalen (1733), the Hawksmoor building at All Souls (1735– 45), and the lower part of the Radcliffe Camera (1737–47). Although Oxford supplied the chief market for Headington stone, there are examples of its use farther afield; at Eton in the 15th century, and at Burcot, (fn. 141) Thame, and Windsor in the 16th century. (fn. 142) One of the reasons given for the Act of 1624 for making the Thames navigable as far as Oxford was the need for cheap transport for carrying Headington stone to London. (fn. 143)

Little is known of the masons, quarrymen, and labourers or of their organization. In 1450 John Beclee, a mason of Headington, was the lessee of Calcot Farm and of the quarry which belonged to it, the property of St. John's Hospital and afterwards of Magdalen, (fn. 144) and in 1472 another mason, William Atkyns, was their tenant. (fn. 145) William Orchard, the master mason responsible for much of Waynflete's building both at Magdalen and at Eton, was also a tenant of the Magdalen quarry; but he leased other pits on his own account from the lord of the manor. (fn. 146) He lived at Barton in 'a lyttel house with an orchard called the Pale and three acres of land', the property of Magdalen (? now Barton End), and was clearly a man of substance, styled armiger in the court rolls. His son John was an Oxford B.C.L. In connexion with a dispute arising from the disposal of his father's property, John Orchard came to the Headington quarries and called all the men working 'in diverse men's quarries together and they all sat down upon a green bank and did drink a penny worth of ale'. (fn. 147) This suggests something of a working community and it may be that the fourteen or more wage-earners assessed in 'gains' in the Subsidy Roll of 1524 were quarry labourers. (fn. 148) But it is probable that their numbers fluctuated with the demand for stone, and there is no evidence of any permanent settlement round the quarries until the early years of the 17th century. The beginning of the Quarry hamlet can be fairly closely dated, for in 1630 it was alleged that cottages had been built without licence in the last fifteen years to house 'lewd and disorderly persons', who despoiled the forest of brushwood, disturbed the king's game with their dogs, and frequented unlicensed ale-houses. (fn. 149) In their defence it was stated that the cottages had been built for labourers, quarriers, and tile-makers. 'The pitts and quarries were very useful and necessary to the University and Colleges of Oxford and the houses and cottages were useful and necessary to the labourers, without whom the stone could not be digged.'

The quarries were at this time at the height of their prosperity. At the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign Christ Church, Magdalen, Corpus Christi, All Souls, Oriel, Queen's, Balliol, Lincoln, and Brasenose were in possession of quarries. (fn. 150) Others were occupied by working masons. When Sir Thomas Whorwood succeeded to the Brome estates, he found that little of the profit derived from the quarries accrued to the lord of the manor. A ruling was given in the manorial court that none of the colleges held their pits by freehold tenure; all were copyholders. (fn. 151) An attempt was made to evict some of the smaller men or to raise their rents. (fn. 152) New pits were dug to the east of the old workings for direct exploitation by Sir Thomas Whorwood, who was said to have removed 500–600 cartloads of stone from them by 1630. The Exchequer, equally anxious that the quarries should yield some revenue to the Crown, tried to prove that the new pits were beyond the parish boundary and within the confines of the forest. (fn. 153) Much inconclusive and conflicting evidence on this point was given to the commissioners appointed to inquire into it and the immediate outcome is not known. But from an application for a licence to dig stone made to the Crown by the Dean of Christ Church in 1637 it appears that some pits were in Quarry Coppice, within the forest boundary, but that the adjoining 'great quarry there commonly called Heddington quarry' was outside. (fn. 154) It is notable that the definition of the boundary line separating the parish of Headington from Quarry Coppice was still a matter of difficulty to the Inclosure Commissioners in the 19th century. (fn. 155)

The Headington quarries produced two kinds of stone; the first is the hardstone which has proved to be of great durability and can be seen to advantage in New College bell tower (1396–7) and has been much used for plinth courses, 'one of the greatest delights of Oxford buildings'; (fn. 156) the second is the freestone which, as Plot says, has provided 'the gross of our buildings'. Writing in 1677, when the reputation of Headington freestone was still untarnished, Plot gives it high praise. 'The Quarry of Headington, scarce two miles from Oxford, supplies us continually with a good sort of stone . . . it cuts very soft and easie, and is worked accordingly for all sorts of building.' (fn. 157) But it has since shown itself to be fatally susceptible to atmospheric conditions. In the present century much of it has been replaced with Clipsham or Portland stone. Where there has been no refacing the characteristic blistering and crumbling of the Headington freestone can still be seen, as, for example, in the Christ Church Library. Experience of its uncertain wearing qualities, together with the exhaustion of the better workings, account for the decline of the industry in the late 18th century. In the 19th century freestone was still used locally, mainly for interior work; the hardstone was used for road curbs until recent times.

