Brightwell Baldwin

"Brightwell" is derived from the Old English for "bright spring".In fact a simple corruption of the words: Bride's Well. The name of the ancient British goddess (Bridget or Bride). This shows the antiquity of the place. {{harvnb|Ekwall|1960|loc=Brightwell}} "Baldwin" is the name of a family that held the manor. The earliest known record of Brightwell Baldwin is a Saxon charter of 854 in the Cartularium Saxonicum that records the toponym as Beorhtawille or Brihtanwylle. Almost a century later a Saxon charter of 945 records it as Byrhtanwellan. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Bretewelle.

The old country house of the Stone family burnt down in 1786, but a cruciform 17th-century dovecote{{NHLE |num=1368825 |desc=Brightwell Park, dovecote approximately 220 metres north east of Brightwell Park |grade=II |access-date=6 August 2013}} that was some distance from the house survives in the park.{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=485}} In 1790 a replacement house was built.{{sfn|Lewis|1931|pp=375–379}} It has since been demolished, but its kitchen wing, stables, ice house{{NHLE |num=1059761 |desc=Brightwell Park, icehouse approximately 190 metres north north east of Brightwell Park |grade=II |access-date=2 August 2018}} and an 18th-century stone arch bridge{{NHLE |num=1059760 |desc=Brightwell Park, bridge and flanking walls approximately 290 metres east of Brightwell Park |grade=II |access-date=2 August 2018}} in the park survive.

File:Dovecote, Brightwell Park, Brightwell Baldwin - geograph.org.uk - 1589653.jpg

File:The Lord Nelson (geograph 2028485).jpg

The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint Bartholomew are 13th century, including a stair turret and a number of lancet windows, notably in the chancel.{{harvnb|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=484.}}{{NHLE |num=1059763 |desc=Church of St Bartholomew |grade=I |access-date=6 August 2013}} Early in the 14th century the nave was rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic style, with north and south aisles linked to it by arcades of four bays. The west tower and the Perpendicular Gothic east window of the chancel were added in the 15th century. The pulpit and tester are Jacobean and therefore 17th century. The building was restored in 1895 and is a Grade I listed. Church monuments in St Bartholomew's include a number of brasses.

In the chancel are two brasses commemorating John Cottesmore, who died in 1439. Stone monuments include two 16th-century chest tombs of members of the Carleton family, and a substantial English Baroque monument to members of the Stone family on the east wall of the north chapel. The latter was built in about 1670 or 1690, replacing monuments to John Stone (died 1640) and his son Sir Richard Stone (died 1660) that were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.{{sfn|Utechin|1990|p=4}} In the north aisle is a brass commemorating John the Smith, who died in 1371. It bears an epitaph written in Middle English,{{sfn|Bertram|2003|p=30}} which may be the earliest example of an inscription in the English language.{{sfn|Utechin|1990|p=39}} The epitaph reflects upon human mortality:

man com & se how schal alle dede li: wen þow comes bad & bare

noth hab ven ve awaẏ fare: All ẏs wermēs þ^t ve for care:—

bot þ^t ve do for godẏs luf ve haue nothyng yare:

hunyr þis graue lẏs John ye smẏth god yif his soule heuen grit{{sfn|Bertram|2003|p=30}}{{sfn|Utechin|1990|p=39}}

The bell tower has a ring of six bells. John Saunders of Reading, Berkshire cast the tenor bell in about 1559.{{cite web |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Brightwell+Baldwin&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=BRIGHTWE+B |title=Brightwell Baldwin S Bartholomew |work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers |publisher=Central Council of Church Bell Ringers |last=Davies |first=Peter |date=11 May 2012 |access-date=6 August 2013}} Ellis I Knight, also of Reading, cast the fifth bell in 1637. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast or recast the treble, second, third and fourth bells in 1911. There is also a Sanctus bell that was cast in about 1550. St Bartholomew's parish is now part of the benefice of Ewelme, Brightwell Baldwin, Cuxham and Easington.{{cite web |url=http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=27/181BH&V=46 |title=Benefice of Ewelme Brightwell Baldwin Cuxham with Easington |work=A Church Near You |author=Archbishops' Council |author-link=Archbishops' Council |publisher=Church of England |year=2010 |access-date=6 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304085413/http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=27%2F181BH&V=46 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }} The churchyard includes a late 18th-century chest tomb a number of 17th-century gravestones that are Grade II listed. {{NHLE |num=1059764 |desc=Church of St Bartholomew, chest tomb approximately 1.7 metres east of south porch |grade=II |access-date=6 August 2013}}{{NHLE |num=1059765 |desc=Church of St Bartholomew, headstone approximately 13 metres south of south porch |grade=II |access-date=6 August 2013}}{{NHLE |num=1181623 |desc=Church of St Bartholomew, headstone approximately 3.5 metres south east of nave and 5 metres south of chancel |grade=II |access-date=6 August 2013}}{{NHLE |num=1181635 |desc=Church of St Bartholomew, group of 4 headstones approximately 5 metres south south west of south porch |grade=II |date=3 April 1987 |access-date=6 August 2013}} Another 17th-century monument commemorates one Stephen Rumbold, who died in 1687 aged 105.{{sfn|Utechin|1990|p=82}} On it a rhyming epigram bets with its readers:

He liv'd one hundred and five

Sanguine and Strong

An hundred to five

You do not live so long{{sfn|Utechin|1990|p=82}}

Brightwell Baldwin has a 17th-century pub, The Lord Nelson Inn.{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=486}}{{NHLE |num=1181675 |desc=The Lord Nelson Inn |grade=II |access-date=2 August 2018}} It is now a gastropub.[http://thenelsonbrightwell.co.uk/ The Nelson] The Old Forge is a Grade II listed former blacksmiths shop: it was bought in 2002 by the Duke and Duchess of Kent.{{cite web |title=Brightwell Baldwin Pages 89-121 A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 18. Originally published by Boydell & Brewer for the Institute of Historical Research, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2016. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol18/pp89-121 |website=British History Online}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Bertram |first=Jerome |year=2003 |title=Medieval Inscriptions in Oxfordshire |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=LXVVIII |pages=27–54 |publisher=Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society |issn=0308-5562 |url= http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/2003/bertram.pdf }}
• {{cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |orig-year=1936 |year=1960 |title=Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |edition=4th |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198691033 |at=Brightwell }}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=Samuel |editor1-link=Samuel Lewis (publisher) |orig-year=1848 |year=1931 |chapter=Brightwell-Baldwin (St. Bartholomew) |title=A Topographical Dictionary of England |edition=Seventh |place=London |publisher=Samuel Lewis |pages=375–379 |url= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp375-379#h3-0005 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1974 |title=Oxfordshire |series=The Buildings of England |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |pages=484–486 }}
• {{cite book |last=Utechin |first=Patricia |year=1990 |orig-year=1980 |title=Epitaphs from Oxfordshire |edition=2nd |place=Oxford |publisher=Robert Dugdale |isbn=0-946976-04-X |pages=4, 39, 82 }}

{{commons category|Brightwell Baldwin}}

• [http://democratic.southoxon.gov.uk/mgParishCouncilDetails.aspx?ID=200 Brightwell Baldwin Parish Meeting]

{{South Oxfordshire}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Villages in Oxfordshire

Category:South Oxfordshire District