About this page: the main books, records and websites behind the history on this site. Individual pages give their own sources too, especially the newer research. Where only a transcription or index has been seen rather than the original document, the page says so.
The standard histories
- Mary D. Lobel (ed.), A History of the County of Oxford, Victoria County History, vol. 6 (1959), "Somerton", pp. 290 to 301. Online at British History Online. The starting point for almost everything before 1950.
- J. C. Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester, containing History of Middleton and Somerton (London, 1882).
- Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (1974).
- Cherwell District Council, Somerton Conservation Area Appraisal (1996, revised 2022).
- The Somerton Village History Project, the research of Rosemary Arnold, Alice Bowmaker and many others, on which this site is built. See Contributors.
Records
- Domesday Book, 1086. Open Domesday: Somerton.
- The Hundred Rolls, 1279. Rotuli Hundredorum, Record Commission (1812 to 1818), Somerton entries translated by Deborah Hayter. See Hundred Rolls 1279.
- Court rolls and glebe terriers. Somerton court records in Reports and Transactions of the Oxfordshire Archaeological Society (1906); glebe terriers, Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxf. Archd. Oxon b.41.
- Wills. Oxfordshire Family History Society, transcribed and abstracted wills, from originals at the Oxfordshire History Centre and The National Archives.
- The 1765 enclosure map, Bodleian Library. See Maps & Agriculture.
- Parish registers of St James's, for the rectors and curates. See Rectors and Curates.
- Trade directories: Gardner (1852), Kelly (1895, 1911, 1939), through the University of Leicester's Historical Directories.
- The 1910 valuation survey, Oxfordshire History Centre DV/X/73 with maps DV/VIII/144 and 148, online through Oxfordshire Heritage Search.
- The 1919 Somerton estate sale catalogue, Ferris & Puckridge, Oxfordshire History Centre J. VIIIa/65. See 1919 Estate Families.
- Listed buildings: the National Heritage List for England. See Listed Buildings.
- Archaeology: R. A. Chambers's report in Oxoniensia (1977); the Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record; the Portable Antiquities Scheme. See Archaeology & Castle Yard.
Newspapers
- Jackson's Oxford Journal and other papers, mostly through the transcriptions published by Deddington History, and the British Newspaper Archive.
- The Oxford Journal Illustrated photograph index, 1912 to 1928, Oxfordshire History Centre.
- Valley News, the local magazine, for twentieth-century memories and the village hall centenary.
Books and articles on particular subjects
- Deborah Hayter, "Somerton's Farmers 1279 to 1734", Cake and Cockhorse, vol. 19 no. 5 (Spring 2014). See Somerton's Farmers.
- S. J. Bindoff (ed.), The House of Commons 1509 to 1558, vol. IV (1982), for William Fermor.
- Rev. Jenner Marshall, Memorials of Westcott Barton (1870), for Isaac Berridge.
- William Wing, "The River Cherwell", The English Illustrated Magazine, vol. 8. See The Village.
- Sandra Raban, A Second Domesday? The Hundred Rolls of 1279 to 80 (2004); G. C. Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (1941); Arthur Young, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire (1813).
Where to look next