num_pages: 120
description: Derek Allam was researching his mother’s family tree and found that all her ancestors came from the village of Leafield in Oxfordshire, about 15 miles north-west of Oxford.He found that both his great-grandmothers were in the census returns as gloveresses, a term he had not heard before. His great-grandfathers were employed in Wychwood Forest as a woodman and a gamekeeper.Gradually, his interest moved from the family tree to the history of the village. Close to the village are Neolithic remains which show that stone-age man lived there around 6,000 years ago. There is also evidence of Roman and Norman occupation. From Saxon times until 1856, Leafield - known as Field Town - was at the centre of Wychwood Forest, one of the kings’ exclusive hunting places.Leafield was the home of two rural industries, pottery-making and glovemaking. The former has disappeared completely, the other is now practised by only a few people. At one time, Leafield’s glovemakers were amongst the most skilled in the country.As well as working hard, last century’s villagers also played hard. The village had one of the most accomplished Morris dance teams in the Cotswolds. The Field Town tradition has survived and its dances are performed all over the world.Leafield has a church designed by the eminent Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, its spire dominated the skyline until 1912 when Marconi built a radio transmitting station with huge masts at the edge of the village, these have now been dismantled.Many traces of the past have been lost, it is the purpose of this book to bring together the fascinating record of Leafield for present and future generations to know more about their past.
language: English
title: Leafield and Wychwood
titlecomplete: Leafield and Wychwood
publisher: Upso