Edge Hill Part 3

J. Bolton's.

CALTHORPE HOUSE.--The Calthorpe Manor of old time is now sadly diminished, its fish pond drained and its park a building ground. The north-west part of the house is in use as a wool warehouse, but yet the east front, now Calthorpe House School, stands in good order with stone porch, and armorial shield of the Hawtayne's, and a good oriel window above bearing the arms in stained gla.s.s of the Brancestre (1545) and Danvers'

families. The inscriptions thereon are "Danvers Matched D'Oyley," "Danvers long time owned Calthropp," etc. The house, one of the religious houses of early date and probably part of the hospice of St. John, was linked with the early history of the town. Beesley and Macnamara speak of its a.s.sociations with the Brancestre family in the time of Richard II. (1378), and later with that of Danvers. The former granted lands to the master of St. John, thus implying a religious holding. By its reconstruction in Queen Elizabeth's days we know the reformation had swept away its religious order, and the fine oriel window is of that date. It is said that Nonconformity was preached for the first time in Banbury in the oriel room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COURTYARD, REINDEER INN, BANBURY.]

OLD INNS.--The Reindeer, in Parson's Street, is probably older than any of the houses before mentioned; the wooden gates are dated 1570, and have inscribed on them the names Iohn Knight, Ihone Knight, David Horne. The richly moulded ceiling and the fine panelling of the princ.i.p.al room, known as the Globe Room, are of the style of the Italian renaissance, and above the window is an inscription of the date 1570. The Unicorn Inn, in the Market Place, and the adjoining house, at one time no doubt part of the inn, belong to a later period; the ma.s.sive wooden gates are carved with the date 1648. The Old George (1614) seems to have formerly borne the name of The George and Altarstone, from a supposed Roman altar dug up on the site of the inn, and formerly exhibited in one of the rooms.

THE BARS.--The entrances to the town were formerly crossed by gates, or bars, five in number. The North Bar, from which the present street is named, stood near the tan-yard, southward of the corner of Warwick Road.

The Cole Bar closed the old Adderbury and Oxford Road, which entered the town by way of New Land and Broad Street before the making of the turnpike road. St. John's Bar closed the entrance from Chipping Norton, and stood at the spot where Monument Street now enters South Bar. When the Bar was destroyed its site was marked by an obelisk, long since removed, from which Monument Street takes its name. Sugarford Bar stood in West Street, close to where it is now crossed by the Shades, and the Bridge Gate stood on the old bridge over the Cherwell. Not a vestige of any of the bars remains.

THE MECHANICS' INSt.i.tUTE, founded 1835, received the gift of its new building in Marlborough Road in 1884. It has a general library and a reference library and news and magazine rooms well suited to the requirements of the day. There is an excellent replica of Herkomer's portrait of the donor in the news room.

THE MUNIc.i.p.aL SCHOOL buildings adjoin the Inst.i.tute, and are also in part a gift to the town by the Right Hon. Sir Bernhard Samuelson (Parliamentary representative of Banbury for 30 years). It is also a School of Science and Art, with well equipped rooms for art study, and with good laboratories and cla.s.s rooms. The School of Science and Art was a continuation of science and art cla.s.ses which were among the earliest started in the kingdom (1861). It shows a good record of work. The buildings are well proportioned, and the doorways of the local (Hornton) stone are bold, and have good mouldings.

THE TOWN HALL.--The old Hall stood on the open s.p.a.ce in the Market Place in front of the Exchange Hall. It was a plain brick building, standing on arcading, forming a Market Hall on the ground floor, and it has been re-erected in Cherwell Street as a warehouse. The first Hall was built in Queen Mary's reign, 1556. The Hall of to-day, built in 1853, was enlarged in 1892. Portraits of Mr. Tancred, the late High Steward (Lord Saye and Sele), and Aldermen Draper and Barford are hung in the Court Room.

Formerly a good painting by Hayn had a place there.

The Horton Infirmary, presented to the town by the late Miss Horton, of Middleton Cheney, and her nephew, J. H. Horton, Esq., is on the Oxford Road. Two Corn Exchanges existed in the Corn Hill and Market Place; one has become an Inn with covered court yard, the other is used as a Theatre but is also used for corn sales on Thursdays; Christ Church, St. John's Priory and Church, the Wesleyan Chapels, and the various other denominational places of worship, do not admit of full description.

