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Minster, Lovell (St. Kenelm)

MINSTER, LOVELL (St. Kenelm), a parish, in the union of Witney, hundred of Chadlington, county of Oxford, 2¾ miles (W. N. W.) from Witney; containing 316 inhabitants. This place derives its name from the establishment of a religious house, and from the family of Lovell. The village is situated on the declivities of two hills, between which runs the river Windrush, dividing the parish into two nearly equal parts, called Great and Little Minster. The estimated number of acres is 2000; the soil is light, and the scenery is enriched with extensive woods. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 9. 7., and in the patronage of Eton College: the impropriate and vicarial tithes have each been commuted for £119, and the glebe comprises 62 acres. The church is a spacious and handsome cruciform structure, chiefly in the later Norman style, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre: the internal arrangement is unique and strikingly beautiful; in the south transept is an altar-tomb, with a recumbent effigy of one of the Lovell family, clad in complete armour of the time of Edward IV. An alien priory of Benedictine monks, a cell to the abbey of St. Mary de Ibreio, was founded here in the reign of John, and its revenue was granted at the suppression to Eton College; its site was subsequently occupied by a mansion called the Priory, of which there are considerable remains.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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