Finmere is a village and
civil parish in
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, south of the
River Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...
. It is on the county boundary with
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, almost west of
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...
and just over east of
Brackley in
Northamptonshire. The
2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 466.
Archaeology
In 2000 archaeologists found evidence of
Bronze Age,
Iron Age and
Roman activity in Finmere Quarry about west of the village. Five
early Bronze Age cremation pits were excavated, and from one pit two collared urns were recovered. The cremations were dated to about 2040 to 1880 BC.
The site of a late Iron Age settlement was found west of the cremation pits and just east of the trackbed of the former
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railw ...
railway. The settlement consisted originally of a number of
roundhouses packed close together in a straight line, and then developed in phases with later structures overlapping the sites of some of the earlier ones. Enclosures, presumably to contain livestock, were created at different times and in different shapes, with the outlines of some enclosures from different periods overlapping the sites of the roundhouses and each other. Iron Age pottery recovered from the site suggests that the settlement was occupied in phases from the 4th to the 1st century BC.
A pair of ditches were found running parallel across the site about apart and roughly east–west. The ditches were identified as flanking a track, and fragments of
wheel-thrown pottery found on part of the site led to the track being dated to the period of Roman occupation of Britain. The site is about from the course of the
Roman road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
that linked
Alchester near
Bicester with ''
Lactodurum'' (now
Towcester), which runs through the eastern side of Finmere village.
Manor
Finmere's
toponym is derived from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
for "pool frequented by
woodpeckers". The village includes the hamlet of Little Tingewick.
Before and after the
Norman Conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
Wulfward the White, a
thegn of King
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
's Queen
Edith, owned the
Manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
of Finmere. However, by 1086
William of Normandy
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
had granted the manor to
Geoffrey de Montbray, who was
Bishop of Coutances but also one of William's senior military commanders. Subsequently, the manor passed to the
Earls of Gloucester, in whose family it stayed until the
4th Earl of Gloucester died without a successor in 1314. In 1347 the manor passed to the
1st Earl of Stafford, in whose family it then remained.
Parish church
Finmere had a
parish church by 1189, when its
advowson was granted to the
Augustinian Friary in Bristol. The only surviving remnant from the parish church of that period seems to be the 12th century
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
. The earliest surviving parts of the present
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
of
St Michael and All Angels
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...
are the tower, the north wall of the
chancel and the
Decorated Gothic windows in the chancel and the south wall of the
nave. The
Perpendicular Gothic
Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
was added later. The church underwent major repairs at various times in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. A
west gallery
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
was added, probably in the 1760s. In 1856–58 the
Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street removed the west gallery, restored the church, widened the chancel arch and added the north
aisle. A
vestry was added in 1868 and a porch in 1876. The architectural historians Sir
Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood criticised Street's alterations for being ''"too aggressive"'' and dominating the rest of the building.
St. Michael's
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
has three bells.
William Chamberlain of
Aldgate cast the tenor in about 1470 and an unidentified
bellfounder cast the treble in about 1599.
[ The middle bell is of unknown age but Lester and Pack of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry recast it in 1754.][
The tower has also an historic turret clock that was installed in 1697. 22 donors between them raised the £8 10s 0d cost. The clock was altered with a new escapement and other alterations in 1858 and reinstalled in 1859. Dr James Clarke of Finmere House designed the escapement and paid the £10 cost of reinstallation, which was done by William Bayliss, the village carpenter.
The Church of England parish is now a member of the ]Benefice
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
of Shelswell, which includes the parishes of Cottisford, Fringford, Godington, Hardwick-''cum''-Tusmore, Hethe
Hethe is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.
Manor
The village's toponym comes from the Old English ''hæð'' meaning "heath, uncultivated ground".Lobel, 1959, pages 174-181
Before and after the Norman ...
, Mixbury, Newton Purcell, Stoke Lyne
Stoke Lyne is a village and civil parish about north of Bicester, Oxfordshire in southern England.
Battle of Fethan leag
In AD 584 a Saxon army led by King Ceawlin of Wessex and his son Cutha fought an army of Britons "at the place which is ...
and Stratton Audley.
Social and economic history
The Domesday book records that by 1086 the village had a watermill. The village continued to have a mill on the Great Ouse until early in the 19th century, when Richard Temple-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had it demolished.
In 1645 during the English Civil War a Parliamentarian force from Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area.
It is separated from the rest of the urban ...
surprised a platoon of eighteen Royalists stationed in Finmere. The Parliamentarians drove the Royalists out of the village, which thereafter remained under Parliamentarian control.
