Bainton | |
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Monument at Bainton Erected in 1812 by Sir Thomas Mostyn Bart MP, master of the Bicester Foxhounds 1800 to 1830, in memory of his favourite hound "Lady". | |
Location within
Oxfordshire | |
OS grid reference | SP580270 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Bicester |
Postcode district | OX27 |
Dialling code | 01869 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Oxfordshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
UK Parliament | |
Bainton is a hamlet comprising a cluster of farms in the civil parish of Stoke Lyne, about 3 miles (5 km) north of the centre of Bicester.
The toponym comes from the Old English for "Bada's farm". [1]
The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Ghilo de Picquigny held the manor of Bainton. [1]
In 1279 Bainton had 17 households. [1] In 1316 18 villagers were assessed to pay taxes but by 1520 the figure had fallen to five. [1] By the 1950s Bainton comprised only four farmhouses and a cottage. [1]
In 1530 the manor was sold to Edward Peckham, cofferer to Henry VIII and John Williams, later 1st Baron Williams de Thame. [1] In 1613 Edward Ewer of Bucknell sold the manor to Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet of Hanwell for £5,300. [1] A legal dispute between them ensued, which ended with Ewer recovering the manor in 1628. [1] The Ewer family could not afford to keep Bainton, and sold the manor again in 1637. [1]
By the middle of the 17th century Bainton had been converted from arable farming to pasture. [1] This required less labour so the hamlet became depopulated. [1]
Bainton Manor Farm is a coursed rubblestone house. [1] It was constructed in either the latter part of the 16th or earlier part of the 17th century, [1] during the Great Rebuilding of England, originally as the manor house. [1] In 1783 John Warde, founder and first Master of the Bicester Hunt, [2] was using it as a hunting-box, Joseph Bullock of Caversfield had bought the manor and the two men together built stables and kennels there. [1] 330 yards (300 m) northwest of the hamlet an obelisk marks the grave of a favourite foxhound. [3]