Bainton

Bainton is a small hamlet close to Stoke Lyne. The name derives from the Old English for “Bada’s farm”.

In 1086 the Domesday Book records that the manor was held by Ghilo de Picquigny, had three households and a total value of £2.

In 1279 it consisted of 17 households. In 1316 18 villagers were assessed to pay tax, but by 1520 the figure had fallen to just five.

In 1530 the manor was sold to Edward Peckham, cofferer to Henry VIII, and John Williams, later 1st Baron Williams of Thame.

In 1613 Edward Ewer, of Bucknell, sold the manor to Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet of Hanwell, for £5,300. A legal dispute between them ensued which ended with Ewer recovering the manor in 1628. But the Ewer family could not afford to keep Bainton and sold the manor again in 1637.

By the middle of the 17th century Bainton had been converted from arable farming to pasture. This required less labour so the hamlet became depopulated and by the 1950s it comprised only four farmhouses and a cottage.

Bainton Manor Farm is a coursed rubblestone house. It was constructed towards the end of the 16th century, during the Great Rebuilding of England, originally as the manor house. In 1783 John Warde, founder and first Master of the Bicester Hunt, used it as a hunting-box. Joseph Bullock, of Caversfield, had bought the manor and the two men together built stables and kennels there. 330 yards northwest of the hamlet stands an obelisk that was erected in memory of John Warde’s favourite foxhound, Lady.

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