A Comberford family myth and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

‘Three knocks are always heard at Comberford Hall before the death of a family member’ … family lore recorded by Robert Plot of the Ashmolean Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During my recent visits to Oxford, I have been in the Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street a number of times, most recently in search of John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites.

This most recent visit was motivated in part by a search for the portrait in 1853 of John Ruskin (1819-1900) by Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) – a painting that inspired the pose by my grandfather, Stephen Edward Comerford (1867-1921), for a late Victorian portrait photograph.

But there was another family connection too. One of the vignettes and stories in history and folklore recorded by Kate Gomez in her book The Little Book of Staffordshire (Stroud: The History Press) is the belief or superstition: ‘Three knocks are always heard at Comberford Hall before the death of a family member.’

It is a story that was first recorded, as far as I know, by the 17th century historian, Robert Plot (1640-1696), the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Robert Plot was born in Sutton Barne in Borden, Kent, in 1640 and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford (BA, 1661, MA, 1664, DCL, 1671). He became the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and Professor of Chemistry in 1683, after Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) persuaded Oxford University to design a museum around and for his collection. The museum was first located on Broad Street.

Although Plot’s beliefs about alchemy have been discredited, his views and values are stereotypical for his time. He was an early historian of Staffordshire, and he published The Natural History of Staffordshire in Oxford in 1686. It was Plot’s second book, following The Natural History of Oxfordshire, published in 1677.

Plot began to work in earnest on Staffordshire in 1679. His studies of Staffordshire were instigated at the invitation of Walter Chetwynd of Ingestre Hall. But Plot’s principal reason for selecting Staffordshire was in honour of his patron, Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum, who was born in Lichfield in 1617.

Plot travelled throughout Staffordshire. By early 1681, and had prepared an accurate map of the county. He received extensive support and co-operation from local landowners. The book was progressing well, the illustrations were in hand, publication was imminent, and there were many illustrious subscribers, including Sir Christopher Wren. The chapter layout was similar to that for The Natural History of Oxfordshire, although the content was treated in more detail.

This detailed research led to a delay, however, and that delay was extended by Plot’s appointments as Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and as Professor of Chemistry. The book was finally published in April 1686. Critics say the book was more philosophically based than his first book and to be his greatest achievement during this period.

Plot’s work on Staffordshire combines scientific enquiry with local folklore to provide an intriguing account not merely of the county’s natural history, but also its geology, pre-industrial manufacturing and culture during the 17th century, and Plot details the natural curiosities he found in Staffordshire.

In his Natural History of Staffordshire, Plot records this superstition about ‘the knocking before the death of any of ... the family of Cumberford of Cumberford in this County; three knocks being always heard at Cumberford-Hall before the decease of any of that family, tho’ the party dyeing be at never so great a distance’ – Robert Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford, 1686), pp 329-330.

Plot also recalls that when a burbot, a rare fish, was caught at Fazeley Bridge in August 1656, Colonel William Comberford had it drawn from life and placed the drawing in Comberford Hall.

In his Natural History of Staffordshire, Plot also describes a double sunset viewable from Leek, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, well dressing, and, for the first time, the Polish swan, a pale morph of the mute swan. His description of pottery-manufacture in Burslem, North Staffordshire, is also of interest.

Plot dedicated his Natural History of Staffordshire to James II and in 1688 he was named Historiographer Royal. His ambition to continue the multi-volume series for all England was, however, never realised. He died in 1696.

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford … Robert Plot was the first keeper, when the museum was based in Broad Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Cathedrals, churches and college chapels in Oxford and Oxfordshire

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, is unique in its dual role as a cathedral and a college chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since moving to Stony Stratford and the Diocese of Oxford last year, I have enjoyed visiting cathedrals, churches and college chapels in Oxford City and Oxfordshire, writing about them and photographing them.

As the posts accumulate on this blog, it may be difficult for some readers to find these postings on this site. The number of churches, chapels and church sites I am visiting continues to grow. So this posting offers links to these and similar postings.

I intend to update this list as I write about more churches and buildings, indicating the date of the latest update at the end of this posting, and to provide an additional link in the toolbar in the banner at the top of the front page of this site.

