Milton, Vale of White Horse
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Milton, Vale of White Horse
Coordinates: 51°37′37″N 1°17′53″W / 51.627°N 1.298°W
| Milton | |
 Milton
Milton shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 1,206 (2001 census)[1] |
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| OS grid reference | SU4892 |
| Civil parish | Milton |
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Abingdon |
| Postcode district | OX14 |
| Dialling code | 01235 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wantage |
| Website | Parish of Milton |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Milton is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Didcot and a similar distance south of Abingdon.
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Contents
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Toponym
From the 10th to the 13th century the village's toponym was Middeltune.[2] From the 13th to the 15th century it evolved as Middelton and Midelton, and from the 15th century to the 17th century it was Mylton.[2]
Manor
In 956 King Eadwig granted 15 hides of land at Milton to his thegn Alfwin, who in turn gave the estate to the Benedictine Abingdon Abbey.[2] In the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s the abbey surrendered its lands to the Crown.[2] Milton was among a number of estates that Henry VIII granted to Baron Wriothesley in 1546.[2] Wriothesley sold Milton that same year to Thomas Calton, a goldsmith of London, whose descendants retained it for the next two centuries.[2] In 1709 Paul Calton married Catherine, daughter of Admiral John Benbow.[2] In 1764 Catherine, Martha and Mary Calton sold the estate to Isaac Barrett, in whose family the property remains.[3]
Milton House is a yellow and red brick manor house built for the Calton family in the 17th century.[3] The actual date is unknown: in 1696 it was described as "newly built" but Sir Nikolaus Pevsner believed that it could not be much later than the 1660s.[4] The original building is of five bays[4] and three storeys and may have been designed by Inigo Jones.[2] In 1796 short two-storey wings designed by Stephen Wright[4] were added to the house for Bryant Barrett.[3] The house, gardens and park are open to the public between 2 pm and 5 pm on certain dates between Easter Sunday and 31 August each year.[5]
There was also a dower house, where Admiral Benbow lived in the 1690s.[2] Peter the Great is said to have stayed at Milton House around this time, probably in order to consult Benbow on shipbuilding.[2] No trace of the dower house remains.[2]
Churches
Church of England
The Church of England parish church is dedicated Saint Blaise as he is the patron saint of the wool industry, which was a major part of Milton's mediaeval economy. The church seems to have been built in the 14th century[2] but only the porch, the lower part of the bell tower and part of the nave including the west window survive from this time.[2] The upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 18th century[2] and the nave, chancel and four-bay north aisle were rebuilt by the Gothic Revival architect Henry Woodyer in 1849-51.[4] Under the chancel arch is the Barrett family vault, in which the Roman Catholic bishop Richard Challoner (1691–1781) was buried[2] until 1946 when his remains were translated to Westminster Cathedral.
The tower has a ring of eight bells, all cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 2001.[6] Previously there was a ring of six, four of which were cast in 1682.[2] At least three of the 1682 bells were cast by Richard Keene,[2] who had foundries at Woodstock, Oxfordshire and Royston, Hertfordshire.[7] Another of the bells had been cast in 1787 and the tenor was cast by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1906.[2] When the new bells were hung in 2001, five of the old bells were sold to St. Michael and All Angels parish church, Hackthorn, Lincolnshire.[8] One of Richard Keene's 1682 bells has been retained at St. Blaise but is not used.[6][8]
Methodist
By 1924 Milton had a corrugated iron nonconformist chapel.[2] Milton Methodist church now has a modern brick building and is a member of the Wantage and Abingdon Methodist Circuit.[9]
Economic and social history
Two watermills in the parish are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and again in a record from 1401.[2] There is still a Milton Mill on Ginge Brook.[2]
In about 1770 Thomas Bowles of Abingdon inclosed land on Milton Hill about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of the village as a park and had Milton Hill House built there.[2] His son Thomas (died 1837) enlarged both the park and the house.[2] The library was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott[2] for John Samuel Bowles. It remained the Bowles family seat until 1905 when it was sold by Col. Thomas John Bowles.[2] It is now a DeVere hotel.[10]
Milton Church of England primary school was founded in 1796.[2]
An open field system of farming prevailed in the parish until 1808-09, when Parliament passed an Inclosure Act for Milton.[2]
In 1841 the Great Western Main Line was built through the parish about 0.5 miles (800 m) south of the village. In 1955 a British Railways excursion train was derailed at Milton, killing 11 people and injuring 163.[11]
During the Second World War the British Army had a large depot on land between Milton village and the railway line. The site is now Milton Park business park.[12]
In the 1970s a new dual carriageway was built through the parish as part of the realignment and enlargement of the A34 road. Milton Interchange was built just south of the railway line as a junction between the A34 and the A4130.
Amenities
Milton has one public house, the Admiral Benbow, controlled by Greene King Brewery.
Sport and leisure
Milton United F.C. (Oxon) has a Non-League football club Milton United F.C. who play at Potash Lane.
References
- ^ "Area selected: Vale of White Horse (Non-Metropolitan District)". Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View. Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do?instanceSelection=03070&productId=779&$ph=60_61&datasetInstanceId=3070&startColumn=1&numberOfColumns=4&containerAreaId=790499. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 361-365
- ^ a b c Milton Manor House: The History of Milton Manor House
- ^ a b c d Pevsner, 1966, page 178
- ^ Milton Manor House: Visiting Milton Manor House
- ^ a b "Place: Milton S Blaise". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Milton&DoveID=MILTON+++O. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
- ^ "Bellfounders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
- ^ a b St Blaise Parish Church, Milton, Abingdon
- ^ Wantage & Abingdon Methodist Circuit: Milton Methodist Church
- ^ DeVere: Milton Hill House
- ^ The Railways Archive: Accident at Milton on 20th November 1955
- ^ Milton Park Oxfordshire
Sources
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 361–365.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 178–179.
External links
Media related to Milton, Vale of White Horse at Wikimedia Commons
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