Ambrosden Oxfordshire

Ambrosden the village and House

Like many other villages, Ambrosden’s history can be traced back to Saxon times. Although some people believe that Ambrosden was named after Ambrosius Aurelianus, a 5th-century British-Roman military leader who supposedly encamped close to the present site of Ambrosden to help the neighbouring military garrison at Alchester in conflicts with the Anglo-Saxons, historians believe the name actually came from the Old English for “Ambre’s hill”. The course of Akeman Street, a Roman road that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way, passes through the parish just to the north of the village. Roman pottery has been found in the area and, when the scholar and antiquarian White Kennett was Vicar of Ambrosden (1685-1708), ancient Danish remains were found in the area too.

 

St Mary the Virgin Church

The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin has been refurbished many times over the centuries. Although the door dates from Norman times the west tower is Early English Gothic and the remainder of the church was rebuilt in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. Near St. Mary’s are remnants of the older village, but much of Ambrosden now consists of MOD housing built in the 1950s for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps’ Central Ordnance Depot at Graven Hill and St George’s Barracks at Arncott. The depot’s internal railway system, known as the Bicester Military Railway, passes Ambrosden and links the Graven Hill depot with other depot sites at Arncott and Piddington. During the reign of King Edward the Confessor a lady called Elviva held the manor of Ambrosden. The Domesday Book then records that by 1086 she had been replaced by Hugh d’Ivry, butler of William the Conqueror and brother of Roger d’Ivry, who owned several manors in Oxfordshire. The name Ambrosden is derived from the Old English name indicating an ancient settlement built on a low-level hill. Iron Age pottery and Roman coins have been discovered in the village. The prefix of the village name is thought to have originated from ‘Ambre’s Hill’ or ‘Hill of the buntings’. The nine-hundredth anniversary of the Church was celebrated in 2006. Muswell Hill had a chapel established on it as early as 1106, built by Ralph the Hermit and financed by Joan Piddington. The present church at Ambrosden was built in the C12th and C14th with a tower and Norman doorway. Pargetting was added to the tower in C16th as a demonstration of loyalty to Queen Elizabeth I. The Vicarage, built in 1638, has possibly the oldest Cedar of Lebanon trees in the country planted from seeds brought by Edward Pococke from Syria in 1636.

Where two such eminent antiquaries are divided in opinion, it would appear presumptuous for the present writer to decide; but it may be observed that in Doomsday Hook the name is spelled Ambrosdone; in an inquisition taken A. 1'). 1272, Ambredon; in the Hundred Roll of the county, compiled Ambresdon; and in a multitude of later deeds, down to the Valor Ecclesiasticus (26 Hen. VIII.) Ambrysden, or Ambresdon. Nor is the name of Amersden seen in more than one record, older than the time of Queen Elizabeth.

A Late 18th-century description describes Ambrosden as:  The village Consists of a few straggling houses, built on an elevated piece of ground, on the high road leading from Bicester to Merton. At a short distance on the right is the Church, and near it the neat and commodious Vicarage, surrounded by a well-cultivated garden, and handsome pleasure ground, lately improved by a railing, which affords an extensive view over the park of Sir Gregory Osborne Page Turner, Bart. The farmhouses and cottages merit no particular description; they are built of the stone peculiar to Oxfordshire. In a census of population, taken in 1811, this village was returned as containing 26 houses, 26 families, 67 males, and 73 females, making a total of 140 inhabitants. The estimate of the annual value of the real property, as assessed in April 1815, was £1,240. Soon after the purchase of the manorial estate by Sir William Glynne, (the eldest son of the celebrated judge) be erected a handsome mansion for himself and his posterity, on an elevated site near the church, and at no distance from the high road* leading from Ambrosden to Bicester.

Sir William Glynne's house, Ambrosden, built 1675, faced E. towards Blackthorn.

Sir William Glynne's house, Ambrosden, built 1675, faced E. towards Blackthorn. The offices, a single-story building to the left behind the south wing, were hidden from public view by a high wall and shrubbery. Fruit trees, possibly apricots, were trained against the wall of the house as was the 17th-century custom. The road to Wretchwick ran in front of the house and one to Merton from the top right of the engraving (Kennett) The inscription in the coat of arms reads: To William Glynne Esq, Son and Heir Apparent of Sir William Glynne, Baronet, this Prospect of his Hereditary Seat is presented with devout Prayers for his Happy Life and Honourable Education by White Kennett. Ambrosden was fortunate indeed in having not only Sir William as lord of the manor but also White Kennett as vicar, both learned, charitable men of the highest caliber. Dunkin notes that Sir William had a valuable library with deeds of Bicester Priory and Oseney and Eynsham Abbeys, presumably passed down from his father.

The Parish records the death In 1688 of George Thurston, groom to Sir William Glynne. Two years later in 1690 Sir William died and the manor passed to his son Sir William 1663-172l, he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1679 and became MP for the University of Oxford 1698-1700 and for Woodstock 1701-3 and Sheriff of 0xon 1706-7. The period 1715-30 was, however, a difficult one for the manor and parish: a lot of the land was untenanted and few new family names showed a sharp decline in new names in the parish records at the time between 1711-1731  The Glynne inheritance was impeded by legacies and the sons had to raise mortgages on the manor to clear their debt. Sir William Jnr. died in 1721 and was succeeded by his brother, Sir Stephen. In 1729 Sir Stephen died and his son who succeeded him died eight months later just before the sale of the manor to Sir Edward Turner of London (chairman of the East India Company) was finalized.

 The Ambrosden Estate 

After a period in the ownership of relatively local families, many manors passed either through marriage or were sold when there was no heir to other less local families, some quite wealthy and influential. A few of the most affluent bought up several manors, earning sizeable returns from the rent roll, This brought about a new dimension to the concept of the manor - the estate - an income-generating investment managed by bailiffs for absentee landlords or lords living in country mansions and landscaped parks apart from the village. In many cases, the take-over of land by the wealthy few coincided with the Enclosure movement which consolidated former strips in open fields into fewer tenant-farm holdings and curtailed former common grazing rights bringing about a new brand of servitude to local communities. Yeomen farmers became committed to tenancy agreements with heavy rent payments and strict rules as to what they could and could not do on the lord's land, and smallholders were forced off the land or into lives as agricultural labourers.

Map of Ambrosden Estate by Thomas Williams completed in 1740

Sir Edward Turner, 1st Bt. Of Ambrosden 1691-1735

In 1728 Gregory Page of Greenwich, Bart. His friend , brother-in-law and colleague Edward Turner of Lincoln’s Inn were in treaty for the purchase, but, before it was completed, Sir Stephen Glynne died, the conveyance however was effected in the December following, and the estates delivered into their possession.

In 1729 Turner bought the Ambrosden estate from Sir Stephen Glynne, grandson of Chief Justice Glynne, and he was created a baronet in August 1733. His elder brother, John of Sunbury-on-Thames, who had been a director of the South Sea Company presumably survived the collapse of the ‘Bubble’ and/or was responsible for the Company’s recovery, as he let Sir Edward’s son estates valued at £100 000 at his death in 1760.  Sir Edward Turner, was born in 1691, the second son of John and Elizabeth Turner of London. He grew up during a period of considerable expansion of British trade and a time when huge profits were to be made from the British East India Company Burke notes that he was a member of Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four professional societies for barristers, though in his time a gentleman’s education often incorporated a period studying the rudiments of law at one of the Inns without pursuing it as a career.

In 1718 he married Mary, the eldest daughter of Sir Gregory Page, 1‘ Bt. Of East Greenwich, and it was probably his father-in-law’s influence as well as that of his brother, John, who was a director of the South Sea Company, that persuaded Edward to purchase shares in that company. ‘ The South Sea Company, chartered in 1711 by Robert Harley (later to become Chancellor of the Exchequer) enjoyed monopoly rights for conducting British trade in S. America, the British colonies of N. America and all Spanish colonies and in some years were paying nearly 100% dividends. In 1720 the Company offered and the Government accepted to take over more of the National Debt in its stocks which led to an astonishing increase in the price of the Company’s shares from £128 .10s in January to nearly £1000 in August (known as the South Sea Bubble). Edward Turner and Gregory Page held substantial holdings of shares in the Company and sold them just before the crash (September 1720) making enormous gains, which they subsequently invested in purchasing land and country manors. Turner was appointed alongside his father-in-law as a director of the East India Company and rose to the position of Company chairman, one of great influence akin to an independent Bank of England governor today, The E.India Co. had founded Calcutta in 1690 and was by this time conducting a flourishing triangular trade with India and China. 

