Parishes: Hardwick

HARDWICK

This small parish of 385 acres (fn. 1) was united with Tusmore in 1932 to form the modern parish of Hardwick-with-Tusmore. (fn. 2) The ancient parish lay in the north-east corner of Oxfordshire, near the Northants border, midway between the markettowns of Brackley and Bicester. A stream, crossed by Hardwick ford, marks the southern boundary and Stoke Bushes, its only other natural boundary, separates Hardwick from Stoke Lyne on the southwest. This wood was named Stoke Spinney in 1797. (fn. 3) The parish lies on the Great Oolite, here overlain by fine flint gravel. (fn. 4) The ground falls from 381 feet in the north to 337 feet in the south. Minor roads connect Hardwick with Stoke Lyne and the Oxford— Brackley road, and with Hethe and the Bicester— Aynho road. A map of 1797 shows a well-defined road to Cottisford, but today (1955) there is only a bridle track. The nearest railway station is at Ardley, three miles distant.

The name Hardwick (fn. 5) means in Old English a sheep farm or perhaps a cattle farm, or dwellingplace for flocks and herds, and indicates that a settlement was made here because the drift gravel of the uplands provides fine pasture. As its church was a chapelry of Stoke Lyne in the mid-12th century it is possible that it was the 'herdwick' of a Saxon estate there. In the 13th century the village became known as Hardwick Audley (fn. 6) after its manorial lord and was so described as late as the 15th century. (fn. 7)

The village lies roughly in the centre of the parish.

The Manor Farm and the church stand on relatively high ground, which falls away to a stream on the west: this forms pools and a pond and makes the whole ground marshy as far as the ford to the southwest. (fn. 8) The one-time school (dated 1873), now a private house; a few semi-detached cottages built of stone with brick trimmings, which are dated 1869 and 1870, and lie on both sides of the road to Hethe; and two rather later semi-detached brick cottages make up the rest of the village. These cottages are due to the 2nd Earl of Effingham, who purchased Tusmore and Hardwick in 1857, and pulled down the dilapidated old ones, built of local stone. (fn. 9)

The village was probably one of the smallest in Ploughley hundred in the 14th century and continued to be so. (fn. 10) In 1327 it had seventeen taxpayers, in 1524 seven, (fn. 11) and in 1665 there was only one house listed, besides the small Rectory and Richard Fermor's manor-house, for the hearth tax. (fn. 12) The Rectory had evidently gone by 1682, (fn. 13) when there is a reference to its site. It had been described as 'ruinous' in 1679. (fn. 14)

The only building of note left in the parish is the former manor-house, now the Manor Farm. The house dates from the late 16th century and must have been built between 1580 and 1643 when Sir Richard Fermor was lord of the manor. (fn. 15) His father Thomas Fermor had resided at Somerton and leased the Hardwick house to a servant. (fn. 16) The heads of the Fermor family never resided in the new manor-house, but it is known that in the reign of Charles II the house was the residence of the eldest son. The will of Richard Fermor Esq. (proved 1684) mentions 'such goods as I brought from thence [i.e. Hardwick] when I came to live at Tusmore'. (fn. 17) Throughout the 18th century the house was let by the Fermors. The Day family occupied the farm until 1793, (fn. 18) Robert Day (d. 1712) and later Days being buried in the chancel of the church. They were succeeded by their relatives the Collingridges, who remained until 1812. (fn. 19) The house is rectangular in plan, and has two stories with cellars and attic dormers. The walls are of coursed rubble, over 2 feet thick at the ground floor; the roof has been retiled with asbestos tiling; the west gable was restored in 1946. The most interesting feature of the interior is the staircase, which has no balusters remaining, but a heavy moulded projecting handrail and massive fleur-de-lis shaped finials: there are shallow oak treads, of which parts have been renewed.

Manor.

Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville, held HARDWICK after the Conquest, but by 1086 he had given it to Robert d'Oilly in an exchange of lands. (fn. 20) Of the 7½ hides at which Hardwick was then assessed, 2½ later became part of the manor of Tusmore. (fn. 21) The overlordship of Hardwick descended in the D'Oilly family (fn. 22) until the death of Henry (II) d'Oilly in 1232. It then passed to Thomas de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, and subsequently followed the same descent as the overlordship of Bucknell. (fn. 23) Robert d'Oilly's tenant of Hardwick in 1086 was Drew d'Aundeley, whose descendants the Fitzwyths of Ardley held a mesne lordship of Hardwick in the 13th century. (fn. 24)

A certain Maud of Hardwick was tenant of the manor before 1225, when she confirmed her gift of a knight's fee there to William d'Aundeley, (fn. 25) who appears to have belonged to a junior branch of the D'Aundeleys of Tusmore. Maurice d'Aundeley of Tusmore, and his successors Hugh and John, were mesne lords between the tenants of Hardwick and the Fitzwyths in 1272, 1285, and 1346 respectively. (fn. 26) William d'Aundeley was still in possession in 1243, (fn. 27) and was succeeded by Ralph d'Aundeley. In 1265, after the battle of Evesham, although Ralph had never supported Simon de Montfort, his manor of Hardwick was seized and he himself was imprisoned and held to ransom by James de Audley of Stratton Audley. (fn. 28) By 1272, perhaps under compulsion, Ralph had sold the manor to Alice de Beauchamp. In that year it was taken into the king's hand on the death of James de Audley on the assumption that it had been one of his possessions. (fn. 29) Alice recovered the manor and was the tenant in 1279. (fn. 30) While her identity is not certain, Alice was probably a daughter of Alice de Clinton of Aston Clinton (Bucks.) and her second husband Robert de Beauchamp, and sister of the John de Beauchamp who married James de Audley's daughter Joan. (fn. 31) James de Audley acquired Aston Clinton from the Beauchamps, and on the other hand Alice de Beauchamp held Horseheath (Cambs.) of his gift. (fn. 32) Alice was still alive in 1282, (fn. 33) but by 1285 Hardwick manor had passed to Anthony de Bek, Bishop of Durham, (fn. 34) whose friendly relations with the Audleys are illustrated by his gift to another James de Audley of the manor of Ashby Magna (Leics.). (fn. 35)

After Anthony de Bek's death in 1310 Hardwick evidently passed to the Audleys of Aston Clinton. The 'Alice of Hoke' who held the manor in 1316 (fn. 36) may be identified as Alice de Audley, whose possessions at her death in 1342 included the manor of 'Oke' in Aston Clinton. (fn. 37) This Alice was the widow of a James who may have been an illegitimate son of James de Audley (d. 1272). (fn. 38) She was succeeded at Hardwick and Aston by her son William de Audley, (fn. 39) who at his death in 1365 held Hardwick jointly with his wife Joan. (fn. 40) The manor was taken into the king's hands in error, but Joan recovered possession in 1366, (fn. 41) and held Hardwick until her death in 1382. In 1383 the manor was placed in the custody of Sir William de Drayton during the minority of Elizabeth, daughter of William de Audley's brother Thomas. (fn. 42) Elizabeth and her husband John Rose (d. 1410) held the Audley lands in Aston Clinton, (fn. 43) but the descent of Hardwick is unknown until 1428, when it appears in the possession of the Arden family.

William Arden held Hardwick in 1428, (fn. 44) and either he or a successor of the same name entailed the manor to his heirs male. In 1468, however, after the death of John, son and successor of William Arden, the entail was broken by John's son William, who conveyed the manor to himself and a number of feoffees to the use of himself and his heirs general. (fn. 45) William left four daughters, but William Rede, grandson and heir of Edmund Rede, (fn. 46) one of the feoffees of 1468, held Hardwick and allowed John Arden's widow Margery, and William's brother and heir male Robert, to have possession. In 1492 after a Chancery suit William Rede was ordered to surrender the manor to William Arden's daughters, Margery, wife of William Gygour, Juliana, wife of William Pope, Eleanor and Elizabeth. (fn. 47) One of the daughters seems to have died by 1496, when Juliana and her husband (fn. 48) held a third of Hardwick. (fn. 49)

In 1514 William Fermor of Somerton purchased a third part of Hardwick from Thomas Colyer and his wife Margery (fn. 50) —perhaps the Margery who had previously married William Gygour—and in 1523 William Spencer, son of Robert Spencer and Elizabeth Arden, released to Fermor his right to a share of the manor. (fn. 51) The remaining third part seems to have been held in 1511 by Edmund Bury, who conveyed it to Edward Chamberlain, (fn. 52) but William Fermor evidently acquired this share also by 1548, when he made a settlement of the whole manor. William was succeeded in 1552 (fn. 53) by his nephew Thomas, who died in 1580. (fn. 54) When in 1606 Thomas's son Sir Richard Fermor acquired the manor of Tusmore, the two estates of Hardwick and Tusmore were united, and have since followed the same descent. (fn. 55)

Lesser Estates.