The supply of stone created a close link with the university, for whose members Headington had long been and long remained a favourite resort. Scholars of Oxford were from time to time engaged in disorders there; a monk of Durham College had been fined for obstructing the constable in the course of his duties in the reign of Henry VII. (fn. 158) The University bedel was fined for proceeding against a Headington tenant without the consent of his lord. (fn. 159) From the diaries of Wood and Hearne we obtain a fuller picture. Wood describes his walk from the top of Headington Hill to the village in the exceptionally mild December of 1681 when the rye was already green. (fn. 160) His frequent objective was 'Joan's', a favourite and disreputable ale-house which provided the name and setting for Dr. William King's academic witticism The Tragi-Comedy of Joan of Hedington. 'The place for the performance of the action is comprehended in the small vicinage of Hedington, in which everybody sees every Body, and every Body knows every Thing'; and its leading character is 'a country woman and an honest parishioner of Hedington of a calling which though discommendable yet has been made use of in all ages.' (fn. 161) Wood speaks also of Widow Coxe's ale-house, (fn. 162) and Hearne refers respectfully to Mother Gurdon's. (fn. 163) In 1727 undergraduates who had tried to tie a cat to the bull's tail at a bull-baiting and had been beaten off by the villagers retaliated by committing 'such strange disorders as have hardly been heard of'. Windows were smashed, houses broken into, householders roughly handled; only the timely arrival of the proctors saved the windows of the church. (fn. 164) In the following year the village suffered its second serious fire within three years. It began in a brew-house below the church on the right side and went down the street that runs southwards taking all in its way except about two houses which were stone buildings, whereas the others were old thatched buildings. (fn. 165)

At the end of the 18th century migration from the city began to change the face of village life. We occasionally hear of Oxford citizens living at Headington at a much earlier date; Harman Evans, for example, a printer, had a house there in 1551, (fn. 166) and Robert Pawling, a mercer, was lessee of Mather's farm in the 1680's. (fn. 167) Cottagers who had moved from Oxford to Headington in 1687–8 said they had done so because they could live more cheaply outside the city, (fn. 168) but generally it was the prosperous tradesmen who bought property in the parish and built themselves substantial stone houses. In or about 1660 William Finch, for example, converted a 16th-century dwelling previously in peasant occupation, and the house, later known as the Rookery, remained in his family until 1863. (fn. 169) William Jackson, the printer and proprietor of Jackson's Oxford Journal, built Headington House on a site purchased from the Whorwoods in 1775 and previously known as Plants. On his death in 1793 the property passed to Mary Jones, the daughter of an Oxford fishmonger, who left it to her niece, the wife of Edward Latimer, a wine merchant. The Latimers lived at Headington House until 1846. (fn. 170)

The Inclosure Award, made in 1804, shows that the major landowners, apart from the Whorwoods and Magdalen College, were Mary Jones, William Finch, and Joseph Locke, (fn. 171) a goldsmith and banker of High St., Oxford, whose newly inclosed allotment blocked the footpath from Quarry hamlet to the church and gave rise to the only vigorous resistance to the inclosure. (fn. 172) There was some feeling that the inclosure was the work of 'purse-proud sons of wealth' and that the award paid undue respect to 'the wealthy citizens' money-bags'. (fn. 173) It may in fact have been the city element which pressed for inclosure. At this date even marginal land could yield a profit, but it is probable that building leases offered a more attractive alternative. Certainly the Whorwoods had plans for developing the manor-house estate and employed a London architect to make a plan of 'a crescent and detached villas in the best style'. (fn. 174) In spite of the rapid building developments (fn. 175) which in time transformed Headington from a country parish to a suburb of Oxford, farming continued to be the main occupation of the parish for many years after inclosure. In 1883 Headington was still described as an agricultural parish, (fn. 176) raising wheat and barley, and in 1891 there were still five farms which had not yet been broken up for building sites or market gardens. (fn. 177) Typically rural traditions and pursuits have been retained until the present century, more particularly in Headington Quarry. May Day celebrations, Whitsuntide processions, and a mumming play at Christmas (a local version of St. George and the Turkish Knight) were regular features of the year, and Headington morris-dancing is still renowned. Two dances, 'Rigs of Marlowe' and 'BeanSetting', originated there and other local favourites were collected and published in The Esperance Morris Book in 1910. (fn. 178)