Sir Edward Turner, 1719-1766, 2nd Bt. of Ambrosden

The manors of Merton and Ambrosden were the seats of several noble families and country gentlemen, none more prominent locally as a squire (country gentleman landowner), and nationally as a politician than the 2nd Baronet of Ambrosden, Sir Edward Turner. Much of the ensuing biography has been drawn from Sir Edward’s correspondence with his great friend and the architect of his mansion and park, 'Sanderson Miller of Radway Grange, whose home near Banbury was a meeting place for politicians, writers and people of influence in the mid 18‘"C. These letters are part of a collection of letters to Miller from leading men of the day, often seeking architectural advice and services but at the same time giving a valuable insight into 18thC political and social life. Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt, was born in London in 1719, the youngest and only surviving son of Sir Edward, 1^st Bt, and Mary, Lady Turner. The first mention in Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage of the Turner family is of a Hugh Turner (Will dated 1558) of Sutton Coldfield in the Midlands. His son, Richard Turner, fourth great grandfather to Sir Edward Turner 2^nd Bt, was a barrister-at-law at the  Middle Temple, London. Sir Edward’s great-great grandfather, Edward Turner (d 1626), was sometime mayor of Leicester. By the middle of the 17"‘C the Turner line was based in London where his great grandfather, John, (1622-1694) is recorded as a merchant and vintner and where his father and Sir Edward were born. He was educated at Balliol College Oxford where he was noted for his distinguished scholarship Deane Swift, cousin of the Irish satirist, Jonathan Swift, wrote of him later in life in 1765 in a letter to Sanderson Miller, the architect, “Does your friend, Sir Edward Turner, continue to be a friend to Apollo and the Muses? I wish you Could persuade him to write, as no man I think in England so well deserves to wear the Laurels”. He gained his BA in 1735 at the time of his father’s death, and then spent some years in Europe on the Grand Tour before returning to take his MA in 1738. Like his father, he spent time at Lincoln’s Inn, where he qualified with a Doctorate in Civil Law (DCL) in 1744.

Ambrosden House rebuilt by Sir Edward Turner 2^nd Bt

Sir Edward Turner 2^nd Bt’s growing reputation and status as a landowner and politician as well as the prevailing fashion must have persuaded him to embark upon a costly building program for a new house and park. In 1739 he extended his land-holding by purchasing from the heirs of George Nicholas the farm rents of the Priory of St Edburg in Bicester. Two years later James Harington mortgaged the Merton manor to him for £9,500 and in 1749 when Harington went into exile he acquired the lands of Merton manor which included 300 acres at Piddington. He was seized of his Bicester Priory lands, however, during the Bicester (Market End) Enclosure Act of 175 8. He bought up further areas of the former Ambrosden Field in 17605 from Richard Williams and I. Robins (including the ancient Bridge Close), bringing his total land holding to over 3000 acres (more

than three times his father’s holding).

In 1740 Sir Edward employed the cartographer, Thomas Williams, to survey and map his estate (Fig.1). At that time he owned 1484 acres, 91% of the Ambrosden and Wretchwick lands Nearly 80% of this was tenanted, mostly on the former Bicester (Wretchwick) manor lands and the old East and West fields of the former Ambrosden demesne, as well as recently developed hill land around Gravenhill Wood. The original map, entitled ‘A New Map of Part of the Manor: of Ambrosden and Wrechwic’ was drawn on parchment and embellished with the Turner's arms with robed figures and angels holding dividers, scrolled headings, scale bands, and compass bearings. It was a masterpiece of detail, not only differentiating hedges from other means of enclosure and charting ponds, woodland, church, Vicarage, and cottages and the site of the proposed mansion and offices but also trees and furze ground were shown as well as the direction all field gates opened. Below the map, the names of tenants, their fields and acreages were tabulated as well as land that was untenanted.

In 1741 he obtained a licence to enclose the old highway which ran in front of the manor house from Ambrosden to Bicester and also to construct a new road to Merton, running some 400 yards parallel with the old road, at a reponed cost of £1.15 for every 240 yards. Merton’s link with the market town, Bicester, at that time, was via a track (Langford Lane) on the western side of Graven Hill, near the often-flooded R.Bure (Langford Brook). The new road wasn’t completed until 1763 but arrangements were put in place as early as 1747 as a document (PRMS, I /xi /1), dated 14 Aug, 21 Geo II, (1747), between Esau Clarke and his wife, Mary, of Barton Hartshome and Sir Edward Turner over the conveyance of land near Ambrosden Gate indicates:

All that land, strip of Ground or Highway taken out of two closes of meadow or pasture ground called Little Close and the Way Ground in Ambrosden, containing in length from Ambrosden Gate to an old Quicksett hedge (whitethorn or hawthorn) of Esau Clarke, now growing on the South side of the said Lane on part of the Way Ground 66 poles (363 yards), and also all that New Quicksett Hedge on the South side of the said Lane.., To make a road or highway not exceeding 32 feet to be measured from the said Orchard wall (late in possession of Robert Day) into the said pond and the gate, gate-posts and still leading into Little Close and Way Ground.

The Image above shows the line of Sir Edward’s new road to Merton indicating the 363 yards mentioned in the PRMS document beginning at Yew Tree Cottage and the adjacent quince orchard wall. It also shows the location of Sir William Glynne’s house (3) built in 1675, to which tree pointers direct attention, and two other buildings. The central one (4) shows the proposed site of Sir Edward’s mansion, with the original plan for the siting of offices above ground at (5). The part of the road to Wrechwic and Bicester which passed in front of the house has been removed and replaced with a road to the east of the churchyard serving the Lodge. This road is then far enough from the House to permit an ‘unblighted’ prospect of trees and lawns (Fig. 5).

The remainder of the Wretchwick-Ambrosden road had not yet been shifted 400 yards eastwards to its present position alongside the Gothic and Gothic barn. The Latin cross of trees probably indicated the position of the former roads with Yew Tree Cottage possibly once being on the comer of a road going to Arncott.

Sir Edward demolished the offices at the eastern end of the house built by Sir William Glynne, which Kennett described as the pride and glory of the village, and erected a Palladian edifice next to the earlier building. The new house was constructed between 1747-1750 as his letters to Sanderson Miller, the architect, testify. Sir Edward commenced a series of improvements, by the erection of a noble mansion on the site of the ancient edifice of the Glynnes, and enclosing and forming the whole of the surrounding domain into a beautiful park, which the inequality of the surface enabled him to decorate and diversify in a superior manner. The mansion itself was oblong and stood nearly east and west; the principal front, about 200 feet in length, looked towards Blackthorn and was approached by a semicircular drive. 

The building consisted of a rustic basement, having the hall door in the center, ascended by a flight of steps: of a principal story, the windows of which were supported by low pillars and surmounted by a pediment; and of attics, lighted by windows nearly square. Above these ran a dentuled cornice, and elegant balustrade, which effectually concealed the roof. The offices were under ground, and entered by a covered area, that opened at some distance from the house. In the interior, around the hall of entrance, ran a gallery supported by richly carved cantilevers, representing branches of oak loaded with acorns. This hall opened into the saloon. The library was fitted up with mahogany bookcases, shutters, &c. The dining room was 36 feet by 24, and with the rest of the apartments finished in the handsomest manner. As the house stood isolated, it commanded an extensive prospect on either side.

   

  

 Towards Merton the view was agreeably diversified by the fish ponds and scenery of the park, aided by the village spire in the distance; towards Gravenhill-wood the lawn was peculiarly delightful; and in front, an avenue of trees the whole breadth of the house, extended for some distance in a straight line, then expanded on either side into a semicircle, whose opposite points met at the principal entrance into the park, where stood a rustic lodge inhabited by the porter. Numerous plantations, and statues*   ornamented the enclosure, and just within the paling,+ a beautiful carriage road, still visible, shaded by the luxurious foliage of diversified trees, ran around the whole park; the circumference of which is said to have been five miles; In this state the whole remained at the death of Sir Edward; and on the return of his son and successor from the continent, three years after, the mansion was again occupied. Sir Gregory, however, In the park, at a short distance from the foundations, is a strong spring, whose waters, employing a lead pipe, assume the appearance of a boiling well.

The plans originally incorporated a Gothic front, inspired by the Gothic revival in architecture, probably as a reaction to the austere ‘Augustan Age’ symmetry and formality though this is not shown in the 1762 illustration (Fig.6) Horace Walpole, son of the long-serving prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, gothicised his Villa at Strawberry Hill as had Sanderson Miller at Radway Grange. The OS 25" map (1875) of the ruins suggests an oval-shaped front to the building and it may have been that Sir Edward added a Gothic front to the facade between 1762 and his death in 1766'

It would seem that work got underway on the extensions which included underground offices approached by an underground passageway broad enough to bring in horse and wagon at the end of May 1747 as Sir Edward mentions he would be in Ambrosden then for the laying of foundations. During the next three years, Sir Edward often wrote urgently to Miller to summon him or his chief mason, Hitchcox to Ambrosden to discuss progress on what he described as his “Barn”.

July I7th I747

am now preparing to fix up my Saloon. and cannot budge without your assistance.....By your zeal for the Architectural Cause I implore your immediate

presence

P.S. If your Mason will not supply me faster with Stone than he has done, the next Sexennial Election will run away with all my money before the Barn can be finished.

 

Ambrosden, October I 748

It is impossible that the work shou‘d be carried on if Hitchcox will not attend at least once a week. If the Gate is to built by Hitchcox at a distance. it is possible that he may be oblig’d to demolish it when he arrives. I am infinitely oblig'd to you for your Remarks. and am become 3 Convert to a flat Ceiling. The Workmen had made some progress in an arched One. but will this day begin afresh. if your Mason a Latere will vouchsafe Us his Presence (and I must beg your Holiness to grant him that Indulgence) I shall probably conform to other Orthodox Articles you propose to my Assent i shall however expect that your Legate will not insist upon any new Propositions without supporting them by Reasons.

