VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress. Religious History

Transcription

1 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress FIFIELD Religious History RELIGIOUS HISTORY Fifield parish church with its distinctive west tower and south porch. Until 1750 Fifield (like Idbury) remained a chapelry of Swinbrook, which from the Middle Ages was appropriated to Salisbury cathedral. A chapel at Fifield existed by the 1190s, and until the 18th century was served by stipendiary chaplains or curates appointed by the cathedral or its lessees. The living (which was poor) was often held by non-resident clergy in plurality with Idbury, and in 1864 the two benefices were formally united. The religious changes of the 16th century were accepted without apparent opposition, and unlike at Idbury evidence of Roman Catholic recusancy is slight. Protestant Nonconformity flourished briefly in the 1850s 80s, when the parish s labouring population was at its peak, but support quickly waned and a Primitive Methodist chapel built in the

2 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 2 village was taken over by the Anglicans as a parish room. The small parish church, restored in 1840 and 1897, is notable for an unusual 14th-century octagonal west tower and spire. Parochial Organization From the late 11th century most of Fifield s ecclesiastical revenues belonged to Salisbury cathedral, and in 1240 were bestowed on the cathedral s chancellor as prebendary of Brixworth (Northants.). 1 Although Fifield was a dependent chapelry of Swinbrook, by the 17th century and probably earlier the living was called a rectory, 2 and the chancellor remained both rector and patron until his estates were transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in The late medieval font. A chapel at Fifield existed by the late 12th century, and was dedicated by the 16th to St John the Baptist. 4 Successive chancellors may have appointed chaplains from the outset, although no formal presentations to the bishop are known before the 19th century. 5 Given the distance from Swinbrook (c.5 miles), the chapel probably had baptismal and burial rights from its foundation: the elaborate font is of late medieval design, and 16th-century inhabitants were buried in the churchyard. 6 The parish was included in Chipping Norton rural deanery from the Middle Ages. 7 1 Fasti , IV, 55; above, manor (rectory estate). 2 ROLLR, DG39/ CERC, ECE/6/1/82; ECE/7/1/10657; ECE/11/1/778; OHC, PAR 103/10/C1/1. 4 Below (advowson). For the dedication (in 1546), OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 179, f. 216v. 5 Below. 6 OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 179, ff. 216v., 258v.; below (pastoral care; church archit.). 7 Lunt (ed.). Val. Norw. 310; Youngs, Admin. Units, I, 397.

3 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 3 Following its separation from Swinbrook in 1750 the benefice became a perpetual curacy, 8 but only after its unification with Idbury in 1864 (when it became a rectory) were its incumbents formally presented to the bishop in the usual way. 9 In 1972 the two ecclesiastical parishes were united, and in 1980 both were incorporated into a benefice based at Shipton. 10 Advowson and Endowment The right to appoint chaplains and curates remained with the chancellor of Salisbury cathedral until 1856, despite a claim by the lord William of Fifield in From the 17th century and probably earlier the chancellor let the advowson with the glebe and tithes, often to one of the lords of Idbury, or to one of the Brays as lords of Fifield. 12 By the early 19th century the patronage had reverted to the chancellor, 13 and in 1856 it passed with the chancellor s estates to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who gave it to the bishop of Oxford. He remained patron of the united benefice in The appropriated living was valued at 4 marks ( 2 13s. 4d.) in 1254 and 4 in 1291 and Nothing is known of the curate s income until the early 18th century, however, when he was paid a stipend of 13 10s. by the chancellor s lessee, 16 rising to 16 in the early 19th century. 17 In 1751 Queen Anne s Bounty augmented the curacy by 200, which was invested in land in Bourton-on-the-Water (Glos.) and produced 25 a year in the early 1800s. A further grant of 200 in 1808 provided an additional 4 in annual interest, bringing the curate s total income to 45, 18 which the chancellor of Salisbury cathedral increased by a further 15 a year in the 1830s. 19 In 1836 the curacy was endowed by Queen Anne s Bounty with 17½ a. of land and wood in Fifield and a newly-built house and garden in the village. 20 At the reorganization of 8 Youngs, Admin. Units, I, 397; OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 448, f. 62; below (pastoral care). 9 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815, Order in Council; below, Idbury, relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 10 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815, Order in Council; ibid. DIOC/1/C/5/2005/2, Order in Council; below, Shipton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 11 Rot. Cur. Reg. I, 130; Fasti , IV, ROLLR, DG39/470 4; DG39/787; OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 651, ff. 56 7; HMC 10th Rep. IV, Stonyhurst, p. 179; above, manor. 13 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. d 576, f. 159v.; CERC, ECE/7/1/ Clergy List (1858), 79; below, Shipton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (advowson). 15 Lunt (ed.), Val. Norw. 310; Tax. Eccl. 32; Nonarum Inquisitiones, 140; above, manor (rectory estate). 16 HMC 10th Rep. IV, Stonyhurst, p. 179; OHC, PAR 144/10/C1/1; Secker s Visit. 62 (mentioning only 13). 17 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 446, f. 90; c 448, f Hodgson, QAB, p. cccxxiii; OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 446, f. 90; c 448, f. 62; cf. below, Idbury, relig. hist. (endowment). 19 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 2200, no. 8b. 20 Ibid. PAR 103/10/C1/5; ibid. tithe award and map; below (rectory ho.).