Oxford City churches:

1, Christ Church Cathedral (18 September 2022)

2, Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho (29 August 2023)

3, Saint Ebbe’s Church, Pennyfarthing Lane (23 September 2022)

4, Saint Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (19 October 2022)

5, Saint Mary Magdalen Church (3 September 2023)

6,, Saint Martin’s Church and Carfax Tower (30 October 2023)

7, Saint Mary the Virgin, the University Church (19 September 2022)

8, Saint Michael at the North Gate (22 September 2022)

9, Saint Paul’s Church (closed), Walton Road (28 August 2023)

10, All Saints’ Church (now the Library of Lincoln College), The High Street, Oxford (12 June 2024)

11, The Hospital Chapel, John Radcliffe Hospital (1 November 2022)

12, The ruins of Osney Abbey, Osney Priory and the cathedral (21 December 2023)

Other denominations:

13, Saint Aloysius Church (Roman Catholic), Woodstock Road (11 September 2023)

14, Blackfriars Priory (Dominicans), Saint Giles (9 September 2023)

15, Strict Baptist Chapel, Jericho (30 August 2023)

16, Wesley Memorial Church (Methodist), New Inn Hall Street (24 September 2022)

17 Friends’ Meeting House (Quakers), Saint Giles (12 September 2023)

18 First Church of Christ Scientist (Christian Science), Saint Giles (13 September 2023)

19, Unitarian churches in Oxford (14 September 2023)

The reredos in the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford … a reminder of the ‘Faithful Departed’ on 2 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Oxford College chapels:

1, All Souls’ College (2 November 2022)

2, Balliol College (4 September 2023)

3, Blackfriars Hall (9 September 2023)

4, Christ Church (18 September 2022)

5, Corpus Christi College (3 November 2022)

6, Exeter College (31 October 2022)

7, Harris Manchester College (14 September 2023)

8, Keble College (31 August 2023)

9, Magdalen College (6 September 2023)

10, Merton College (5 November 2022)

11, Oriel College (4 November 2022)

12, Pembroke College (30 October 2022)

13, Pusey House (21 September 2022)

14, Ripon College Cuddesdon (29 October 2013)

15, St Edmund Hall (5 September 2023)

16, Saint John’s College (20 September 2022)

17, Trinity College (10 June 2023)

18, Wadham College (2 September 2023)

Oxfordshire:

1, Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham (1 November 2022)

2, Church House (Diocesan Offices), Kidlington (16 October 2022)

Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, and its 198 ft spire can be seen from miles around, a key landmark in Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Church history and church life in Oxford:

1, The mediaeval Carmelite and Benedictine houses in Oxford (16 September 2023)

2, The Martyrs’ Memorial, Saint Giles, Oxford (17 September 2023)

Jewish life in Oxford:

1, Oxford Jewish Centre (16 September 2022) and HERE (1 April 2022).

2, Site of mediaeval synagogue, opposite Pennyfarthing Lane (16 September 2022).

3, The Oxford Centre for Hebrew Jewish Studies, Clarendon Institute, Walton Street (16 September 2022).

For churches in other parts of the Diocese of Oxford, including Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, see HERE

Last updated: 16 September 2023; 25 October 2023; 30 October 2023; 21 December 2023; 12 June 2024

Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, with its spire and windows, is ‘one of the grandest’ in England

Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, and its 198 ft spire can be seen from miles around, a key landmark in Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary’s Church has been at the heart of Bloxham in Oxfordshire for almost 1,000 years, providing a focal point for Christian worship and prayer.

Saint Mary’s, which I visited last week, is a Grade I listed mediaeval church and it has been described by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘one of the grandest in the country.’

Saint Mary’s Church stands on the hill dominating the village three or four miles south-east of Banbury in the north Oxfordshire countryside. The church has stood on the site for almost 1,000 years, and the 198 ft spire can be seen from miles around, a key landmark across the North Oxfordshire countryside.

The church also has an East Window is regarded as ‘one of the finest examples’ in Oxfordshire church of some of the best if not in Britain of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The first documentary evidence of a church on this site is found in a charter in 1067 when William the Conqueror granted the church and the rectory estate to Westminster Abbey.

King Stephen built a chantry chapel there in the 12th century, when he gave two fields from his royal manor to pay a priest to say daily masses for the repose of the soul of his mother Adela, the daughter of King William I.

Henry II granted patronage of the church to Godstow Abbey near Oxford, causing Westminster Abbey to complain to the Pope. However, the Pope allowed Godstow Abbey to retain the church provided it made an annual payment to Westminster Abbey.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church has some notable remaining fragments of Norman architecture, including fragments of 12th-century masonry, two doorways and the responds of the chancel arch. The re-set 12th century doorway in north wall has tympanum with a fish scale pattern.