Dunkin gives us a good description of Ambrosden House as well as an engraving of the building as it appeared in 1762 (Fig. 6).

 

The mansion was oblong and stood nearly east to west (in reality it faced north-east), the principal front, about 200’ in length and 80' in Width, looked towards Blackthorn and was approached by a semi-circular drive. There was a rustic basement with a hall door in the centre. ascended by a flight of steps and a principal storey, Windows of which were supported by low pillars and surmounted by a pediment; and an attic, lighted by Windows nearly square. Above ran a dentuled cornice and elegant balustrade which effectively concealed the roof The house was cased With ashlar brought from Bibury, Glos. Mr Sanderson Miller was the architect. The offices were underground and entered by a covered area that opened at some distance from the House.

Notice the exterior ‘stone curtaining’ of Sir Edward’s windows, typical of the architect’s attempts to soften austere Palladian symmetry.

Demolition of Ambrosden House in 1776

Ambrosden House was subsequently demolished by Sir Edward’s son in 1776, and today we are left only with soil marks (Fig.7) to indicate its former existence although an underground passage and sewage tunnels and the foundations of the offices were evident as late as the 1930s. Sir Gregory Page-Turner  The New Owners of Ambrosden considered the house too large, and nothing could overcome his aversion to it on that account; so that after residing in it for nearly seven years, he determined upon pulling down that portion which his father had erected beyond the site of the ancient mansion of the Glynnes. This he accomplished about 1776, when observing that he had thereby rendered the remaining structure unshapely, the following year he demolished the whole Building. 'Ill‘te purchasers of the materials were bound to remove them by a certain day, and' level the ground:—these however they found so ample that the contractors had barely time to take away the most valuable, and fill up the offices with the walls of the edifice, without attempting their destruction. In a few years, the verdant sward covered the spot, the hedges grew up, and (excepting the rows of trees and silent moat) all traces of its grandeur passed away, while- the generation that witnessed it, silently sunk into the grave. ‘Etc. In the different apartments were an amazing quantity of valuable materials, Which he ordered to be sorted and laid on the banks;—it was hourly hoped and believed by the neighbourhood that it was intended to Rebuild the house: perhaps that expectation has now somewhat abated; still, however there is no knowing what may be his ultimate determination.

The length of Sir Edward’s house quoted by Dunkin does not match the illustration of the building (Fig.6, p.110) but as he pointed out Sir Edward pulled down the offices of the former house of Sir William Glynne (Fig.17,p.79) and built alongside, 200' being the length of the composite structure. This is confirmed by the two-building appearance of the ruins on the 1875 0.S, 25" map. Sir Edward got permission to move the road in front of the houses and he also removed the walls and garden in from of Sir William’s house to make way for a semi-circular carriageway but he possibly retained the pleasure garden to the NW as a parterre. He planted the rows of trees leading from the sides of the front of the house which defined the boundary of part of the park. it is interesting to observe how

the 19505 MOD housing, roads, and parking areas have mirrored the position of earlier features of Ambrosden House and Park (Fig. 7 & 8).

 

The situation of Ambrosden House is shown in the aerial photo, Fig. 8, The line of the former Ambrosden - Bicester road which passed in front of Sir Edward’s house before 1740 and was used as a private carriageway thereafter is indicated by a distinct soil mark as it descends the Cornbrash ridge. Also visible are soil marks indicating the former Merton road running towards the northern end of the house, Sir Edward’s Serpentine, an artificial lake fed by the spring-line and assisted by pumps, existed as part-lake, part-rush beds until quite recently. The 1740 estate map (Fig.3 p 108) showed a number of trees arranged as arrows pointing to the house. Clumps of these can still be seen in the aerial photo of 1975 below.

Although there is no plan of the interior of the building in the published letters of Sanderson Miller, it may well have been similar (without the two wings) to that designed by Miller in 17505 for Sir George and Lady Lyttelton at Hagley Hall, Herefordshire (Fig. 9). From the dimensions given by Dunkin for the dining room it fits well the space and the soil marks in the right comer of the photo (F ig.7), The probable arrangement of the House was the new building accommodating the hall, saloon, library, dining and drawing rooms with kitchens and underground offices occupying the left rear while the earlier building served to provide bedrooms, bathrooms, guest rooms, nursery schoolroom and even servants quarters. Dunkin gives a brief description of some of the interior features of Ambrosden House: Around the entrance hall ran a gallery supported by richly carved cantilevers, representing branches of oak loaded with acorns. The hall opened into the saloon. The library was fitted with mahogany bookcases and shutters. The dining room measured 36’ by 24’

The Park

After completing his "Barn", Sir Edward turned his attention to a park with appropriate landscaped views and scenic walks, attractive carriageways, and an artificial lake. One suspects that he did not embrace the idea of the park being enhanced by the judicious placement of follies but saw it as the fashionable thing to do. Sir Edward’s buoyant wit and seeming amusement in this letter over the failure of his Gothic mins is delightful:

London, March 14th, I750

Down is fallen, fallen. fallen the Gothic! too convincing a proof that the Church was lately in danger! Will your Toryism advise whether to rebuild, or substitute something in its stead?. i. If you are not deeply engaged, come and deplore the ruin of my Ruins.

Church twin danger - no doubt a satirical political swipe at the Tories who associated Whigs with religious dissent and atheism, provoked earlier by the preaching of Henry Sacheverell (1709-10),

 Sir Edward built a new Ambrosden-Wretchwick road 400 yards to the east of the old in order to make room for the extension of his park towards Gravenhill. Today, there remains an area called the Gothic along this road near Back Brook, once a popular camping spot for gypsy caravans (Fig. 3). Also, on the limestone ridge over-looking the hollow was an old barn referred to as the Gothic barn (Fig.12),

Dunkin described the park:

Towards Gravenhill the lawn was delightful. In front of the house an avenue of trees the whole breadth of the House extended for some distance in a straight line then expanded into a semi-circle whose opposite points met at the principal entrance to the park, where stood a rustic lodge inhabited by the porter. There were numerous plantations and statues in the grounds: a statue of Hercules stood on a pedestal in Gravenhtll Wood. Just inside the paling (which cost

£100 a mile) a beautiful carriage road still visible, shaded by the luxurious foliage of diversified trees, ran around the whole park, which was five miles in

circumference.

No doubt Sir Edward, whose letters to Miller occasionally contain light-hearted remarks about his ‘Barn’ and its style would have been amused by this article written by a Mr Coventrye and published in The World on April 12, 1753:

Squire Mushroom grew ambitious of introducing himself to the world as a man of taste and pleasure, for which purpose he . . . resolved to have a villa. Full of this pleasing idea he purchased an old farmhouse, not far distant from the place of his nativity, and fell to building and planting with all the rage of taste. The old mansion immediately shot up into Gothic spires, and was plastered over with stucco: the walls were notched into battlements; uncouth animals were set grinning at one another over the gate-posts, and the hall was fortified with rusty swords and pistols, and a Medusa's head staring tremendous over the chimney. When he had proceeded thus far he discovered in good time that his house was not habitable: which obliged him to add two rooms entirely new, and entirely incoherent with the rest of the building with Venetian windows, slices of pilaster, balustrades and other parts of Italian Architecture...

But the triumph of his genius was seen in the disposition of his gardens, which contain everything in less than two acres of ground... As every folly must have a

name the squire informs you by way of a whim he has christened this place little Manbon; at the other end of which you are conducted into a pompous, clumsy, and gilded building, said to be a temple. and consecrated to Venus....

To conclude, if one wished to see a coxcomb expose himself in the most effectual manner, one would advise him to build a villa; which is the chef-d'oeuvre of modern impertinence, and the most conspicuous stage that Folly can possibly mount to display herself to the world.

There were also times when the nouveaux riches must have had second thoughts about their expenditure. The total cost of building Hagley Hall with house, offices, church, garden and park was £25,823 .3 .4.1/2d and it was not habitable for almost seven years as Sir George Lyttelton points out in a desperate letter to Miller in 1759:

MY DEAR MILLER -

I have a sad account from Hagley. They say the stone sucks in wet upon every hard shower to such a degree that they don't know when, the House will be dry so that I can't go into it this year, nor is it sure when I can with safety to my Health. If this be so there is no Remedy but having it painted and it ought to be done without delay. What the expense will be I can't tell, but if it is necessary it must be incurred. Hollier and Bromfield have written that the rooms he is to hang will not be fit to receive the Paper this year. This is a sad disappointment to me. I wonder the nature of the stone was not known by Hitchcox and you. Sir Gregory Page (Sir Edward Turner’s 5 father-in-Iaw) got into his House, all dry and well, the third year from the Foundations being laid. as I am

told by one of his Friends. By what I hear I may not be able to get into mine these seven years with security. unless it is painted. A Resolution should be immediately taken upon it, and l have found by experience that deferring a necessary expense is no saving. My best Compliments to all your family. LYTTELTON

The stone apparently dried with weathering, but Miller did recommend the course of stones above the cornice be oiled. 

