Kirtlington

"KIRTLINGTON, a parish in the hundred of Ploughley, county Oxford, 6 miles S.W. of Bicester, and 4 N.E. of Woodstock. Oxford is its post town. It is a station on the Oxford, Banbury, and Birmingham branch of the Great Western railway. The parish is situated on the road from Bicester to Woodstock, and near the Oxford canal, and contains the hamlet of North Brook. The river Cherwell, and the Oxford and Rugby section of the London and North-Western railway, pass through the parish. This place is of ancient date, and was called by the Saxons Kyntington. A synod of bishops was held here under St. Dunstan in 977. The manor was formerly held by the Bassets. The land is nearly equally divided between arable and pasture. The inhabitants are principally employed in agriculture. Good stone is quarried for building. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment under an Enclosure Act in 1811. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, value £286, in the patronage of St. John's College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient edifice with a square tower containing eight bells. In the interior are two stained-glass windows and tombs of the Dashwood family. The parochial charities produce about £12 per annum, a portion of which goes to the support of a school. Sir G. Dashwood, Bart., is lord of the manor, and resides at Kirtlington Park." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]