Gosford is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 immediately southeast of Kidlington

Kidlington

Kidlington is a large village and civil parish between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and southwest of Bicester.-History:...

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is in the civil parish of Gosford and Water Eaton

Gosford and Water Eaton

Gosford and Water Eaton is a civil parish in the Cherwell district of the English county of Oxfordshire.It is north of the city of Oxford and is crossed nearby by two major roads for, or by-passing, the city....

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History

The manor

Manorialism

Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 of Gosford was granted to the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

 in 1142, who held it 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. During the 16th century Gosford was administered with Water Eaton

Water Eaton, Oxfordshire

Water Eaton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Gosford and Water Eaton, between Oxford and Kidlington in Oxfordshire.-History:The toponym Eaton is Anglo-Saxon, and "Water Eaton" means "farm by a river", referring to the manor's site beside the River Cherwell. Water Eaton manor house was built for...

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In the 17th century "Mr. Richard Washington, gent" (died 1670) maintained a school at Gosford. In 1838 a penny post

Penny Post

The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny.-London Penny Post:In England, the Post Office had a monopoly on the collection and carriage of letters between post towns but there was no delivery system until the London Penny Post was...

 station was opened in Gosford. There was a full post office by 1847 that remained until 1853.

Gosford and Water Eaton civil parishes were merged in 1932. In the same year a secondary school, Kidlington Church of England Central School was founded in Gosford. It is now Gosford Hill School

Gosford Hill School

Gosford Hill School is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school in Kidlington, Oxfordshire and a Specialist College of Mathematics and Computing; the first school in Oxfordshire to receive this award...

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External links