The arcades date from the rebuilding of the original nave in the 13th century, but the present church was mainly built in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The chancel and aisles were rebuilt in the early 14th century, as were the north and south porches. At this time the church was ornamented with much fine stone sculpture, including tracery and ornate capitals, much of which survives. It may have been crafted by a school of masons who carried out similar work on the nearby churches of Adderbury, Alkerton and Hanwell.

The hammer-bream roof inside Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The tower is thought to have been built between 1300 and 1340. The tower of five stages has angle buttresses, with niches, string courses to all stages and louvred lights to bell stage. At the fifth stage, the tower forms an octagon under the spire, and the broaches are marked by corner pinnacles. The octagon has a cornice of blind tracery, and the spire has canopied lucarnes.

Fragments of mediaeval wall paintings survive inside the church, including a Doom painting over the chancel arch and Saint Christopher over the north doorway. Remnants of 14th-century stained glass survive in some of the windows. The church’s elaborate rood screen dates from the 15th century, with fragmentary remains of painted figures.

Over the west door of the tower is a carving of the Last Judgment. The doorway itself is heavily carved, with depictions of animals, foliage, birds, beakheads, and traditional ballflower ornamentation. The hood-mould is carved with the 12 Apostles on thrones, with Christ with angels presiding over the whole scene.

The south chapel or Milcombe chapel was added in the 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The south chapel or Milcombe chapel was added in the Perpendicular Gothic style in the 15th century. The stonework is a fine example of the work of a renowned Banbury based group of stonemasons. Although the patron and the architect are unknown, it is likely that the new chapel was designed by Richard Winchcombe.

The 15th century baptismal font has a Jacobean cover.

With Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries at the Tudor Reformation in the 1530s, the advowson or patronage of Bloxham parish church passed to Crown, which granted it to Eton College in 1547.

The Milcombe chapel contains a number of 18th-century monuments to members of the Thornycroft family and the tomb of Sir John Thornycroft (1725). Other monuments to this family include Elizabeth, Lady Thornycroft (1704), John Thornycroft (1687) and his wife Dorothy (1718).

The East Window is regarded as ‘one of the finest examples’ in Oxfordshire church of Pre-Raphaelite stained-glass (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Saint Mary’s Church was restored in 1864-1866 and significant renovation was carried out under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect George Edmund Street (1824-1881), who also built the Royal Courts of Justice in London and rebuilt Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

As well as stabilising the spire, Street’s work includes one of his best-preserved chancels in existence, including the pulpit, choir stalls, reredos, flooring and other elements designed specifically for Saint Mary’s.

At the same time, the church was provided with three important Pre-Raphaelite stained-glass windows. William Morris, Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Philip Webb created the east window, filling the four-light west window that has unusual tracery with carved figures.

The East Window is regarded as ‘one of the finest examples’ in an Oxfordshire church of some of the best Victoria stained glass in Britain. Charles Sewter says it is ‘certainly one of the most beautiful windows of the firm’s first decade of activity.’

The four main lights show (with their attributions):

Top row (from left): Angels with censors (Burne-Jones), Michael and Raphael (Morris), Saint Peter and Saint James (Burne-Jones), Ezekiel and Saint John the Baptist (Burne-Jones);

Bottom row (from left): Saint Alban and Saint Stephen (Burne-Jones), King Alfred and King Louis (Burne-Jones), Saint James Bishop of Jerusalem (Burne-Jones) and Saint Augustine (Morris), and Saint Cecilia and Saint Catherine (Burne-Jones).

Burne-Jones also created the stained glass window of Saint Christopher in the chancel and the window depicting Saint Martin of Tours. Other windows are by Charles Eamer Kempe.

The 15th century baptismal font has a Jacobean cover (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Further alterations were made to the church in the 20th century, when the north aisle was dedicated as the War Memorial Chapel.

The high altar became used less frequently with the addition of a nave altar.

The Milcombe Chapel was screened off by a local craft worker, who was also commissioned to create the Millennium Screen at the west end of the central aisle.

The church has a large graveyard, which has been expanded to the east several times.

While the building is historic, the parish is developing a space to serve the community throughout the week, providing a space for community events, concerts and theatrical productions.