A virgate of land in Hardwick was given by Ralph d'Aundeley to Oseney Abbey, which in turn granted it to the Hospitallers. (fn. 56) This may have been either the virgate held in 1279 by Robert le Newman of Gosford Hospital, (fn. 57) or land then held by Richard Bartlett of Hogshaw Hospital (Bucks.), which in 1279 was said to hold the advowson. (fn. 58) The later history of these small estates is not known, but it was probably the former connexion of the Hospitallers with Hardwick which led to the erroneous statement in 1580 that Thomas Fermor had held the manor of Thomas Pigott, (fn. 59) then lord of the manor of Hogshaw. (fn. 60)

Economic History.

In the Domesday estate of 7½ hides in Hardwick, part of which became attached to Tusmore, (fn. 61) there was land for 6 ploughs. But as the place was probably primarily a pastoral settlement there were only 3½ plough-teams, one in demesne and 2½ held by 5 villeins (villani), and 2 bordars. The value of the estate, £5, had not changed since the Conquest. (fn. 62) In 1279 Alice de Beauchamp held 2 carucates in demesne, and a water-mill worth 10s. a year. (fn. 63) Eight villeins held a virgate each, and worked and were tallaged at the lady's will. Two free tenants held the Gosford and Hogshaw properties, (fn. 64) perhaps a virgate each, for rents of 3s. and 8s. respectively. The total extent of the arable land was then perhaps 18 virgates. In 1272 the annual value of Hardwick had been £7, (fn. 65) and it changed little in the 14th century: £6 13s. 4d. in 1349 and in 1355. (fn. 66) In 1316 the village was combined with Ardley and Tusmore for purposes of taxation, but in 1327, when it was taxed independently, seventeen contributors paid £2 0s. 8d., and the parish was among the poorest in Ploughley hundred. (fn. 67) Its contribution to the 15th was raised in 1334 to £2 9s. 10d., (fn. 68) and in 1347 the men of Hardwick petitioned the king, pleading that there were only nine poor tenants in the village and that the new assessment was far too heavy for them to bear. They asked that the village might be reassessed, and that they might receive a rebate on the 15th granted in 1344. If they received no redress, they would be forced to leave their holdings and to abandon the village. (fn. 69) The petition evidently failed, for Hardwick's assessment remained unchanged. (fn. 70)

Although the village was less severely ravaged by the Black Death than the neighbouring village of Tusmore it suffered sufficiently badly to be allowed an abatement of 3s. in 1354 out of its total tax of 49s. 10d., a comparatively high relief for the hundred. (fn. 71) In 1377 its adult population was only 37, (fn. 72) and by 1428 there were fewer than ten resident householders in the village. (fn. 73) Sixteenth-century subsidy lists reflect the consolidation of estates in the hands of the Fermor family: there were seven contributors in 1524, two of them men of considerable means. (fn. 74)

Inclosure probably started early in Hardwick. In 1515 a tenant of William Fermor and Richard Samwell was alleged to have allowed the decay of a messuage, and to have converted 40 acres of arable to pasture. (fn. 75) By 1520, however, the house had been rebuilt. (fn. 76) Sheep were evidently being kept, for in 1533 William Mortimer of Hardwick made several bequests in sheep (fn. 77) and in 1606 Sir Richard Fermor exercised his right to graze 400 sheep from Hardwick on lands in Cottisford. (fn. 78) In 1573 Thomas Fermor unsuccessfully tried to induce Eton College to divide 300 acres of arable, 10 acres of meadow, 100 acres of heath, and 30 acres of moor in Hardwick and Cottisford, which he said they held jointly with him, so that they might be inclosed. (fn. 79) Nevertheless there had been some inclosure by 1601, when Rye Close, New Close, and others are mentioned. (fn. 80)