Churches.

The first record of the church of St. Andrew is Henry I's charter to the canons of St. Frideswide in 1122 granting them a chapel at Headington; (fn. 179) but this charter may have been by way of confirmation, for the older foundation of St. Frideswide seems to have enjoyed tithes of the manor in Ethelred's time. (fn. 180) The Austin Canons could claim exemption from episcopal control only in parishes already exempt at the date of the appropriation; since the chapel given by Henry I was to be free of all custom to the bishop and archdeacon, the earlier existence of the Headington peculiar must be assumed. In 1232, when the claim to exemption was challenged by the archdeacon and investigated by papal commissioners, it was stated to have been in existence from very early times and the commissioners upheld its validity. (fn. 181) Probably the origin of the peculiar is to be sought in an extra-parochial chapel attached to the residence of the Saxon kings. Its end is as obscure as its beginning. The parish was excluded from visitations of the Cuddesdon deanery as late as 1540, (fn. 182) yet in Elizabeth I's reign it was as a matter of course subject to the jurisdiction of bishop and archdeacon. (fn. 183) It seems that in the course of the 16th-century ecclesiastical changes the medieval claim to exemption was allowed to lapse.

After its appropriation the parish was at first served by a chaplain; but under pressure from Bishop Hugh of Lincoln a vicarage was ordained after the Council of Oxford in 1222. The vicar's portion was as meagre as it could be. He had no share of the glebe, and tithes of lambs and cheese from the demesne were withheld. His emoluments, including the offerings of the altar and a house, were valued at 5 marks, a quarter of the estimated value of the living. (fn. 184) The vicarage survived until the 15th century. In 1451 St. Frideswide's were authorized to unite the vicarages of Headington and Marston, now considered to be too poor to support two priests. (fn. 185) In 1486 both parishes were served by a single curate and this was still the position in 1526. (fn. 186) The dissolution of St. Frideswide's did nothing to improve the position. The appropriation passed in quick succession to Cardinal College, Henry VIII's College, and to Christ Church, (fn. 187) who held it in 1535 when the rectories of Headington and Marston were worth £12 and the vicarage of Headington £3. (fn. 188) In 1545 both rectory and vicarage were sold to a group of London merchants from whom they were purchased by John Brome, the lord of the manor, in 1547. (fn. 189) It was afterwards stated that the reinstitution of a vicarage was an essential condition of the sale; but the Bromes did nothing to implement any such undertaking. They continued to appoint a curate for Headington, though he was no longer responsible for Marston also. In Laud's time, an action for the restoration of the vicarage was successfully brought against Dame Ursula Whorwood by the curate, John Horne, a Fellow of Oriel. (fn. 190) Even after the recognition of his legal title to the lesser tithes, the vicar experienced difficulty in collecting them; in 1646 he brought an action for the recovery of tithes of furze and gorse, once considered as the perquisite of the poor, but now saleable in the Oxford market. (fn. 191) After Horne's time the vicarage again lapsed; but in 1680 it was permanently restored. A terrier of 1685 confirmed that the vicar had no share of the glebe, but he could now claim tithes of garden and orchard produce, of lambs, pigs, and calves from the demesne as well as the rest of the parish. For cattle a rate of composition was necessary; otherwise tithe could be collected in money or in kind at the discretion of the vicar. (fn. 192)

