Brightwell Baldwin is a village and civil parishinOxfordshire, about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) northeast of Wallingford. It was historically in the HundredofEwelme[1] and is now in the District of South Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 208.[2] The parish is roughly rectangular, about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) long north–south and about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) wide east–west. In 1848 the parish covered an area of 1,569 acres (635 ha).[1] The B4009 road linking Benson and Watlington forms part of the southern boundary of the parish. The B480 road linking Oxford and Watlington forms a small part of its northern boundary. Rumbolds Lane forms much of its western boundary. For the remainder the parish is bounded largely by field boundaries.
Brightwell Baldwin | |
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![]() St Bartholomew's parish church | |
Location within Oxfordshire | |
Area | 6.52 km2 (2.52 sq mi) |
Population | 208 (2011 Census) |
• Density | 32/km2 (83/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | SU6595 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Watlington |
Postcode district | OX49 |
Dialling code | 01491 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Oxfordshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Brightwell Baldwin Parish Meeting |
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"Brightwell" is derived from the Old English for "bright spring".[3] "Baldwin" is the name of a family that held the manor. The earliest known record of Brightwell Baldwin is a Saxon charter of 854 in the Cartularium Saxonicum that records the toponymasBeorhtawilleorBrihtanwylle. Almost a century later a Saxon charter of 945 records it as Byrhtanwellan. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Bretewelle.[3]
The old country house of the Stone family burnt down in 1786, but a cruciform 17th-century dovecote[4] that was some distance from the house survives in the park.[5] In 1790 a replacement house was built.[1] It has since been demolished, but its kitchen wing, stables, ice house[6] and an 18th-century stone arch bridge[7] in the park survive.
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish churchofSaint Bartholomew are 13th century, including a stair turret and a number of lancet windows, notably in the chancel.[8][9] Early in the 14th century the nave was rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic style, with north and south aisles linked to it by arcades of four bays.[8] The west tower and the Perpendicular Gothic east window of the chancel were added in the 15th century.[8] The pulpit and tester are Jacobean[8] and therefore 17th century. The building was restored in 1895 and is a Grade I listed.[9] Church monuments in St Bartholomew's include a number of brasses.
In the chancel are two brasses commemorating John Cottesmore, who died in 1439.[9] Stone monuments include two 16th-century chest tombs of members of the Carleton family, and a substantial English Baroque monument to members of the Stone family on the east wall of the north chapel.[8] The latter was built in about 1670[8] or 1690,[9] replacing monuments to John Stone (died 1640) and his son Sir Richard Stone (died 1660) that were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.[10] In the north aisle is a brass commemorating John the Smith, who died in 1371.[9] It bears an epitaph written in Middle English,[11] which may be the earliest example of an inscription in the English language.[12] The epitaph reflects upon human mortality:
man com & se how schal alle dede li: wen þow comes bad & bare
noth hab ven ve awaẏ fare: All ẏs wermēs þt ve for care:—
bot þt ve do for godẏs luf ve haue nothyng yare:
hunyr þis graue lẏs John ye smẏth god yif his soule heuen grit[11][12]
The bell tower has a ring of six bells. John Saunders of Reading, Berkshire cast the tenor bell in about 1559.[13] Ellis I Knight, also of Reading, cast the fifth bell in 1637.[13] Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast or recast the treble, second, third and fourth bells in 1911.[13] There is also a Sanctus bell that was cast in about 1550.[13] St Bartholomew's parish is now part of the beneficeofEwelme, Brightwell Baldwin, Cuxham and Easington.[14] The churchyard includes a late 18th-century chest tomb a number of 17th-century gravestones that are Grade II listed. [15][16][17][18] Another 17th-century monument commemorates one Stephen Rumbold, who died in 1687 aged 105.[19] On it a rhyming epigram bets with its readers:
He liv'd one hundred and five
Sanguine and Strong
An hundred to five
You do not live so long[19]
Brightwell Baldwin has a 17th-century pub, The Lord Nelson Inn.[20][21] It is now a gastropub.[22] The Old Forge is a Grade II listed former blacksmiths shop: it was bought in 2002 by the Duke and Duchess of Kent.[23]