The history of Somerton cannot be understood through land records and buildings alone. Beneath those layers lies something less formal but no less important - the people who lived there, often across generations, shaping the character of the village in ways that were rarely written down.
The Farming Families
The land around Somerton was not abstract - it was worked, known, and passed down. Families such as the Browns, the Corners, the Emberlins, the Godwins, and the Eagles formed part of this landscape. The 1919 sale document names them as tenants: Mr Charles Brown at Village Farm, Mr T. E. Emberlin at Manor Farm and cottages throughout the village, Mrs Godwin at Troy Farm, and Mrs Walton at the Railway Inn. These were not merely tenants - they were the working fabric of the village.
The Emberlin family, who after 1919 became lords of the manor, remained central to Somerton into the twenty-first century. When Miss Sybil Emberlin, the last of the family, died in 2006, her bequest to the church made possible the restoration of the Fermor monuments and the wider conservation project of which this history is a part. One former farm student who lived with Miss Emberlin later recalled: "She was a lovely lady and was a strong minded woman. As she had been from a large farming background she used to ask about my day on the farm when I got in at night. That Manor house she lived in was lovely. The view from my bedroom was fantastic. RIP Sybil."
The whole village revolved around the farms. Most fathers worked on the farms and their mothers stayed at home to look after the house and family. The Godwins, Hills, Emberlins and Browns owned most of the property and several families lived in tied houses - so you had to watch what you did and said.
Village Shops and Services
Within the village there was once a complete infrastructure of everyday life. Waddup’s shop on the corner sold everything. Round the back of Waddup’s was a cobbler called Mr Harris, who mainly repaired farm workers’ footwear - his son Harold made baskets, and he was blind with big black glasses. Mr Moore the butcher; Mr Fox who did haircutting; a coal merchant at what is now cottages in Church Street; milk sold at the back of the butcher’s shop. The bread came from North Aston and a van came from Steeple Aston with fruit from Charlie Preston. The doctors’ surgery was in The Old Post House in Church Street - the doctor was only there once a week and you queued and went up the steps. There was Dr McCloud, and sometimes Dr McCabe, who had silver hair and was known to enjoy a drink; he was accustomed to calling at the Emberlins’ before surgery, and if he was out hunting he did not come at all. Lee Wolf was another doctor who wore a long black coat. Subsequently the surgery moved up to the New Rectory, where Rector Clifford Rhodes lived - another small sign of the way the rectory and its occupant remained woven into village life long after the Old Rectory had been sold.
The Social Club
It was Jerry Grant, together with Malcolm Arnold, Charles Newey and Roger Pugh, who decided that the village should have a proper social space. Rather than continuing with the more limited arrangement of a simple hatch, they built the first fully functioning bar - something that marked a real shift in how the village gathered and spent time together. The social club became part of the rhythm of village life, opening on Thursday evenings, Saturday evenings, and for Sunday lunch. These regular gatherings created a shared structure that extended beyond work and routine.
Village Events
The life of Somerton cannot be understood without its events. Themed evenings such as Teds, Tramps and St Trinians brought people together through humour and participation. The village also held an annual Produce Show, with its distinctive logo featuring a harvest basket overflowing with vegetables.
The Millennium Play
The Millennium marked a particularly significant moment, and with it came a production that drew directly on the history of Somerton itself. At the centre of the performance was Linda Bailey Watson as Bug Ermie. Alongside her, Rosemary Arnold, Shirley Grant, Caroline Cavey, Tracey Clarke, Angela Kingdom and Maureen Risbridger appeared as singers and as the Sister Act nuns. Andrew Nesbit, the vicar at the time, also took part.
The Millennium play told the story of the village. Everyone knew someone in it. It was not just a play - it was us.
Village recollection
Somerton's claims to fame
For a small village, Somerton has had more than its share of people (and one dog) who made a name for themselves.
An archbishop and a poem
William Juxon, rector here from 1615, went on to become Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was the bishop who attended Charles I on the scaffold. A century later Arabella Fermor, of the family who were lords of Somerton, was the young woman behind Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock. See The Good, the Bad & the Absent and The Fermor Family.
Two RAF chaplains
Two rectors in a row came to Somerton from the Royal Air Force. The Venerable John Hewitt Wilson, rector from 1982 to 1993, had reached the very top of the RAF chaplaincy. His successor, Noel James, a jolly Welshman with a wonderful singing voice, had also been an RAF chaplain. Both are remembered on The Rectory & Clergy page.
The man who rebuilt a railway
Adrian Shooter (1948 to 2022) lived at Stable Cottage before moving to Steeple Aston. He led the team that took over the Chiltern line when the railways were privatised and became the first managing director of Chiltern Railways, where passenger numbers roughly doubled. He was made a CBE in 2010, and in 2021 a statue of him was unveiled at Marylebone station. In his Steeple Aston garden he built the Beeches Light Railway, nearly a mile of narrow-gauge track, worked by a real steam engine from India's Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
The farmers' market
Charles Newey, who lived at Yew Tree Cottage, moved from Somerton to Deddington and was the driving force behind the Deddington Farmers' Market. It has grown into one of the best-known farmers' markets in the country: in 2017 National Geographic named it the third best in Britain.
The Dulux dog
One of the houses in the Paddocks was once home to Bodie, an Old English Sheepdog who appeared as the dog in the Dulux paint adverts. He was shown at dog shows too, including Crufts.
Cows on television
The Corner family's herd of Jersey cows at Jersey Manor Farm is remembered locally as the herd in a well-known Anchor butter advert, the one with cows playing football. The family were well known in the dairy world too. If you have more details, or know when the advert was filmed, we would love to hear.
A Member of Parliament
Victoria Prentis, MP for Banbury from 2015 to 2024 and Attorney General from 2022 to 2024, lives in Somerton. She became Baroness Prentis of Banbury in 2025.
And the village itself
Somerton has a few claims to fame of its own. In 1944 the Ministry of Information filmed the village for Cotswold Club, a wartime short about how the Village Produce Association fed the village, with the stationmaster, Mr Giles, among the cast (see Village Produce Association). The turf maze at Troy Farm is one of only eight left in England (The Turf Maze). Somerton Deep Lock, with a rise of about twelve feet, is one of the deepest on any canal in England (Visit Somerton). And in March 1928 the Oxford University point-to-point races were run here (The Village).
Do you know of anyone else who should be here? Please tell us using the form below. We only name living people with their agreement, or where it has already been published.
Sources: Rail Journal obituary of Adrian Shooter; Beeches Light Railway; Deddington OnLine, Farmers' Market; Oxford Mail, Birthday market and Deddington market marks 25 years; Victoria Prentis. Stable Cottage, Yew Tree Cottage, Bodie and the Anchor advert: local memory.