BROUGHTON CASTLE, the old seat of Lord Saye and Sele, now the residence of Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, is about two and a half miles to the westward of Banbury. The older parts are at the east end, and comprise a chapel, several small rooms and groined pa.s.sages, and an embattled and loopholed tower, all of early decorated or 14th century work. The chapel contains a geometrical window and stone altar. Both north and south fronts, together with a wooden inner lobby at the entrance to the drawing room, are figured in Skelton's "Antiquities of Oxfordshire." The north front, of the date 1544, is best seen from the meadow adjoining the Broughton Road. In the hall, dining and drawing rooms, are rich plaster ceilings of a half century later. The moat, which still encircles the castle grounds, is spanned by a modern bridge with a turretted gatehouse of early 15th century work. The outbuildings on the east side of the gatehouse are of contemporaneous date. The embattled wall on the west side is part of the original castle, and belongs to an early part of the 14th century. In the hall are portraits of Charles I. and Cromwell, by Dobson, and in other parts of the building works by Westall, Dorcy, and Gainsborough. A large historical painting of Lord Saye before Jack Cade (Shakespeare's King Henry VI., pt. 2, sc. 7) formerly hung at the end of the drawing room.

After the Edge Hill fight, Banbury surrendered to the Royalists, who attacked Broughton on the following day. The Castle, with wool-sacked windows, stood siege for a day, and then it is said to have been taken by Prince Rupert. There is little or no evidence to show the phases of the fight, but when it is remembered that the Fiennes' in the vale of the Red Horse were within an hour's ride, and that Ramsay and some of his troops found a way to Banbury on the Sunday, it would point to the probability of fierce defence. Bretch Cave, on the Banbury Road, has the common repute of being a secret pa.s.sage to the Castle, and perhaps some sally port of the kind may have a tale to tell.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROUGHTON CASTLE.]

The two paper mills on the borders of the Broughton estate, the Woad Mill and the Fulling Mill, together with the settlements of the plush and other weavers near by, point to surroundings of industry connected, it must be believed, with the old house.

BROUGHTON CHURCH (ST. MARY'S) is a beautiful church of good Early English work with a broach spire. The nave is on the north side of the church; the south aisle appears to end as a chapelry. As a place of sepulture of so many of the Fiennes' family, it is enriched by their tombs and those of others of the house. The tomb of John de Broughton (circa 1306) is in a richly decorated and canopied niche in the south wall. The high corner tomb is that of Edward Fiennes (1528) and that near by with the effigy of the Knight is believed to be of the father, Richard Fiennes (1501). In the chancel are the rich alabaster effigies of Sir Thomas Wykham and wife (circa 1441), and also plain tombs of Wm. Viscount Saye and Sele and wife (dated 1642-1648).[7] The stone chancel screen with incised diaper ornament, and the exceedingly well proportioned windows, place the good work of the church amongst the typical gothic of the country side: especially to be noticed are the geometrical tracery of the east window of the south aisle; the south window with later perpendicular shafting; the south chancel window and the square-headed early English windows of the south wall. There is a finely crocketed ogee west door and plain south porch.

WROXTON ABBEY or PRIORY, 3 miles north-west of Banbury, was founded by Michael Belet; it pa.s.sed into the hands of Sir Thos. Pope after the troubles of the Reformation time, and thence by marriage to the Earls Guildford and North. It is the seat of Lord North, and is famed for its beautifully terraced gardens and park. The chapel, which is supposed to date from the time of King John, contains a window in the Decorated style, with old gla.s.s, and the carved woodwork is of the best in the neighbourhood. The other part of the mansion was re-built in 1618, excepting a wing which has been added within the last few years. On the west front is a good porch, in the Italian style, of the time of James I.

The princ.i.p.al features of the hall are the carved woodwork of the gallery, the fireplace, and the stag's head brackets and pendants. The ceiling of the dining-room is a beautiful specimen of the cla.s.sical work of the Stuart period. Amongst the paintings are some portraits by Vand.y.k.e, Holbein, Jansen and Kneller, and landscapes by Wouvermans, Hobbema, and others. The famous "Garden Party," by Watteau, is one of the collection.