4 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p the glebe passed to the rector, who added to it in 1885, and by the early 20th century it contributed c. 70 a year in rents to his income. 21 The wood was sold before 1900 and a 4½a. close in 1919, when the remaining 6 a. were let as allotments. 22 In 1950 part of the allotment field was sold to the rural district council for house building, and further houses (including a new rectory house) were added later. 23 In addition to the glebe income, from 1864 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners paid the rector a stipend of 17 10s., with a further 8 a year for chancel repairs. In 1869 they endowed the benefice with 151 a year from Fifield s tithe rent-charge, and in 1880 increased their annual contribution to 80 10s., out of a total gross income of c. 300 a year by the early 20th century. 24 In 1920 a local landowner redeemed a modus of 41 10s., and following the sale of Fifield manor in 1930 the remaining tithe rent-charge was vested in Queen Anne s Bounty. 25 Curate s (later Rectory) House Fifield rectory house as rebuilt in 1883 by the architect E.G. Bruton. 21 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815; c 368, f Ibid. Lo. IX/16; ibid. DV X/52; ibid. PAR 103/10/C1/5; PAR 103/4/F1/1; PAR 103/2/A1/2. 23 Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815; ibid. RDC9/3/F6/1 2; OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. XIX.16 (1980 edn); below (rectory ho.). 24 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815; c 368, f. 150; ibid. PAR 103/10/C1/1; PAR 103/10/C1/2; PAR 103/10/C1/3; PAR 103/4/F1/1; PAR 103/15/T1/1. 25 Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815; ibid. PAR 103/15/C1/1; ibid. RDC9/3/F6/2; above, manor.