The parish was taken to a Church of England consistory court in 2018 for having removed seven Victorian pews from the church to create a children’s play area without applying to the Diocese of Oxford for the necessary faculty. The Victorian Society testified that the pews had been badly stored, causing them to deteriorate. The court granted retrospective permission for the removal of the pews, but ordered that four of them be returned to the church.

Christopher Rogers, deputy chancellor of the Diocese of Oxford, called the decision ‘highly unfortunate, to put it mildly.’ He found that the current vicar and leadership team were not in charge when the decision was taken and added that he had the ‘greatest sympathy’ in having to deal with the ‘mess’ left by their predecessors.

He said: ‘A degree of change and the removal of some pews was necessary in order to serve the wider community and to remain a sustainable place of worship.’ Retrospective permission for the removal was granted but four of the pews must be returned to the church.

Over the west door of the tower is a carving of the Last Judgment, while the doorway and the hood-mould are richly carved (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

A traditional local rhyme says:

Adderbury for length
Bloxham for strength
King’s Sutton for beauty

Nevertheless, Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, remains one of the real gems among Oxfordshire churches.

The benefice is now combined with those of Milcombe and South Newington, of which Our Lady of Bloxham is the main church. The Vicar is the Revd Dale Gingrich.

The Sunday services are: 8 am, Holy Communion, a traditional, spoken service using the 1662 Book of Common; 9:30 am, Holy Communion, with hymns, choir and a sermon; except on the fourth Sunday, when there is a café style family service without communion; 6 pm, Evening Prayer following the Book of Common Prayer, with Choral Evensong takes place on the fourth Sundays. Schools in Bloxham use the church for their annual Christmas services.

Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, remains one of the real gems among Oxfordshire churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Bloxham: a more welcoming village than the story of the ‘Pest House’ suggests

Bloxham near Banbury is a nestled in the north Oxfordshire countryside … thatched cottages on the corner of Cumberford and Queen’s Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Bloxham, about three or four miles south-west of Banbury, is a village nestled in the north Oxfordshire countryside with considerable heritage and fine architecture, including a beautiful 14th century church with one of the tallest spires in England.

I was in Bloxham earlier this week to visit Cumberford and to photograph Cumberford House, Cumberford Cottage and Cumberford Hill. But I had time too to walk around the village, which dates back centuries.

The Romano-British people were among the early settlers in the area and they were followed by Anglo Saxons, who established the site of the modern village on the slopes of the valley of the Sor Brook, a tributary of the Cherwell River.

The Domesday survey in 1086 records the village of Bloxham as having six mills and trading in wool and corn. Bloxham continued to expand after the Norman Conquest, and, the north and south of the village developed quite separately.

The village name derives from the Old English Blocc’s Ham (‘the Home of Blocc’) in the sixth century, and the village became Bloxham in 1316.

The principal road through the parish was once a route of importance, running from Banbury to Chipping Norton and the wealthy wool-producing area of the Cotswolds.

From mediaeval times on, money was left for the upkeep of the main bridges. These included the Great Bridge, later Old Bridge, on the old High Street, and the Little Bridge to the west of the old High Street. Other bridges included Cumberford Bridge, Wickham Bridge, and Bridle Road Bridge near Grove Mill.

To a large extent, Bloxham retains its mediaeval street plan, which was extremely irregular and consisted of a network of winding streets or alleys.

Bloxham has many well-built yeomen’s houses dating from this period. Many of these have been comparatively little altered, retaining their a mediaeval core with original details and plans.

The Joiners Arms is a 14th century pub set back from the old green alongside the main road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Joiners Arms, where I stopped at lunchtime, is a 14th century pub set back from the old green alongside the main road. The Elephant and Castle is an old village pub that was originally a coaching inn, built in the 15th century.

In my search for the origins and history of Cumberford, Cumberford House and Cumberford Hill, I learned that Cumberford was a comparatively late development in Bloxham, and Cumberford House, at the top of Cumberford Hill, was probably first built in the 17th century.

The evidence of surviving houses shows that the outskirts of Bloxham as we see them today were at least partly occupied by the 16th century, and most of the village street names dated from about this period or earlier.

The row of eight cottages in King’s Road, including one with a thatched roof, are among the earliest and the least altered. They are two-storied, built of coursed ironstone rubble, and have a number of original stone-mullioned windows in moulded frames with square moulded labels over them.

Tank Lane, now King Street, occurs in 1513 and was named after the family who had the chief farm there. Humber Lane and the Humber family occur in 1536, and other lanes were called after the families of Doughty, Job, and Budd families. These too may have been of mediaeval origin, but the earliest documentary evidence for them dates from around 1700.

The thatched cottages on King’s Road are among the earliest and the least altered in Bloxham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Church Lane, now Church Street, Great Bridge Street and Little Bridge Street are mediaeval names that have survived. Chapel Street takes its name from the Methodist Chapel, but contains many cottages dating from the 16th to the 17th century and a farmhouse of still older date. Similarly, Queen’s Street, formerly Grub Street, has many houses dating from the 17th century and earlier.

Campbell Cottage in Workhouse Lane and the cottage opposite are good examples of the period. So too is the end cottage in Sycamore Terrace. This last house and the rest of the terrace were used as weavers’ cottages in the 19th century. They were completely modernised in 1956.

All roads into Bloxham were gated until 1802, and travellers had to pay a toll to enter the village. Several roads connect Bloxham with the neighbouring villages of Barford, South Newington, Wigginton, Milton, Adderbury and Tadmarton, and also with the road from Banbury to Shipston-on-Stour that skirts the western boundary of the parish.

The main road was straightened in 1815, when the trustees of the Banbury and Chipping Norton turnpike bought two cottages on the brook in order to alter the tortuous line of the old road. This old road, shortly after the junction with Cumberford, originally turned left at Saint Mary’s Church, passed along Unicorn Street, and came out by the Green. It then ran down Old Bridge Street to the Great Bridge and on to the Elephant and Castle, where it again turned left to join the present stretch of the main road.

The 19th century saw the demolition of institutions for the poor such as the Almshouses next to the parish church, the Workhouse, the so-called ‘pest house’ and the poor houses on the green.

Bloxham School, formally All Saints’ School in the north of the village, was founded in 1853 by the Revd Philip Reginald Egerton, a local curate. The main school building was designed in the neo-gothic style by George Edmund Street, and the school was largely funded by Egerton’s wealthy wife, Harriet. Bloxham School is a public school and became fully co-educational in 1998. The school grounds extend to about 60 acres beside the village.

The former Court House, beside Saint Mary’s Church, is now Bloxham Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The site of Bloxham Gasworks is by the bridge at Cumberford Hill. Bloxham Gasworks dated from 1869, and had its own gasometer. In 1870, 14 standard lamps and nine bracket lamps lit the village. No light was allowed four nights before and four nights after a full moon.

The manager of the gasworks blew himself up accidentally in December 1905 while he was inspecting a faulty meter. The Bucks and Oxon Gas Company owned the site by 1908 and began promoting the use of gas for cooking with a display of gas cookers and cookery demonstrations. The original lamps were converted to electricity in 1937.

Saint Mary’s Church, the Church of England parish church, is one of the grandest in England. Parts of the church date from the 12th century, but most of the current building dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. The church is an excellent example of the Decorated Gothic style of architecture. The 198 ft spire is a local landmark and is said to be the tallest in Oxfordshire, pinpointing the village for miles around – but more about this church some time next week, perhaps.

The Court House, beside Saint Mary’s Church, was rebuilt in the 1680s, but has retained some 14th century details. Over the years, the property has had many uses, including an infants’ school and a soup house and in 1879 the downstairs area became a fire station. It is now Bloxham Museum and the displays include an old fire engine dating from 1749.

The village ‘Pest House,’ where residents or ‘inmates’ with highly infectious diseases were isolated, once stood by the Slade Nature Reserve. Public contact was not allowed and a pedestal stone with a hollow top was filled with vinegar. Inmates left money in the vinegar – thought to be a disinfectant – in exchange for food left nearby by friends and relatives.

The ‘Pest House’ was in use from 1765, but was eventually abandoned in 1890. I was grateful for the welcome I received in Saint Mary’s Church and the Joiners Arms.

A thatched cottage, probably dating from the 16th century, on Cumberford in Bloxham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

There are many ways to spell a good name: Cumberford in Bloxham, near Banbury

There are more ways than one to spell a good name … visiting Cumberford in Bloxham, near Banbury in north Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

There is more than one way to spell a good name, as I found in the village of Bloxham, south-west of Banbury, on the road to Chipping Norton.