Enclosures

Without a doubt, the most significant upheaval in rural life in the second half of the 18th C and the early l9thC was caused by the outcome of the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts. In today’s parlance enclosure of common fields and waste would be seen as an instrument for industry restructuring: reorganizing the factors of production of land, labour, and capital for greater efficiency of output. Today we struggle to come to terms with set-aside land and redundant labour but at least we have mechanisms to relieve the hardship caused by restructuring. In the 18^th C there was no MMC (Monopolies and Mergers Commission), unemployment agency or retraining center and for those disenfranchised by Enclosure Acts of a rural lifestyle dating back centuries to their Villein ancestry, it must have felt like another Norman Conquest – a return to serfdom and poverty. Although enclosures provided the lever for an integrated market-driven economy they represented a dramatic turning point in the economic and social history of the nation. The Saxon principle of frankpledge or communal responsibility supported by the paternalist oversight of local gentry and the extended familia of the manor was sacrificed to the Adam Smith principle of self-

interest which was intended to promote the common good through the ‘invisible hand ’ of the marketplace.

The process of enclosure was closely associated with the principle of severalty: forming compact land holdings, not necessarily enclosed but held by individual proprietors and not subject to communal rights, A contemporary report on an act of severalty regarding lands at Wretchwick, for instance, claimed that in 1489 the Prior of Bicester took over 5 messuages averaging little more than a virgate each, evicted 18 people, demolished their dwellings and convened former arable land to pasture fields:

‘He held this land on the 2'”i March 1489 when those messages were laid waste and thrown down and lands formerly used for arable he turned over to pasture for animals. So three ploughs are now out of use there, and eighteen people who used to work on that and earn their living there and who dwelled in the houses have gone away to take to the roads in their misery, and to seek their bread elsewhere, and so are led to Idleness. ’

Such radical action was later legislated by an Act of Parliament (1515) restricting village depopulation, but it is likely that the enclosure of Wretchwick land and the establishment of a few farms (Fig.1) was complete before this date. The enclosure movement gained impetus in the 16"‘C and 17‘hC with the disappearance of bonded villeins. For the gentry and yeomen, like there was an incentive to enclose land (mostly with hedges and trees in the Midlands) in order to benefit from the boom in wool and soaring agricultural prices in the fast-growing towns. Production could only realistically be increased where stock was involved by breaking up the vast open fields and enclosing them with hedges. To grow better strains of wheat or barley, strips in the open fields needed consolidating into blocks (perhaps 6, 12 or 18 acres as we have seen with the 60-acre Briar Furlong Field, Ambrosden), a trend which did not really take off, however, until the Enclosure Acts The lSmC accelerated the enclosure process further when large areas of land were bought up by wealthy men, like Sir Edward Turner, 2m Bt. of Ambrosden, who were in a position to make substantial gains on the returns to their investment by charging higher rents on enclosed land leased in large 100+ acre blocks. Tenants were carefully selected (seven tenants held as much as 81% of the 1100 acres of lease land on the Turner estate in 1740) and their tenancy agreements, as we shall see, committed them to systematic husbandry in order to maintain and improve the quality of the land. On their demesne land the landowners were able to test new strains of seed or breeds of cattle and sheep. The Oxford Down breed of sheep was developed in the late 18"‘C by crossing Cotswolds and Hampshires with the introduction of a small amount of Southdown blood, The Oxford’s requirement for an abundant supply of pasture and hay particularly suited it to the Ray Valley. Its heavy frame (second only to the Lincoln) and high lambing percentage (150%) provided a good supply of mutton and a heavy fleece of long staple, light—shrinking wool Fleeces from mature ewes weighed between 8 and 12 pounds with a staple length of between 3" and 5".

Wealthy Whig landowners also had a strong political voice and were able to bring pressure upon more conservative rural elements on the need to recognise the sort of agricultural change long advocated by agricultural writers: consolidation of individual holdings and enclosure, extending the cultivated area, new fodder crops (like the turnip) and better crop rotation. Jethro Tull (1674-1741), for instance, in his Horse-hoeing Husbandry (1733) showed that productivity could be substantially increased by planting grain crops in rows, reducing the number of seed-drilling points and cultivating between rows to reduce weeds. To this end he invented the first successful mechanical seed—drill and horse-drawn row cultivator,

Sir Edward Turner who held the Merton manor as part of his estate, brought a private bill before Parliament in 1762 for enclosure of lands in Merton parish. Apart from an allotment of rents in lieu of loss of tithes, common pasture, and glebe land going to Exeter College, Oxford, who held church lands in the parish, the rest of the land was granted to Sir Edward. As a result of the enclosure award (22 Oct.1763) Arthur Young (1741-1820), the agricultural writer, in his survey of farming practice in 1768 estimated that rents on the limestone grainlands of the Turner estate (mostly in Merton and Blackthom districts) had doubled. By the end of the 18th C, more than 1000 acres of the Merton district were farmed by only five tenants and the rest by six smallholders, bringing about a complete transformation in rural life from the days before 1762 when 25 tenants farmed these lands. Young estimated that Sir Gregory Page-Turner, Sir Edward’s son, was getting as much as £3 an acre, three times the national average annual return from these lands, with Exeter College returning £2 an acre

The Enclosure Acts meant that the remaining common fields and much of the common or ‘waste’ lands (lands on which all householders had stinted grazing rights) passed into the ownership of a few. The awards were based on land-holding in the district at the time of the Enclosure Act Several landowners speculated by buying up land in districts that had not yet been enclosed in order to qualify for proportionately bigger handouts in the Enclosure award which included not only shares of the common fields but also in the common waste, quarries and woodland.

Those who received small awards through the Enclosure Acts found it hard to compete with the estates or were lured by high land prices and they frequently sold up to the estates and found new livelihoods in the towns. Those most affected, however, were the cottars and smallholders whose lives had depended upon the use of common grazing lands. Many of the awards made no alternative provision for their traditional grazing rights and they were either driven off the land into a proletarian lifestyle in urban factories or if they stayed, were destined to low-wage servitude as agricultural labourers, Such was the case at Merton according to Dunkin: he asserts that many of the smaller yeomen became little more than agricultural labourers or were forced to leave the village. The poor allowance, he alleges, was below subsistence level, as the farmers wanted to flee themselves from the burden of parish relief, and that some people even died of want. The tenant farmers on the other hand were quite prosperous despite the high rents and feelings ran so high against them that they were hissed at Bicester market. The VCH noted that there was some evidence to support a picture of migration or desperate poverty: in 1774 the curate reported ‘the parish has been greatly thinned by the late enclosure’, The Merton PR shows a sharp decline in the number of christenings and an increase in burials after enclosure, and a report in 1800 highlights the abject poverty, noting, for instance, that several villagers were absent from church pleading lack of respectable clothing.

It is difficult to estimate how profound and damaging the long-term effects of eviction or a return to servitude for what was in some cases more than half the population of a village. The final comment of the reporter on the evictions at Wretchwick, ‘And so are led to Idleness‘ may have a much deeper significance than appears, Although it was a time when those who left the land were welcomed as miners and factory workers by entrepreneurs to the north, it appears that many in the immediate aftermath of Enclosure Awards were reluctant to risk all and migrate so far from their roots. Some would have got jobs as agricultural labourers but many would have been dependent on poor relief and seasonal work. It was the idleness of spirit and bitterness of heart caused by the displacement of their sense of belonging that was as much a problem as the mere lack of work. In terms of a modem parallel, we think of the high correlation that has been established between redundancy/unemployment on the one hand and immorality/crime on the other. It was Plato, the Greek philosopher, who recognized and articulated in his dialogues on the history and philosophy of the political state (The Republic) how political systems mirror the state of the individual soul. Plato argued that where the natural justice (3 mixture of reason and moral integrity) of the individual soul does not master self-will, then the capacity for behaviour based on the search for truth (dialectic) is prejudiced, and baser instincts for power, wealth, and greed prevail. His ideal political state (utopia) is made up of all individuals seeking to maximize the welfare of others. He rated as good governments those whose leaders were appropriately educated members of high integrity, the ‘gold’ class whom he regarded as best suited to empower and direct the talents of ordinary citizens - Aristotle had first written of this form of government as aristocracy. He condemned governments controlled by the few (oligarchy) whose ambition for wealth and power had corrupted their own and society’s integrity and pointed to tyranny as the frequent outcome. Decreased attendance at church, higher levels of illegitimate births, lower levels of literacy and bitterness and violence in the late 18mC followed in the early 19‘hC by population explosion, and the accompanying problems of poverty and disease may all have their roots in a shift from the aristocratic rural government of local gentry to the oligarchic exploitation of absentee landlords made possible by the Enclosure Acts.

Ambrosden was not subject to an Enclosure Act as the process was more or less complete by 1760, Shares in the distribution of the enclosed lands for Piddington, Blackthom, and Amcott are shown in Fig. 13 together with the main recipients of the awards In Piddington the uneven distribution of the awards is most marked with Sir Edward Turner being granted 499 acres of freehold and a further 36 acres of leasehold land (c,40% of the lands enclosed) while at the other end of the scale, 15 smallholders got plots mostly under 5 acres and a further 7 a mere 1/2 acre each, common for a horse, This seems to have given rise to a similar undercurrent of bitterness and animosity as there had been at Merton, In 1791, the Piddington Parish Records report (quoted from the VCH) that 25 owners and occupiers agreed to prosecute at their own expense all persons guilty of damaging their property. They claimed that: persons had broken down, destroyed, and carried away our hedges, gates, and other fences, and have robbed our gardens, orchards, hen roasts, faggot piles, and other outbuildings. The fact that this report is more than 30 years after the passing of the Act suggests that many of those who had lost their livelihood had stayed on in the district as agricultural labourers, seasonal workers, gypsies, and even beggars. Their protests were part of a national demonstration against low wages and poverty at that time.