An open field system of farming predominated in the parish until 1667, when the common fields were enclosed.
At an unrecorded date prior to the Enclosure act, a field of approx. 12 acres had been set aside for the use of the Poor of the village. It is known as the Poor's Plot and, as of 2023, still exists and income from the plot partly funds the village allotments.
In 1824 the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos built a National School for the village. In 1926 it was reorganised as a junior school, with senior pupils thereafter going to the school in Fringford. The first Finmere school was closed in 1948. A new school was built and opened in 1959.
Historic houses
Finmere rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
has had a chequered history. In 1634 it was a relatively small house of only four bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. Thereafter it was enlarged to ten bays, but in 1662 a violent storm blew it down. The rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
had it rebuilt as a house of only five bays, but that burnt down in 1668. By 1685 the rectory consisted of only three bays, but by 1738 it had been enlarged to six. Also in the 18th century "Capability" Brown designed its gardens. No trace of Brown's work survives, and in 1867 the house was demolished and replaced with a new rectory. This is now a private house, Finmere Place.
Other historic houses in Finmere include Finmere House (built in 1600 and re-fronted in 1739) and Lepper's House (built in 1638 and rebuilt in 1879).
Transport
Finmere was on the main road between Buckingham and Banbury, which was made into a turnpike by an Act of Parliament in 1744. Since the 1920s the road has been classified as the A421, and later in the 20th century a bypass
Bypass may refer to:
* Bypass (road), a road that avoids a built-up area (not to be confused with passing lane)
* Flood bypass of a river
Science and technology Medicine
* Bypass surgery, a class of surgeries including for example:
** Heart bypas ...
was built past the former RAF Finmere airfield, south of Finmere and the neighbouring Buckinghamshire village of Tingewick
Tingewick is a village and civil parish about west of Buckingham in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. The parish is bounded to the north by the River Great Ouse, to the east by a tributary of the Great Ouse, to the west by t ...
, to take the A421 past the two villages.
In 1847–50 the Buckinghamshire Railway built a branch line to through the northern part of the parish along the Great Ouse Valley. station was built on the line about northwest of the village. In 1899 the Great Central Railway built its main line to London through the western part of the parish and built Finmere for Buckingham station about south of the village. Buckingham already had a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line and was almost from the Great Central station, so the name was subsequently shortened to the more appropriate "Finmere". British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
ways closed Finmere station in 1963, and closed the section of the Great Central line through the station in 1966. BR also closed Fulwell and Westbury station and the branch line to Banbury in the 1960s.
RAF Finmere
The War Department built a military airfield south of Finmere and Tingewick in 1941–42, which was commissioned in July 1942 as RAF Finmere. It served as a Bomber Command operational training unit, flying Bristol Blenheim medium bombers which by then were obsolete for combat operations and used only for training. They were eventually withdrawn from this role as well and from January 1944 the training unit at RAF Finmere flew de Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or ...
es. After the Second World War RAF Finmere served as a Transport Command storage depot until the 1950s, when it was decommissioned and closed as an RAF base. Part of one runway remains in use as a private airfield.
Since 1973 a Sunday market has been held on the area where the three concrete runways converge. Initially Buckinghamshire County Council opposed the market and had the operators convicted and fined for breaking the Shops Act 1950 that forbade most forms of retailing in England and Wales on Sundays. In 1974 Britain's local government reorganisation transferred responsibility for planning to Aylesbury Vale District Council
Aylesbury Vale District Council was the non-metropolitan second tier authority for Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire. It was responsible for housing, waste collection, council tax, local planning, licensing and cemeteries, while Buckinghamshire Co ...
, which in 1975 granted the market planning permission for three years and in 1976 extended that permission until 1981. In 1994 Parliament adopted the Sunday Trading Act which greatly reduced restrictions on Sunday retailing in England and Wales, and since then Finmere Market has been less busy. However, the former airfield is now also the venue of the annual Bicester Sheep Fair.
On 2 April 1992 a US Air Force plane crashed near Finmere. There were no fatalities or casualties. It was speculated that the plane was attempting to make an emergency landing at the disused airfield at Finmere.
Amenities
The parish has a thatched 17th- or 18th-century public house, the Red Lion at Little Tingewick. It is now a gastropub.The Red Lion Little Tingewick
/ref>
There is a village hall and playing fields at the north end of Finmere village.
References
Sources and further reading
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External links
Finmere Parish Council
Finmere Village website
{{Authority control
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
Villages in Oxfordshire