Pishill
Coordinates: 51°36′22″N 0°56′24″W / 51.606°N 0.940°W
Pishill /ˈpɪʃəl/ is a hamlet in Pishill with Stonor civil parish about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire. It is in the Stonor valley in the Chiltern Hills about 430 feet (130 m) above sea level.
History
The toponym of Pishill comes from pisum, Latin for pea. This was due to the many pea farms that once existed in the area.
The dedication of the Church of England parish church is unknown. It was originally an 11th-century Norman building but it was rebuilt in 1854.[1] One of the stained glass windows was made in 1967 by John Piper,[2] who for many years lived less than 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away in Fawley Bottom, Buckinghamshire.
Southwest of the parish church is an old barn that includes a blocked 13th-century window. This may be connected with the D'Oyley family of Oxford, who held the manor of Pishill and in 1406 received a licence to build a chapel at the manor house that used to be in the village.[2]
The Stonor family of Stonor Park, just over 1 mile (1.6 km) away, were recusants during and after the English Reformation. With the support of the Stonors and Jesuit priests who stayed with them, a number of Pishill families remained Roman Catholic throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In 1878 the Church of England incumbent of Pishill reported that a third of the 200 population of his parish were Roman Catholic.[3]
Pishill was a separate civil parish until 1922, when it was made part of the new civil parish of Pishill with Stonor.[3]
Amenities
Pishill has a 15th-century public house, the Crown Inn.[4]
Sources
- Lobel, Mary D. (1964). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 8: Lewknor and Pyrton Hundreds. pp. 98–115.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 731–732. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
References
External links
Media related to Pishill at Wikimedia Commons
