Kiddington / Cuddington

"KIDDINGTON, (or Cuddington), a parish in the hundred of Wootton, county Oxford, 4.5 miles N.W. of Woodstock, its post town and railway station. It is situated on the small river Glyme, and a branch of the old Roman road Akeman Street. It contains the hamlets of Nether and Over Kiddington. It was anciently called Ceudenton, and was given by Offa to Worcester Abbey. At the Norman Conquest it came into the hands of Musard, from whom it passed to the Salceys, Willescotes, and others. The surface is boldly undulating, and the soil is generally a stone brash. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford, value £375. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is situated at Nether Kiddington, and was built in 1400 on the site of a Norman one. It has a tower containing four bells. There is a parochial school. At Over Kiddington are the remains of an old cross, and a Roman camp at Hill Wood. Here is a meet for the Heythrop hounds. Warton, the poet-laureate, was once rector of this parish, of which he wrote the history."

"ASTERLEY FARM, an extra-parochial liberty in the parish of Kiddington, hundreds of Chadlington and Wootton, in the county of Oxford, 4 miles from Woodstock. It constituted a separate parish tilL the year 1291, when it was incorporated with Kiddington. Traces of its old church, mansion, and other buildings still exist at Chapelbroke field."

[The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]