Certainly, with more and more leaving to work in the mines and factories, the wages of agricultural labour rose (37% between 1790-1803) but this did not mean substantial gains in the standard of living as prices of staple foods rose by similar amounts. For his part, Sir Edward discussed his plans in a letter to Sanderson Miller prior to the announcement of the award for a leasehold dairy farm in Piddington (shown as Cow Lease Farm on Davis’s 1797 map):

Ambrosden July 9th 1758

DEAR SlR, l am now fixed in a Resolution to build a Farmhouse in Piddington Field. l wish the Plan you were so good as to furnish could have been executed. But Jackson says (& indeed I am of his opinion) that the situation will not admit of a dairy underground. l have therefore sent your Plan, with a desire that (if you are quite at Leisure) you will make some Alteration. Jackson hath scrawled one and Williams *  hath formed an expensive Estimate. Carriage however from Blackthorn Hill is included. and the old Materials are excluded. There will be belonging to the Farm above 250 Acres of Meadow and Pasture and some Land to be plowed, l should think £l00 might be saved and yet a sufficient House erected. I wish you could return the Papers by Telford next Thursday (or the ensuing Thursday at the farthest) undercover. I entreat however that if the Perusal will in the least incommode you in the present low Situation of your Spirits. you will not give yourself the trouble of inspecting them, but send them back unnoticed. I am too much obliged to you already for your Advice in affairs of Elevation and have besides too great regard for health which I shall always esteem valuable, to wish to engage you in any unseasonable Attention. Lady Turner, our daughter and self join in sincere regards to Mrs. Miller and the four Millerets. RS. Lord and Lady Temple and Mr. and Mrs Grenville have intimated to us an intended honour which we shall embrace tomorrow.

* This is probably an older relative of John Williams (1741-1818) who served as bailiff to successive Baronets of the Turner Family for over 50 years. After Ambrosden House was pulled down by the 3rd Baronet Sir Gregory Turner (later Page-Turner). Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner intended to rebuild the house and made preparations by clearing out the rubbish from the surviving cellars and offices. At the same time, also a stone quarry was opened and brick-making began on top of Blackthorn Hill. (The stone quarries and brick-making were continued throughout the 19th century. )The work was not started on rebuilding the house.

In Blackthorn in 1774 the farmers and smallholders actually petitioned for an Act to enclose the common fields with 36 of the 39 entitled to vote in favour. An Act was passed in 1776 for the enclosure of 1772 acres and the awards were made the following year. Here seven viable smallholdings (20-35 acres) were created and the grazing rights of a further seven cottagers were recognised. As a result, the 6 changes seem to have passed peacefully. Young observed that one of the results of the enclosure here which cost c.£1 an acre was that 60 acres of arable land became pasture, a fate which appears to have befallen Ambrosden’s East Field (Briar Furlong) more than 100 years before The 1391_acre Arncott Inclosure award was not made until 1816 the principal recipients being the 1ord of the manor: Richard Holloway (464 acres), George Osmund (204 acres).  acres), John Coker (112 acres), the vicar of Ambrosden parish (111 acres), and the trustees of the Woodstock Poor (96 acres). Arncott, like Piddington, seems to have had a higher proportion of smallholders, supplementing their living from the grazing of stock on the extensive Arncott Common and Wood (Fig.14). Representatives of the smallholders including two of the Deeley family attended the meeting to discuss the Act and apparently approved the awards perhaps because the awards to the smallholders seem to have been larger than in Piddington (11 persons receiving under 20 acres).

Tenant-farmers and their tenancy agreements

Sir Edward Turner died in 1766 and the estate passed to his son, Sir Gregory, who nine years later in 1775 inherited the vast estates of his great uncle, Sir Gregory Page, taking the arms and altering his surname to Page-Tumer by royal warrant, The following year he demolished Ambrosden House and in 1780 moved to Battlesden Park, Bedfordshire, which he had also inherited. The absence of the lord at the local manor house seems to have promoted the services of some of the tenants,

A case in point is John Hickman of Ambrosden, who would appear to have been given the role as estate agent (an issue of JOJ for 1783 advertises 100 acres to let at Wretchwick, - apply to John Hickman). This is John Hickman, the Elder, a literate man in his 50’s, possibly originally from Milcomb, the hamlet of Bloxham near Banbury, where the name dates back to Robert Fitz-Hickman, lord of the manors of Bloxham and Wickham, 56 Henry III (1272). A John Hickman of Milcomb was the last Hickman to be buried in the parish in 1745 and his will, proved in 1746, left eldest son, John, the dwelling house and orchard after his mother’s death It is quite possible that this son, John, a member of a large family, had come to Ambrosden in the 1740’s as part of a workforce on the Turner Estate (suggested too by his later appointments as estate agent and gamekeeper). Described as a labourer of Ambrosden in 1749 when he married Elizabeth Templer of Blackthom under license at St Edburg’s Church, Bicester, he and his wife settled initially at Amcott. Presumably, because he was new to the parish, he and his guarantor (Thomas Hartwell, also described as a labourer of Ambrosden but later (1785) as a farmer at Blackthorn) had to put up £100 to attest John’s lawful right to marry. It would appear that John and Elizabeth and family of five moved to Ambrosden in the mid-17703 as John was appointed constable in 1776, being succeeded in this position the following year by the mason, John Heritage of similar age (JOJ), In 1777 their daughter, Mary, married John Harris who was farming 42 acres of Page-Turner lands in the Freeman Hill area of Blackthom Hill. The following year, 1778, John Hickman appears on the manorial rent-roll as a tenant of 72 acres of closes of pasture land to the south of the village (Fig.15), paying c.£86 in rent annually (£1. 4s an acre) John seems to have taken over some of the 206 acres of Page-Tumer lands farmed in 1776 by John Jones Sen, an ancestor of the Jones families of Blackthom (q.v.). The other two significant tenants of Page-Tumer land at Ambrosden in 1776 were John Henry King (80 acres including the 62-acre Bryer Furlong) and John Harris (42 acres). John Hickman’s eldest son, John, married Hannah Tew of Charlton in 1778 and his other two daughters married (Elizabeth in 1779 and Sarah in 1785) sons of John Heritage, the mason (see p. 162), who rented 4 acres of land and a cottage opposite Yew Tree Cottage, the Hickman home. In 1781 John’s Wife, Elizabeth (aged 56), and younger son, Thomas, aged 20, died and are remembered by a gravestone in the churchyard. Between 1782-3 John was registered as a churchwarden (CR) and between 1785-7 as gamekeeper to Sir Gregory Page-Tumer in the manors of Ambrosden, Amcot, Merton, Charlton, and Wretchwick, being superseded by William Tanner (JOJ), possibly a relative of the Tamer family farming at Astley Bridge Farm (NFAPT, 1 795), Merton parish.

In 1787 John took out a 21-year tenancy agreement With Sir Gregory Page-Turner and was living at Yew Tree Cottage. Tax records from 1785 show that he was paying land tax on the home close of 1.1/2 acres, his son later being assessed at 13s in 1813, reduced to 6s in 1817. In addition to the 72 acres leased in 1778 he rented a further 18 acres and the 4-acre Plantation, used for grazing and firewood as all other timber products were reserved for the lord. The rent was £95 (just over £1 an acre) to be paid quarterly.  Land Tax was paid by the landlord but there was a £10 per acre penal clause for converting into tillage without permission. John died in 1794, probably in his late 60s, and his son, John seems to have taken over the lease and renewed it in 1808. The memorandum of renewal, details of which are quoted in Appendix A, gives a good indication of the tight reins placed on tenant-farmers and the methods used by landlords to maintain their investments with little or no depreciation, effect tight control on land use and yet still be in a position to enjoy most of the ancillary benefits: timber, minerals and stone, sporting rights, etc.

The penal clause in the Memorandum for convening land to tillage or taking more than one crop of hay had been increased ten times from £10 an acre in 1787 to £100 an acre in 1808! This punitive measure was obviously designed to protect Sir Gregory’s grainlands in Merton and Blackthom by preventing the overproduction of cereals and lowering the fast-rising grain prices. Wheat prices had risen at the time of the French Revolution (1789-99) and again dramatically at the time of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), Furthermore, protective duties were introduced on imported corn in 1804, later formalized as the Corn Law Act in 1815 which prohibited the import of cereals into Britain until domestic prices had reached 805 a quarter Such restrictive practices, introduced by Tory governments to protect landed interests, were viewed as class oppression by the increasing numbers of poor who had to pay artificially high prices for bread. Dairy prices were also soaring, butter having risen from 3d a lb. in 1789 to 10d a lb. in 1807. The 37% increase in John Hickman’s rent

(c.£l .7 7d an acre) since 1787 was c.25% higher than the national average and gives an indication of the profitability of these lands and the monopoly power of the landlords. It is not surprising that when Sir Gregory died in 1805 he is said to have left funded property here and in Beds. and Kent to the value of £ 300,000 and a rent roll of £ 24,000, giving a gross return of 8% on his investments in land.

