HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION Horton-cum- Studley lies about 4.5 miles north east of Oxford. Horton and Studley were important hamlets going back to Saxon times and, in 1536, were placed in the Manor of Beckley. The Parish of Horton- cum-Studley was created in 1844 and is one of the seven villages of Otmoor.
The extensive area of marshland called Otmoor, meaning ‘fen of Otta’, formed a part of the ‘wastes’ of St. Valori. This common land was used by the seven towns of Otmoor for fishing, wildfowling and grazing stock. In 1815 Sir Alexander Croke secured the enclosure of all this untitled land by a private Act of Parliament when, along with enclosure, the rights of common were revoked. In 1880 there was a pitched battle, known as the Otmoor Riots, when a mob razed the fencing and tore up trees. Forty-four commoners were taken prisoner and transported to Oxford by wagon but, by the time, the wagons reached Oxford gaol all the prisoners had escaped thanks to the help of local sympathisers.
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