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Watlington in Oxford County England History and GeographyWATLINGTON, a market town and parish in the hundred of PIRTON, county of OXFORD, 15 miles (E.S.E.) from Oxford, and 43 (W. by N.) from London, containing, with the liberty of Greenfield, and the hamlet of Warmscomb, 1479 inhabitants. The name is conjectured to have been derived from the Saxon Watelar, hurdles, or wattles, alluding to the way in which the Britons are described to have built their towns, 'as groves fenced in with hewn trees.' The town is situated between the two high roads leading from London to Oxford, about half a mile from the line of the Iknield-street; it is irregularly built, and consists of some narrow streets, the houses, with a few exceptions, being but of mean appearance; water is supplied from an adjacent brook, which rises in one of the Chiltern hills, above the town, and on which are four corn-mills. A few females are employed in lace-making; a school, in which from thirty to forty girls attend, having been established to teach them the art. The market, granted in the reign of Richard I., is on Saturday: a substantial market-house was built, in 1666, by Thomas Stonor, Esq., and over it is a room where the public business of the town is transacted. Fairs are held on April 5th and the Saturday before October 10th; and on the Saturday before and after Michaelmas is a statute fair. Two courts leet are held annually, and the petty sessions for the hundred take place once a fortnight. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford, rated in the king's books at £12, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of John H. Tilson, Esq. The church, standing on the north-western side of the town, is dedicated to St. Leonard; in the chancel is a burial-place of the Horne family, also some interesting monuments. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school, once a noted classical school, but now confined to English instruction, was founded in 1664, and endowed with a rent-charge of £10, by Thomas Stonor, Esq., which sum has been augmented by subsequent benefactions: the master, who must be a graduate of one of the Universities, receives a salary of £20 per annum; it is held in a room over the market-place: nineteen boys are instructed. On Bretwell hill there are some remains of trenches, indicating the site of an ancient encampment. Of Watlington castle, which stood southeast of the church, there are only some traces of the moat by which it was surrounded, now filled with water. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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