5 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 5 A parsonage house mentioned in the 1750s was probably one of the rectory estate s cottages, and may have been intermittently occupied by Fifield s curates. 26 The majority were non-resident until 1836, however, when James Spencer (curate ) was provided with a new house opposite the church on land bought by Queen Anne s Bounty. The builder was James Long of Witney. 27 In 1883 the house was considered small, inconvenient, and insanitary, and Samuel York (rector ) took out a mortgage for 600 to employ the architect E.G. Bruton to extend it, creating an enlarged dining room and new drawing room and staircase on its south-western side. Stone from local quarries and Welsh slates matched the existing materials. 28 In 1964 the house was sold and a new rectory house built on an adjoining plot, 29 but after the benefice was combined with that of Shipton in 1980 that too was sold. 30 Pastoral Care and Religious Life The Middle Ages to 1800 Chaplains or curates were presumably appointed by the late 12th century, when the advowson was disputed, 31 but few details are known. 32 One of the appointees, Thomas of Benson, was mentioned in 1225 during a tithe dispute, 33 and c.1260 Robert the clerk witnessed a local land grant to Godstow abbey. John atte Bould of Fifield, ordained in 1339, may have also served there. 34 The church s remodelling in the 14th century suggests investment by the Murimuths or other leading parishioners, while two pieces of heraldic glass commemorating non-resident families hint at wider patronage. 35 Neither Bruern abbey nor the hospital of St John in Burford seem to have been much involved in parish life, although from the 14th century the hospital may have maintained a house for its Fifield estate, and in the 1530s Fifield s churchwardens leased property from both institutions at an 26 OHC, MS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. c 70, ff. 141, 144; cf. ibid. MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 555, f. 210v. (reporting no parsonage house in 1759); b 38, f. 90 (mentioning a cottage called the parson s belonging to the chancellor s lessee); above, manor (rectory estate). 27 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. b 103, no. 2 (missing in 2014); ibid. PAR 103/10/C1/5; ibid. tithe award and map. 28 Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815; ibid. PAR 103/10/D1/1; illust. in OPA, D242113a, D260297a. 29 OHC, PAR 103/10/F1/1; PAR 103/10/C1/12; OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. XIX.16 (1980 edn). 30 Later renamed Altarnun. 31 Above (advowson). 32 Possible 13th- and 14th-cent. incumbents are named in Cal. Pat , 261; , TNA, E 326/ Godstow Eng. Reg. I, 237; Reg. Burghersh, III, p Below (church archit.); above, manor; social hist. (Middle Ages).

6 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 6 annual rent of 4d. each. 36 The chancellor of Salisbury cathedral, as the parish s absentee rector, probably offered little support: certainly by 1520 the churchyard was unfenced, and ten years later the curate William Walter was old (decrepitus) and services were poor. 37 Nevertheless there are hints of community involvement on the eve of the Reformation, when land given for devotional lights or intercessory masses was let to local people. 38 Parishioners also left money to the church s high altar, and in the 1540s one contributed to the maintenance of its bells and towards the purchase of vestments. 39 Similar small bequests for bells or repairs continued into the 1560s, 40 when the religious changes of Elizabeth I s reign seem to have been accepted with little outward disturbance. The last demonstrably Catholic will (leaving 6s. 8d. for intercessory prayers) was witnessed in 1559 by the curate Thomas Meycock, who that year accepted the Elizabethan settlement. 41 Thereafter wills were decidedly Protestant in tone, and several were witnessed by Meycock s late 16th-century successors Matthew Thelwall (who was buried at Fifield), Thomas Hancorne, Robert Callis, and Robert Jones. 42 Hancorne was curate in 1576, when an engraved silver chalice and paten were donated, 43 while Jones (ordained in 1565) was an experienced and long-serving priest who lived at Fifield until his death in The Roman Catholic recusancy evident at Idbury and other nearby parishes hardly affected Fifield. 45 From the 17th century the church was the burial place of the Brays as lords of Fifield manor. A brass in the chancel commemorated Mary (d. 1620), wife of John Bray, and their nine children, while John (d. 1640) and his son Edmund (d. 1642) were interred alongside each other in the churchyard. An epitaph recording that both did whilst living fear command refers possibly to their role in the Civil War. 46 Michael Mills s survival as curate during the upheavals of the 1640s 50s may partly reflect his good relations with the Brays, Susanna Bray leaving him 2 in her will in TNA, E 179/161/8 10; ibid. SC 6/HenVIII/2924 5; ibid. SC 12/18/66; Valor Eccl. II, 202; above, manor (other estates). 37 Visit. Dioc. Linc. I, 135; II, 47; OAS Rep. (1925), Cal. Pat , OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 179, ff. 216v., 258v. 40 e.g. ibid. 183, f. 216 (12d. for repairs in 1559); 184, f. 325v. (12d. for bells in 1566). 41 Ibid. 183, ff. 354v. 355; Pearce, Clergy, OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 184, f. 326; ibid. 3/1/22; 10/4/37; 153/3/21; 65/1/62; Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. c 43, f. 214; cf. below, Idbury, relig. hist. (pastoral care). Callis was later rector of Letcombe Bassett (formerly Berks.): Alumni Oxon , I, Evans, Ch. Plate, Pearce, Cert. 1593, 157; Pearce, Clergy, 27; OHC, MSS Wills Oxon. 17/2/38; 4/1/62; 30/1/16; 50/3/24; 299/4/43; 1/4/9; 37/3/5. 45 B. Stapleton, History of the Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire (1906), Oxon. Visit. 317; M. Stephenson, List of Monumental Brasses in the British Isles (1926), 406; Par. Colln, II, 145; above, manor. 47 Prot. Retns, 87; TNA, PROB 11/239/468; PROB 11/327/305.

