Hardwick, Cherwell
Encyclopedia
Hardwick is a village about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of Bicester
in Oxfordshire
.
comes from the Old English for a farm or dwelling place for sheep. After the Norman Conquest of England
Walter Giffard
held the manor
of Hardwick, but the Domesday Book
records that by 1086 he had given it to Robert D'Oyly
in an exchange of lands. It descended with D'Oyly's heirs until 1232 when it passed to Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick
.
William Fermor of Somerton bought a third of the manor of Hardwick in 1514 and had acquired the remainder by 1548.
The house at Manor Farm was built late in the 16th century. The Fermors usually let it to tenant farmers.
Some of the land in the parish seems to have been enclosed
in the 16th century for sheep pasture, but there was still an open field system
of three fields by 1601. By 1682 parts of Heath Field and Mill Field had been enclosed, and by 1717 the enclosure of Heath Field was complete. Enclosure of the remainder of the parish was complete well before 1784, when Tinker's Field and the remainder of Mill Field were described as having been enclosed "from time immemorial".
In 1857 Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
bought the estates of Tusmore
and Hardwick. In 1869-70 he demolished the old cottages of the village and replaced them with new ones of stone with brick quoins
. He built a village school which was finished in 1873, and his heir Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham maintained the school until at least 1895. However, the 3rd Earl died in 1898 and by 1903 the school had closed. It is now a private house.
, and by 1249 or 1250 Hardwick had become a separate ecclesiastical parish. The Knights Hospitaller
owned the advowson
by 1252, and held it until Henry VIII
suppressed the Order in England 1540. In 1545 The Crown
sold the advowson to an associate of William Fermor, the lord of the manor. The advowson remained with the Fermors until the middle of the 19th century, when their direct line died out and their estates at Tusmore and Hardwick were sold.
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church
of Saint Mary
are the north and south doorways. The Victoria County History
says the doorways are from late in the 12th or early in the 13th century, but Sherwood and Pevsner states they are in the Decorated Gothic style which would give them a later date of 1250-1350. The chancel
is Decorated Gothic and certainly from the 14th century. The nave
was rebuilt in the 15th century with a large new Perpendicular Gothic west window. In 1877 Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham commissioned George Gilbert Scott, Jr. to restore the church. Scott virtually rebuilt it and added the south aisle, porch and bell-turret. St. Mary's is now a member of the Shelswell
Benefice.
The Fermors were recusants
and supported the continuation of Roman Catholicism
in the area from the English Reformation
in the 16th century until after the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
. Late in the 16th century and early in the 17th there were few recusants in Hardwick, but after the Fermors moved from Somerton to Tusmore in 1625 their numbers increased. Roman Catholics formed more than half the village by the 1760s and the overwhelming majority by 1802. Roman Catholic villages went to Mass
at the Fermor chapel in Tusmore until 1768, when Tusmore House was being rebuilt and the chapel was closed for refurbishment. A chapel was then established in the attic of Hardwick Manor Farm, which remained in use for worship until the priest died in 1830. The chapel was succeeded in 1832 by a newly built Roman Catholic church at Hethe
, just over 1 miles (1.6 km) east of Hardwick.
Bicester
Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
.
Manor
The village'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...
comes from the Old English for a farm or dwelling place for sheep. After the Norman Conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
Walter Giffard
Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham
Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville, 1st Earl of Buckingham was a Norman magnate and one of the few proven Companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The caput of his feudal honour was at Crendon, Buckinghamshire....
held 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 Hardwick, but the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
records that by 1086 he had given it to Robert D'Oyly
Robert D'Oyly
Robert D'Oyly was a Norman nobleman who accompanied William the Conqueror on the Norman Conquest, his invasion of England. He died in 1091.-Background:Robert was the son of Walter D'Oyly and elder brother to Nigel D'Oyly...
in an exchange of lands. It descended with D'Oyly's heirs until 1232 when it passed to Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick
Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick
Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick , Earl of Warwick, Baron of Hocknorton and Hedenton, was the son of Henry de Beaumont, 5th Earl of Warwick and Margaret D'Oili...