King James and King Charles I. visited Wroxton, the latter at the time of the meeting of the King and Queen at Kineton in the year following the battle of Edge Hill. A medal was struck to commemorate the meeting.

Pleasant paths to Banbury and Broughton lead across the fields.

ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, WROXTON, is of plain Gothic style. The chief points of interest are a good decorated font, two sedilia, and a tomb with effigies of Sir W. and Lady Pope, erected about the middle of the 17th century.

ADDERBURY.--Alt.i.tudes: high town 342, low town 300; population, 1132; 3-1/4 miles south of Banbury. It retains its old mansions and homesteads and the wide margin of its ways to a fuller degree than other villages in the north of the shire. The old rectory house, the manor house, formerly Lord Rochester's home, and others on the south side of the green, are good buildings. Nothing remains of the Cross once standing on the green, and of Sir Thos. Cobb's famous house there remain but the gateways and kitchen.

The village during the time of the Great Rebellion was held as a Royalist outpost in the Banbury area. Mr. Wilmot, afterwards Lord Rochester, with his local troops of horse fought on the left wing of the Royalists' Army at Edge Hill. A cavalry fight took place during the war near Bodicot, on the Banbury road, when Fiennes had some success.

ST. MARY'S CHURCH is remarkable for its elegant chancel, built by William of Wykeham. The chancel windows are in the early style of perpendicular architecture, and are fine ill.u.s.trations of the architect's skill. His arms are to be seen above the exterior of the east window. The north door is in the decorated style, and is rich in mouldings and crocketed canopies. A good example of perpendicular work is to be seen in the square-headed vestry door. The spire dates from the 14th century, and is ma.s.sive and imposing. The frieze under the cornice of the north wall is filled with grotesque sculpture. In the interior, the timber roof of the nave, the cl.u.s.tered columns, and the sedilia and piscina are excellent specimens of work of the decorated period.

HANWELL.--Alt.i.tudes: 476-416; population, 176; 3 miles north-west of Banbury. The village winds in one long street down-hill. It rests on the ferruginous red rock of the Middle Lias. Midway in the village an old oak tree covered the village stocks and the outflow of an aquaduct, probably the Saint Ann's Well of past time. Pleasant footways follow the hill side on the north to Shotteswell and on the south to Banbury. When King Charles took the Castle after the battle of Edge Hill it would seem that it was not without a fight. An old rhyme runs:

Hornton in the hollow, Long Horley on the hill, Frowsty little Drayton, b.l.o.o.d.y Hanwell hill.

HANWELL CASTLE during its tenure as a farm house lost much of its old work in successive alterations. Two ma.s.sive octagonal turrets and the facing of the west front remain of the old building. The right-handed stairway, a flight of eighty steps in the north turret, is of very thorough Hornton stone work, but the turrets and front are of the good flat red brick in use in Tudor time, with stone quoins. It would appear that the right hand stairway lent itself better to defensive uses; the upper rooms are entered from the turret stair. In the angle of the south turret a small room shows some old oak panelling, and in an adjoining room a hearth and chimney piece of local stone are in the south-east angle. The once "gallant house of Hanwell," and, according to Dr. Plot, the home of Sir Anthony Cope, the most eminent artist and naturalist, may be seen figured as in its original state by Skelton in his "Antiquities of Oxfordshire," who says the mansion was quadrangular with two towers at each angle. The stonework of the doorways of the room adjoining the south entrance and most of the masonry of the west side has been preserved. The Copes came into early possession of the Hanwell estate, and John Cope, cofferer to King Henry VIII., built the house which was so well spoken of by Leland.

In Tudor and Stuart times they were busy politicians, and James I. and his Queen are said to have visited the Castle. The Copes were with the people in the time of the Great Rebellion, and after Edge Hill the Castle was taken by the Royalists. Subsequently Sir Anthony Cope found residence for the eminent Puritan pastors Harris and Dod, who, with Whateley of Banbury, ministered to enlarge the religious zeal of the neighbourhood. The pool and plantation lie to the east of the grounds, and the plantation below is worth mention from the number of rare plants found therein, amongst them the Bistort, Lungwort, Green h.e.l.lebore, and Saracen's Woundwort.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HANWELL CASTLE.]

