Lidstone

Lidstone
Cottages in Lidstone
Lidstone  Lidstone shown within Oxfordshire
OS grid reference	SP355247
Civil parish	Enstone
District	West Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Chipping Norton
Postcode district	OX7
Dialling code	01608
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Witney
Website	Enstone Parish
List of places UK England Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°55′11″N 1°29′07″W / 51.9197°N 1.4852°W

Lidstone is a hamlet on the River Glyme in Oxfordshire, about 3 miles (5 km) east of Chipping Norton. The hamlet is in Enstone civil parish, about 1 ¹⁄₄ miles (2 km) west of Neat Enstone.

Archaeology

In Round Hill Field^[1] on a ridge about 700 yards (640 m) south of Lidstone is a Bronze Age bowl barrow. It is 105 feet (32 m) in diameter and 2 feet (0.6 m) high. Originally it would have been substantially higher, and would have been created from spoil dug from a circular quarry trench 6 ¹⁄₂ feet (2 m) deep. The trench has become filled in but will have survived as a buried feature. The barrow is the most northerly of a line of three that form a line between Lidstone and the village of Spelsbury. It is a scheduled monument. In the middle of the barrow is an Ordnance Survey triangulation station.^[2]

Manor

By 1279 there was a hide of land at Lidstone that was part of the manor of Heythrop.^[3]

Mill

Lidstone had a large watermill on the Glyme. It had the largest-diameter waterwheel in Oxfordshire: an overshot wheel 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter^[4] and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. Via a 15-foot (4.6 m) pitwheel it drove three pairs of millstones. The mill had its own bread oven.^[5] The mill was dismantled in 1976 and its machinery taken into storage, but the large iron waterwheel was left in place.^[6]

References

1. Harden 1954, p. 143.
2. "Bowl barrow 500m south west of Hill Farm, Lidstone". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. 22 March 1949. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
3. Crossley 1983, pp. 131–143
4. Foreman 1983, p. 45.
5. Foreman 1983, p. 111.
6. Foreman 1983, plate 22.

Sources

19th-century former chapel in Lidstone, now converted into a private garage

• Crossley, Alan (ed.); Baggs, A.P.; Colvin, Christina; Colvin, H.M.; Cooper, Janet; Day, C.J.; Selwyn, Nesta; Tomkinson, A. (1983). "Heythrop". A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. 11: Wootton Hundred (northern part). pp. 131–143.
• Foreman, Wilfrid (1983). Oxfordshire Mills. Chichester: Phillimore & Co Ltd. pp. 45, 111. ISBN 0-85033-441-1.
• Harden, D.B. (1954). "Scheduled Monuments in Oxfordshire". Oxoniensia (Oxford: Oxford Architectural and Historical Society) XIX: 137–145.