The clause in the Memorandum about discharging all servants within a year of being hired to avoid their qualifying for parish settlement and possibly poor relief was an important issue. The same constraint had been put on Richard King (the recipient of an 83-acre award in the Blackthom Enclosure awards of 1777) and Thomas Hartwell and other inhabitants and occupiers of land in Blackthorn who had made an agreement with the parish council and churchwardens not to take into service any male servant who shall by continuing service gain settlement in the parish of Ambrosden, One imagines that with the wages of agricultural labour rising on average 37% between 1790 and 1803 farmers were reluctant to employ much assistance outside their family.

 

The Tenants of the Ambrosden Estate 17^th and 18^th Centuries

What is known of Sir Edward’s tenants or their family connections is given below and has been gleaned from parish registers (PR), tenancy agreements, and from a private collection - the NFAPT papers ~ and from the Smith papers (PRMS) in the Oxford Record Office (0R0),

Alley: The Alley family (alias Leverett) appeared frequently in the PR from as early as 1613 until 1807‘ In 1673 John Alley (will proven 1681) was the Ambrosden baker and a tenant of Walter Mildmay with 30 acres mostly along the Amcott and Blackthorn roads. Sir Edward’s tenant was probably Thomas Alley, recorded in the PR burials for 1773 as a farmer; Mary Alley, possibly his wife, was buried in 1777,

Botterill: John Bottrell died in 1775 and Richard in 1792; the family name appears only briefly in the PR (1753—97).

Bowers: Almost certainly William and Anne who appear in the PR only between 1731—72 Daughter Anne was christened in 1733. William‘s wife, Anne, was recorded in PR burials (1754-) as the daughter of William Ward. Other Bowers burials are for 174-9 and 1772,

Cockerill: Thomas Cockerill was the long-serving vicar (1727-1765) of Ambrosden. He complained of the poor attendance at church and attributed it to

the long distances parishioners had to travel (Blomfield).

Coles: The Coles family is well represented from 1726 right through the end of 18thC (PR); there are entries between 1680 and 1809

Day: Robert and Elizabeth Day are recorded as living at or near Yew Tree Cottage (Fig.2) shortly before the conveyance of land for the building of the new

highway to Merton in 1747 (FILMS).

Honnor: There are ten Honnor christenings (1685-1735) in the  PR Jane, a widow aged 93, died in 1809. Henry Honner(?) was a carpenter who worked on the repair of the church roof in 1780

Potter: A Mr. Potter leased Mill Close, Bicester (1725), and a William Potter is mentioned at Wretehwick in 1797 (, NFAP-T)

Raymond: There is a tenancy agreement (.NFAPT) for 1749 with Richard Raymond concerning land named Over and Lower Weston Hayes (Weston Park

estate) A Mr Raymond, mentioned earlier, appears in connection with raising troops to light the 1745 uprising.

Shillingford: Robert married at St. Mary’s, Ambrosden in 1695 (PR) but there is no record of family there This is William Shillingford who tenanted (1740) the Churchill Grounds (Churchill was a 17"‘C landowner) farming from the Bicester King’s End farm (NFAPT). A William Shillingford, the farmer, was appointed gamekeeper to Sir Gregory Page-Turnery Sir Edward’s son, on 13 Aug 1785

(Gamekeepers’register) Jonathan Shillingford rented a cottage in Merton from Sir Edward (1756) and there were tenancy agreements for 1791 and 1796

Smallbrook: Richard Smallbrook is mentioned in letters of administration (1753) (NFAPT).

During this period, 1728-1761, thirty-three new family names appear in the PR, almost half of them (in bold type below) making a big impact on the village for the next one hundred years or more:-

1708 Taylor (146) 1728 Cockerill, Shepherd, Winslow, Wyatt (47) 1732 Blewitt (33) 1733 Ayres (84), Green (48) 1735 Cater (Cato), Pearman, 1736 Franklin (56), Norman 1737 Hughes 1741 Hopcroft (135), Turner (126) 1742 Newell (50) 1744 Markham (86) 1746 Hales, Gibbins  1748 Whale (43) 1750 Deely (118) 1751 Bateman, Gibbs, Tasker, Wright 1752 Hickman (61) 1753 Godfree 1754 Barrett (48) 1757 Archer, Bates, Jolly 1758 Burrowes

1759 Vemey 1760 Field

 The Sale of the Estate 1930

Since first purchasing Ambrosden Manor in 1729 generations of the Turner / Page-Turner family have given their support at various times to the communities on their lands. In 1733 Sir Edward, 151 Bt. made a gift of £200 towards the living of the Ambrosden Church. The money together with £200 From Queen Anne’s Bounty was used to purchase land in the open fields of Arncott. In 1763 Sir Edward, 2nd Bt. Built a new public road to Merton at his own expense and gave land for the extension of the Ambrosden and Merton Churchyards. He may also have commissioned the Doom painting for the Ambrosden church in 1764. In 1772 Lady Cassandra Turner, Widow of Sir Edward, 2nd Bt, let £50 in her will for the poor of Piddington, which was distributed in that year. She also left money for the poor in Amcott and Blackthom. In 1817 Sir Gregory Osborne, grandson of Sir Edward, 2nd Bt. gave coal and food to the poor. In 1821 he undertook to supply unemployed men with work at his quarry and brickworks as a measure to help reduce the poor-rate, and in 1829 he gave land at Merton for a school site, Further land was given by Sir Edward Henry, 6th Bt.

(Fig.16) for enlargements to the Merton School in 1867 and for a school site in Ambrosden, built-in 1876. In more recent times when the old rectory in Ambrosden was sold, the Page-Turner families, now resident in Devon and Dorset, gave land to the Diocese of Oxford on which the new rectory was built.

The 19‘hC saw a continuation of much of the land in the Upper Ray region being farmed by tenants of the Page-Tumer family. The leading occupiers and farmers of Ambrosden land at the time of the Tithe Commissioners’ report in 1848 (illus. p,135) were all men in their mid-40s: William Reynolds (151 acres, Park Farm), John Hadland (95 acres, farmhouse 03‘ Church Lane, demolished c.1880), and Thomas Hickman, son of John, Jun. (94 acres, Yew Tree Farm). Smallholders included John Abbott, Thomas Reynolds, Richard Bamet, William Tubb, and Thomas Griffin. By 1913, however, there were only two major occupiers of these lands: Charles Hickman, grandson of Thomas, aged 54 (251 acres, Park Farm), and William Hadland, son of John Hadland, aged 72 (129 acres with additional land at Wretchwick and living at Wretchwick Farm). The long years of agricultural depression from the early 1870s to the outbreak of the First World War had meant difficult times for landlords and farmers, especially those growing cereals. The Repeal of the Corn Laws, persistent bad harvests and cheap imported grain had meant that by 1914 only 20% of cereal production was produced at home. Dairy, market garden, and poultry products continued to prosper on account of the enormous demand for better-paid workers in urban areas. However, after World War I more and more workers left the land for jobs in the towns and it was obvious that far greater returns could be gained from investment in manufacturing. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 was probably the last straw and land prices continued to tumble fast.

The male line of the Page-Turner family had come to an end with the death of the 6th Bt, Sir Edward Henry Page-Turner in 1874. The baronetcy passed to Sir  Henry Dryden, 4 Bt of   Canons Ashby (John Turner, 2"" son of Sir Edward, 2nd Bt, had married Elizabeth Dryden). The estates were held in trust for Frederick Augustus whose mother, Fanny Maria, a sister of the 6‘th Bt., had married the Rev. Dr. F. M. Blaydes, a classical scholar and direct descendant of the Puritan poet, Andrew Marvell. Frederick Augustus took the name and arms of Page-Turner in 1903 as directed by the will of his uncle on the death of his widow in 1902 and inherited the Ambrosden and Bedfordshire estates in 1906 at the age of 61. The Kent estate had been sold in the early 19‘hC. His eldest son, Edward Henry, was a professional soldier and had little or no involvement with the estate even after his retirement from the Army after World War I and before his death, aged 50, in 1927. The second son, Hugh Gregory, became a land agent and took over the running of the estates with his father’s agent, Robert Dowse. It was Hugh Gregory’s astute and industrious work as estate manager that was responsible for restoring the estate to a sound business footing after thirty difficult years of Depression and relative neglect.

The Turner Arms Pub in Ambrosden

He was a dedicated family man and showed consideration for the well-being of his tenants, being often seen around the estate talking with tenants and hearing their concerns. At the outbreak of war in 1914 as a captain in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars (the local yeomanry regiment) he went off to war, returning to continue the management of the estate until his untimely death in 1929. The third son, Frederick Ambrose, served as a District Ofl'icer in Sarawak until his retirement in 1930 ’ if returning, unmarried, to an aging father and ' “eight sisters, The death of Hugh Gregory, the need to provide for his sisters and the growing Depression all contributed to the difficult decision to break the 200 year and 8 generation link with the Upper Ray region and put the estate up for auction.

