Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Stanton Harcourt, a parish, with a village and two-hamlets, in Oxfordshire, 2 miles SSE of South Leigh station on the G.W.R., and 4¾ SE of Witney. It has a post office under Oxford; money order and telegraph office, Eynsham. Acreage, 3447; population, 561. There is a parish council consisting of six members. The manor has belonged for seven centuries to the Harcourts. The manor house of the 15th century, was the place where Pope finished his translation of the fifth book of Homer, and is now represented by interesting remains at a farm. Three stones called Devil's Quoits, said to be commemorative of a battle in 614, are near the village. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, and till 1868 was united with South Leigh; gross value, £260 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford. The church is a fine ancient cruciform building of stone chiefly in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel with S chapel, nave, transepts, N porch, and a central embattled tower. It has a fine wooden rood screen of 13th century work, and is unusually rich in ancient tombs and monuments,chiefly memorials of the Harcourt family. There are two interesting epitaphs by Pope in the church, one on the son of Lord Chancellor Harcourt, the other to two lovers who were killed by lightning.

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 Stanton Harcourt from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stanton-Harcourt (St. Michael))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Stanton Harcourt 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.