Spelsbury is a village and civil parish about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Charlbury

Charlbury

Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in West Oxfordshire. It is on the edge of the Wychwood forest and the Cotswolds.-Place name:The origin of the town's toponym is obscure...

 and about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Spelsbury stands on a narrow hill between the Coldron and Taston

Taston

Taston is a hamlet in Spelsbury civil parish, about north of Charlbury and southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.Its toponym is derived from Thorstan meaning "Thorstone", a small standing stone claimed to be a thunderbolt of the god Thunor....

 brooks overlooking the River Evenlode

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...

 and the ancient Wychwood Forest to the north.

History

The toponym

Toponymy

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 derived from the Old English for either "spying place" or the place of a person called "Speol". It was first recorded in the Cartularium Saxonicum in AD 1010 as Speoles byrig. In 1086 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...

 recorded the village as Spelesberie.

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 All Saints was originally 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...

 with a central tower. In about 1200 transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

s were added, but during the 13th century the Early English Gothic 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 built on the site of the Norman 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...

. The nave is flanked by north and south aisles. The present west doorway in the tower and several of the windows in the aisles are early 14th century.
In 1706 the 1st Earl of Lichfield

Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield

Sir Edward Henry Lee, 5th Baronet, of Ditchley and of Quarendon, created 1st Earl of Lichfield was an English peer. He was a staunch tory and followed James II to Rochester, Kent after the king's escape from Whitehall in December 1688...

 had 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...

 restored. In 1740 the 2nd Earl of Lichfield

George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield

George Henry Lee I, 2nd Earl of Lichfield was the sixth son of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield and his wife Charlotte Fitzroy, an illegitimate daughter of Charles II by his mistress, the celebrated courtesan Barbara Villiers. On 14 July 1716 George Henry Lee succeeded his father as the 2nd...

 had the chancel rebuilt. In 1774 the 4th Earl of Lichfield

Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield

Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield was an uncle of the 3rd Earl, George Henry Lee II. He was a son of Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield and his wife Charlotte Fitzroy, an illegitimate daughter of Charles II....

 had the nave and aisles remodelled. The chancel was rebuilt again in 1851. In 2001 the Church of England Benefice of Ascott-under-Wychwood

Ascott-under-Wychwood

Ascott-under-Wychwood is a village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about south of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.-History:The village is one of several named after the historic forest of Wychwood; the others being Shipton-under-Wychwood and Milton-under-Wychwood.Ascot d'Oilly Castle was...

, Chadlington

Chadlington

Chadlington is a village and civil parish in the Evenlode Valley about south of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England. The village comprises five "ends" - almost individual hamlets in their own right - called Greenend, Brookend, Westend, Millend, and Eastend....

 and Spelsbury merged with that of Enstone and Heythrop

Heythrop

Heythrop is a village and civil parish just over east of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Dunthrop.Heythrop had a Norman parish church of Saint Nicholas, but the nave has been demolished and only the chancel has been preserved as a mortuary chapel...

 to form the Chase Benefice.

Spelsbury has a group of almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

s built in 1688 by John Carry. The Coldron Mill, north of the village, is on a site where a mill has existed for at least a thousand years. In the village a drinking fountain in the shape of a shell commemorates Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon

Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon

Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon was an Irish peer, writer and MP for Harwich and for County Mayo.His daughter Henrietta Maria married Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley.- Biography :...

, who died in 1853.

The poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester , styled Viscount Wilmot between 1652 and 1658, was an English Libertine poet, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of much satirical and bawdy poetry. He was the toast of the Restoration court and a patron of the arts...

 lived and is buried in Spelsbury. The actor Sir Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

lives in the village.