Sibford Gower
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Sibford Gower is a village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
about west of
Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...
in
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
, on the north side of the Sib valley, opposite
Sibford Ferris Sibford Ferris is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury in Oxfordshire. It is on the south side of the Sib valley opposite its larger sister village, Sibford Gower. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 476. History S ...
. Sibford Gower parish includes the village of Burdrop. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 508. Much of the village is a conservation area.


Manors

The
Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086 records two
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...
-held manors at Sibford Gower. In 1086 William, son of Corbicion held 10 hides there, which was assessed as one
knight's fee In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. It would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish himself and h ...
. By 1122
Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick or Henry de Newburgh (died 20 June 1119) was a Norman nobleman who rose to great prominence in the Kingdom of England. Origins Henry was a younger son of Roger de Beaumont by Adeline of Meulan, daughter of ...
held this manor. The last known reference to its
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
overlordship was under
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury (22 November 1428 – 14 April 1471), known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, landowner of the House of Neville fortune and military c ...
in 1458. By 1190 the
feoffee Under the feudal system in England, a feoffee () is a trustee who holds a fief (or "fee"), that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner. The use ...
of the Beaumont manor was a Norman, William Goher. In the 1220s the family seem to have rebelled against
the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
and forfeited their lands, but by 1242–43 Thomas Goher had recovered the estate. The "Gower" part of the village's
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...
is derived from a variant of "Goher". The other manor was of 11 hides and was held by
Hugh de Grandmesnil Hugh de Grandmesnil (c. 1032 – 22 February 1098), (known in French as ''Hugues'' and Latinised as ''Hugo de Grentmesnil'', aliter ''Grentemesnil'', etc.), is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Bat ...
. His son
Ivo de Grandmesnil Ivo de Grandmesnil (died 1101 or 1102), son of Hugh de Grandmesnil, was a Norman magnate in England and a participant in the First Crusade, in 1096. Ivo participated in the first crusade in 1096, following Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. Iv ...
mortgaged the family estates to Robert de Beaumont,
Count of Meulan In the Middle Ages, the county of Meulan was a county of Île-de-France. Geography The geographical extent of the county associated with the castle and town of Meulan becomes evident in the time of Robert I (1081–1118) and Waleran de Beaumo ...
in 1102. Ivo died that same year, and the Crown allowed de Beaumont to keep the Grandmesnil estates. In 1204
Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester (died circa 21 October 1204) ( Latinized to ''de Bellomonte'' ("from the beautiful mountain")) was an English nobleman, the last of the Beaumont earls of Leicester. He is sometimes known as Robert FitzP ...
died childless, leaving Sibford Gower to his younger sister Margaret, wife of
Saer de Quincy Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester (c. 1155 – 3 November 1219) was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against John, King of England, and a major figure in both the kingdoms of Scotland and England in the decades around the turn o ...
. When their son
Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester ( – 25 April 1264), (Roger de Quincy is a subarticle in his father's article.) His dates are given as 1195?-1265 at the beginning of the subarticle, but his death date is given as 25 April 1264 near ...
died in 1264 Sibford Gower passed to his eldest daughter Ellen or Helen, wife of Alan la Zouche. She left it to their grandson
Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (9 October 1267 – shortly before 25 March 1314) was born at North Molton, Devonshire, the only son of Roger La Zouche and his wife, Ela Longespée, daughter of Stephen Longespée and Emmeline ...
, who left it to his daughter Maud, wife of
Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand ( 1283 – October 1328) was an English nobleman, born in Lancashire. Early life Holland was a son of Sir Robert de Holland of Upholland, Lancashire, and Elizabeth, daughter of William de Samlesbury. Holl ...
. In 1328 Holland was executed for treason, but his family kept the manor and it passed to his son
Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent Thomas Holland, 2nd Baron Holand, and ''jure uxoris'' 1st Earl of Kent, Order of the Garter, KG (26 December 1360) was an Kingdom of England, English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. By the time of the Crécy campai ...
. He left it to his niece Maud, wife of John Lovel, 5th Baron Lovel, who held the manor in 1374. It descended with his heirs until John Lovel, 8th Baron Lovel, who died in 1465. No subsequent records of the overlordship of this manor are known. His son
Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell Francis Lovell, 9th Baron Lovell, 6th Baron Holand, later 1st Viscount Lovell, KG (1456 – probably 1487) was an English nobleman who was an ally of King Richard III during the War of the Roses. Sir William Catesby, Sir Richard Ratcliffe and ...
supported
Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
in the
Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...
and fought at the
Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of House of Lancaster, Lancaster and House of York, York that extended across England in the latter half ...
. Lovell survived Richard's defeat but Henry VII ordered the forfeiture of all his titles. In about 1225 William of Wheatfield, feoffee of the de Quincy manor, granted land in Sibford Gower to the
Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...
, who had held land in neighbouring Sibford Ferris since the middle of the 12th century. Slightly later the elder Alan la Zouche also granted land to them. In 1314, when the last of the
Knights Templar in England The history of the Knights Templar in England began when the French nobleman Hugues de Payens, founder and Grand Master of the Order, visited the country in 1128 to raise men and money for the Crusades. History King Henry II (1154–1189) gra ...
were suppressed, their estate at Sibford Gower was 10 yardlands and was assessed as of a knight's fee. Sibford Gower
Manor House A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
was built in the 17th century. Frank Lascelles, who grew up in the village, had it substantially remodelled between 1907 and 1915. Until 1773 Sibford Gower had a single
open field ''Open Field'' is the debut album by the Swedish solo act Taken By Trees. It is the first studio album to be released by Victoria Bergsman after shedding her duties as the lead singer of The Concretes. It was released on June 18, 2007 on Rough ...
of 80 yardlands. In 1774 the inclosure award for Sibford Gower divided between 48 landholders. The largest award was to
New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...
, which had held the rectory of
Swalcliffe Swalcliffe is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury in Oxfordshire. The parish is about long north–south and about east–west. The 2011 Census recorded the population of the modern Swalcliffe parish as 210. The toponym "Swalc ...
since 1389 and over the years had extended its estates into Sibford Gower.


