Deddington

Deddington

SS. Peter and Paul parish church
Deddington
 Deddington shown within Oxfordshire
Area  17.23 km2 (6.65 sq mi)
Population 2,146 (parish, including Clifton & Hempton) (2011 Census)
    density  125/km2 (320/sq mi)
OS grid referenceSP4631
Civil parishDeddington
DistrictCherwell
Shire countyOxfordshire
RegionSouth East
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Banbury
Postcode district OX15
Dialling code 01869
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK ParliamentBanbury
WebsiteDeddington Online
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°59′20″N 1°19′12″W / 51.989°N 1.320°W / 51.989; -1.320

Deddington is a civil parish in Oxfordshire about 6 miles (10 km) south of Banbury. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,146.[1]

In population Deddington is a village but it has a small commercial centre with a market place and its local football team is called Deddington Town FC.[2]

History

The remains of Deddington Castle's inner bailey

The name is thought to derive from Daeda, probably an early Anglo-Saxon nobleman, and means "the place of the people of Daeda". The village is believed to have been first settled in the 6th or 7th century AD.

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, William the Conqueror's step-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, held the manor of Deddington. Odo had Deddington Castle built in what is now the east of the town. The castle was almost completely demolished in the 14th century. There have been two archaeological excavations at the site, in 1947 and in 1978. The remains were reburied once the excavations were complete and only the extensive earthworks are visible today.

On 9 June 1312 the Earl of Pembroke was escorting Piers Gaveston south after Gaveston's surrender to a group of rebellious earls at Scarborough Castle. The party stopped to rest at an inn in Deddington,[3] and Pembroke who had guaranteed Gaveston's safety to the king on pain of forfeiting his lands, went to visit his wife at Bampton Castle, Oxfordshire, about 25 miles (40 km) away. The Earl of Warwick with his men surrounded the inn and Gaveston, seeing that his guards would not fight, had to come outside to be chained and thrown in prison. Warwick, whom Gaveston had earlier called black cur (black dog), a serious insult at that time, had now bitten him. A few days later Gaveston, who had been appointed Earl of Cornwall by the king was taken to Warwick to be tried by the other earls and condemned to death. On 19 June he was taken to Blacklow Hill by the Earl of Lancaster and hacked to death by two Welshmen. This event is recalled by a chained eagle in Deddington's coat of arms.

Churches

Church of England

Window by AJ Davies in the parish church

The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of SS Peter and Paul are early 13th-century. The chancel was lengthened in the late 13th century, when its Decorated Gothic piscina and sedilia were made.[4] The church once had a tall spire but it collapsed onto the nave in 1634. Rebuilding was begun but was interrupted by the English Civil War. The font was made in 1664 and the tower was finally rebuilt in 1683–85. Its rebuilding is an example of Gothic survival architecture, as is the 17th-century south porch. The church was restored in 1858–68 under the direction of the Gothic revival architect GE Street.[5] The building is Grade II* listed.[4]

In 1643, during the English Civil War, Charles I requisitioned the bells from the damaged tower,[6] presumably for scrap. Thereafter there is no record of SS Peter and Paul having any bells until the middle of the 18th century, by which time it had a ring of four.[6] The present tower has a ring of eight bells cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry: six by Thomas Mears in 1791 and two by Mears and Stainbank in 1946.[7]

SS Peter and Paul's stained glass windows include the east window of the chancel by Charles Kempe and two windows at the east end of the north aisle by AJ Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts.[8]

Wesleyan Reform

Deddington Wesleyan Reform Church was built in 1851[8] and is a member of the Wesleyan Reform Union.[9]

