Taynton, Oxfordshire

In 1059, King Edward the Confessor granted the manor of Taynton to the Abbey of Saint Denis near Paris. The present manor house was built in the 17th century and has been much altered since. ==Parish church==

The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Evangelist has a Decorated Gothic north aisle and arcade dating from about 1360. The east window of the south aisle is also Decorated Gothic, but the present south arcade and the rest of the south aisle are Perpendicular Gothic work from the end of the 15th century. The clerestory of the nave was added at the same time. The bell tower also is Perpendicular Gothic. The chancel was rebuilt in 1865 to plans by the architect W.F. Poulton. The church is a Grade II* listed building. The tower has a ring of six bells. Abraham I Rudhall of Gloucester cast the fourth and fifth bells in 1717. Thomas Bond of Burford ==Economic and social history==

The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Taynton had two water mills. There is still a Taynton Mill in the Windrush valley downstream from Coombe Brook's confluence with the river. The Manor of Taynton's other mill may have been away at Northmoor, where the Manor of Taynton held land. Taynton stone The Domesday Book records a quarry at Taynton. Taynton supplied stone for many of the older colleges of the University of Oxford, Windsor Castle, Old St Paul's Cathedral, and Eton College. The original statues around the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (carved in the 17th century and since replaced) were Taynton stone.Early in the 18th century Taynton supplied some of the stone for Blenheim Palace. "Rally Quarr", almost north of the village, is a corruption of "Railway Quarry". It was worked in 1846–52 for stone to build bridges in the Windrush Valley for the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. As well as the manor house and Strong's House, a number of other houses in the village date from the 17th century. No. 5 is much restored but in its garden are two gothic stone window frames that may be medieval. The village school was built in 1877 and a post office had opened by 1895. Neither remains open today. The Old Vicarage is a listed building. Gillian Tindall has written about its history, and that of the village, in her book Three Houses, Many Lives (2012). ==References==