It might be supposed that the parish would subsequently benefit from the services of a resident vicar; but this was not the case. The 18th-century vicars were for the most part fellows of colleges, living in Oxford, and sometimes appointing curates to relieve them of their parish duties. The vicarage house, consisting of two cottages with an orchard and close adjoining the churchyard, was allowed to fall into decay so that even the curate was able, in 1768, to obtain a licence to live in Oxford. (fn. 193) At the beginning of the 19th century the curate, James Palmer, had to find his own house and support a wife and two children on a stipend of £27 10s. (fn. 194) The lay rector was at this time awarded 220 acres in lieu of rectorial tithes and the non-resident vicar 96 acres. (fn. 195) The lay rector, Henry Mayne Whorwood, was described by the curate as 'a man who having lived a very debauched life and having been in Germany, that hot-bed of modern infidelity and mental quackery, has imbibed notions so contrary to all religion and everything resembling it that he does not scruple to call it all priestcraft'. It was impossible for his brother, the vicar, to 'differ from him materially without danger of starvation.' (fn. 196) In this situation an issue arose which sharply divided the parish. The inclosure of Joseph Locke's property closed the footpath from the Quarry hamlet to the church along which the Quarry coffins were carried for burial, and when there was a funeral the new wall was broken down. Rector and vicar supported the landowners, while the curate championed the Quarry villagers who 'for the accommodation of one upstart fellow . . . were to be distressed'. The curate, threatened with summary dismissal, appealed to the bishop, who ruled that he must not be dismissed unless the vicar himself came into residence, and that his stipend must in the meantime be raised to £35. The death of his elder brother brought the vicar into residence in 1806 as lord of the manor, a circumstance not without difficulty, as is shown by the press comments upon his enforcement of the game laws. (fn. 197)

In his time there were only modest signs of recovery in the parish. In the 18th century the sacrament was generally administered three times a year to an average of 30 communicants, and although the numbers had increased to 40–50, the services were as infrequent in 1820. (fn. 198) Morning and evening prayer were held on Sundays, with one sermon; save in the time of a Jacobite incumbent who read prayers on 30 January, 29 May, and 5 November, (fn. 199) there were usually no other services. By 1808 a Sunday school had been started and the vicar was beginning to complain that the smallness of the church was a limiting factor in attendances. (fn. 200) It was not until the middle of the century that the growth of the population and the spread of nonconformity had their effect. The enlargement of the existing church, and the creation of new ecclesiastical parishes in Headington Quarry (1850) and Highfield (1910) were complementary measures designed to meet new problems. The patronage of Headington remained in the Whorwood family until at least 1883, after which it passed to Mrs. Rawlinson; that of the two new parishes belonged to the Bishop of Oxford. The gross value of the Headington living was estimated in 1852 at £118, including 90 acres of glebe, and that of Headington Quarry at £121 including 7 acres of glebe. (fn. 201) In 1928 their values had risen to £350 and £339 respectively, and Highfield was worth £320. (fn. 202)

The chancel of the church of ST. ANDREW was built of local stone about the middle of the 12th century. (fn. 203) A hundred years later the church was enlarged by the addition of a south aisle, with a threelancet east window and two single lancets on the south wall, joined to the nave by an arcade of two bays. The ground stage of the south tower and the pointed arch enclosing the fine 12th-century chancel arch are of the same date. The chancel was rebuilt at the end of the 14th century and the roof, two windows on the south wall, one on the north, date from this time. In about 1500 the upper stages of the tower were added, but they had to be rebuilt in 1679. The initials of the churchwardens mark the restoration, which is also recorded by Wood. (fn. 204) The south porch was built in 1598. In the 18th century part of the east wall was rebuilt and there were repairs to the roof and to the stone work on the north side. There are references in 1758 to a buttress on the north wall which was destroyed in the 19th century restorations; directions were also given for plastering and whitewashing the walls and for repaving the floor. (fn. 205) In 1786 the chancel roof was in need of repair. (fn. 206)