BLOXHAM.--Alt.i.tudes: high town 400, low town 310; population, 1340; 3 miles south-west of Banbury. The village stands on the red rock of the middle Lias which bears a capping of clay on the high lands: the lower levels are of the usual marls. Field ways from Banbury run from the end of West Bar, and by a less direct but pretty route across the farm field on the Oxford Road. The buildings of All Saint's School, founded about half a century since, are at the entrance of the village. The school has earned good place by the excellence of its tuition. The brook cutting through the town from west to east and the many side streets and jetways add a pleasant appearance to the many good homesteads and gardens.

BLOXHAM CHURCH (ST. MARY'S) is one of the most perfect specimens of Gothic architecture in the county of Oxford. Part of the materials of the chancel, the mouldings, walls, and b.u.t.tresses are Norman, though the church is mainly of the 14th century, about which time it was re-built.

The west doorway is surmounted by figures of the apostles, with a canopied representation of the Saviour at the apex; on the left and right are sculptured representations also of the rising of the dead and the punishment of the lost. The spire, which is 195 feet high, presents a particularly graceful outline. The square tower is crowned by an octagon middle stage, rising above which is a balcony, projected on corbels from the face of the tower. Within the balcony the spire springs, and from the four angles of the square tower stage slender turrets, terminating in spirets, are carried up through the middle stage to above the springing of the spire. The geometric tracery of the windows of the west front, and the grotesque cornice carvings on the north side, are exceedingly good work.

The decorated oak chancel screen is again a noticeable feature, and its restoration has brought to light the remains of paintings on its lower panels. There are also remains of a mural painting of St. Christopher on the north wall, and of others on the wall above the rood loft. There are large perpendicular windows in the Milcombe chapelry, on the south side of the church, and in its north aisle is a beautiful decorated column, having an enriched capital, with sculptures of mailed figures and heads of saints. A good Gothic font, the carved work of the hoods of the north and south doorways, and a handsome modern reredos and other portions of the chancel can here be mentioned only.

KING'S SUTTON.--Alt.i.tudes: 385-282; population, 1037; 5 miles south-east of Banbury. It is built on the red rock and marls of the Middle Lias. The old life is represented in the handsome manor house, by tradition also connected with the wanderings of King Charles I., and a good house on the south side of the green said to have been a prebendary manor. The town was in the eighteenth century, with the adjoining village of Astrop, of resort for the use of its mineral waters. The chalybeate spring (St. Rumbald's well) is in Sir Wm. Brown's park at Astrop. The well basin and the carved stone hood stand as in old time together with the Well House. The Well House, by the work of the doorway and windows, would appear to be of earlier date than the well hood, but the spring is at present conveyed from its source to a replica of the well head by the road side. The a.s.sociated buildings have long since disappeared, but the pleasant walk up the old road past the Well Close and the Long Spinney remain. Near the railway station at King's Sutton is the other mineral spring charged with sulphate of soda, yet in common use by the people of the homesteads near.

Celia Fiennes in her diary, "Through England on a side saddle," writes of her journey: "Thence I went to Astrop where is a Steele water much ffrequented by y{e} Gentry, it has some mixture of Allum so is not so strong as Tunbridge. There is a ffine Gravell Walke that is between 2 high cutt hedges where is a Roome for the Musick and a Roome for y{e} Company besides y{e} Private Walkes. The well runnes very quick, they are not curious in keeping it, neither is there any bason for the spring to run out off, only a dirty well full of moss's which is all changed yellow by the water. There are Lodgings about for y{e} Company at a little place called Sutton." Halliwell gives the following rhyme in his nursery series:

"King's Sutton is a pretty town, And lies all in a valley: There is a pretty ring of bells, Besides a bowling-alley: Wine and liquor in good store, Pretty maidens plenty: Can a man desire more?

There aint such a town in twenty."

[Ill.u.s.tration: KING'S SUTTON CHURCH.]

