Asthall

"ASTHALL, a parish in the hundred of Bampton, in the county of Oxford, 5 miles to the W. of Witney. Burford is its post town. It is situated in Wychwood forest, on the river Windrush, and comprises the hamlet of Asthall Leigh. At the period of the Norman survey, the manor of Asthall was held by Roger de Ivri. It is called Esthale in Domesday Book. The old way called Akeman Street runs through this parish and was carried across the Windrush. Bordering on this way is a large and lofty mound called Asthall Barrow, which is conjectured to be the burial-place and monument of some military chief. The living is a vicarage in the diocece of Oxford, of the value of £100, in the gift of the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas In the north aisle is a stone coffin, which is said to hold the remains of Alice Corbett, mistress of Henry I. There are small endowments, by Sir George Fettiplace, for instructing girls and apprenticing boys, and some other charities. Asthall House, an old manorial residence, was formerly the seat of the Fettiplaces, to whom the manor belonged in the 17th century. The manor was purchased in 1688 by Sir Edmund Fettiplace, of Lord Lumley. The mansion is now a farmhouse." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]