Leafield

There are a number of tumuli in the parish, including Leafield Barrow, locally called Barry's Hill Tump, on top of the hill just to the north of the village.{{cite web |url= http://historicoxfordshire.ashmolean.org/SitePages/leafield.html |title=Site Name: Leafield |work=Oxfordshire's Historic Archives |publisher=Ashmolean Museum |access-date=22 December 2014}} Leafield Barrow also has archaeological evidence for being the site of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle called Leafield Castle. The castle would be situated at a position in the village which would have given it a commanding view of the settlement. There are visible earthworks present which would add to the castle's defensive capability.{{NHLE |num= 1008405|desc= Leafield |access-date=14 April 2020}} The castle is believed to form a similar shape to that of Ascot d'Oilly Castle.{{cite web |url=http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/4638.html |title=Leafield Barrow |work= Bibliography of castles |access-date= 14 April 2020}}

The parish is within the former limits of the Wychwood forest. The area of forest south of Langley was cleared in 1857–58, leaving straight, regular field boundaries typical of the 18th and 19th century enclosures.{{sfn|Taylor|1982|pp=145–146}} The village has the remains of a medieval preaching cross.{{sfn|Marples|1973|p=307}} The steps and lower part of its base are old.{{sfn|Marples|1973|p=307}} A new Gothic Revival shaft and top were added in 1873 in thanksgiving for the village escaping a smallpox epidemic.{{sfn|Marples|1973|p=307}} King James I stayed at Langley in August 1605.John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 529.

Leafield was a dependent chapelry of the ecclesiastical parish of Shipton-under-Wychwood until the 19th century. Leafield's Church of England parish church of Saint Michael and All Angels was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, built in 1859 and consecrated in 1860. The bell tower was completed in 1874{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=682}} and has a ring of six bells, all cast that year by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.{{cite web |last=Davies |first=Peter |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Leafield&numPerPage=10&Submit=Go&searchAmount=%3D&searchMetric=cwt&sortBy=Place&sortDir=Asc&DoveID=LEAFIELD |title=Leafield S Michael & All Angels |date=7 January 2009 |work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers |access-date=30 December 2010}} St. Michael's is now a member of the Forest Edge Benefice.[http://www.forestedgebenefice.co.uk/churches/leafield.htm Forest Edge Benefice: Leafield with Wychwood]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Leafield Church of England Primary School opened in 1839.{{cite web |url=http://www.leafieldvillage.co.uk/school_past.html |title=School Past |date=2010 |work=Leafield Village |access-date=27 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130421035442/http://www.leafieldvillage.co.uk/school_past.html |archive-date=21 April 2013 |df=dmy-all }} It was expanded by the building of additional classrooms in 1871, 1897 and 1904. The 1871 classroom was designed by the architect C.C. Rolfe.{{sfn|Saint|1970|p=98}} Leafield's school district was expanded in 1873 to include Asthall, Langley and Wychwood. Leafield C of E School resisted Oxfordshire County Council's attempts to reorganise it as a junior school until after the Second World War. The school's catchment area was expanded in 1986 to include Ascott-under-Wychwood.

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File:Leafield PreachingCross.JPG

{{main|Leafield Technical Centre}}

A large radio transmission station was sited at Langley from 1912 until 1986.{{cite web |url=http://www.leafieldvillage.co.uk/bt_radio_station.html |title=The BT Radio Station |date=2010 |work=Leafield Village |access-date=27 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130114030323/http://www.leafieldvillage.co.uk/bt_radio_station.html |archive-date=14 January 2013 |df=dmy-all }} British Telecom redeveloped the site as a training college, but then closed the site in 1993. It was then used by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) as a motorsport development centre for the Arrows Formula One team, until the team's demise in the 2002 season. From the 2006 season until the 2008 season Leafield Technical Centre was the headquarters of the now-defunct Super Aguri F1 team. Menard Competition Technologies was based at Leafield Technical Centre in 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mctuk.com/ |title=Menard Competition Technologies (MCT) |access-date=27 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110206155801/http://www.mctuk.com/ |archive-date=6 February 2011 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} MCT has made the engines for Norton Motorcycles' range of Commando 961 models{{cite web |url=http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com/news/?p=54 |title=MCT powers the re-birth of Norton |date=2009 |work=News |publisher=Norton Motorcycles |access-date=27 April 2011}} since 2009.{{cite news |title=Production of Norton Engines Starts at Leafield |url=http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/wgheadlines/witney/4371991.Production_of_Norton_engines_starts_at_Leafield/ |newspaper=Witney Gazette |date=15 May 2009 |access-date=27 April 2011}} In January 2012 Caterham F1 announced that they would be moving to Leafield from their original base at Hingham, Norfolk.{{cite news |url= http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97073 |last=Elizalde |first=Pablo |work=Autosport |date=12 January 2012 |title=Caterham F1 team confirms proposed move to Leafield |access-date=19 January 2012}} Caterham F1 subsequently went bankrupt and the Technical Centre is now derelict.

Leafield has two public houses: The Fox and The Pearl. The Fox was closed for 15 months after Greene King Brewery shut it in January 2010.{{cite web |url= http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9610882.Future_s_bright_for_reopened_village_pub/ |last=Jennings |first=Tom |date=26 March 2012 |title=Future's bright for reopened village pub |newspaper=Oxford Mail |publisher=Newsquest |access-date=12 December 2014}} An independent lessee reopened it in April 2011{{cite web |url= http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8978112.Prime_Minister_pops_in_for_a_pint_to_toast_reopened_pub/?ref=rss |last=Jennings |first=Tom |date=17 April 2011 |title=Prime Minister pops in for a pint to toast reopened pub |newspaper=Oxford Mail |publisher=Newsquest |access-date=12 December 2014}} and it is now a free house.{{Cite web |url=http://www.foxleafield.co.uk/default.html |title=The Fox Inn Leafield |access-date=12 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213014423/http://www.foxleafield.co.uk/default.html |archive-date=13 December 2014 |url-status=dead }} The Pearl used to be the Potter's Arms, the Spindleberry and the Navy Oak; it is now a Chinese restaurant, takeaway and bar.[http://thepearlleafield.co.uk/ The Pearl at Leafield] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218180200/http://thepearlleafield.co.uk/ |date=18 December 2014 }} The Wychwood Way, a {{convert|37|mi}} circular walking trail, passes through Leafield Lower End.

File:Leafield TheFox.JPG

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Marples |first=B.J. |year=1973 |title=The Medieval Crosses of Oxfordshire |journal=Oxoniensia |publisher=Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society |volume=XXXVIII |page=307 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Saint |first=Andrew |year=1970 |title=Three Oxford Architects |journal=Oxoniensia |publisher=Oxford Architectural and Historical Society |volume=XXXV |page=98 }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=The Buildings of England |title=Oxfordshire |year=1974 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |page=682 }}
• {{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Christopher |title=Fields in the English Landscape |series=Archaeology in the Field Series |orig-year=1975 |year=1982 |publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-460-02232-6 |pages=145–146 }}

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• [https://leafieldparishcouncil.org Leafield Parish Council]

{{West Oxfordshire}}

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Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Villages in Oxfordshire

Category:West Oxfordshire District