In 1862 the Bishop of Oxford doubted whether there was a parish in his diocese where restoration was so urgently needed. The church was 'incumbered with galleries and pews, the woodwork ... of different ages in every imaginable shape, position and proportion'. The floor level was well below that of the churchyard, with a broken and uneven surface; the roof admitted an abundant supply of rain. (fn. 207) The restoration of 1864 was undertaken by J. C. Buckler at a cost of £3,000, mainly raised by voluntary subscription. (fn. 208) It considerably extended the nave at the west end. In 1881, at a further cost of £2,300, a north aisle was added with porch and vestry. These additions increased the seating accommodation to 450. (fn. 209)

Although an effort was made 'to preserve the architectural features', much was inevitably lost, including the wall-paintings uncovered in 1864 over the chancel arch and nave arcading, and in the south aisle. The latter were of earlier origin and greater interest than the rest; they included a large St. Christopher and a group of more unusual subjects in the window jambs depicting legendary scenes from the flight into Egypt. (fn. 210) The church contains few monuments of interest: (fn. 211) on the west wall of the tower are monuments to Samuel Acton (d. 1726), and his wife Mary Butterfield; to William Finch (d. 1752) and his wife Mary; and to Henry Yardley (d. 1756), a Fellow of Trinity College. There are few descriptions of its early ornaments and fittings. Hugh de Pluggenait endowed an altar lamp. (fn. 212) Ralph Attewelle in 1465 left 2 bushels of barley to keep the lamps alight before the crucifix and image of the Virgin. (fn. 213) The Commissioners of 1552 removed all the plate save the chalice; (fn. 214) but this too has since disappeared. There are patens of 1634 and 1764, a cup of 1701, and a tankard flagon inscribed 'Heddington Parish 1734'. (fn. 215) The Commissioners of 1552 left three bells, one of which survives from about 1430 bearing the inscription Sancta Margareta, ora pro nobis. There are now six bells, three of them dating from the 17th century. The fourth was given by Sir Thomas Whorwood in 1624, and bears his arms. (fn. 216)

In the churchyard is a cross with a 15th-century base; the shaft has been restored. (fn. 217) The earliest tombs are of the Restoration period and commemorate the names of yeoman families. In 1718 Hearne noted some inscriptions of interest, and was scandalized to find that part of the churchyard was used for secular purposes. (fn. 218) Part of the vicar's close was incorporated in the churchyard in 1778, (fn. 219) but the 19th-century population outgrew the burial ground as well as the church. In 1885 the cemetery on the road to Marston was bought at a cost of £1,600 and administered by the parish council. (fn. 220)

The registers date from 1683.

In 1848 the foundation stone was laid of the new church of THE HOLY TRINITY, at Headington Quarry, which was consecrated in the following year. It was built of local stone dug from Quarry Farm Hollows, the gift of Thomas Burrows. The architect was Sir George Gilbert Scott and the contractors were Wyatt's of Oxford. The cost was about £3,000, which was raised by voluntary effort; Gladstone was among the subscribers. (fn. 221) It is a simple building of 14th-century style, with nave, north aisle, south porch, and a gable bell-cote at the west end containing two bells. The registers date from 1849.

The church of ALL SAINTS, Lime Walk, was built in 1870 to serve the needs of New Headington. Rebuilt in 1910, it is in the Early English style with nave of five bays, north and south aisles, and a west porch. It is built of brick with stone dressings. (fn. 222)

Roman Catholicism.

There are no traces of any survival of Catholicism in Headington after the 16th century, except for one recusant Hugh Smith, a yeoman tailor, who was fined in 1624–5. (fn. 223) No papists were returned in 1676 or 1706; but the returns of 1767 give two persons, a labourer of 90 and a gentleman's servant. (fn. 224)

Protestant Nonconformity.

When Fairfax made his headquarters at Headington in 1646 the villagers had unparalleled opportunities of listening to the sermons of able Puritan divines. 'Mr. Saltash preached before the General and army at Headington on the Lord's Day; Dr. Dell the day before in the forenoon and Mr. Sidgwick in the afternoon. Many soldiers at each sermon climbing up into trees to hear, for it was in the orchard before his Excellency's tent: great love among the soldiers, presbytery and independency making no breach'. (fn. 225) Some remnants of dissent survived the Restoration. Robert Pawling, the Oxford mercer who was arrested for suspect complicity in Monmouth's rising and was Mayor in 1679, was the tenant of Magdalen farm. (fn. 226) In 1672 he took out a licence to hold Presbyterian services in the house of one Anthony Hall in Oxford; (fn. 227) but his own statement that he continued to attend the parish church (fn. 228) is confirmed by local records; he was involved in a dispute about the occupation of a pew traditionally belonging to his farm, but lent to Sir Thomas Whorwood during his brief residence in Headington and subsequently claimed by his tenant at Manor Farm. (fn. 229) A Quaker known to the neighbourhood as 'Doctor' James Bracey was highly thought of as a blood-letter and the lady of the manor was one of his patients; he left the village in 1723. (fn. 230) But no thread of continuity is known to link these last survivals of 17th-century Puritanism with 19th-century nonconformity. The 18th-century visitation returns give no evidence of dissent in the parish.

It was in the 'neglected and destitute' Quarry hamlet that Methodism first appeared. In the inclosure dispute (fn. 231) the Quarry parishioners threatened that 'as they are to be deprived of their funeral path they will not come to church at all but intend to have a Methodist preacher come to them'; (fn. 232) and this actually happened. Meetings began in a small way in the house of James Coppock; (fn. 233) the first chapel was opened in Trinity Road in 1830. In 1860 a larger chapel was built in Quarry High Street at a cost of £300; the old building was used as a Sunday School until 1874, when new school premises were added to the High Street chapel; the old school was then converted into dwelling-houses. In 1889 a second Methodist chapel was opened in Lime Walk at a cost of £300. (fn. 234)

From the beginning of the 19th century a few families would attend the services at the New Road chapel in Oxford, but did not necessarily withdraw themselves completely from the parish church. (fn. 235) The small mission hall, built in 1836, and burial ground in the Croft was closely associated with the New Road Baptist church. It became independent in 1929. (fn. 236)

Schools.

In 1808 there was one partly endowed school at Headington. The endowment of £20 a year came from a bequest of £400 left by Catherine Mather in 1805 for educating 6 poor boys and 6 poor girls, and 18 other children were paid for by the vicar. At this time there were also three other fee-paying schools, which provided education for about 60 children. (fn. 237) By 1818 there were said to be only three schools, and it was considered that the poor were without sufficient means of education. (fn. 238) By 1833 (fn. 239) there were five small fee-paying schools besides the endowed school, which later became affiliated to the National Society. About 1851 (fn. 240) the school moved into new quarters, a red-brick Gothic building, erected with the help of private subscriptions and a government grant, on a site given by Charles Tawney in New Headington on the London road. It was now a mixed school with an average attendance of 180. By 1854 (fn. 241) an infant school for 60 children had been started, supported by private subscriptions.

By 1894 the National school had again outgrown its buildings, and a new school was built at New Headington for 260 children at a cost of £2,200, on a site near the old one. The 1851 buildings were used for infants. By 1895 a third school had come into existence at Headington Quarry—a National mixed school for 135 children, and an infant school for 90 children. (fn. 242)

In 1902 the Catherine Mather bequest came under the administration of the Board of Education, who drew up a scheme for its administration (25 Nov. 1902), which was amended in 1907 so that money should be used to provide an exhibition to a public secondary school. (fn. 243)

In 1908 a new council school was built in Margaret Road, with accommodation for 220 children and 150 infants, and by 1920 the Headington Church of England school had accommodation for 280 children. (fn. 244) The later developments of these schools after 1928 are reserved for a volume on the City of Oxford.

The Headington Girls' public school was founded in 1915 for both boarders and day pupils. The original school buildings were on the south side of the London road, but are now on the north side. The school owns 23 acres of land and is an independent one with its own governing body. (fn. 245)

Charities.

No ancient charities are recorded but the following were reported in 1871: the Peat Moor Poor's allotment (5 acres) given by the inclosure award of 1802, and then worth £3 10s.; £8 from Shotover Hill Poor's allotment, founded about 1819; £27 distributed annually from Wharton's Charity, founded by a bequest of 1852, and £5 10s. from the Slade Charity founded by a deed of 1854. (fn. 246) In 1939 £27 was distributed annually from Wharton's Charity and the interest of £500 from Mrs. Stone's charity; the Peat Moor, Shotover Hill, and Slade charities were worth £10 and were distributed in coal. (fn. 247)