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19-702: Earl Harcourt , of Stanton Harcourt in the County of Oxford, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain . It was created in 1749 for Simon Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt . He was made Viscount Nuneham at the same time, also in the Peerage of Great Britain. Harcourt was the son of the Honourable Simon Harcourt and the grandson of Simon Harcourt , Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain , who had been created Baron Harcourt , of Stanton Harcourt in

38-538: A ring of six bells. Michael Darbie, an itinerant bellfounder , cast the second, third, fourth and fifth bells in 1656, which was during the Commonwealth of England . Richard Keene of Woodstock cast the tenor bell in 1686. Abraham II Rudhall of Gloucester cast the treble bell in 1722. In the chancel is the Decorated Gothic late 13th- or early 14th-century shrine of St Edburg of Bicester . It

57-629: A drawbridge, one or more portcullises , machicolations , arrow loops and possibly even murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep , sometimes referred to as a "gate keep". In the late Middle Ages , some of these arrow loops might have been converted into gun loops (or gun ports). Urban defences would sometimes incorporate gatehouses such as Monnow Bridge in Monmouth . York has four important gatehouses, known as "Bars", in its city walls including

76-514: A history of Morris dancing since the 19th century. Following a lapse, the traditional dances have been revived by the Icknield Morris and Trigg Morris, and continue today. First & Last Mile buses provide a daytime bus service 418 giving a two-hourly service to Standlake , Eynsham , Freeland , and Long Hanborough . Gatehouse Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity when it became necessary to protect

95-420: A house, Manor Farmhouse, and is Grade I listed. Pope's Tower in the grounds of Harcourt House was built about 1470–71, probably by the master mason William Orchard . It is a Grade I listed building. The tower acquired its name centuries later, after the poet Alexander Pope stayed here in 1717–18 and used its upper room to translate the fifth volume of Homer 's Iliad . In the summer of 1718 he also wrote

114-581: A housing development. Stanton Harcourt has a 17th-century pub , The Harcourt Arms,. It had another pub, the Fox, but it is now a private home. The parish council owns Fox Field behind it and has renamed it the Jubilee Field, with installed play equipment. Trees and hedging have been provided by the Woodland Trust and planted by volunteers. The village has a primary school. Stanton Harcourt has

133-591: A well. He was succeeded by his eldest son, George, who was in turn succeeded by his younger brother, William. The titles became extinct on the latter's death in 1830 as neither brother left legitimate surviving sons of their own. The viscountcy was revived in 1917 in favour of Lewis Vernon Harcourt . He was a descendant of the Right Reverend Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt , the son of George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon , by his third wife Martha Harcourt, daughter of

152-459: Is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Witney and about 6 miles (10 km) west of Oxford . The parish includes the hamlet of Sutton, 1 ⁄ 2 mile (800 m) north of the village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 960. Within the parish of Stanton Harcourt is a series of palaeochannel deposits buried beneath

171-567: Is derived from the Old English for "farmstead by the stones", probably after the prehistoric stone circle known as the Devil's Quoits , southwest of the village. The site is a scheduled monument . The Domesday Book of 1086 records that the manor was held by Odo , Bishop of Bayeux . It became Stanton Harcourt after Robert de Harcourt of Bosworth , Leicestershire inherited lands of his father-in-law at Stanton in 1191. Harcourt House

190-614: The Benefice of Lower Windrush, along with the parishes of Northmoor , Standlake and Yelford . In the Second World War there was a Royal Air Force airfield at Stanton Harcourt. It is notable for having been a transit point for Winston Churchill and for being a starting point for a bomber raid on the German battleship  Scharnhorst . The runways are now gone, but some of the original buildings remain incorporated into

209-648: The Micklegate Bar. The French term for gatehouse is logis-porche . This could be a large, complex structure that served both as a gateway and lodging or it could have been composed of a gateway through an enclosing wall. A very large gatehouse might be called a châtelet (small castle). At the end of the Middle Ages, many gatehouses in England and France were converted into beautiful, grand entrance structures to manor houses or estates. Many of them became

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228-533: The epitaph to a young couple, John Hewett and Sarah Drew, who were struck by lightning and killed in the parish. The poem is carved on a stone monument on the outside of the south wall of the nave or St Michael's parish church. The earliest known record of the Church of England parish church of Saint Michael dates from 1135, and the Norman nave and lower parts of the bell tower are certainly 12th century. In

247-482: The 13th century the chancel , chancel arch and tower arches were rebuilt and the transepts and stair turret were added. In the 15th century the upper part of the belltower was completed, the Perpendicular Gothic west window of the nave and north and south windows of the transepts were inserted and the pitch of the roof was lowered. St Michael's is a Grade I listed building. The central tower has

266-440: The County of Oxford, on 3 September 1711, and Viscount Harcourt , of Stanton Harcourt in the County of Oxford, on 24 July 1721. Both these titles were also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first earl fulfilled various diplomatic duties for King George II and George III as Prince of Wales and then King. In 1772, Harcourt was appointed Viceroy of Ireland . Five years later, he died at his own estate at Nuneham by falling into

285-546: The aforementioned Simon Harcourt , son of Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt . See Viscount Harcourt for further history of this branch of the family. The ancient family of Harcourt held Stanton Harcourt , Oxfordshire from the 12th century and other later Oxfordshire seats included Cokethorpe House and Nuneham House . In addition, they held estates in Staffordshire at Ellenhall Hall and Abbey House, Ranton Priory . Stanton Harcourt Stanton Harcourt

304-707: The main entrance to a castle or town. Famous early examples of such gates are those such as the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. Over time, they evolved into very complicated structures with many lines of defence. The Romans began building fortified walls and structures throughout Europe such as the Aurelian Walls of Rome with gates such as Porta San Paolo and Porta Nigra from the ancient defenses of Trier in Germany. Strongly fortified gatehouses would normally include

323-475: The second (Summertown-Radley) gravel terrace of the River Thames . The deposits have been attributed to Marine isotope stages and have been the subject of archaeological and palaeontological research. Evidence was found for the co-existence of species of elephant and mammoth during interglacial conditions, disproving the widely held view that mammoths were an exclusively cold-adapted species. Stanton

342-468: Was at the Augustinian priory at Bicester until 1536, when the priory was dissolved . Sir James Harcourt had the shrine salvaged and moved to St Michael's. The Harcourt chapel was added on the south side of the chancel, possibly by William Orchard. It includes the medieval tombs of Sir Thomas Harcourt and his wife, Lady Maud, daughter of Lord Grey of Rotherfield. St Michael's parish is part of

361-547: Was built for the Harcourt family in the 15th and mid-16th centuries, and its gatehouse was added about 1540. Harcourt House is a Grade II* listed building . Its Great Kitchen was built in 1485, possibly incorporating an earlier building. The kitchen is a separate building from the house and is Grade I listed . The service range attached to the south of the Great Kitchen is also 15th-century. It has been converted into

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