The bus from Oxford to Banbury yesterday was a winding, rambling one along the banks of the Cherwell and through rural Oxfordshire and pretty villages with memorable names, including Steeple Aston, Deddington, Adderbury and Twyford – and there was still another few miles to journey on from Banbury out to Bloxham.

This is picture postcard England, with thatched houses dating back to the 16th or 17th century, many with pretty gardens that could have featured once on old-fashioned chocolate box lids.

Cumberford House is on the edges of Bloxham, south-west of Banbury in Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Romano-British settlers in the area were followed by Anglo-Saxons, who established the site of the modern village on the valley slopes of the Sor Brook, a tributary of the Cherwell.

The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded the village as having six mills and trading in wool and corn. After the Norman Conquest, Bloxham continued to expand and at this time, the north and south of the village were quite separate.

Bloxham’s architectural heritage includes Saint Mary’s Church, a splendid church with a 14th century tower and 198 ft spire, said to be the tallest in Oxfordshire and a local landmark that can be seen for miles around.

To a large extent, Bloxham retains its irregular, mediaeval street plan, with a network of winding streets, alleys and lanes, and perhaps I shall write about the church and the village in the days to come.

Cumberford Cottage, beside Cumberford House in Bloxham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

But I was in Bloxham yesterday primarily to see Cumberford in Bloxham, including the street called Cumberford as well as Cumberford House and Cumberford Cottage at the top of Cumberford Hill.

I joked during the afternoon that there is more than one way to spell a good name. The family has generally spelt our name as Comerford since the 17th century, although my grandfather’s birth records spell his name as Stephen Edward Commerford, with two Ms.

The family origins have been traced to both Quemerford, on the eastern outskirts of Calne in Wiltshire, and Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire, which was sometimes spelled Cumberford, even at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.

But I am still not sure about the origins of the name of Cumberford in Bloxham is derived from.

Is it a local topographical name? Or is there some remote connection with Comberford in Staffordshire or the Comberford family, which were often rendered with the alternative spelling of Cumberford, that I have yet to uncover?

Cumberford House (left), at the top of Cumberford Hill, was probably first built in the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Cumberford was a comparatively late development in Bloxham, so the name may be a late derivation too. The evidence of surviving houses shows that these outskirts of the Bloxham today were at least partly occupied by the 16th century, and, indeed, most of the village street names date from about this period or earlier.

Cumberford is on the south-west fringes of the village and is an identifiable area on its own, with one of the highest hills in Bloxham. Cumberford is also the name of the street that begins on a bank above the local allotments.

Cumberford House, at the top of Cumberford Hill, was probably first built in the 17th century, and neighbouring Cumberford Cottage probably dates from the same time.

Cumberford House has a stone fireplace dated 1619 that was brought from a house in Adderbury. The house was modernised in 1742, and this date and the initials ‘RP’ are cut on a datestone over the lowest window in the south gable.

Cumberford House is built of regular coursed ironstone rubble and has a Welsh slate roof, and is built on an L-plan. There are three brick stacks to the ridge and the end, one on a stone base.

At the south-east elevation, the left part is single-storey with an attic, while the gable fronted bay to the right is of two storeys, also with an attic. The six-panelled door and lattice porch is flanked by casements with wooden lintels. There is a single attic casement on the left side, while the right side has a casement on the first floor with a key-stoned surround and a similar small window above with crown glass.

Some windows in the house have wrought-iron casement fasteners. There are ironstone quoins, and there are stone copings and kneelers at the gable.

The elevation facing onto Cumberford Hill has three tall two-light casements. The windows on the ground floor have key-stoned flat arches. A window to the left has been blocked. There are three similar windows on first floor. Most windows have wrought iron casement fasteners.

Inside the house, apart from the stone fireplace that is dated 1619 and that came from a house in Adderbury, most of the fittings date from the early 19th century.

Cumberford House is a Grade II listing building, and for some years has been the home of Michael Fergus Forbes and his family.

I walked back the short distance back into Bloxham, strolling around the narrow alleyways and streets, and visiting Saint Mary’s Church, before having a late lunch in the Joiners’ Arms and then returning to Banbury for the journey back to Oxford and on to Stony Stratford. I left, however, without uncovering the origins of the name Cumberford in Bloxham.

Cumberford Hill in Bloxham … the name may only date from the 16th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)