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Six miles from Witney, Bampton lies on a gravel terrace, just above the flat
Thames Valley. It is an attractive Cotswold village, off the usual tourist
tracks, but it is so full of charm that its many special features are well worth
exploring.
Bampton’s history is intriguing. There was a pre- Christian settlement (a Roman
altar was recently dug up in a field) and it grew in Saxon and Norman times. It
was mentioned in the Domesday survey, when it already possessed a market, and
was famous for its wool trade. In the Middle Ages its administrative area was
considerable, and included Witney and Burford. The surviving records of the
travelling Court of Law (called ‘The Oxfordshire Eyre’) of 1241 give several
details of Bampton incidents. In the 17th century, an important leather trade
grew up, and Bampton became famous for its jackets, gloves and breeches.
The chief feature now is the church of St Mary. It is one of the largest in West
Oxfordshire. It stands on the site of a former Saxon Minster, and is a Norman
building, remodelled in the 13th and 14th centuries. It has a noble spire; a
recent gale unfortunately blew down one of the flying buttresses and St John,
one of the four figures standing at the corners of the tower.
Around the close and green, are four large houses, Georgian in appearance, but
of earlier origins. Bampton Castle, previously an imposing and impressive
building, now has only the remains of the gatehouse and a stretch of curtain
walling, which are incorporated into the farmhouse called Ham Court; however,
British Telecom retains the name of Bampton Castle for the telephone exchange.
Weald Manor opposite Ham Court, and Bampton Manor to the north, add to the
architectural delights; both are set in charming gardens which are open to the
public two or three times a year.
The stone cottages, whose roofs were formerly thatched with straw but are now
mostly slates or tiles, form terraces leading along three streets to the Market
Square, where the town hall and village hall face each other. A corn mill stood
at the end of Mill Street, with Mill Green to the south. Old residents remember
how the cottages there would be flooded quite regularly, so that the water came
up to the third stair indoors; the doctor wore waders, not mere wellington
boots, to go through the waters to his patients, who had to remain on the first
floor for perhaps three weeks at a time. Now the land has been drained, and the
level of the waters controlled by holding ponds at Brize Norton airfield, two
miles away.
There are some 2,000 inhabitants, many of whom are concerned at the prospect of
further increasing the size of the village. The villagers are a caring group,
and are prepared to cherish their inheritance. The traditional Horse Fair may
have vanished, but the Bampton Morris dancers flourish; the dancers dress in
white, the bells on their leather anklets jingle as they kick and dance to the
fiddler’s music, and the clown urges them on.
One Bamptonian remembers her father going once a week to wind the clock on the
town hall; as a child she had to scrub the upper room for meetings, and all the
stone steps that lead up to it. Her family was very grateful to the Countess
Münster of Bampton Manor when she organised main drainage, as previously sewage
was collected in a tank drawn by a horse and cart on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
and taken down the Aston Road, ‘and oh, how it smelled!’
On Sundays the baker’s oven was much used. At ten o’clock in the morning, the
tin with the meat, quite often an H-bone to be roasted with the onions and
carrots below the joint, would be carried to the baker, and collected at twelve.
‘At four, we’d collect the currant cake he had baked. He charged sixpence for
that’.
Today, as well as main drainage, electricity and gas, there are other excellent
facilities, such as two banks, eight pubs, five doctors and a dispensary, two
garages, seven shops, a post office, two hairdressers, a primary school, public
library, fire station, and a daily bus service.
Bampton’s inhabitants want to keep their village an inviting one, and are
prepared to work to keep it attractive. Two thousand daffodil bulbs planted in
open spaces in the autumn of 1989 are now golden proof.
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