From two 17th-century glebe terriers and two 19th-century maps something of the topography of Hardwick before inclosure had gone very far can be reconstructed. (fn. 81) There were still three open fields in 1601: (fn. 82) Heath Field in the north-east of the parish, bounded by Hardwick Heath; Tinker's Field in the north-west, and Mill Field in the south-west. Posey meadow lay on the southern boundary, and east of the stream flowing south from the fishponds was Stoney Holms pasture. In the arable fields were 'powles' or strips of mowing ground, 18 feet wide in one instance. Woodland lay along the boundary with Tusmore, (fn. 83) while the Heath occupied the extreme north-east of the parish. There was a cow pasture called Bayard's Green—evidently part of the large stretch of waste ground of that name which extended into several neighbouring parishes. (fn. 84) Between 1601 and 1682 closes were taken out of Mill Field and Heath Field (fn. 85) and by about 1717 the latter appears to have been entirely inclosed. (fn. 86) The inclosure of Mill Field and Tinker's Field seems to have been completed early in the 18th century, for in 1784 the parish was described as inclosed 'from time immemorial'. (fn. 87)

In the 18th century the Fermors kept only the woods and a few closes in hand: the manor farm and the greater part of the parish was let to the Day family, and at the beginning of the century there was one other very small farm. (fn. 88) In 1857 Manor farm occupied some 430 acres out of the 452 acres of the Hardwick estate, and there was still only one farm in the parish in 1939. (fn. 89) The later inclosures in the parish remained arable land in the 19th century: in 1849 there were 253 acres of arable to 96 acres of meadow and pasture in the lands covered by the tithe award. (fn. 90) The land was particularly suitable for wheat, barley, and turnips (fn. 91) —Hardwick lies just within that part of Oxfordshire noted for its barley and for its sheep. By 1939, however, there only remained a little over 80 acres of arable, and in the north-east of the parish land formerly cultivated had gone back to the heath from which it had been won. (fn. 92)

Hardwick has always been one of the least populous places in the hundred. The Compton Census (1676) recorded 23 adults. In the 18th century incumbents reported that there were 2 houses and 3 cottages in 1738; 6 cottages and the farm-house in 1759, and 11 houses in 1771. (fn. 93) There was the usual increase in population in the early 19th century and by 1821, the peak year, there were 17 houses and 98 inhabitants, an increase of 37 over the figure for 1801. Thereafter numbers declined, and by 1901 there were only 11 inhabited houses for 46 people. In 1951 the population was forty-one. (fn. 94)

Church.

A grant was made of Hardwick tithes in the late 11th century (see below), but as Hardwick was a chapelry of Stoke Lyne in the mid-12th century, the grant is not certain evidence for the existence of a church other than that of Stoke Lyne. Hardwick chapel is first mentioned in the mid-12th century, when it was granted with Stoke Lyne by Walter Giffard to Notley Abbey. (fn. 95) This grant does not seem to have taken effect, and by 1249 or 1250 when the lord of the manor, William d'Aundeley, presented, Hardwick was a separate church. (fn. 96) Two years later the advowson was in the hands of the Knights Hospitallers, although no record of any grant has been found. (fn. 97) The Prior of St. John's, Clerkenwell, the English head of the order, presented throughout the Middle Ages, (fn. 98) with one exception in 1482, when the bishop collated by lapse. An attempt by a clerk in 1344 to get possession of the living with a fraudulent royal presentation had been unsuccessful. (fn. 99) After the suppression of the Hospitallers in 1540, Henry VIII in 1545 sold the advowson to John Pope of London, (fn. 100) with whom the lord of the manor, William Fermor, was associated. (fn. 101) The latter had in fact already presented in 1532 by reason of a grant from the Hospitallers. The advowson then descended with the manor, the Fermors presenting until the mid-19th century. (fn. 102) Since 1841 the living has been held with Tusmore, and in 1932 the two parishes were united. Since 1867 Hardwick and Tusmore have been held with Cottisford. (fn. 103) The patron in 1955 was the Hon. R. H. Vivian Smith, son of Lord Bicester.