7 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 7 Like several of his predecessors Mills also served neighbouring Idbury, 48 but thereafter the two churches seem to have been less closely connected. Certainly several early 18th-century curates apparently served Fifield only, amongst them the Oxford graduates Thomas Dalrake (in the 1710s) and George Barrett in the 1720s. 49 Even so few if any were resident. In 1738 Thomas Williams lived 4½ miles away at Bourton-on-the-Water (Glos.), where he was schoolmaster, performing a single Sunday service at Fifield and celebrating Holy Communion three times a year, which was attended by c.40 communicants. 50 A few inhabitants showed attachment to neighbouring churches such as Churchill and Taynton, 51 but two new bells inscribed with the names of the churchwardens were cast in 1725 and 1746, and the church was generally kept in good repair. 52 Fifield church by J.C. Buckler in 1825 before its Victorian restoration. Following Fifield s separation from Swinbrook in 1750 the practice of combining the living with Idbury resumed, the long-serving Thomas Williams becoming curate of both from 1754, and performing alternate Sunday afternoon services in summer. A sharp fall to c.16 in 48 Below, Idbury, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 49 Par. Colln, II, 145; OHC, MS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. e 4, f. 22; Alumni Oxon , I, 77; E. Goshawk, Fifield Merrymouth (1957), Secker s Visit TNA, PROB 11/239/468; OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 127/1/ Ch. Bells Oxon. II, 134 5; OHC, MSS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. c 70, s.a ; d 13, f. 13 (ordering repairs in 1755).

8 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 8 the number of communicants may reflect neglect during his old age, 53 and only modest improvement followed under Williams s non-resident successor Thomas Brookes (curate ), who served five local churches and employed a succession of assistant curates. By the end of the 18th century a sermon was preached most Sundays and on several feast days, the sacrament was administered four times a year to c.12 communicants, and the churchwardens reported that the church was well maintained. Nevertheless a few Protestant Dissenters were mentioned for the first time. 54 The 19th and 20th Centuries Brookes s successor Thomas Mastin (curate ) was a schoolmaster at Swinbrook, and by the 1830s was attracting a congregation of (c per cent of the population), of whom ( principally the poor ) received communion three times a year. 55 Under his successors the congregation increased in line with population, by 1851 averaging 90 in the morning and 130 in the afternoon, with children attending Sunday school. 56 Dissent also increased, however. During Mastin s time only a few inhabitants attended Dissenting services elsewhere, 57 but thereafter Primitive Methodism attracted considerable numbers of agricultural workers, and in 1858 a chapel was built on High Street on land owned by the carpenter Thomas Dearing. 58 In the 1860s the rector John Mayow Talmage ( ) reckoned that most adherents also attended the Anglican church, and claimed that Dissent s godless spirit of irreverence was largely encouraged by outsiders. 59 Inhabitants continued to attend both church and chapel in the 1880s, 60 but support for the Primitive Methodists faded rapidly as a result of population decline and of the reported antipathy of the new owner of Manor Farm, Frederick Matthews. By 1891 the chapel was used by the rector as a parish room, and later as a village hall. 61 Following the union with Idbury in 1864 Talmage performed alternate morning and afternoon Sunday services at Fifield, adding several weekday services and celebrating Holy 53 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 555, f. 211; c 653, f. 114; below, Idbury, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 54 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 558, f. 228; d 561, f. 227; b 10, ff ; d 566, f. 128v.; c 327, p. 103; ibid. MS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. c 70, s.a. 1797, 1807; below, Idbury, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 55 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. b 38, f. 90 and v.; Census, Ch. and Chapel, 1851, no OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 576, f. 105v.; d 578, f. 101v.; d 580, f. 101v. 58 HER, PRN 533; OHC, tithe award and map; ibid. NM1/9/D/1; OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. XIX.16 (1881 edn); cf. K. Tiller, The Desert begins to Blossom : Oxfordshire and Primitive Methodism, , Oxoniensia 71 (2006), OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 332, f. 182; c 335, f Ibid. c 347, f. 169v. 61 HER, PRN 533; Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1891 and later edns); above, par. intro. (population); manor.

