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The manor of North Moreton is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and a
church existed then. The manor house itself no longer exists, its site lying
east of the church and roughly identified by the remains of a moat.
North Moreton retains many houses from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries,
despite a fire in 1807 which destroyed one side of the main street. Important
buildings include Stapletons Chantry, where the chantry priests once lived,
the Tudor vicarage and a tithe barn. The church itself has a 12th century
tub-font. The glass in the chantry, dating from 1310, is regarded by experts as
one of the finest examples of its period.
In 1550, the church wardens reported that our church is in great decay for the
lack of tiles, the which we will see it redressed against Allhallowstide next.
In August 1603 this little village was visited with great sickness, ten
people dying all out of one house where the plague did first begin. It could
never be known how it did first come although the incumbent, far ahead of his
times, made a reference to bad water being drunk. Thirty-nine people died in
that month, the normal death rate for the 17th century in the parish being about
five a year.
Later in the century, the village was a centre for marriages under the
Protectorate of Cromwell five times as many ceremonies taking place as in any
comparable period in the 16th and 17th centuries. People came from as far as
Wallingford and Abingdon to be married by a parson licensed to perform the
ceremony, probably because of his Cromwellian sympathies. From an earlier period
also survive records of two connected local incidents. In 1598 a brawl at a
football match led to loss of life and bitterness between two families which
erupted, a few years later, when the one accused the other of witchcraft. Though
the alleged witch was acquitted, the matter did not end there and the accuser
was pursued in the Court of Star Chamber. Unfortunately the eventual judgment is
not known.
The comparative remoteness of North Moreton ended in the 19th century. The
coming of the railways provided both links and employment while the episcopate
of Samuel Wilberforce, in the diocese of Oxford, encouraged the restoration of
the church fabric in North Moreton in the 1850s.
In the following 14 years, North Moreton came under the influence of the Oxford
Movement. The incumbent, Albert Barff, brought important figures in the movement
such as Edward King, Henry Liddon, John Keble and Edward Pusey to preach on
several occasions. Barffs visitation returns provide an interesting commentary
on local events. He noted, for example, the relationship between agricultural
depression and population movements. North Moretons population dropped from
400 in the 1841 census to well below 300.
In the 20th century, among those who lived in North Moreton were R. G.
Collingwood, described in the Dictionary of National Biography as one of the
most learned men of his generation, and the pioneer womeneducationalists
Geraldine and Eglantyne Jebb. The village firm of Thames Valley Eggs Ltd was
founded by A. G. Kingham. Beginning as a farmers co-operative in 1934 it is now
one of the largest organisations of its kind in Western Europe.
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