Asterleigh
| Asterleigh | |
 Asterleigh
Asterleigh shown within Oxfordshire |
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| OS grid reference | SP4022 |
|---|---|
| Civil parish | Kiddington with Asterleigh |
| District | West Oxfordshire |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Woodstock |
| Postcode district | OX20 |
| Dialling code | 01608 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Witney |
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Asterleigh, sometimes in the past called Esterley,[1] is a farm and deserted medieval village about 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire. The site of the former village is about 0.25 miles (400 m) west of the present farm.[2]
Manor
Asterleigh's toponym indicates that it was created by woodland clearance[3] on what would then have been the edge of Wychwood Forest.
The Domesday Book of 1086 does not record Asterleigh as a separate settlement. Medieval pottery found in 1948 suggests that Asterleigh was inhabited by the 12th century.[2] Also in 1948, squared stones were found along with limestone roofing slates that had medieval-style drilled nail-holes.[2]
The earliest known documentary record of Asterleigh is from early in the 13th century.[2] At the time of the Hundred Rolls in 1279 it had 20 farms.[3] However, the village declined and its landowning family decided to leave the village and move to Nether Kiddington.[3]
Church
Asterleigh was an ecclesiastical parish that had its own parish church by 1216.[1] However, in 1466 John Chedworth, Bishop of Lincoln absorbed Asterleigh into the ecclesiastical parish of Kiddington, declaring:
the tenths, oblations, rents and emoluments of the rectory of Asterleigh were so diminished as to be insufficient to support a rector, or even a competent parochial chaplain, on account of the paucity of parishioners, the barrenness of land, defects of husbandry, and an unusual prevalence of pestilences and epidemic sicknesses.[3]
In 1783 the Reverend Thomas Warton reported that "pieces of moulded stone and other antique masonry" had been found at Asterleigh.[4] In 1960 the footings of the church porch were unearthed and reburied.[5]
Farm and civil parish
By the 18th century Asterleigh was no more than a farmhouse.[6] Asterleigh Farm was an extra-parochial area of 300 acres (120 ha) until 1858[7] when it was made a civil parish.[8] In 1895 it was combined with the civil parish of Kiddington.[8]
The site of the medieval village and church is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Page, 1907
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jope, 1948, pages 67-69
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Emery, 1974, page 102
- ↑ Warton, 1783, cited in Jope, 1948, pages 67-69
- ↑ Case & Sturdy, 1960, page 131
- ↑ Warton, 1815, page 23
- ↑ Vision of Britain website: Asterleigh
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Vision of Britain website: Kiddington
- ↑ West Oxfordshire District Council: Scheduled Ancient Monuments
Sources
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The District of West Oxfordshire
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