9 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 9 Communion once a month. 62 Samuel York (rector ), a former vicar of Ascottunder-Wychwood, increased services further, instituted evening lectures and bible classes, and raised attendances and the number of communicants. He arranged, too, for a thorough restoration of the church in 1897, his contribution to parish life being marked (unusually for Fifield) by a memorial in the nave. 63 The longest-serving of his successors was Edward McConnell (rector ), whose High Church tendencies are suggested by his carving for the aumbry of an oak door featuring figures of Charles I and Archbishop Laud. 64 In the 1920s he oversaw repairs to the bells, roof, and spire, which parishioners feared was in danger of collapse. 65 Other improvements were carried out under Charles Goshawk (rector ), who performed services most days, and maintained McConnell s High Church tone by installing a tabernacle for the reservation of the sacrament. 66 The number of services fell following incorporation into Shipton benefice in 1980, and in 2014 regular Sunday worship was held only fortnightly. The figure of Charles I carved on the door of the aumbry by the rector Edward McConnell ( ). 62 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 332, f. 181v.; c 335, f. 148v.; c 338, f. 158v.; c 341, f. 178v.; c 344, f. 159v.; c 347, f. 169v. 63 Ibid. c 350, ff. 152v. 153; c 353, ff. 158v. 159; c 356, ff. 159v. 160; c 359, f. 165v.; c 362, f. 157v.; c 365, f. 156v.; c 368, f. 149v.; Goshawk, Fifield Merrymouth, 9; below (church archit.). 64 Goshawk, Fifield Merrymouth, OHC, PAR 103/2/A1/2; PAR 103/4/F1/1; PAR 103/11/F1/2; below (church archit.). 66 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815, faculties; ibid. PAR 103/1/R7/5; PAR 103/11/F1/4; below (church archit.).

