Thorpe Mandeville

Origin: Farm/hamlet held by Amundevill family

Domesday: Ingelran holds of Giles 2 hides. There is land for 5 ploughs. In demesne is 1 plough; and 6 villans and 3 bordars have 2 ploughs. It was worth 40s; now 50s. Asmund the Dane held it freely.

Approached from Banbury the village seems to consist of modern houses which do not add much to, or complement, the traditional buildings in the area.


	Once past these the main village is spread thinly along the road (an old drovers road apparently) until the more imposing buildings are reached.

The church once had the manor house adjacent to it but the manor was demolished in the 1700s and replaced by a fine building over the road.

		The church has a well preserved monument to Thomas Kirton under which stands a hand drawn funeral bier, apparently in regular use up to the 1950s. Some attractive (but not particularly old) stained glass and a couple of impressive stone heads are worthy of comment.

Richard Gardner of Thorpe Mandeville, who died in 1576, was my 11^th great grandfather and was referred to as a “gent”. His son, Thomas, who died in 1595 who was my 10^th great grand uncle was rector at the church.

If you have any information on the Thorpe Mandeville Gardners I would be pleased to hear from you:

There is a web site for the village at www.thorpe-mandeville.co.uk

For a description of the village in the late 1800s a Whelans Directory of 1874 is attached.