WATLINGTON, a market-town and parish in the
hundred of PIRTON, county of OXFORD, 15 miles (E.
S. E.) from Oxford, and 43 (W. by N.) from London,
containing, with the" liberty of Greenfield, and the hamlet
of Warmscomb, 1479 inhabitants. The name is conjectured
to have been derived from the Saxon Watelar,
hurdles, or wattles, alluding to the way in which
the Britons are described to have built their towns,
" as groves fenced in with hewn trees." The town
is situated between the two high roads leading from
London to Oxford, about half a mile from the line
of the Iknield-street; it is irregularly built, and consists
of some narrow streets, the houses, with a few
exceptions, being but of mean appearance; water ie
supplied from an adjacent brook, which rises in one
of the Chiltern hills, above the town, and on which
are four corn-mills. A few females are employed in
lace-making; a school, in which from thirty to forty
girls attend, having been established to teach them the
art. The market, granted in the reign of Richard I.,
is on Saturday: a substantial market-house was built,
in 1666, by Thomas Stonor, Esq., and over it is a
room where the public business of the town is transacted.
Fairs are held on April 5th and the Saturday
before October 10th; and on the Saturday before and
after Michaelmas is a statute fair. Two courts leet are
held annually, and the petty sessions for the hundred
take place once a fortnight. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford,
rated in the king's books at £12, endowed with £200
private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the
patronage of John H. Tilson, Esq. The church, standing
on the north-western side of the town, is dedicated
to St. Leonard; in the chancel is a burial-place of
the Home family, also some interesting monuments.
There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents,
and Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school,
once a noted classical school, but now confined to English
instruction, was founded in 1664, and endowed
with a rent-charge of £10, by Thomas Stonor, Esq.;
which sum has been augmented by subsequent benefactions;
the master, who must be a graduate of one
of the Universities, receives a salary of £20 per annum;
it is held in a room over the market-place: nineteen
boys are instructed. On Bretwell hill there are some
remains of trenches, indicating the site of an ancient encampment.
Of Watlington castle, which stood southeast
of the church, there are only some traces of the
moat by which it was surrounded, now filled with water.