Charlbury
Encyclopedia
Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode
valley, about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Witney
in West Oxfordshire
. It is on the edge of the Wychwood
forest and the Cotswolds
.
is obscure. At first sight it may appear to relate to the name 'Charles' but some hold it to derive from the Old English
word ceorl (probably pronounced /tʃɔrl/) meaning "freeman of the lowest class", whence the Modern English
words "churl
" and "churlish" (which are now used only in a derogatory sense), whilst other sources state it to derive from the Old English personal name Ceorl. For this reason some hold the latter two pronunciations more valid than the former, and the current spelling incorrect, preferring 'Chorlbury'. Both the name 'Charles'/Ceorl and the word ceorl/'churl' derive from the same Proto-Germanic word *karlaz.
of Ditchley
and now the home of the Duchess of Marlborough
. Cornbury Park, now owned by Lord Rotherwick
, contains a 17th century country house
designed partly by the architect Hugh May
.
of St. Mary the Virgin
is by tradition associated with Saint Diuma
, the 7th century first Bishop of Mercia
. By 1197 or 1198 the church belonged to Eynsham Abbey
, which held the advowson
of the parish until the dissolution of the monasteries
in the 16th century. The arcade
of Norman
arches between the nave
and north aisle dates from this period. In the 13th century the building was greatly enlarged: the chancel
was extended eastwards and the south aisle, west tower and north and south chapels were added. In the 14th century the present east windows of the chancel and south chapel were added, both in the Decorated Gothic style. During or before the 15th century the north aisle was widened. In the 15th century additions were made to the building in the Perpendicular Gothic style: the tower was extended higher and a west door was inserted in its base, a clerestorey was added to the nave and new windows were inserted in both aisles. In the 16th century the Perpendicular style south porch was added. Two wooden galleries
were added, possibly in the 18th century. In the 18th or early in the 19th century most of the windows lost their tracery
.
In 1856 the Gothic Revival architect
G.E. Street
removed the galleries and refitted the church with new pew
s, and in 1874 another Gothic Revival architect, Charles Buckeridge
, rebuilt the chancel. In the early 1990s an extensive reordering saw the pews removed and the main altar moved to the west end.
The organ is a two-manual Wyvern digital instrument, installed in 2010 to replace a Makin digital in place since 1990. The bell tower
has a ring
of six bells, all cast in 1716 by Abraham I Rudhall of Gloucester
plus a Sanctus
bell cast by an unknown founder in about 1599.
is on the Cotswold Line
. It is served by First Great Western
trains between London
, Oxford
, Great Malvern
, Worcester
and Hereford
.
Bus services include a branch of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire route S3 between Charlbury and Oxford via Woodstock
. Services on the Charlbury branch of route S3 run hourly, Monday - Saturday. Route S3 evening and Sunday services do not serve Charlbury. RH Buses' route X9 between Chipping Norton
and Witney
runs hourly via Charlbury, Monday - Saturday. There are other local bus services to and from Charlbury that run less than hourly.
Premier Division. Charlbury Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association League Division 1. Charlbury has a Women's Institute.
Charlbury Museum
, opened in 1962, is a local museum run by the Charlbury Society.
Charlbury hosts a number of public events each year: the Riverside Music Festival in June, the Cornbury Music Festival and Charlbury Beer Festival in July and the Charlbury Street Fair, which dates back to 1955, in September.
leader and Prime Minister David Cameron
. Charlbury's county councillor, Neil Owen, is a Conservative and two district councillors, Glena Chadwick and Michael Breakell are both Liberal Democrats
.
River Evenlode
The River Evenlode is a river in England which is a tributary of the Thames in Oxfordshire. It rises near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire in the Cotswold Hills and flows south-east passing near Stow-on-the-Wold, Charlbury, Bladon, and Cassington, and its valley provides the route of the southern...
valley, about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Witney
Witney
Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....
in West Oxfordshire
West Oxfordshire
West Oxfordshire is a local government district in north west Oxfordshire, England including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, and Witney ....
. It is on the edge of the Wychwood
Wychwood
The Wychwood, or Wychwood Forest, is an area now covering a small part of rural Oxfordshire. In past centuries the forest covered a much larger area, since cleared in favour of agriculture, villages and towns. However, the forest's area has fluctuated...
forest and the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
.
Place name
The origin of the town's toponymToponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
is obscure. At first sight it may appear to relate to the name 'Charles' but some hold it to derive from the Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
word ceorl (probably pronounced /tʃɔrl/) meaning "freeman of the lowest class", whence the Modern English
Modern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...
words "churl
Churl
A churl , in its earliest Old English meaning, was simply "a man", but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile peasant", still spelt ċeorl, and denoting the lowest rank of freemen...
" and "churlish" (which are now used only in a derogatory sense), whilst other sources state it to derive from the Old English personal name Ceorl. For this reason some hold the latter two pronunciations more valid than the former, and the current spelling incorrect, preferring 'Chorlbury'. Both the name 'Charles'/Ceorl and the word ceorl/'churl' derive from the same Proto-Germanic word *karlaz.
Notable buildings
On the outskirts of Charlbury is Lee Place, the former Dower houseDower house
On an estate, a dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the estate-owner. The widow, often known as the "dowager" usually moves into the dower house from the larger family house on the death of her husband if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he...
of Ditchley
Ditchley
Ditchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...
and now the home of the Duchess of Marlborough
Duchess of Marlborough
Duchess of Marlborough may refer to:* Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough , wife of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough* Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough , daughter and heiress of the 1st Duke of Marlborough...
