Home » Growth of Charney » Maps through time

This page shows a fascinating selection of the different maps of Charney Bassett and the local area through time.

1570

This is the Sheldon Tapestry map of 1570 held in the Ashmolean Museum.

Charney is not shown although ‘Lyford’ is and could have something to do with its status re Benedictine Monastery in Abingdon.

The church at Stanford in the Vale is shown with a spire which David Ashby thinks is correct and that it blew down in a storm and was capped off as a tower.

 

 

1574

Oxford, Bodleian Library BOD: MAP RES 80 / fol. BS. 45: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/bc6559be-cd8e-47f8-9332-99b5cb271cbd/

Oxonia, Buckinghamia et Berceriae Comitatuum
Holding Institution: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Date Statement: 1574
Description: Earliest known medium-scale map of these counties: scale of one inch to 3 miles 16 chains, from Saxton’s atlas of England and Wales, 1579.
Engraver: Rutlinger, Johannes
Cartographer: Saxton, Christopher, b.1542?

1605

Bodleian Library

Oxford, Bodleian Library Vet. B2 f.22: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/a3d6d16d-ebd2-4c62-9aa0-4370c052d805/

 Oxonij Buckinghamiae & Berceriae comitatum descriptio

Holding Institution: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Date Statement: 1605
Description: Map of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire. A diminutive derivative of Saxton.
Cartographer: Keere, Pieter van den, ca.1571-ca.1624

1720

Section of map showing the Hundreds (of which Charney is in ‘Ganfield’). Pusey, Lyford, Hatford are identified.

Oxford, Bodleian Library Gough Maps Berkshire 2: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/78746b53-1477-49ab-a3b7-bc1e0a4113cd/

A New Map of Barkshire
Shelfmark: Bodleian Library Gough Maps Berkshire 2
Holding Institution: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Date Statement: 1720
Description: Map of Berkshire with, at top, perspective view of Windsor Castle, in Ashmole, Antiquities of Berkshire, 2nd edition.
Cartographer: Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677

1761

Rocques Map of Berkshire (part) 1761
Rocques Map of Berkshire (part) 1761
Enlarged part of Roques Map
Enlarged part of Roques Map

Extract from John Roques’ Map of Berkshire 1761

The map represents the landscape over an approximately ten year period.

It purports to show field boundaries and land use, an innovative idea at the time.

There are inaccuracies as can be expected for the time. For example the fields are far too large, the number of fields in enclosed areas should be multiplied anything up to ten times.

The general characteristics of the agrarian landscape can be effectively gauged from the map although details are highly generalised, it is not a precise survey.

Open fields are easily identifiable by their lack of hedges and occasionally by their names (e.g. the East Field between Stanford and Charney Bassett). Areas with stippled lines denote arable land  e.g. to the north and east of Charney Bassett. The area to the south of Charney appears to be meadowland.  Common wasteland is generally annotated as such whereas parkland (e.g. just to the north of Pusey) is represented by trees.

Open and closed roads are mapped although this is not an infallible guide to all minor lanes.

The map gives a fascinating view of the open field areas that fifty years later had to be radically altered by the Enclosure Movement.

Keck Maps 1765

A Survey of the Manor of Charney with divers Lands and Tenements belonging to Anthony Keck Esq., situate in Goosey and Longworth (surveyor unknown). 1765. Original Map measures 46 inches by 42 inches. Scale 20 inches to 1 mile. The area covered is 1209 acres.

The whole of Charney with small areas of SW Longworth (Sheephouse Field Farm and NE Goosey (Goosey Wick Farm)) is mapped. Also names of adjacent parishes and lordships, and some adjacent owners. Field names and names of furlongs. Buildings, including Charney Manor and church and Goosey Wick Farm drawn in perspective view. Chalbury (now Cherbury) Camp. Village cross. Distinguishes meadow and common by colour. Land depicted is very open with strips (all numbered) shown in 3 open, arable fields named ‘North Field’, ‘West Field’ and ‘East Field’. Round the edge is the common land for grazing, including the Cow Common and the Horse Common. Close to the River Ock are the meadows for hay – West Mead. East Mead and Cow Mead. In the centre of the map is the village itself, showing the old roads and lanes, even having the buildings drawn in – the Mill with its ponds, the church, the manor house with its pigeon house, the pinfold or pound for stray animals, the village cross on the Green and some of the farmhouses and cottages.

