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Islip is a working village, where there are farms, two shops, two pubs and,
above all, a good number of inhabitants who take part in helping to make the
village live, not just a place to have a dwelling. The river Ray is a great
attraction. In the Domesday Book, Islip was Githslepe, a muddy crossing, so the
river was always important.
The pre-Conquest kings hunted in Oxfordshire, and had several hunting boxes in
the area. In one of these, at Islip, Edward the Confessor was born, c1003. His
will states, I have given to Christ and to St Peter in Westminster the little
town of Islippe wherein I was born with all the things that belong thereto.
So began the enduring connection of Islip with Westminster Abbey. The living is
in the gift of Westminster, and the farmland is all owned by the Abbey. In 1464
a boy was born in Islip who attended Westminster School and became Abbot John of
Westminster, also known as Abbot Islip. He built the little Islip Chapel in the
Abbey, and his rebus, or heraldic device, was a little man and an eye, slipping
down a tree. There is a version of this on a banner in Islip church.
In 1678, Robert South became rector of Islip. He was a great scholar, but never
reached high office at Westminster because of his controversial views. He built
a fine rectory, with a lovely tithe barn attached to it, but his greatest
benefit to Islip was the school which he built and endowed in 1710, with a house
for the master. The school flourishes in modern buildings, and Dr Souths School
and the village still benefit from the provisions of his will. One of the happy
traditions at the school is the crowning of a May Queen, elected by the
children. The schools present to the queen is always a silver thimble.
The school is part of the life blood of the village. There are interesting
records in its log books. In the early 1920s, Robert Graves and his wife, who
preferred to be called Nancy Nicholson, lived in a cottage over the bridge
called Worlds End. He played football for Islip and for a short time served on
the Parish Council. Their daughter, Jenny, was a pupil at Dr Souths, and for
the 18th November 1925, the log book entry reads Head out of school for 15
minutes this afternoon, seeing Mr R. Graves, who objects to his daughter Jenny
being called by his surname, and desires that she be known as Jenny Nicholson
her name has now been altered on the register by me.
The most famous Victorian rector was Dean Buckland, Dean of Westminster, Canon
of Christ Church, Oxford, and University Reader in Mineralogy. He spent much of
his time at Christ Church, but lived in Islip during the summer months, and is
buried in Islip because it was his wish to be buried in rocky ground. There are
many stories of his insistence on tasting everything; the Daily Telegraph of
24th November 1962, has a letter from Viscount Harcourt with what is likely to
be the true version of Buckland swallowing the heart of Louis XIV of France. He
had dined at Nuneham and was shown a locket which contained what resembled
pumice stone. He maintained that he could identify any mineral from its taste,
popped it into his mouth and swallowed it by accident. It was the heart of Louis
XIV which had been brought to Nuneham by one of the family.
Monks Cottage is thought to have been lived in by the monks who prayed for
Edward the Confessors soul in a chantry chapel which stood till about 1760 on
the site of the Red Lion yard. Not described by name, but by symbol, was a
cottage which in the 1930s had antlers over the front door, and its present
owner says that numbers are still discernible on its bedroom doors. The antlers
were a sign recognisable to some!
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