In 1254, when the rectory was valued at 10s., it was the poorest in the deanery. (fn. 104) In 1291 it was valued at 33s. 4d. and in 1535 at £5. (fn. 105) Until the late 17th century the rector continued to get his income from tithes and glebe, (fn. 106) but by 1706 these had been commuted for an annual sum of £20, to be paid by the lord of the manor; the net value of the living was only about £15. (fn. 107) In 1784 a new arrangement was made by which the £20 was increased to £27 9s., estimated as the equivalent of 3s. in the pound on the rent of the land. The rector was in addition promised the sinecure of the living at Tusmore. (fn. 108) In 1780 the value of the living was further augmented with £200 from Queen Anne's Bounty, (fn. 109) and in 1849 the tithes were again commuted for £101 10s. (fn. 110)

The glebe in the 17th century consisted of a yardland in the common fields, (fn. 111) but efforts made in the 1780's to locate it were unavailing, the two 17thcentury terriers 'very much contradicting each other'. (fn. 112) The rector's claims to glebe were extinguished by the agreement of 1784. (fn. 113) He also had glebe, three 'lands' in Hardwick Field in Hethe, which was commuted at the Hethe inclosure in 1772. (fn. 114)

Robert d'Oilly gave two-thirds of his demesne tithes in Hardwick to the church of St. George in Oxford castle, (fn. 115) and these in 1149 were transferred with St. George's to Oseney Abbey. (fn. 116) In 1291 and 1428 they were valued at 6s. 8d., but by the 16th century at 3s. 4d. (fn. 117) In 1502 the abbot successfully sued the rector, Thomas Wright, for twelve years' arrears of this sum. (fn. 118) In 1542 this pension was granted to Christ Church. (fn. 119)

Hardwick was always too poor a living to support properly a resident priest, and the very large number, nearly 40, of medieval rectors implies that the living was very difficult to fill. However, services were said to be held regularly in the late 16th century, (fn. 120) although the parish was so poor that it could not provide a bible in the church. The rector himself promised to give one. (fn. 121) At this time there was a Rectory House, and rectors were living there as late as 1665, though by 1679 it was a ruin. (fn. 122)

By the 18th century weekly services were no longer held: Rawlinson noted that divine service was read once a month 'if there be any auditors'. (fn. 123) During the early part of the century the rector paid curates a crown a Sunday to hold these monthly services. (fn. 124) George Sheppard (1739–84), for instance, who held the living 'for a young gentleman now at Oxford', vainly besought neighbouring incumbents to take the duty for this sum. (fn. 125) A Mr. Fletcher, whom he finally secured, proved not to be in priest's orders, and was forbidden by the bishop to officiate further. (fn. 126) The bishop had already in 1739 written a 'sharp letter' to Sheppard, urging him to hold weekly services. (fn. 127) Although Sheppard promised to do so, a service once a fortnight seems to have been the usual practice until the early 19th century. (fn. 128) This unusual situation was due to the fact that the patron and most of the parishioners were Roman Catholics; (fn. 129) for many years even the churchwardens (there was only one at a time) belonged to the Roman Catholic families of Day and Collingridge. (fn. 130) In 1746 it was said that seldom could more than three or four church members, and never more than six, be assembled; (fn. 131) and in the early 19th century there were seven. These were said never to have expressed dissatisfaction with the services. (fn. 132) By the mid-19th century regular services were being held for a small congregation: in 1854 about twenty was the average number. (fn. 133)

The church of ST. MARY comprises a chancel, nave, and south aisle, with a south porch and western bell-turret. A late 12th- or early 13th-century doorway forms the main (south) entrance to the church and an ancient stoup, discovered built into some masonry, has been placed inside it. The chancel is 14th century with three original windows including a three-light east window and a low side window. There is a priest's door and piscina. The nave, also originally 14th century, is now mainly 15th century, with a fine west window. (fn. 134) The South aisle and its arcade, the porch and bell-turret are 19th century.

When Rawlinson visited the church in about 1718 he noted it as a 'small chapel going to decay'. (fn. 135) In 1757 some minor repairs to the fabric were ordered; (fn. 136) in 1812 it was declared to be 'out of repair'; (fn. 137) in 1847 the rural dean reported the state of the church as 'moderately decent'. (fn. 138) In 1877 the 2nd Earl of Effingham (fn. 139) undertook at his sole charge a thorough restoration and also the enlargement of the church in accordance with the plans of Sir George Gilbert Scott. The work was carried out on the death of Sir George by his son G. G. Scott between 1878 and 1879 at a cost of £2,000. The completed building was a notable example of mid-Victorian restoration. The chancel walls were scarcely touched, but the nave was largely rebuilt: as far as possible the timbers of the old roof were preserved and the west window, the greater part of which had been blocked up, was restored to its original size. (fn. 140) The south aisle, porch, and bell-turret were added. A new altar, font (from Fringford church), pulpit, and lectern were provided: the woodwork is good. An organ was added in 1900.