Meeting-house, chapel and church

A
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
congregation was established in the village by 1669, when it met in the home of the clockmaker Thomas Gilkes. In 1678 or 1681 a Quaker meeting-house was built on land bought for the purpose by Bray D'Oyley, Thomas Fardon and Thomas Gilkes. By 1682 it had a burial ground. In 1736 a gallery was added inside the meeting-house to accommodate its growing congregation. The
1851 Census The United Kingdom Census of 1851 recorded the people residing in every household on the night of Sunday 30 March 1851, and was the second of the UK censuses to include details of household members. However, this census added considerably to the f ...
recorded that 112 people attended its Sunday meeting. In 1865 the old meeting-house was replaced with the present one southwest of the village, on the road to
Hook Norton Hook Norton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It lies northeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, Chipping Norton, close to the Cotswold Hills. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded ...
. Sibford Gower had a
Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
congregation by the first decade of the 19th century, for which a chapel was built in 1827. The 1851 Census recorded that it held two Sunday services, with congregations of 95 and 112. It became part of the
Methodist Union Methodist Union was the joining together of several of the larger British Methodist denominations. These were the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists. The process involved many years of negotiation and discu ...
in 1932 and was a member of the
Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswolds in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 201 ...
and
Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman ...
Circuit. It was refurbished in 1962–63 and closed in June 2014. Sibford Gower was part of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
parish of Swalcliffe until 1841, when a new ecclesiastical
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of Sibford Gower, with Sibford Ferris and Burdrop was created. The
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 ...
of the
Holy Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...
in Burdrop was built in 1840 to serve the new parish.


Clockmakers

Sibford Gower became associated with clockmaking in the 17th century. Thomas Gilkes was born in Sibford Gower in about 1665 and pioneered clockmaking in north Oxfordshire. There is no known record of where he learnt his trade, but as he was a Quaker he would have been
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...
d to a fellow Quaker; possibly Richard Gilkes of the
Worshipful Company of Clockmakers The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a Royal Charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The ...
in London. Thomas Gilkes died in 1743. Thomas Gilkes trained two of his sons as clockmakers: a third Thomas (1704–57), who then worked in
Charlbury Charlbury () is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the River Evenlode, Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of Wychwood, Wychwood Forest and the C ...
as both a clockmaker and a Quaker minister, and Richard (1715–87) who established his business in West
Adderbury Adderbury is a winding linear village and rural Civil parishes in England, civil parish about south of Banbury in northern Oxfordshire, England. The settlement has five sections: the new Milton Road housing Development and West Adderbury, towar ...
. John Fardon (1700–43) of
Deddington Deddington is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, south of Banbury. The parish includes two hamlets, Clifton and Hempton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,146. It has been a market town since the 12th cent ...
also served his apprenticeship with the elder Thomas Gilkes in Sibford. Gilkes pioneered a clockmaking industry in north Oxfordshire villages with such success that his fellow-Quakers, including several further members of the Gilkes and Fardon families, dominated the trade in parts of the district for the next 150 years. Later clockmakers in Sibford Gower were also Quakers. John Wells' date of birth is unknown but he was married in the Friends' Meeting House in 1785. He moved his business to
Shipston-on-Stour Shipston-on-Stour is a town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in southern Warwickshire, England. It is located on the banks of the River Stour, Warwickshire, River Stour, points of the compass, south-southeast of Stratford-up ...
in
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
, and he died in 1809. Ezra Enock or Enoch (1799–1860) was born in Sibford Gower. From 1827 he traded in
Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...
in East London, but in 1832 he returned to Sibford Gower where he remained for the rest of his life. His son John Enock (1834–83) traded as a clock repairer in adjoining villages.


Amenities

Sibford Gower had a school by 1612 and its first schoolroom was built in 1623. A new cottage for the schoolmaster was built in 1818. In 1825 the school had 59 pupils, but this declined to 40 in 1833. The vicar of Swalcliffe complained in 1837 that the charity was mismanaged, its buildings were ruinous and the master and his wife were not competent. In 1866 the buildings were replaced with a new school and master's house. Pupil numbers recovered to 56 in 1871 and 68 in 1890. Quakers and Wesleyans in the parish held a public meeting in 1891 at which they objected to the school being classified as Church of England. The Charity Commissioners agreed that there was no specific requirement for its pupils to be taught in accordance with the Church of England. The school was enlarged and in 1903 could accommodate 139 pupils, but actual attendance averaged 81. It was enlarged again in 1960 and is now an Endowed
Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
. In 1782 Sibford Gower had only one
pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...
, the King's Arms. The Wykham Arms was licensed as an ale-house by 1793. It was built in the 17th century, possibly as a farmhouse. The King's Arms is no longer trading, and the Wykham Arms is now a
gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves food of high quality, with a nearly equal emphasis on eating and drinking. The term was coined in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. History The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coi ...
.The Wykham Arms
/ref>


References


Sources

* * * *


External links


The Sibfords village website
{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire