VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p. 1. VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress LYNEHAM.

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1 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress LYNEHAM Religious History Lyneham s Iron Church, built in 1907 and demolished in 1976 (Oxfordshire Photographic Archive, d255422a). Lyneham formed part of Shipton parish from the Middle Ages, when it acquired a parochial chapel which had disappeared by the 16th century. Thenceforth until the 1850s Lyneham s inhabitants attended Shipton church, which retained exclusive rights of baptism and burial. From 1854 the township was served from the newly-built church at Milton, to which it was formally annexed in 1895 and with which it was subsequently absorbed into a larger benefice based at Shipton. Protestant Nonconformity flourished from the 17th century, and a Nonconformist chapel (used first by Baptists and later by Primitive Methodists) was opened before 1881, closing in Anglican services were held from the mid 19th century in the village school, and from 1907 until 1975 in a purpose-built corrugated-iron chapel on the village street.

2 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p. 2 Parochial Organization and Tithes In the 11th century Lyneham was presumably served from the mother church at Shipton. 1 A parochial chapel was built probably in the 12th or 13th century, perhaps by one of the le Foresters as lords of Finescourt manor. In the 18th century a pasture close called Chapel Ground lay south of the former Finescourt manor-house site on the Pudlicote road, east of Lyneham village. 2 The chapel may have existed by the 1220s, when Lyneham s tithes were divided between two Salisbury cathedral prebends along with the rest of Shipton church s endowment. 3 It was first explicitly mentioned in 1291, however, when it was assessed for taxation along with Shipton church. 4 The chapel remained in use in 1338, 5 and was again taxed with Shipton church in No later reference has been found, and by the 16th century it had apparently disappeared. Thereafter until the 19th century most Lyneham inhabitants were baptized, married, and buried at Shipton church some 1½ miles away, and presumably attended services there. 7 The church built at Milton in 1854 was intended to serve both Lyneham and Bruern, although it was not much closer to Lyneham than Shipton church. Lyneham was formally separated from Shipton in 1895, and incorporated into the new ecclesiastical parish of Milton-under-Wychwood. 8 From the 1850s Milton s clergy held regular Sunday afternoon services in Lyneham school, until a corrugated-iron chapel was built on High Street in Services there continued until 1975, but the following year the building was sold and demolished. 9 The north-eastern part of Lyneham parish (including Merriscourt, Fairgreen, and Castle Barn Farms) was transferred in 1953 to Sarsden-with-Churchill ecclesiastical parish, which in 1979 was united with the benefice of Kingham and Daylesford. 10 The rest of Lyneham (including the village) remained part of Milton ecclesiastical parish, which in 1980 was incorporated into a benefice based at Shipton. 11 Tithes Two thirds of Lyneham s demesne tithes, granted by Ilbert de Lacy to St Clement s church in Pontefract castle before 1090, 12 were represented in 1291 by an annual pension of 1 Above, vol. intro. (relig. life); Shipton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 2 OHC, Lo. VI/4; Lo. VII/1, no. 455; above, manors. 3 Below (this section); though cf. VCH Oxon. II, Tax. Eccl VCH Oxon. II, 15; below (pastoral care). 6 Feudal Aids, VI, OHC, Shipton-under-Wychwood par. reg. transcript; below (pastoral care). 8 Lond. Gaz. 23 July 1895; below, Milton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 9 OHC, PAR173/17/C/1; below (pastoral care). 10 Lond. Gaz. 6 Oct. 1953, 21 Dec Above, Shipton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 12 W. Farrer (ed.), Early Yorkshire Charters, III (1916), pp ; VCH Oxon. I, 380.

3 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p s. 8d. paid from Shipton church to Pontefract priory. 13 The rest of Lyneham s tithes remained due to Shipton and its appropriator Salisbury cathedral. In the grain tithes and some other dues were divided equally between Salisbury cathedral s prebends of Shipton and Brixworth (Northants.); 14 the Brixworth prebendary s share may have subsequently been reassigned, however, since by the 17th century the Shipton prebendary (as rector of Shipton) apparently owned all of Lyneham s great tithes including grain, hay, and wool. The small tithes belonged probably from 1224 to the vicar of Shipton, who was also entitled to offerings and mortuaries. 15 By the 17th and 18th centuries Lyneham s great tithes were sublet, in the early 1600s to the Cooks of Shipton, 16 in the 1730s 50s to the Peisleys of Ascott, who paid 85 a year for renewable three-year leases, and by 1788 to Thomas Pratt. 17 Both the great and small tithes were extinguished at Lyneham s inclosure that year, when the rector and vicar of Shipton received allotments in lieu totalling 284 acres. 18 Pastoral Care and Religious Life In the Middle Ages Lyneham chapel was served presumably from Shipton, whose vicar was required to employ an assistant chaplain. 19 A local man, Robert of Lyneham, became vicar c , 20 having possibly served in the township, and in 1338 Adam de Shareshull, the lord of Finescourt, was licensed to have his own chaplain celebrate mass in the chapel for a year, 21 perhaps implying that it was becoming essentially a private oratory. Nothing else is known, and almost certainly baptisms and burials remained confined to Shipton, as they were from the 16th century. A direct path (called a churchway at inclosure) provided a shortcut from Lyneham village to Shipton church across the intervening fields and river. 22 One of two curates employed at Shipton in the 1520s may have occasionally served Lyneham, 23 but if the chapel still existed it is doubtful that it long survived the Reformation: 16th-century Lyneham wills made bequests only to Shipton church, and were often 13 Tax. Eccl Salisbury Charters, p. 104; Fasti , IV, 55, 97; for background, above, Shipton-under- Wychwood, manors (rectory estate); relig. hist. (paroch. organization). 15 Oxf. Ch. Ct Deposns , p. 13; above, Shipton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. 16 Oxf. Ch. Ct Deposns , pp ; cf. ibid , p OHC, E344/2/D/1 2; ibid. Talbot I/vii/1 2; ibid. Lo. VI/1, p Above, manors (other estates). 19 Rot. Welles, II (LRS 6, 1913), Rot. Grosseteste (LRS 11, 1914), Lincs. Arch. REG/5, f. 174; VCH Oxon. II, OHC, QSD/A book 110; ibid. Shipton-under-Wychwood par. reg. transcript; above, par. intro. (communics). 23 Subsidy 1526,

