This book is the result of years of work by many people who wanted to ensure that the rich, vibrant and beloved memories and history of Somerton, Oxfordshire would not be lost. Much of that effort was originally channelled into a website — somerton.oxon.co.uk — which gathered articles, photographs, memories and historical research from villagers, former residents and specialists. When it became clear that the website could no longer be properly maintained, the work of bringing all of that material together in a permanent form began. This book is the result.
To anyone who has known her, Rosemary Arnold is a highly intelligent, interesting, kind, funny village icon. Everyone knows her, and if you want to know something about Somerton — ask Rosemary. It is not often that you meet someone who can bring a story to life with such colour, vibrancy and knowledge, and who carries all of it so lightly.
Rosemary managed the local library in Deddington for many years and brought the library van out to Somerton and the surrounding villages — so that books and their readers could find each other wherever people happened to live. She also worked at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which only added to an already formidable fund of knowledge and interesting stories. If you wanted a recommendation on what to read, what not to read, or why something you had just read was better or worse than you thought — Rosemary could advise.
Rosemary has lived for many years at Galahad, next door to the village hall — the house she and Malcolm returned to as a young married couple after some years living in Bermuda. Malcolm, now passed, was another great village character. Their daughters are Elizabeth and Lucy. Rosemary is known for starting up the Saturday morning coffee mornings for older villagers, for the Saturday morning produce sales of the 1980s where she and others made biscuits, shortbread and cakes, for the annual Christmas Bazaar, and above all for the Somerton Beetle Drives — an institution in their own right, described separately below. She is truly respected, by young and old, in the village and beyond. The research and writing she contributed to the Somerton Village History Project forms the backbone of this book.
Alice Bowmaker is another of those people who can answer most things you would like to know about Somerton’s history — and who has spent many years ensuring that knowledge is passed on rather than lost. A school teacher, highly intelligent and endlessly interesting, Alice has contributed greatly to the understanding of the village’s past. She is married to Alan; their sons are Oliver and Christian. She is a much-loved inhabitant of Somerton. Among those who grew up in the village, Alice is remembered for taking groups of children to the church to clean the headstones, and for teaching them how to take rubbings of inscriptions — so that the names of the people lying there became legible again, not just to scholars but to anyone with paper and a crayon. That is, in miniature, what Alice has always done: made history accessible to people who might not otherwise have thought to look for it. The maps and local historical research she contributed to the Village History Project are among its most valuable resources.
Della Paviour grew up in Somerton and served as webmaster for the Somerton Village History Project website. She compiled and edited this book, drawing together material from the website, the forum archive, personal memories, and new research, into the form in which you are now reading it.
Basil Eastwood contributed research and historical writing to the project, and was the principal author of the Church of St James guide on which the church chapters draw substantially. He is co-editor of the booklet version of that guide, which was produced with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Jo Hawes — The Whall Window
Michaela Rees Jones — The School House and Thomas Fermor
Shirley Grant and Neil Clare — St James's Church Bells
Rosemary Arnold — Somerton Turf Maze; School House meeting transcript; The Work of Henry Wilson
Alice Bowmaker — Somerton Maps
Sally Woodcock — The Somerton Hatchments: work in progress
Deborah Hayter — Somerton's Farmers 1279–1734
John Webb — Origins of the Village Hall; The Barnes Family
Basil Eastwood — Church Guide
Chris Rothero — Fermor Chapel Hatchments heraldic description
David Ross — St James' Church by David Ross (Britain Express)
Tony Faint (Parish Council), Mary Hall-Craggs (Village Hall Committee), Peter Hawes
The conservation of the Fermor hatchments was made possible by generous grants from Viridor Credits, the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust and the Church Buildings Council. The restoration of the reredos and Fermor monuments was carried out by Matthew Beesley. The hatchments were conserved by Sally Woodcock.
Primary sources: Rotuli Hundredorum, 2 vols, Record Commission (1812–1818); Somerton Court records from The Reports and Transactions of the Oxfordshire Archaeological Society (1906); Somerton Glebe Terriers: Oxfordshire Record Office; Victoria County History: A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 6, ed. Mary D. Lobel (1959); Cherwell District Council, Somerton Conservation Area Appraisal (March 1996).
Secondary sources: J. C. Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester, containing: History of Middleton and Somerton (London, 1882); The House of Commons 1509–1558, Volume IV, ed. S. J. Bindoff (London, 1982); Sandra Raban, A Second Domesday? The Hundred Rolls of 1279–80 (OUP, 2004); Arthur Young, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire (1813); R. A. Chambers, Oxfordshire Archaeological Unit report (1977, Oxoniensia).
Did you grow up in Somerton, or does this article bring back a memory? Do you spot something that needs correcting or adding? Rosemary Arnold and Della Paviour would love to hear from you.