Deddington, Oxfordshire

Description
Deddington, a small town and a parish in Oxfordshire. The town stands near the Cherwell river and the Oxford Canal, 2 1/2 miles W of Aynho station on the G.W.R., and 6 S of Banbury, has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Oxford, and is a seat of petty sessions. It formerly had a weekly market on Tuesdays, and several fairs, but the market has become obsolete, and now only one fair is held on 22 Nov. It dates from Saxon times, and sent two members to parliaments of Edward I. Remains of a beautiful groined crypt are beneath the Plough Inn. A curious house, a tall, square, balustraded tower is near the church, and vestiges of a large castle of unknown antiquity, where Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II., was seized for execution, are on the east. The church, of mixed styles, with a square tower, was rebuilt about the time of Charles I., and generally repaired and altered between 1858 and 1865. It contains stone seats, a piscina, a female effigy, and some brasses. The large east window was filled with stained glass by Kempe in 1888. Several Roman coins and quantities of Roman pottery were found in the neighbouring field of Blackingrove. There are Congregational and Wesleyan Reform chapels, Salvation Army barracks, and some endowed almshouses. Charles I. slept in the parsonage after the Battle of Cropredy, and Sir Thomas Pope and Chief-Justice Scroggs were natives. The parish includes also the hamlets of Clifton and Hempton. Acreage, 4271; population, 1777. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of Clifton and Hempton, in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £290. There is also an allowance of £120 a year from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for a curate. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Windsor.