Clockmakers

In the 18th century Deddington had a succession of clockmakers, all drawn from the Quaker community of north Oxfordshire. John Fardon (I) (1700–43) was apprenticed to Thomas Gilkes of Sibford Gower and traded in Deddington from about 1723.[10] His only son John Fardon (II) (1736–86) was only 10 years old when his father died and seems to have been apprenticed in London.[11] In his absence Thomas Harris, a Quaker from Sibford Ferris, ran the business in Deddington until about 1762, when he married a Fardon from North Newington.[12] His history thereafter is not known but he died at Milton and is buried in the grounds of the Friends' Meeting House at Adderbury West.[12] John Fardon (II) returned from his apprenticeship and made longcase clocks.[11][13] He too is buried at Adderbury West.[11]

Thomas Fardon (1787–1838) made various timepieces including an Act of Parliament clock,[11] longcase clocks[14] and verge watches.[14] He also installed the turret clocks at the parish churches of St. Mary the Virgin, Kidlington in 1805 and SS. Peter and Paul, Deddington in 1833.[14] John Fardon (III) (1782–1865)[13] was a watchmaker who was known to have carried out repairs between 1801 and 1830.[11] He moved his business to Woodstock in 1838 and maintained the clock at St. Mary the Virgin, Kidlington from 1839 until 1862.[13]

Joshua Gibbs was either apprenticed to or employed by the Fardons.[15] He traded first at Souldern and then succeeded the Fardons at Deddington,[15] perhaps when John Fardon (III) moved to Woodstock in 1838. Gibbs' dates of birth and death are not known but he was trading from 1805 until 1855.[15]

Old Court House

The Old Court House was a private home until 1854, when the architect J.C. Buckler converted it into a prison.[16] The architect William Wilkinson added the magistrates' room in 1874.[16] The building now houses the local public library.[17]

Schools

"Tchure" is a common Midlands dialect word for an alley.[18] The Tchure in Deddington is an old alleyway that is now a bridleway. Oxfordshire has identically-named alleys in Charlton-on-Otmoor and Upper Heyford.

From 1673 Deddington had a charity school "in a corner of the church".[18] In 1815 separate boys' and girls' National Schools were founded to take over from the charity school.[18] By 1816 the two schools were teaching 35 children between them, including about 20 from neighbouring parishes.[18] By 1832 the school was housed in converted buildings, including a barn, attached to Appletree Farm in Hopcraft Lane.[18]

Support for Deddington's National Schools declined until in 1848 they had only 80 pupils between them.[18] Purpose-built boys' and girls' school buildings were designed by William Hambley of London and completed in 1854 on a new site in Banbury Road.[19] The two schools were an immediate success and pupil numbers recovered to 180 by 1856.[18] Attendance varied with the seasons, as in summer farm-workers' children tended to help more on the farm. In 1868, 247 children attended the school in winter but only 191 in summer.[18] Boys and girls remained in separate schools on the same site until 1908, when the girls' school became the infants' school and the boys' school became a mixed school for the older children.[18]

In 1951 the Windmill Secondary Modern School was completed on the site of the former windmill in Hempton Road[18] and the former National School was reorganised as a primary school. In 1958 the Diocese of Oxford modernised the primary school with a new kitchen, cloakrooms, WCs, corridor, a new classroom and enlarged windows for the old classrooms.[20] The modernisation was designed by the Diocesan Surveyor, the architect T. Lawrence Dale.[20]

In 1971 the Windmill School was closed, and since then most Deddington children of secondary school age have attended The Warriner School, Bloxham.[18] The former secondary school is now the Windmill Centre and is used by Deddington Pre-School.[21] Deddington Primary School continues to use the buildings in Banbury Road.[22]

Amenities

The Crown and Tuns public house
The Deddington Arms Hotel
Deddington Market Place

Deddington has a regular farmers' market, several local shops, hotels and restaurants and four pubs:

Transport

Deddington is on Stagecoach in Oxfordshire Gold route S4 between Oxford and Banbury. On weekdays and Saturdays buses run hourly to Kidlington and Oxford, and twice an hour to Adderbury and Banbury. On Sundays there are four buses a day in each direction.[26]

References

Sources and further reading

External links

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