3166 acres of land (including 50 acres at   Piddington) were catalogued for sale, nearly three quarters as nine mixed crop-livestock farms, predominantly dairy holdings between 100 and 330 acres, The catalogue of sale described the farms as exceptionally attractive, all having good Farm residences and ample Farm Buildings, substantially built. It pointed out that the land was nearly all grass, with plenty of water and shade there were at that time over 600 elm trees on the Ambrosden lands alone. In addition, various parcels of pasture and arable were put up as separate lots in blocks of 20-50 acres (Fig.21). Also, five lots near Bicester and two near Ambrosden were advertised as accommodation land, immediately adjoining the town of Bicester, ripe for the erection of medium-sized Dwelling Houses, and offering an excellent speculation. Up for auction, too, were Gravenhill Wood, by then an area of only 67 acres and used primarily for sporting interests, the 25-acre Piddmgton Wood, a plantation and spinneys and the Keeper’s Lodge, Merton Schoolhouse, Plough Inn (Merton), the smithy in Ambrosden and 41 dwellings. All Lots were sold subject to the existing tenancy agreements, The Sporting Rights were at that time let out to ‘Shooting Tenants’: Major T.S Timmis who also leased the Keeper’s Lodge at the edge of Gravenhill Wood, and to Major Weatherby. A sum of £2 7 6d pa was paid to the estate by the Post Master General, being the amount of Easement for telegraph poles and stays. Certain trees were numbered and reserved for the use of FA. Page-Tumor, the rest of the timber is valued as part of the sale of each lot. Park Farm, for instance, had timber valued at £148 155 and was one of three firms still paying a commuted tithe rent charge (£46 10 2d); the other two, also part of the Ambrosden parish, were Wretchwick Farm (£22 155) and West View Farm, Ambrosden (£8 18 1d).

The Page-Turner estate at the time of its sale in 1930. The nine principal tenanted farm holdings occupied 73% of the estate. Blocks 12 (West View Fm.) and 9 were leased by William Hadland at Wretchwiek and block 13 (Homestead Fun.) by Sam May at Manor Fm., Merton. Fields unmarked are not part of the estate: e.g. the low-lying land between the R. Ray and the road in Merton parish was farmed from College Farm (named after the advowson of St. Swithun’s Church, Merton - Exeter College, Oxford) and Astley Bridge Farm. The 455 acres of arable on the loamy limestone marls are but a shadow of the estimated 2600 acres of ploughland in use in this area in 1086

The 200-acre Manor Farm, Merton, and the 54-acre Homestead Farm (No.13 on Fig.21) were sold to HA. Deeley for £4975. With an annual rent income of £3406 from these properties, capitalization of the asset at this price meant a gross return of more than 6.8% would have been required in order to better the return from the land (referred to hereafter as investment return to land (IRL)). A low IRL (3%-6% at that time) implied higher market prices and better prospects for the land in non-agricultural use relative to its current rental income. With interest rates at only 2%- 3% and returns from the share market highly volatile, it was unlikely that a rate of return of 68% could be matched by investing the funds elsewhere. However, with land prices falling fast and tenants difficult to secure, landowners saw it more as a case of cutting their losses and releasing funds for other investments Middle Wretchwick was sold privately to Arch Busby, the resident tenant and a farmer and horse dealer, for £2000 which, with the rent at £135.35, also meant an IRL of 6.8%.

Higher auction reserve prices giving lower IRLs could be set for land near Bicester: the IRL on leasing Langford Farm was 5.9% against the withdrawal price of £9600 while the accommodation lands shown in Fig.21, sold for £185 and £410, had IRL as low as 3.3% and 4.9% respectively. They were bought by Aubrey Deeley, a well-known and shrewd stock dealer and land speculator who had farmed College Farm Merton until  1918 He also bought the 9-acre Bridge Close, near Ambrosden (Block 21) for only £160 (IRL 7.2%) adjacent to his 35-acre holding across the road, Ambrosden’s former South Field. Two blocks along Aylesbury Road, block 2 (4.9% IRL at the sale) and block 5 (5 7% IRL at the sale) confirm the better speculative value of land near Bicester.

Wretchwiek Farm was also sold to the resident tenant, W.H.P.Hadland in 1930 but most farmers could not afford to buy the properties and may not have been considered suitable for mortgage loan support from the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC). In several cases, farmers remained as tenants until a satisfactory sale could be realized. This was the case at Park Farm, Ambrosden, where the tenant, R. S Hickman continued the lease from the new owner, Bill Deeley until 1934. Land prices bottomed out about 1932-4 with the 200-acre Pound Farm, Blackthom, fetching only £3000 (£15 an acre) in ‘. 1934 and a farm at Bawards Green selling for just £5 an acre. With the advent of war and only 30% ‘of Britain’s food consumption being produced at ‘ homeland- prices rose sharply at the end of the decade, Middle Wretcthck doubling its sale price to £4000 in 1940.

The 1913 Valuation List (ORG) for Ambrosden and the 1930 Sale Catalogue provide useful comparisons of changes in rents. The rent on the farm, house, and garden of Park Farm had risen from £256 55 in 1913 to £313 5 6d in 1930 (a 22% increase) and by 1930 Robert Hickman was paying £1 4 10d an acre, about the same as his great great great grandfather, John Hickman) had paid on 72 of the 252 acres in 1787. Wishart noted from tenancy lists in the Massey documents for Merton that farm rents had scarcely changed from 1804 to 1876. They appear therefore to have fallen during the agricultural depression years of 1873-1913, rising again after the First World War. Fig. 24 shows geographical variations in rent payments on the land blocks auctioned as lots at the sale of the estate in 1930.

 Fig. 24 Rents payable on farms and land blacks at the time of the sale of the estate in 1930. Eight of the leases are pro-1914, seven were taken out during World War 1, two in 1922, and eight date from 1925, though some would have been renewals of earlier leases. The distribution shows that rent payments were higher on land with ready access to Bicester' and on the better-watered areas with excellent pasture, meadow, and well-established facilities for dairy farming: Manor and Homestead Farms, Merton, and Park and West View Farms, Ambrosden. The grain lands and higher pastures of Mt Pleasant, Wretchwick, and Merton Grounds had the lowest rent.

Most of the cottages were let on a yearly basis but in a few cases, leases were only on a monthly term. Nearly all were sold at the auction, most being bought by the tenants for between £85 - £150 with the help of mortgage funds. Percy Turner of Ambrosden) a young farm worker, conveniently won £130 on the Football Pools in the 1930s and was able to assist with repayment of a mortgage loan his parents had taken out with his employer, Mr Orchard of Merton, The family home on the corner of Arncott Road had acted as the Post Office and shop for many years and had been bought at the time of the sale of the estate for c.£100, Other occupiers of Page-Tumer cottages continued as tenants of new landlords but several without much work and an expired lease no doubt left to join the job queues in the towns.

Reaction to the sale of the estate was mixed No doubt some farmers in the 1920s realized that changing times made the sale of the estate likely and had accumulated capital in the hope of one day putting down a deposit on their own land: Aubrey Deeley and Arch Busby, for instance, had made money through stock and horse trading and were in a position to do this, others, it would seem, were less prepared. Dr Major, who in 1929 had been appointed as vicar of Merton, wrote in a Diocesan inquiry on ‘Parish Problems’: the people are very poor owing to the agricultural depression and many are disturbed by the sale of the squire’s estates. The churchwardens (one of whom was Sam May of Manor Farm) are under notice, their farms being bought over their heads. The Page-Turners had held the estate for 200 years and the Hickman family of Ambrosden, for instance, had been their tenants for six generations. Many farmers had invested in machinery and improvements to buildings and grounds (there was a tennis court and extensive flower gardens at Park Farm) and if they were unable to buy the farm or take on a new lease they lost not only heavily on any capital they had invested into modernizing their farm operations but also their home and a livelihood they had come to regard as their birthright, All this meant nothing at the sale which brought to an end a thousand years of manorial life in the Upper Ray, a way of life which, despite its hardships and inequities, had at least provided long periods of security and stability, The future for farming was bleak until the late 19305 when the threat of another war, the advent of the tractor and the realization that Britain depended far too heavily on food imports set new horizons. 

The Tenancy Agreement

Abridged details from the Memorandum of Renewal (23” March 1808) of a  tenancy agreement originally made in 1787 between Sir Gregory Page-Turner of Battlesden Park, Bedfordshire, and John Hickman of Ambrosden,

The said Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner.. hereby agrees to let and the said John Hickman a agrees to take All those several Closes or inclosed Grounds called Stans Ground, The Flax, Tanner's Ground, Simms’s Long Mead, The two Parker's grounds, Long mead, Marsh Mead, Dog Kennel Mead, Plantation, Upper Paddock and Lower Paddock All which said premises are situated in Ambrosden aforesaid and are now in the occupation of M John Hickman c.

..At and under the Yearly Rent of One hundred and thirty Pounds sterling payable quarterly free and clear of all Taxes and deductions whatsoever (the Land tax and Landlords Property duty only excepted)

And Paying the further clear Yearly rent of One hundred Pounds sterling by the Acre for every Acre of the 4, Premises and so in proportion for any greater or lesser quantity than an Acre which shall be ploughed dug up or converted into tillage or shall be mown or cut more than once in any one Year.....

