Steeple Aston Oxfordshire Family History Guide
Steeple Aston is an Ancient Parish in the county of Oxfordshire.
Other places in the parish include: Middle Aston.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. Peter
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1538
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1721
Nonconformists include:
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
ASTON-STEEPLE, a township and a parish in Woodstock district, Oxford. The township lies on the river Cherwell, the Oxford canal, and the Oxford and Rugby railway, adjacent to Hayford r. station, 6½ miles NNE of Woodstock; and has a post-office under Oxford. Real property, £2,846. Pop., 650. Houses, 150. The parish includes also the township of Middle Aston. Acres, A, 870. Real property, £4,214. Pop., 736. Houses, 171. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged anciently to the Molines, and passed to the Hungerfords. A tesselated pavement was ploughed up in the 17th century. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £582. Patron, Brasenose college, Oxford. The church is ancient, but very good. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school. Dr. Samuel Radcliffe, principal of Brasenose college, was for some time rector, and founded a free school and alms-houses.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
ASTON, STEEPLE (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Woodstock, hundred of Wootton, county of Oxford, 6 miles (N. N. E.) from Woodstock; containing 580 inhabitants. This place is thought to have been occupied by the Romans, as a tessellated pavement was discovered in the vicinity in the 16th century. The parish includes the villages of Steeple-Aston and Middle Aston, and comprises 1875a. 2r. 37p.: it is skirted by the river Cherwell and the Oxford canal; and the Oxford and Rugby railway intersects a part of it. Limestone is quarried for building. The apricot-tree is cultivated extensively by the cottagers, and there are about twenty apple-orchards. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £16. 2. 8½.; net income, £582; patrons, the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford. The church is an ancient edifice, partly rebuilt in 1842: the north aisle, chancel, and tower are early English, and other portions in the decorated style. In a chapel on the north side of the chancel are recumbent effigies of Sir Francis Page and his lady, to whom the manor of Middle Aston formerly belonged: Sir Francis destroyed some monuments of the Dinham family to make room for his own, which was erected in his life-time. In the parish chest is preserved part of the hangings of the altar of the church, of the 14th century, richly embroidered; in the churchyard are the steps and base of a perpendicular cross. A school is endowed with £20 per annum, and a house and garden, from a bequest in 1640, by Dr. Samuel Radcliffe, principal of Brasenose College, who founded two scholarships in that college, to be supplied, if possible, from the school; he also founded an almshouse here for poor women. An account of the history and antiquities of the parish was published at Deddington, in the county, in 1845. Near the village, a strong chalybeate spring was discovered in 1833.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Maps
Old maps of Britain and Europe from A Vision of Britain Through Time
Ordnance Survey Sheet SP 42 Barton, Published 1959 – Wikimedia Commons
Administration
- County: Oxfordshire
- Civil Registration District: Woodstock
- Probate Court: Courts of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) and the Archdeaconry of Oxford
- Diocese: Oxford
- Rural Deanery: Woodstock
- Poor Law Union: Woodstock
- Hundred: Wootton
- Province: Canterbury