.
William Fermor of Somerton bought a third of the manor of Hardwick in 1514 and had acquired the remainder by 1548.
The house at Manor Farm was built late in the 16th century. The Fermors usually let it to tenant farmers.
Some of the land in the parish seems to have been enclosed
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
in the 16th century for sheep pasture, but there was still an open field system
Open field system
The open field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe from the Middle Ages to as recently as the 20th century in some places, particularly Russia and Iran. Under this system, each manor or village had several very large fields, farmed in strips by individual families...
of three fields by 1601. By 1682 parts of Heath Field and Mill Field had been enclosed, and by 1717 the enclosure of Heath Field was complete. Enclosure of the remainder of the parish was complete well before 1784, when Tinker's Field and the remainder of Mill Field were described as having been enclosed "from time immemorial".
In 1857 Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham
Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham , styled Lord Howard of Effingham from 1837 to 1845, was a British peer and Member of Parliament....
bought the estates of Tusmore
Tusmore, Oxfordshire
Tusmore is a settlement about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is the location of the Tusmore Park country house and estate.-Manor:Tusmore was settled in Saxon times...
and Hardwick. In 1869-70 he demolished the old cottages of the village and replaced them with new ones of stone with brick quoins
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
. He built a village school which was finished in 1873, and his heir Henry Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham maintained the school until at least 1895. However, the 3rd Earl died in 1898 and by 1903 the school had closed. It is now a private house.
Church and chapel
By the middle of the 12th century the parish was a chapelry of Stoke LyneStoke Lyne
Stoke Lyne is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester, Oxfordshire.-Manor:Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria owned the manor of Stoke Lyne before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066...
, and by 1249 or 1250 Hardwick had become a separate ecclesiastical parish. 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...
owned 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...
by 1252, and held it until Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
suppressed the Order in England 1540. In 1545 The Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
sold the advowson to an associate of William Fermor, the lord of the manor. The advowson remained with the Fermors until the middle of the 19th century, when their direct line died out and their estates at Tusmore and Hardwick were sold.
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church
Church 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 Saint Mary
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...
are the north and south doorways. The Victoria County History
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...
says the doorways are from late in the 12th or early in the 13th century, but Sherwood and Pevsner states they are in the Decorated Gothic style which would give them a later date of 1250-1350. 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...
is Decorated Gothic and certainly from the 14th century. 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...
was rebuilt in the 15th century with a large new Perpendicular Gothic west window. In 1877 Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham commissioned George Gilbert Scott, Jr. to restore the church. Scott virtually rebuilt it and added the south aisle, porch and bell-turret. St. Mary's is now a member of the Shelswell
Shelswell
Shelswell is a hamlet in Oxfordshire about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire.-Manor:Shelswell's toponym comes from Old English and suggest's that the settlement may originally have been the well belonging to Scield, a Saxon settler. The spring that gave rise to this well is no...
Benefice.
The Fermors were recusants
Recusancy
In the history of England and Wales, the recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants"...
and supported the continuation of Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in the area from the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
in the 16th century until after the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Roman Catholics to the practise of law, permitted the exercise of their religion, and the existence of...
. Late in the 16th century and early in the 17th there were few recusants in Hardwick, but after the Fermors moved from Somerton to Tusmore in 1625 their numbers increased. Roman Catholics formed more than half the village by the 1760s and the overwhelming majority by 1802. Roman Catholic villages went to Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
at the Fermor chapel in Tusmore until 1768, when Tusmore House was being rebuilt and the chapel was closed for refurbishment. A chapel was then established in the attic of Hardwick Manor Farm, which remained in use for worship until the priest died in 1830. The chapel was succeeded in 1832 by a newly built Roman Catholic church at Hethe
Hethe
Hethe is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire.-Manor:The village's toponym comes from the Old English hæp meaning "uncultivated ground"....
, just over 1 miles (1.6 km) east of Hardwick.