. Cornbury Park, now owned by Lord Rotherwick
Baron Rotherwick
Baron Rotherwick, of Tylney in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 June 1939 for the shipping magnate and Conservative Member of Parliament, Sir Herbert Cayzer, 1st Baronet. He had previously represented Portsmouth South in the House of...
, contains a 17th century country house
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
designed partly by the architect Hugh May
Hugh May
Hugh May was an English architect in the period after the Restoration of King Charles II. He worked in the era which fell between the first introduction of Palladianism into England by Inigo Jones, and the full flowering of English Baroque under John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His own work...
.
Parish church
The Church of England parish churchChurch of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of St. Mary the Virgin
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
is by tradition associated with Saint Diuma
Diuma
Diuma was a medieval Bishop of Mercia.Diuma was consecrated after 655 but his death date is unknown. He was an Irishman, and one of the four priests that were introduced into the kingdom of Mercia in 653 by Peada of Mercia son of Penda king of Mercia. Peada had become a Christian when he married...
, the 7th century first Bishop of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
. By 1197 or 1198 the church belonged to Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th...
, which held the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
of the parish until the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in the 16th century. The arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
of Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
arches between the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and north aisle dates from this period. In the 13th century the building was greatly enlarged: the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
was extended eastwards and the south aisle, west tower and north and south chapels were added. In the 14th century the present east windows of the chancel and south chapel were added, both in the Decorated Gothic style. During or before the 15th century the north aisle was widened. In the 15th century additions were made to the building in the Perpendicular Gothic style: the tower was extended higher and a west door was inserted in its base, a clerestorey was added to the nave and new windows were inserted in both aisles. In the 16th century the Perpendicular style south porch was added. Two wooden galleries
West gallery music
West Gallery Music, also known as "Georgian psalmody" refers to the sacred music sung and played in English parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850...
were added, possibly in the 18th century. In the 18th or early in the 19th century most of the windows lost their tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
.
In 1856 the Gothic Revival architect
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
G.E. Street
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
removed the galleries and refitted the church with new pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s, and in 1874 another Gothic Revival architect, Charles Buckeridge
Charles Buckeridge
Charles Buckeridge was a British Gothic Revival architect who trained as a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He practiced in Oxford 1856–68 and in London from 1869. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861.-Work:Much of Buckeridge's work was for parish...
, rebuilt the chancel. In the early 1990s an extensive reordering saw the pews removed and the main altar moved to the west end.
The organ is a two-manual Wyvern digital instrument, installed in 2010 to replace a Makin digital in place since 1990. The bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
has a ring
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
of six bells, all cast in 1716 by Abraham I Rudhall of Gloucester
Rudhall of Gloucester
Rudhall of Gloucester was a family business of bell founders in the city of Gloucester, England, who between 1684 and 1835 produced over 5,000 bells. The business was founded by Abraham Rudhall and the earliest ring of bells he cast was for St Nicholas' Church, Oddington in 1684. He came to be...
plus a Sanctus
Sanctus
The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
bell cast by an unknown founder in about 1599.
Transport
Charlbury railway stationCharlbury railway station
Charlbury railway station is a railway station serving the town of Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England. This station and all trains serving it are operated by First Great Western...
is on the Cotswold Line
Cotswold Line
The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.-Route:The line comprises all or part of the following Network Rail routes:*GW 200 from Oxford*GW 310 from Wolvercot Junction*GW 300 from Norton Junction*GW 340 from Worcester Shrub Hill...
. It is served by First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....
trains between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Great Malvern
Great Malvern
Great Malvern is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is the historical centre of the town, and the location of the headquarters buildings of the of Malvern Town Council, the governing body of the Malvern civil parish, and Malvern Hills District council of the county of...
, Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
and Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
.
Bus services include a branch of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire route S3 between Charlbury and Oxford via Woodstock
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a small town northwest of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. It is the location of Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and is buried in the nearby village of Bladon....
. Services on the Charlbury branch of route S3 run hourly, Monday - Saturday. Route S3 evening and Sunday services do not serve Charlbury. RH Buses' route X9 between Chipping Norton
Chipping Norton
Chipping Norton is a market town in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about southwest of Banbury.-History until the 17th century:...
and Witney
Witney
Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....
runs hourly via Charlbury, Monday - Saturday. There are other local bus services to and from Charlbury that run less than hourly.
Amenities
Charlbury Town Football Club plays in Witney and District Football LeagueWitney and District League
The Witney and District League is a football competition based in Oxfordshire, England. It has a total of four divisions headed by the Premier Division which sits at level 13 of the English football league system.-Champions:-Member clubs 2011–12:...
Premier Division. Charlbury Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association League Division 1. Charlbury has a Women's Institute.
Charlbury Museum
Charlbury Museum
Charlbury Museum is a local museum in the town of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England.The museum and collections are organized and run by the Charlbury Society, originally founded in 1949....
, opened in 1962, is a local museum run by the Charlbury Society.
Charlbury hosts a number of public events each year: the Riverside Music Festival in June, the Cornbury Music Festival and Charlbury Beer Festival in July and the Charlbury Street Fair, which dates back to 1955, in September.
Politics
Charlbury is in the parliamentary constituency of ConservativeConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
leader and Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
. Charlbury's county councillor, Neil Owen, is a Conservative and two district councillors, Glena Chadwick and Michael Breakell are both Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
.
External links
- Charlbury.info
- Open Directory Project page for Charlbury
- http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#435,218,1 Town on 1947 Ordnance SurveyOrdnance SurveyOrdnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
Map]