Moulsford

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Moulsford-on-Thames
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Moulsford from the River Thames
Oxfordshire UK location map.svg
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Moulsford-on-Thames
Location within Oxfordshire
Area7.24 km2 (2.80 sq mi)
Population526 (2001 census) [1]
•  Density 73/km2 (190/sq mi)
OS grid reference SU585835
Civil parish
  • Moulsford
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Wallingford
Postcode district OX10
Dialling code 01491
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
UK Parliament
Website Moulsford Village Website
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire
51°33′04″N1°08′42″W / 51.551°N 1.145°W / 51.551; -1.145

Moulsford is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. Before 1974, it was in the county of Berkshire, in Wallingford Rural District, but following the Berkshire boundary changes of that year it became a part of Oxfordshire. Moulsford is on the A329, by the River Thames, just north of Streatley and south of Wallingford. The west of the parish is taken up by the foothills of the Berkshire Downs, including the Moulsford Downs. Moulsford Bottom and Kingstanding Hill are traditionally associated with King Alfred and the Battle of Ashdown.

Contents

Moulsford Manor was the principal home of the prominent Carew family, who also lived at Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire. It was used by the American Army Air-Force during World War Two, then a nursing school, before being bought as a private residence for Kevin Maxwell in 1994, who lets it out for the filming of Midsomer Murders. Moulsford Railway Bridge, situated just north of the village on the Great Western Main Line, was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

History

The Bronze Age 'Moulsford Torc' was discovered in the parish and bought by the Museum of Reading with the aid of a grant from the Art Fund in 1961. It is a hoop-shaped decorative neck ornament, made of four spirally-twisted gold-alloy strips held together by a delicate piece of twisted gold wire.

Moulsford Manor

Moulsford Manor, next to the parish church, was from the Middle Ages until 1497 the principal home of the prominent Carew family, [2] who also lived at Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire. The house is largely Edwardian, built around a Tudor core. It was a private residence until 1929 when it was used first as a hotel, and then by the American Air Force during World War II. [3] Post-war it became a nursing school and was restored as a private home in 1994, [4] when it was purchased for Kevin Maxwell's wife by her parents in 1994; they let it out for the filming of Midsomer Murders. [5]

Parish church

Moulsford parish church began as a chapelry of Cholsey. [6] The first known record of the chapel dates from between 1220 and 1227. [6] The botanist and geologist John Stevens Henslow was its vicar in the 1830s.[ citation needed ] In 1846, most of the medieval church was demolished and the current Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, was built on its foundations. [6] Scott's Gothic Revival building retains the west wall of the original church, which includes a 13th-century Early English Gothic lancet window, and the timber frame of the bellcote. [6]

Other notable buildings

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Gerald de Windsor, aliasGerald FitzWalter, was an Cymro-Norman lord who was the first Castellan of Pembroke Castle in Pembrokeshire. Son of the first Norman-French Constable of Windsor Castle, and married to a Welsh Princess daughter of the King of Deheubarth, he was in charge of the Norman forces in south-west Wales. He was also steward and governor for the Norman magnate Arnulf de Montgomery. His descendants were the FitzGerald dynasty, as well as the FitzMaurice, De Barry, and Keating dynasties of Ireland, who were elevated to the Peerage of Ireland in the 14th century. He was also the ancestor of the prominent Carew family, of Moulsford in Berkshire, the owners of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and of Mohuns Ottery in Devon.

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References

  1. ↑ "Area: Moulsford CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  2. ↑ Royal Berkshire History: Moulsford Manor
  3. ↑ "Edit entry Moulsford Manor MILITARY SITE : NON-AIRFIELD". American Air Museum in Britain.
  4. ↑ Ford, David Nash. "Moulsford Manor". Royal Berkshire History.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Brown (10 October 2011). "Maxwell's son going bust again. But he is still living the high life". independent.co.uk.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Page & Ditchfield, 1923, pages 504-507
  7. ↑ "Fair Mile Hospital". www.berksfhs.org.uk. UK: Berkshire Family History Society. Retrieved 22 August 2015.

Sources

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