Lidstone

Human settlement in England

Enstone

District

West Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Region

South East

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townChipping NortonPostcode districtOX7Dialling code01608PoliceThames ValleyFire Oxfordshire Ambulance South Central UK Parliament

Witney

WebsiteEnstone Parish

List of places: UK; England; Oxfordshire

51°55′11″N 1°29′07″W / 51.9197°N 1.4852°W / 51.9197; -1.4852

Lidstone is a hamlet on the River Glyme in Oxfordshire, about 3 miles (5 km) east of Chipping Norton. The hamlet is in Enstone civil parish, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) west of Neat Enstone.

Archaeology

In Round Hill Field^[1] on a ridge about 700 yards (640 m) south of Lidstone is a Bronze Age bowl barrow. It is 105 feet (32 m) in diameter and 2 feet (0.6 m) high. Originally it would have been substantially higher, and would have been created from spoil dug from a circular quarry trench 6+1⁄2 feet (2 m) deep. The trench has become filled in but will have survived as a buried feature. The barrow is the most northerly of a line of three that form a line between Lidstone and the village of Spelsbury. It is a scheduled monument. In the middle of the barrow is an Ordnance Survey triangulation station.^[2]

Manor

By 1279 there was a hide of land at Lidstone that was part of the manor of Heythrop.^[3]

Mill

Lidstone had a large watermill on the Glyme. It had the largest-diameter waterwheel in Oxfordshire: an overshot wheel 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter^[4] and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. Via a 15-foot (4.6 m) pitwheel it drove three pairs of millstones. The mill had its own bread oven.^[5] The mill was dismantled in 1976 and its machinery taken into storage, but the large iron waterwheel was left in place.^[6]

References

^ Harden 1954, p. 143.
^ Historic England (22 March 1949). "Bowl barrow 500m south west of Hill Farm, Lidstone (1009430)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
^ Crossley 1983, pp. 131–143
^ Foreman 1983, p. 45.
^ Foreman 1983, p. 111.
^ Foreman 1983, plate 22.

Sources

Crossley, Alan (ed.); Baggs, A.P.; Colvin, Christina; Colvin, H.M.; Cooper, Janet; Day, C.J.; Selwyn, Nesta; Tomkinson, A. (1983). "Heythrop". A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. Vol. 11: Wootton Hundred (northern part). pp. 131–143. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
Foreman, Wilfrid (1983). Oxfordshire Mills. Chichester: Phillimore & Co Ltd. pp. 45, 111. ISBN 0-85033-441-1.
Harden, D.B. (1954). "Scheduled Monuments in Oxfordshire". Oxoniensia. XIX. Oxford: Oxford Architectural and Historical Society: 137–145.