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Village Walk
Two walks around
Minster Lovell
Click Here for
Walk Two
Walk One [i]Click on any
picture
for a larger version
The
only effective way to see the village
is on foot. We
would suggest that you use the Wash
Meadow car park which you can enter
through the field gate immediately
after crossing the bridge. Walk into
the
village towards The Olde Swan
Hotel. The water flowing on the other
side of
the road is the diverted section of
the river Windrush. This water powered
the mills which from the earliest
times stood where The Mill Conference
Centre stands today. The building
facing you as you approach the road
junction was once the miller's
house. As you round the corner you will
be
aware that the footpath is raised
above road level. This is The Causeway,
built because the river floods at
this point. The cottage on the right is
Causeway Cottage. The Olde Swan,
once the village beer house, is
possibly
fifteenth century. You are now
walking up 'The Street' which until the
1930s
was roughly made, thick with dust
in summer and muddy in winter, so that
ladies wore pattens to keep their
shoes and skirts out of the dirt. You
will
see to the right the village
recreation ground, Wash Meadow, so
called
because of its habit of flooding in
winter. A plaque in the wall records
that it was given to the village by
Mrs. B. de Sales la Terriere. The first
house on the right is modern and
was named 'Greengrow' in memory of
Albert
Greengrow, the reed cutter. It
replaced an old cottage where once an
itinerant dentist plied his painful
trade. The next cottage was once the
village post office. On the
opposite side of the road, next to the
handsome
cottage called The Rosery is Lovell
Cottage which has part of an old
tombstone over the front door. You
will notice in front of these cottages
the channel-drain dug for excess
water to reach the river. Between The
Rosery and Lovell Cottage once
stood another cottage where the
wheelwright
lived and worked. The Old House is
a sort of dower house for the Abraham
family of Ringwood Farm. The garden
opposite was once the site of two old
cottages and there were three more
cottages further up the hill where
Windrush House now stands. This house
was built in
1924 and you will notice that it is
not in line with the older cottages.
Before you reach Windrush House you
pass a long cottage called The Old
Bakehouse which was once the
village bakery. The large bread oven
can be
seen projecting from the lower end
wall. The last cottage on the right,
called Talbot Cottage, has been
rebuilt this century because a lady
still
living in the village remembers it
collapsing when she was a child. The
Old
Post House (the original village
post office) on the left was two
cottages
until 1975 when it was knocked into
one and modernised. Joby Dix had lived
in one part of it and he worked at
the mill. As he went to work early in
the
morning, he woke everyone up with
his hacking cough. The Old Post House
is a
seventeenth-century cottage, called
Lock's Cottage for many years. Some of
the other cottages will be at least
of that date. Today they are highly
sought after, but once were rented
out at only 6d.
(21 /2p)
a year. As it
was not worth the trouble to collect
the
rents the occupants lived rent
free. But occupation for twelve
unbroken
years would have given the
occupants a right to the ownership of
the
cottage, so during the eleventh
year they were required to stand all
their
belongings in the street for one
day, and with the occupation broken
their
rights disappeared. Privies were in
the garden. They were often two holers,
one adult, one child-size, and
occasionally three holers.
Straight
ahead is the road to Crawley and on the
left of it
was once the Pound, where stray
cattle and sheep were kept until
claimed.
But ignore this and take the lane
down to the church and Minster Lovell
Hall. On the left is Orchard House,
built early this century, in the
orchard
once owned by the Lord of the
Manor. A cottage once stood in the
field
opposite the driveway to Orchard
House. The Old Vicarage comes just
before
the church and the lane, called
Church Lane or at one time Amy's Lane,
leads
Top
Walk
TwoWalk 2
[i] click on any picture for
a larger version
If you would like to
see
more, and have sufficient energy for a
slightly longer walk, recross the
bridge.
Ahead of you is Bridge Cottage, once,
when very much smaller, called Rectory
Cottage and which, together with the
church, was given by Henry VI in 1441
to
Eton College. It was occupied in the
early days by visiting priests. Turn
left
up the lane passing thatched Windrush
Farm Cottage and Windrush Farmhouse on
the
left. On the right you will see the old
road now closed off. Take this and
after
passing the war memorial you will see
The White Hart Inn. Just before you
reach
The White Hart you can see a
into the ancient Manor
Farm. Information about St. Kenelm's
church can be found for sale in the
church,
and about Minster Lovell Hall from the
curator of the Ruins at the kiosk. At
the
bottom of the churchyard and opposite
the entrance to
the ruins is a stile
and
field path passing in front of The Old
Vicarage, down hill, over a second
stile,
and along the edge of a field to a
third stile; and this brings you again
into
Wash Meadow.
well-preserved
Charterville bungalow with its tell-
tale decoration over the porch-door.
Pass
the front of
The White Hart, cross
the Brize Norton road and ahead of you,
passing to the right of the Methodist
chapel is The Crescent. Nearly half-way
along
The Crescent is the
school and schoolhouse built by Feargus
O'Connor for the Chartist Land
Settlement Project. Other Chartist
bungalows are to be seen along the left-
hand
side of the road. At the end of The
Crescent turn right along the Burford
to
Witney road. The New Inn is the newest
inn in Minster and was converted from a
Charterville bungalow. Before you again
reach The White Hart you will pass
Charterville House on the left where
the agent for the Chartist Estate once
lived. Before reaching The White Hart
turn left down School Lane and on
reaching
the old school cross over the road and
continue straight on down to Little
Minster. College Farm is on the left
together with Barn End House. Lower
down on
the right is Golden Square, a single
house where once stood four cottages.
The
main lane then swings to the left and
appears to lead straight into the
driveway
of The Old Manor House, but in fact it
continues on down to Cot Farm. Retrace
your steps back to the old school and
turn left down the hill. On the right
is
Dundon House, the oldest part of which
has a very interesting history. As you
approach the bridge, the open area on
the left facing Bridge Cottage was the
site of the Bridge Toll House. This is
journey's end. Well done!
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