4 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p. 4 witnessed by the vicar, 24 while from the 1550s Lyneham s churchwardens levied a rate towards the maintenance of Shipton church, assessed on 50 yardlands in Lyneham wills also suggest that the Reformation was outwardly accepted there with little disturbance, their Catholic invocations giving way to more Protestant forms early in Elizabeth s reign. 26 By contrast Protestant Dissent emerged early, perhaps encouraged (as at Milton) by the lack of a permanent Anglican presence. During the 17th century Lyneham inhabitants were among those attending Milton s Quaker meeting house, early supporters including the Harrises, although from the 18th century the meeting declined and in the early 19th closed altogether. 27 Lyneham s lords and principal landowners, the Walters and Langstons, attended Sarsden and Churchill churches, endowing both with annuities charged on their Lyneham estate. 28 An offer by James Langston in the 1840s to build and endow a church at Lyneham was refused by the prebendary and vicar of Shipton, however. 29 Possibly Langston was seeking to combat Dissent, since in 1854 the vicar complained that two thirds of Lyneham s inhabitants were Nonconformists. 30 The subsequent opening of the Anglican church at Milton and the introduction of Sunday afternoon services at Lyneham school may have won back some Anglican support, and certainly the Sunday school proved popular, with c.40 children (16 per cent of the population) attending by the early 1870s. 31 Nevertheless by 1881 a Nonconformist chapel variously described as Baptist, Methodist, and finally (in 1899) Primitive Methodist had opened on the edge of the village. 32 The school s rebuilding in 1907 made it unsuitable for Anglican worship, and the vicar of Milton consequently arranged for the erection of a purpose-built chapel on High Street, on land donated by the earl of Ducie. The so-called Iron Church was constructed of timber enclosed in corrugated-iron sheeting, and included a four-bayed nave, south porch, and bellcote. Paid for by donations, it was built by J.B. Harris of Peckham (London), and dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. Furnishings (also donated) included an electroplated chalice and paten, two glass cruets, and two altar frontals; later additions included a carved wooden pulpit, bishop s throne, and brass crucifix, while a sanctuary was added in 1909, and in 1938 the church was repaired and repainted. Successive vicars of Milton held weekly services there until the 1950s when they were reduced to once a month, and baptisms were 24 e.g. OHC, MSS Wills Oxon. 181, ff. 142, 143v.; 183, f. 77; 184, ff. 5v., 12, J. Howard-Drake (ed.), The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Shipton under Wychwood, Oxfordshire: Churchwardens Accounts (Wychwood Local Hist. Soc., 2009); below, local govt. 26 OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 184, ff. 5v., 81, Ibid. NQ3/1/D8/3 4; NQ3/1/D8/14; below, Milton-under-Wychwood, relig. hist. (pastoral care). 28 Secker s Corresp. 63 4; OHC, Fi. I/35; Ch. and Chapel, 1851, nos. 110, Wilb. Dioc. Bks, Wilb. Visit OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 338, f. 260v.; c 341, f. 286v.; c 347, f. 273v. 32 OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. XX.9 (1881 edn); Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1891 and later edns).

5 VCH Oxon Texts in Progress Lyneham (Nov version) religious history p. 5 performed occasionally. The chapel accommodated a congregation of 70 on simple wooden pews, but by the 1970s only around five people attended, and in 1974 Milton s parochial church council petitioned for its closure. The last services were held in 1975, and in 1976 the building was sold and replaced by a bungalow. 33 The Primitive Methodists moved in 1927 to the newly vacated school, converting it into a chapel which, following the Methodist Union in 1932, was included in the Chipping Norton and Stow circuit. Following dwindling attendances, the chapel was finally closed in The Primitive Methodist chapel on High Street, with the Iron Church beyond (Oxfordshire Photographic Archive, d244236a). 33 OHC, PAR173/17/C/1; PAR173/17/L/1 2; PAR173/17/R7/1; ibid. Milton-under-Wychwood par. reg. transcript; Evans, Ch. Plate, 109; Ch. Bells Oxon. II, 203; illust. in OPA, D255422a; cf. Wychwood Mag. 27, no. 4 (2006), 19, OHC, NM1/13/C/1.