text version

Homepage

History

Photos

Removal Centre

Other Bits

Village Hall

Parish Councillors

Council Minutes

Wish List

Garden Association

Contacts

Local Businesses

The following is taken from 'A History of Oxfordshire' (unknown Author). There were two Manors at ARNCOT corresponding to the two medieval hamlets of Nether or LOWER ARNCOT and Over or UPPER ARNCOT. At the time of Domesday, William son of Mann held land at LOWER ARNCOT, later also known as ARNCOT ABATIS, later also known as ARNCOT PRIORIS. It had previously been held by three freemen. No further reference to the manor has been found until Roger of Caux, in Stephens reign or perhaps earlier, granted the estate with the wood and other appurtenances to Missenden abbey, for the sake of the souls of his father Gerald and his mother Adelaide. His son William confirmed the grant on receipt of 100s from the canons. In 1232 Bicester Priory purchased the estate from Missenden, and agreed to pay a fee- farm rent of £6 13s 4d a year. The transaction is of special interest as it arose through a bequest by Alan Basset of High Wycombe of 200 marks to the University of Oxford for the maintenance of two chaplains. Bicester Priory was his executer in the matter, and bought the ARNCOT estate to provide 8 marks yearly for the support of two chaplains or scholars residing in the University. The fee-farm to Missenden appears regularly in the surviving accounts of the priory's estates, and at its dissolution Missenden had over £6 worth of profits from the fee-farm of ARNCOT and its rents. The manor was granted, probably soon after the priory's dissolution, to Thomas Martin of Ambrosden, a wealthy yeoman, who is known to have held at least 400 acres of arable and pasture for 240 sheep in Bicester parish, in addition to his ARNCOT lands. He died before 1553 seised of ARNCOT manor and of 16 messuages (dwellings), 2 cottages, and 18 virgates of land in the ARNCOTs. He left a portion of land to be held in dower by his widow, and another portion to his second sonJohn. The manor itself, then valued at £6 12s a year, passed to his elder son Nicholas, who was apparently succeeded by the younger son John, for in 1580 the latter received licence to alienate the manor to Thomas, another brother. Thomas, described as a gentleman of Gray's Inn, died in 1587 seised of this and the manor of UPPER ARNCOTT. In 983 Ethelred II granted the hamlet of UPPER ARNCOTT, later known as ARNCOT ABBATIS, to Abingdon Abbey. This charter says that the inhabitants called it Earnigcote, and gives the saxon bounds of the estate. The Abingdon Chronicle states that in the Conquerors time Abbot Athelhelm, who gave many of the abbey's possessions to kinsmen, gave ARNCOT to Robert d'Oilly and Roger d'Ivry. Robert and Roger were certainly recorded as the abbey's tenants in 1086. Although the hamlet occurs among the abbey's possessions which were confirmed by Eugenius III (1149- 53), the list of properties was doubtless traditional, and there is no other evidence of Abingdon's overlordship in the 12th century or later. The Osney cartulary refers to the gift of ARNCOT to the church of St George in Oxford castle by Robert D'Oilly and Roger d'Ivry in 1074. But this does not agree with the evidence of Domesday, and it seems likely therefore that the gift was made between 1086 and the death of Robert d'Oilly, some time between 1092 and 1100. St George's lands were transferred to Oseney abbey in about 1149 by Henry d'Oilly, the son of Robert (II) d'Oilly. Oseney remained lord of the manor until its dissolution in 1539. In the 14th century the abbot established that this land was not, like some other abbey lands, part of the honour of St Valery, as it was an independent gift of Robert d'Oilly. At the Dissolution, the manor of UPPER ARNCOTT passed first to the Crown and then to the newly founded cathedral of Christ Church. It reverted to the Crown in 1545, but was later acquired by the Martin family, who had been substantial tenants in Ambrosden for some years. A John Martin and his son John were assessed on goods worth £15 and £4 respectively in UPPER ARNCOTT for the subsidy of 1523, and a Thomas Martin had bought LOWER ARNCOT manor, with appurtenances in UPPER ARNCOT, soon after the Dissolution. His sons apparently added to the property by buying the manor of UPPER ARNCOT, for his third son, Thomas Martin, died seised of both ARNCOT manors in 1587. He left them to his sister Marion and her husband, Henry Standard of Steeple Aston. The Martins and then the standards probably resided at LOWER ARNCOT, where there was a manor house, and not at UPPER ARNCOT where there is no trace or record of one. Dunkin, the local historian furthermore noted the tradition that any family of consequence had always resided at LOWER ARNCOT. The Standards remained lords of the two manors until the 18th century. Henry Standard was succeeded by his son Thomas, who moved to Middleton Stoney, where he had purchased property, and was followed at ARNCOT by his son Henry in 1613. He, or a son of the same name, was in possession in 1664, but little else is heard of the family until 1706 when Thomas Standard of ARNCOT, who seems to have been a bachelor, left the ARNCOT manors to Charles Hutchinson, M.D, and by the middle of the century the property had come into the possession of Barbara Smythe of Cuddesdon, who had also inherited Blackthorn. On her death in 1787, the ARNCOT manors were conveyed to Sir John Whalley-Gardiner. By 1813 they had been sold, allegedly for £7,400, to Richard Holloway of Arlescot (Warws). The latter died in 1820; William Holloway was squire in 1852, and his family remained lords of ARNCOT until the late 19th century. In the early 20th century the population decreased from 196 to 124. The 1951 population, however, showed a marked increase due to the establishment of the Central Ordnance Depot in 1941; the population rising to 3,207 (including Barracks). Farms with more than 150 acres in the 1930's were West view and Manor Farm in LOWER ARNCOT, and Pond, Manor, Essex, and West Farms in Blackthorn. Since 1941, however, Wood Farm (LOWER ARNCOT, the farm house is now the Tally Ho Hotel) has been swallowed up by the Depot, and most of the other farms have lost some land.

Please pass any further information about The Arncotts history to Cllr Bob Leat or email the Parish Council at arncottpc@googlemail.com