ENCLOSURE MAP CHARNEY BASSETT 1804

ENCLOSURE CHARNEY BASSETT VILLAGE 1804
ENCLOSURE CHARNEY BASSETT VILLAGE 1804

Enclosure Map 1804

Enclosure, also spelled Inclosure, the division or consolidation of communal fields, meadows, pastures, and other arable lands in Western Europe into the carefully delineated and individually owned and managed farm plots of modern times.

The Enclosure Movement was a push in the 18th and 19th centuries to take land that had formerly been owned in common by all members of a village, or at least available to the public for grazing animals and growing food, and change it to privately owned land, usually with walls, fences or hedges around it.

Enclosure  was the legal process in England during the 18th century of enclosing a number of small landholdings to create one larger farm. Once enclosed, use of the land became restricted to the owner, and it ceased to be common land for communal use.

In England and Wales the term is used for the process that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land is fenced (enclosed) and deeded or entitled to one or more owners.

Village Map 1812
Village Map 1812

Village Map 1812

Depicting a very small village with a mill. Charney Wick is shown to the south west but is now the area to the south of the Church.

Village Map 1830
Village Map 1830

Village Map 1830

Showing Charney Wick to the south west.

TITHE MAP 1847
TITHE MAP 1847

Tithe Map 1847

Tithes were payments made from early times for the support of the parish church and its clergy. Tithes were still payable in kind in a majority of English parishes in 1836 but increasing resentment to this brought about the Commutation Act of 1836. Tithe commissioners were appointed to negotiate land values with local inhabitants and once agreement had been reached a Tithe Apportionment was awarded which was usually accompanied by a large scale map.

Tithes maps evolved from the Enclosure acts introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries. In many cases they produced for the first time a written record of individual properties in a community, and more importantly who occupied the properties. The list of who occupied the properties was hand written into a book together with the names of the owner of the land. Most tithe books also include the value, the purpose or use of the land.

Village Map 1883
Village Map 1883

Village Map 1883

Note the many wells, especially along New Road (this road was built late 19th Century), the cultivated land to the west and the Horn Inn adjacent to the Chequers Inn (The Horn closed in 1944). The Chequers is known to have been an Inn since early 1800s. The ancient cross is still there on the green. Charney Mill (corn) is shown as is the School (Boys & Girls).

Village Map 1895
Village Map 1895

Village Map 1895

Identifies a Smithy

Village Map 1899
Village Map 1899

Village Map 1899

Shows the Methodist Chapel (Weslyan) and Post Office in Chapel Lane, the School, the ancient Cross, the two Inns and lots of wells and pumps.

1902 Bartholomew half inch, Sheet 29

This map shows the north-south track linking the Goosey and Buckland Roads to west of Charney.

Village Map 1910 Revised 1923
Village Map 1910 Revised 1923

Village Map 1910

Revised in 1923. Little has changed since 1883 except for the addition of ‘Grange (Remains of)’, now the site of Charney Manor.

The School, Chapel, two Inns, Church and Mill are all shown.

Bartholomew, 1941, half inch, sheet 14 Great Britain

1941 Bartholomew half inch, Sheet 14

This map shows the north-south track linking the Goosey and Buckland Roads to west of Charney and those to the north of Charney.

1952 Ordnance Survey

Published by War Office 1952.
First Edition – GSGS (Geographical Section General Staff) 1952
Sheet SU 39

This map also shows the north-south track linking the Goosey and Buckland Roads to west of Charney and those to the north of Charney.

Village Map 1977
Village Map 1977

Village Map 1977

There has been development along the Longworth Road to the north and New Road to the west. The orchard has gone to make way for a small close (Orchard Close), built in 1967. The Mill is no longer depicted, just the mill cottage. The school to the left of New Road closed in the early 1980s.

Charney Bassett, previously in Berkshire, became part of Oxfordshire and Vale of the White Horse District in 1974 as part of a national reorganisation of local government.

Village Map 2016
Village Map 2016

Village Map 2016

Shows the development along Buckland and Longworth Roads.

Parish Boundary 2016
Parish Boundary 2016

Parish Boundary 2016

An irregular shape encompassing Cherbury Camp to the North.

Conservation Area
Conservation Area

Conservation Area 2016

Charney Bassett Conservation area; Vale of White Horse District Council.

Field Names

Violet Howes recorded the following which are displayed in the Village Hall;

Field Map
Field Map
Field Names
Field Names