Place:Enstone, Oxfordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Enstone is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Chipping Norton.

The civil parish is the largest in Oxfordshire, comprising the villages of Church Enstone and Neat Enstone (referred to collectively as Enstone) and the hamlets of Chalford, Cleveley, Fulwell, Gagingwell, Lidstone, and Radford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,139.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Enstone from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ENSTONE, a parish in Chipping-Norton [registration] district, Oxford; on an affluent of the river Isis, 3½ miles N of Chorlbury [railway] station, and 4¼ ESE of Chipping-Norton. It contains the hamlets of Church-Enstone, Neat-Enstone, Lidstone, Cleveley, Radford, and Gagingwell; and has a head post office. Acres: 6,177. Real property: £8,859. Pop.: 1,198. Houses: 256. The name Enstone alludes to the Entastan, or Giant's stone, an upright block, 8 feet high, now commonly called the Hoar-stone, formerly part of a cromlech, other stones of which are still near. Lidstone hamlet takes its name from a similar stone. Celebrated water-works were established at Neat-Enstone, by Thomas Bushell, secretary to Lord Bacon; were visited, in 1636, in a pompous manner, by Charles I.; and are noticed, as follows, by Evelyn in 1664, -"I went to see the famous wells, artificial and natural grotto, and fountains, or Bushell's Wells. It is an extraordinary solitude. There be here two mummies and a grotto, where he lay in a hammock like an Indian." The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. Value: £357. Patron: Lord Dillon. The church was formerly attached to Winchcombe abbey; is traditionally associated with the memory of St. Kenelm, son of Kenulphus, king of Mercia; and has some good transition Norman arches. There are Baptist, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic chapels, national schools, and charities £68."

Research Tips

• This part of Oxfordshire is not covered by the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire.
• Oxfordshire History Centre, St Luke's Church, Temple Road, Oxford, OX4 2HT
• Oxfordshire FHS covers the whole county. The Family History Society provides an interactive map to assist in locating individual parishes and also relates the society's progress in transcribing parish registers and gravestone information for that particular parish. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.