There are two panels of medieval glass (Christ in majesty and the Crucifixion) in the west window, and there is ancient glass in the three top lights of the east window. (fn. 141)

There are inscriptions to Capt. Francis Hereman (d. 1687); Ralph Hatton (d. 1694/5) and Mary his wife (d. 1717); Ann, wife of Nicholas Saers of London (d. 1721); Samuel Tooley (d. 1721/2); and three to members of the Freeman family: Ursula (d. 1726/7), her son Basil (d. 1722), and his wife Winifred (d. 1751). There is a brass to Henry Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham (d. 1889), and a brass and memorial window to Eliza, Countess of Effingham (d. 1894). Inscriptions to Ann, wife of William Lyne (d. 1622/3), John Pennington (d. 1680), and Pascha Bat (d. 1672) are no longer visible, (fn. 142) nor are those to the 18th-century Roman Catholic Days, (fn. 143) though there are floor slabs to other Roman Catholic families.

In 1552 the church possessed a small silver chalice and paten. (fn. 144) In 1955 it had some fine plate, given by the earls of Effingham in the late 19th and 20th centuries: a beautiful Elizabethan silver chalice (1562) and paten cover; a silver tankard flagon (1704), from a London church; a large early 18thcentury paten; and a tray and two cruets, the latter apparently of Spanish workmanship. (fn. 145)

There were in 1552 two bells and a sanctus bell, the last provided by a bequest from William Baker (1533). In 1955 one bell hung in the turret: probably originally an early 14th-century bell, it was recast in 1873. (fn. 146)

The registers begin in 1760, and there are incomplete transcripts from 1739.

Nonconformity.

Hardwick is an interesting example of an out-of-the-way village in which propitious circumstances permitted a small Roman Catholic community to flourish throughout much of the post-Reformation period. The lords of the manor, the Roman Catholic family of Fermor, settled at Tusmore since the first half of the 17th century, naturally favoured tenants of their own faith. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries few recusants, besides the Smiths, a family of husbandmen, were recorded, (fn. 147) but members of four families were noted in 1706; (fn. 148) and by the 1760's there were over 30 Roman Catholics, more than half the population. (fn. 149) The proportion remained high: in 1796 the 'greatest part' of the inhabitants were Roman Catholics; (fn. 150) in 1802 there were 53 out of 61; (fn. 151) in 1823 78 out of 98. (fn. 152) The proportion later declined, and in 1854 under half the population was said to be Roman Catholic. (fn. 153)

In the 18th century the Hardwick community probably attended the Fermors' chapel at Tusmore, but in 1768, while Tusmore House was being rebuilt, the local centre for worship became 'Farmer Day's', i.e. Hardwick Manor Farm. (fn. 154) From this time at least until 1790, there seems to have been a resident priest there, as the Days, and after them the Collingridges, the tenants of the farm, were wellknown Catholic families. (fn. 155) In 1772 a large group of people was confirmed at Hardwick. (fn. 156)

When William Fermor left Tusmore in 1810, the chapel in Hardwick Manor Farm, a long attic running the length of the house, fitted with furnishings from Tusmore, was the Roman Catholic centre for the neighbourhood. (fn. 157) From 1810 until his death in 1830 the Revd. Samuel Corbishley was in charge of the mission; he ran a school and began to keep careful registers. His death was a blow to the local community and led to the building of the church at Hethe, (fn. 158) for although Fermor had died in 1828, it was understood that his non-Catholic heirs would not disturb the chapel at Hardwick during Corbishley's lifetime. (fn. 159)

The church and graveyard of the parish church were used by the Roman Catholics of Somerton and Tusmore as their burying-ground: (fn. 160) they have many gravestones there, on some of which there is undisguisedly Roman Catholic phraseology.

There is no record of Protestant dissent. (fn. 161)

School.

A free school which taught children to read in 1818 had disappeared by 1833. (fn. 162) The mistress of a school mentioned in 1854 was paid by the Hon. P. Barrington of Tusmore Park. (fn. 163) In 1870 the Earl of Effingham financed the building of a new school, and continued to maintain it. (fn. 164) It had 24 pupils in 1887, but never appears to have been recognized as a public elementary school. (fn. 165) It closed at some date between 1895 and 1903 and the children were sent to the schools at Hethe and Cottisford. (fn. 166)

Charities.

None known.