And also Paying the further Rent of Five Pounds Sterling or in lieu thereof three Waggon Loads of good rotten dung to be spent upon the .. Premises at the Tenant’s option for every Load of Dung Manure Soil or Compost removed therefrom and so in proportion for any greater or less quantity than a Load thereof to be paid in each instance immediately after every such carrying off except in regard to the Hay N John Hickman 4. may have in hand at going off which shall be sold to the Landlord of the 4. Premises by Appraisement of two indifferent Persons one to be named by each party
Except to, Sir Gregory,, All Timber and other Trees whatsoever and the bodies lop tops and shreds thereof And also all Woods Underwood and Hedges Hedgerows Bushes and Thorns and the cuttings and clippings thereof now or hereafter growing upon the u Premises with free ingress-egress and regress for him and his Servants with or without Horses Carts and Carriages into upon and from the .. Premises to fell grub up hew saw frame and carry away the same at all seasonable times
And also full liberty of ingress-egress and regress way and quiet passage at all times into upon and from all or any part of the said Lands to enter and dig gravel sand chalk lime clay or brick earth and to make and burn lime and bricks thereupon and with Horses and Carts to take and carry away the same .. John Hickman. being allowed proper Compensation (to be settled by Arbitration) for all damage sustained thereby
And also full liberty for,, Sir Gregory M and his Servants Agents and friends at all seasonable times to hunt hawkfish and fowl upon the Premises doing as little damage as may be

And also except to .. Sir Gregory ., All Mines Collieries Pits... to open and work and continue working the same to his use making reasonable satisfaction for the damage to be done thereby

John Hickman ., agrees to pay N the o. yearly Rent .c And also to pay All taxes Tithes Rates and Assessments Parliamentary Parochial or otherwise 4, (the Land tax only excepted)

And will in a husband-like manner lodge and spend all his Crops of Hay and shall not sell or carry off The .. premises any Muck Manure soil or compost That shall be made Thereon but The same will spread and bestow on The .. Premises where most wanted and leave on The .. Premises on quitting what shall be Thereon for The use of The Landlord without any allowance for The same.

And will not commit any waste or spoil on The 44 Premises and .4 pm and keep The Same (Premises) with The Appurtenances in good tenantable Repair heart and condition being allowed rough Timber for doing The same but finding all other materials carriage and workmanship

Being hereby allowed To cut and clip The Hedges not exceeding one equal fourteenth part in any one year (twelflh pan in 1787) and That in a husbandlike manner and not within Six feet from The Stem and so deliver up The Premises on quitting The same

And That it shall be lawful for. Sir Gregory To come upon The .. Premises To see The condition Thereof and To give Notice in writing of all wants of repairs To or for 4. John Hickman To repair The same within Three Calendar Months.

And also That he. John Hickman,. shall maintain at all Times and preserve The True Boundaries of The Premises. And shall permit .. Sir Gregory,. at any Time  To plant and set any number of young Trees upon any part not exceeding Two Acres of The .. Premises and any number of Trees and Willows in or near The Hedgerows and Watercourses

And The same being so planted and set all other The Timber and Timberlike Trees Fellers Spire Trees Standels Storers Willows Woods Underwoods Pollards and The laps and Tops Thereof and all Hedges and Hedgerows now or hereafter To be growing or being upon The .. Premises shall succour at all Times and leave upon The Premises at going off

And shall not permit persons other Than .. Sir Gregory .. and his Gamekeepers 4. To sport or follow Game or otherwise Trespass upon The, Premises

And if The Tenant .. shall upon The Premises or in any The Manors or Lands of The Landlord sport or follow game he Will immediately Thereupon in each instance pay Fifty Pounds Sterling half whereof shall go To The Informer and The other half To The Poor of The .. Parish of Ambrosden

And shall at his own Charges Underdrain every Year such parts of The said Land as shall most require The same in The Landlords Judgment and cut up and level all The Ant Hills and burn The Cow Clods and spread The Ashes Thereof on The Premises.

And shall discharge All Servants within a Year after They have been hired In order To prevent Their gaining Parish Settlements

And shall not pass over let or assign This Agreement or any part of The premises without a license in writing from .. Sir Gregory,

And .. if The rent .. shall be unpaid fourteen days next after any day of payment or if Breach shall be made in any of The Articles on The part of .. John Hickman it shall be lawful for The Landlord immediately To reenter and repossess The .. Premises and from Thence utterly To remove John Hickman  and all Occupiers Thereof

And lastly, it is hereby mutually agreed between The parties .. That if either The .. Landlord,, shall be desirous of having or The,. Tenant .. shall be desirous of delivering up The possession of The .. demised Premises upon any Lady Day shall give or leave Six Calendar Months Notice in writing unto or at The last known abode of The other of Them Then upon The Lady Day next ensuing such Notice The possession of The .. Premises shall be peaceably delivered up To The .. Landlord 

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY (National / regional events in bold type)

1733  Jethro Tull’s Horse—hoeing Husbandry published
          Edward Turner created Baronet of Ambrosden
1735 Sir Edward Turner, lst Bt. of Ambrosden died
1740 Thomas Williams drew up a map of the Ambrosden manor
1747 Sir James Harington of Merton manor went into exile with the Young Pretender
1747-50 Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt, built a Palladian mansion in Ambrosden
1749 Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt. Of Ambrosden bought Merton manor
1758 Sir Edward Turner, 2^nd Bt. was seized of his Bicester Priory lands in the Bicester (Market End) Enclosure Act
        Piddington Enclosure Act
1760  Sir Edward Turner had an estate of 3000 acres in the Upper Ray Valley
1762 Private bill passed through parliament for the Enclosure of lands in Merton
1763 The new road from Ambrosden to Merton was completed
1766 Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt. died
1776 Sir Gregory Page-Turner demolished Ambrosden House
1776-1882 Hickman family at Yew Tree Cottage, Ambrosden
1777 Blackthorn Enclosure Act
1787 John Hickman made a 21-year tenancy agreement with Sir Gregory Page-Tumer
1805 Sir Gregory Page-Turner died
1815 Introduction of protective duties on imported grain (Corn Laws)
1816 Amcott Enclosure Act
1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws
1848 Tithe Commissioner’s report on Ambrosden lands
1873-1913 Agricultural depression
1913 Valuation report on lands and cottages in Ambrosden
1930 The 3166-acre Ambrosden Estate was sold by public auction as 9 farms and 21
         blocks of land as well as woodland and cottages

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE TURNER AND PAGE-TURNER’S ASSOCIATION WITH AMBROSDEN ALONGSIDE

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL EVENTS IN BOLD

(National/ regional events in bold type) (NB. Sir Edward Turner, 2nd.Bt. of Ambrosden is referred to as Sir Edward or he/his)

1690 Foundation of the British East India Company
1691 Sir Edward’s father, Edward Turner (later lst Bt. of Ambrosden) born in London
1711 The South Sea Company was chartered by Robert Harley to conduct British trade in S.America and the British colonies of NAmerica
1713 The South Sea Company won the Asiento contract to supply slaves to Spanish colonies
1716 Septennia] Act lengthened life of Parliament to seven years
1718 Edward Tumer Snr. married Mary Page, daughter of Sir Gregory Page, a
wealthy investor
1719 Sir Edward was born in London
1720 The South Sea Company took over more of the Government’s National Debt in its stocks
         Collapse of the South Sea Bubble in Sept. - a crash in the value of shares in the South Sea Co. the market price of which had risen sixfold since Jan.
1729 Edward Turner, Snr. bought the Ambrosden estate from Sir Stephen Glynne
1733 Edward Turner Snr. was created Baronet of Ambrosden
1735 0 Death of his father, Sir Edward Turner, 1‘l Bt. of Ambrosden
I Sir Edward, 2m.Bt., qualified B.Ai at Balliol College, Oxford
1738 He gained his MA. qualification
1739 He married Cassandra Leigh, niece of Dr.Leigh, Master of Balliol College
1740 Birth of Sir Edward and Lady Cassandra‘s eldest child, Elizabeth
17405 He attended performances at Covent Garden and Drury Lane
1741 He won the Gt.Bedwin seat representing the Whig Interest
1742 Handel composed The Messiah
1744 He qualified Doctor of Civil Law from Lincoln‘s Inn, London
1745 0 Sir Edward made plans to resist the advance of the Young Pretender
0 Capture, conviction for treason, and beheading of the Jacobite conspirator
Simon Fraser, (12“ Baron Lovat) - last public execution in Britain
1747 Political issue of the slaughter of cattle suffering from murrain in Banbury area
l747»50 Ambrosden House built
1748 His eldest son, Gregory, later Sir Gregory Page-Tumer, 3}rd Bt. of Ambrosden
was born at Ambrosden
1750 Interest rates at 3 ½ %
1752 He prohibited cattle markets in Bicester because of the dangers of cattle plague
1753 He supported the Act for the Naturalisation of Jews
1754 He won the Oxfordshire Election
1755 Sanderson Miller obtained permission to enclose Radway Field
1756-63 Seven Years’ War
1757 o Court-martial and execution of Admiral Byng
- Sir Edward’s physician, Theophilus Metcalfe died
1758 First letters about problems with health
1761 He won the Penrhyn, N. Wales seat
1765 Stamp Act passed leading to problems with the American colonies
1766 Sir Edward died on 315‘ October
1776 Ambrosden House demolished by Sir Gregory, his son and heir