KING'S SUTTON CHURCH is dedicated to St. Peter. The chancel is princ.i.p.ally Norman work, and has along each side a continuous stone bench under an arcade, exhibiting the characteristic zigzag moulding. The piers and arches on the south side of the nave are also Norman; those on the north side are early English. The rood loft turret and staircase remain in the south abutment of the chancel arch. The appearance of the tower from the north and south-west is very beautiful. Crocketed pinnacles, connected by flying b.u.t.tresses with the face of the spire, are arranged around the junction of the spire and tower, and the spire itself is boldly crocketed from base to apex. It is of the early perpendicular period. The deeply recessed doorway of the western entrance may be of somewhat later date, and contains the original west door. Separating the chancel from the nave is a beautiful oak screen, which was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.

A well-known local rhyme, referring to the spires of the three famous churches of the neighbourhood, says:--

Bloxham for length, Adderbury for strength, And King's Sutton for beauty.

A hill side coppice bearing the name of Rosamunds Bower and the Moate House are within easy walking distance. The pathway near the bog (mineral) spring is the shorter and pleasanter route to Banbury, leading near to the calcining furnaces and ironstone quarries of the Astrop Ironstone Company.

COMPTON WYNYATES, the residence of The Marquis of Northampton, is distant about nine miles to the south-west of Banbury, and is a beautiful example of a brick castellated house of Tudor date. It stands in a prettily wooded hollow at the foot of the hills which skirt the south-east border of Warwickshire. The building surrounds a quadrangle, and was formerly encircled by a moat, which has now been filled in on the west, south, and east sides; its erection began about 1519. The woodwork of the gables and the doorway of the entrance front, with the shields bearing the Tudor roses and the emblems of Castile and Arragon, are good instances of the work of the time. On the right of the quadrangle is the rich bay window of the hall, and in the hall itself is a finely carved wood screen, coeval with the building. The tower, and particularly the highly ornamented brick chimneys, are worth detailed attention. Adjoining the tower is the chapel, the window of which looks out upon the lawn; a secret pa.s.sage and Roman Catholic chapel also testify to the troubled transition times of the early households. There is but s.p.a.ce to note two incidents in the long history of the house,--the visit of King Henry VIII., and in later years the fierce little fight when the place, garrisoned by the Puritan troops, was attacked by Sir Charles and Sir Wm. Compton with a party of Royalists from Banbury. The Comptons failed to regain their home.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMPTON WYNYATES, HALL WINDOW.]

HORLEY.--Alt.i.tudes, 500-400; population, 247; is 4 miles north-west of Banbury, and may be reached by a pleasant footpath pa.s.sing over Ruscot Hill and through Drayton fields. The village stands at the neck dividing two of the high vales of North Oxon, the Lias ironstone covering all the high lands thereabouts. St. Ethelreda's Church, plain, square towered and full of good old Early English work, is in mid village; the two pointed arches between chancel and nave, the old gla.s.s of the north aisle and the great mural painting of Saint Christopher, the Christ bearer, with the legend:

"What are thou; and art so yying Bar I never so heavy a thinge."

"Yey, I be hevy, no wunther nys For I am the Kynge of blys."

All these, and the organ (1765), are worth the pa.s.sing hour of the wayfarer. Many of the houses, for instance that of Mr. B. Hirons, are of good proportion and build. At the north-west end of the village, Clump Lane leads to some beautifully terraced fields known as Steps Meadow and Hadsham Hollow, and the footway along the high bank to the near village of Hornton is also one of the pleasant ways of the countryside. At the Yellow Well beyond the Horley House a dole of bread was wont to be made on St.

Thomas's day.

RADWAY.--Alt.i.tude, 400; population, 216; 9 miles north-west of Banbury; is pleasantly reached by the pathway below the Tower at Ratley Grange. Radway Grange by alteration about 1735 lost most of its good features as a building--it stands on the slopes of its park land at the foot of the hill. The farm pool runs close to the road side, and a pleasant prospect of the hill side is got through its foliage. The church is more noticeable for its enclosure of the Kingsmill monument, one of the burials of the Edge Hill fight, than for its architectural style. The wide openings of the village and the high wooded lanes of the Edge are diversified with many a pleasant path and resting place.