Ambrosden (St. Mary)

AMBROSDEN (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Bicester, hundred of Bullington, county of Oxford, 2½ miles (S. E. by S.) from Bicester; comprising the chapelries of Arncott and Blackthorn, and containing 892 inhabitants, of whom 181 are in the hamlet of Ambrosden. This place is supposed by Bishop Kennet, who was formerly incumbent of the parish, to have derived its name from Ambrosius Aurelius, the celebrated British chief, who encamped here during the siege of Alchester by the Saxons. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £11. 17.; net income, £228; patron, Sir G. O. P. Turner, Bart.; appropriator, the Bishop of Oxford. The tithes were commuted for land, under an inclosure act, in 1814. The church is stated to have been built in the latter part of the reign of Edward I., on the site of the original Saxon, or Norman, edifice, whose northern entrance still remains; it is in the early English style, with an embattled tower, on the east and west fronts of which are some curious devices in plaster, and among the rest one of the paschal lamb.