10 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 10 Church Architecture Fifield chapel dates mostly from the 13th and 14th centuries, and was heavily restored in 1840 and The building is of coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with stone-slate roofs and stepped coped verges, and incorporates a two-bayed chancel and a four-bayed nave. Its most exceptional feature is a slender 14th-century west tower and spire, of octagonal design, surmounted by a ball finial and topped with a brass weathercock. The distinctive gabled south porch and gabled bellcote are of similar date. 67 Nave and chancel are both 13th-century: the Early English chancel arch is broad and low, its two chamfered orders resting on semi-circular responds decorated with nailhead on the north side and a moulded capital on the south. The chancel windows are contemporary, including two tall and narrow lancets on the north side with deep splays. Two pairs in the south wall (one apparently inserted in the 19th century) contain reset medieval heraldic stained glass commemorating the Zouche and Barton families. 68 The chapel was extensively remodelled in the 14th century, when the west tower, south porch, and bellcote were added. The tower is of two stages with a chamfered plinth and string course, a narrow rectangular opening in the first stage, and four louvred trefoilheaded openings to the belfry. Its unusual design was matched by that of the south porch: the stone-slab roof supported by a single chamfered arch rising from stone benches has crenellated sides decorated with carved heads, and a foliated finial at the apex of the gable. The bellcote over the nave s east gable is equally notable, though less elaborate than that at Idbury. 69 Both the sanctus bell and one of the bells in the tower are medieval, the latter cast in the mid 14th century by a bell-founder from Wokingham (Berks.). 70 Other medieval work included the three-light east window with reticulated tracery and hoodmould, a similar two-light window in the south wall of the nave, a few fragments of 15thcentury stained glass in the north wall, and a Perpendicular octagonal font with two blind trefoiled arches on each face. Thereafter little new work was undertaken, though the building seems to have been well maintained. A datestone ( 1699 IB ) at the base of the spire 67 For other accounts, Pevsner, Oxon. 603; J. Sherwood, Guide to Churches of Oxon. (1989), 81; Bldgs List, IoE ; J.H. Parker, Ecclesiastical and Archit. Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850), no. 74; W. Hobart Bird, Old Oxon. Churches [1932], 77; illust. before restoration in Bodl. MSS Top. Oxon. a 66, ff ; c 852, f. 19v. 68 Newton, Oxon. Glass, ; E.A. Greening Lamborn, Armorial Glass of the Oxford Diocese (1949), 126, and plate 48; Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. a 66, f. 260; above, social hist. (Middle Ages). 69 Despite some common features the churches at Fifield and Idbury are architecturally distinct: below, Idbury, relig. hist. (church archit.). 70 Ch. Bells Oxon. II,

11 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 11 suggests repairs probably by the lord of the manor John Bray (d. 1715), while reports in the 1740s 50s mention only a few apparently minor improvements. 71 Fifield church architecture: the 13th-century chancel arch (top left), the east window with stained glass of 1852 (top right), the medieval south porch (bottom left), and the vestry of 1897 (bottom right). By the 1830s the curate was nevertheless expressing concern at the state of the fabric, 72 and in 1840 the nave was entirely rebuilt by the Witney architect George Wilkinson. 73 A new king-post roof was raised above the former roof-line, creating space for new windows including a large two-light Perpendicular-style window to the west of the porch, while a small lancet to its east was removed. Around the same time a priest s door in the south wall of the chancel was blocked, and changes made to the chancel windows. 74 In 1852 stained glass by William Wailes was installed in the east window and later also in the nave, 71 OHC, MSS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. d 13, f. 15; c 70, ff ; above, manor. 72 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. b 38, f. 90v.; b 39, f. 145v. 73 Incorp. Ch. Bldg Soc : (accessed Feb. 2014). 74 Illust. before restoration (by J.C. Buckler in 1825) in Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. a 66, ff

12 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Fifield (May 2015 version) religious p. 12 the latter in memory of the Hambidge family. Frederick Matthews (d. 1911) was commemorated by stained glass (by Kempe & Co.) on the nave s south side. 75 Abortive plans in (drawn up by the architect William Allen) included a proposal to remove the medieval chancel arch. 76 Instead, in 1897, T.E. Collcutt built a flatroofed vestry on the north side of the nave, dismantled the western gallery, erected a new pulpit, installed new heating, and undertook other repairs. 77 Extensive work to the roof and spire was required in 1929, carried out by the Milton builders Alfred Groves and Sons. 78 Other improvements in the 1920s 30s included repairs to the bells by Thomas Bond of Burford, and installation of electric lighting. The heating system was updated in the 1950s and 1970s, and occasional repairs made to the stonework and spire. 79 In 2009 parishioners rebuilt the churchyard wall Pevsner, Oxon. 603 (with amendments by Alan Brooks). 76 Incorp. Ch. Bldg Soc ; Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. c 105, ff OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815, faculty; ibid. PAR 103/2/A1/1, s.a. 1897; Goshawk, Fifield Merrymouth, OHC, PAR 103/11/F1/2; PAR 103/2/A1/2, s.a Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 1815, faculties; ibid. PAR 103/4/F1/1; PAR 103/11/F1/4; Goshawk, Fifield Merrymouth, Notice in par. church.