Littlemore, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Littlemore or Littlemoor, a hamlet and a liberty originally forming part of the ancient parish of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, and now an ecclesiastical parish in Oxfordshire. The hamlet lies near the river Thames, the boundary with Berks, and the Wycombe, Thame, and Oxford branch of the G.W.R., 2¼ miles SSE of Oxford, and has a station on the railway, and a post and money order office under Oxford; telegraph office, Sandford-on-Thames. The Lunatic Asylum for Oxfordshire is here, and is a large building of stone. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, 1362, inclusive of the staff and inmates of the asylum. The ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1847, when it became a consolidated chapelry, a small portion of Iffley parish being added to the original hamlet. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £250 with residence. The church is a modern edifice in the Early English style, consists of nave and highly ornate chancel, with a tower. The nave was built by the late John Henry, Cardinal Newman, in 1836, and was served by him until his resignation of St Mary's in 1843. The chancel and tower were built in 1848. A Benedictine nunnery was founded here in the time of Henry II., and was given at the dissolution to Cardinal Wolsey. The existing buildings are of Perpendicular date. There is a Baptist chapel.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Littlemore from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Littlemoor)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Littlemore are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Oxfordshire newspapers online:

• Oxford Journal
• Banbury Advertiser
• Banbury Guardian
• Oxford University and City Herald
• Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
• Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
• Oxford Times
• Banbury Beacon
• Ossett Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.