Little Faringdon


Little Faringdon is a village and civil parish in West Oxfordshire, about north of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 63.

Manor

In the late Anglo-Saxon era Little Faringdon was part of a large estate that included Faringdon, from which it took its name. The manor was one of several in the area granted to the Cistercian Beaulieu Abbey as part of its Faringdon estate by a charter of 1204 or 1205. Beaulieu held its estates until it had to surrender them to the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.
The manor was then held by the Bourchier and Perrott families. In about 1860 it was sold to Charles Ponsonby, 2nd Baron de Mauley, whose descendants hold it today.
Until the 20th century Little Faringdon was an estate village. In 1910 the lord of the manor owned almost all the houses.

Local government

Little Faringdon was historically a township of the parish of Langford, which until the 13th century was in Oxfordshire. For the next six centuries it was an exclave of Berkshire, until the Counties Act 1844 returned it to Oxfordshire. In 1864 Little Faringdon was made a separate ecclesiastical parish and in 1866 a separate civil parish. Since the 1974 boundary changes it has been part of West Oxfordshire District.
The parish has a parish meeting, but no parish council.

Parish church

The parish church is Norman, built in the 12th century as a dependent chapelry of Langford. It has Norman lancet windows in the chancel. In about 1200 the church was enlarged with the addition of a north aisle. The arcade between the nave and north aisle is in a transitional style between Norman and Early English Gothic. In the 14th century the porch and south door were added. A south aisle seems to have been added at about the same time but has since been lost. In about 1500 two Perpendicular Gothic clerestory windows were added to south side of the nave. The west window of the nave is also a late Medieval Perpendicular Gothic addition.
The church became the parish church when Little Faringdon became a separate parish in 1864. The vicarage to the south of the church was designed by the Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and completed in 1867.
The church's original dedication is unknown. In 2000 it was dedicated to St Margaret of England. The church is a Grade II* listed building. The parish is now part of the Benefice of Shill Valley and Broadshire, which includes also the parishes of Alvescot, Black Bourton, Broadwell, Broughton Poggs, Filkins, Holwell, Kelmscott, Kencot, Langford, Shilton and Westwell.

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