Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, England

Cornbury Park is an estate near Charlbury, Oxfordshire. It comprises about 5000 acres, mostly farmland and woods, including a remnant of the Wychwood Forest, and was the original venue for the Cornbury Music Festival and later the Wilderness Festival.
Cornbury used to be a royal hunting estate. The park is first mentioned in the Domesday book as a "demesne forest of the king", which was used for the hunting of deer.

Cornbury House

Cornbury House is a two-storey, eleven-bay Grade I listed English country house. Built in the late 16th century, it was enlarged and altered several times, first in 1632-33 by Nicholas Stone for Henry Danvers"', 1st Earl of Danby. Further alterations were carried out in 1663-77 by Hugh May who built the east front, the stables, and the chapel (1663–68)for Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. In 1901-6, John Belcher removed addition of c. 1850, and altered the house further for Vernon Watney. Belcher's work was mostly demolished c. 1972.

Current use

Cornbury Park is currently the home of Robin Cayzer, 3rd Baron Rotherwick, a Conservative hereditary peer who runs it as a business. Cayzer has developed business units for rental there, and for several years sponsored the Cornbury Music Festival and later the Wilderness Festival there

Cornbury Park mentions in Victoria County History:

The history of Charlbury, Fawler, and Finstock has been influenced by the fact that much of its land was held by absentee landlords. The AngloSaxon episcopal estate passed in the late 11th century from the Bishop of Lincoln to Eynsham Abbey which held it until the Reformation, and thereafter it was held by St. John's College, Oxford, and its lessees, notably the Lee family of Ditchley; later the dukes of Marlborough, who purchased the nearby Cornbury Park in 1751, (fn. 40) built up a large estate in the three townships. Of those landlords the Lee family, which established a hunting lodge in Lee's Rest Wood and a dower-house, Lee Place, close to Charlbury, played some part in Charlbury affairs, and the Churchills and their successors at Cornbury took an interest in Finstock, notably in its church and school. Charlotte, Duchess of Beaufort (d. 1854), who lived at Cornbury Park and later at Heythrop, was interested in Charlbury and gave pensions to the elderly poor. (fn. 41) The leading inhabitants of the town, however, played a more consistently important part in its affairs, and particularly prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries were the Quaker families of Spendlove and Albright.

The fountain in the Playing Close, designed by John Kibble, a local builder, was presented by Harvey du Cros of Cornbury Park to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria in 1886 (when she passed through Charlbury on her way to Cornbury Park), the supply of piped water to the town in 1896, and the queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. (fn. 63)

Baron Churchill of Wychwood. (fn. 144) On his death in 1886 it passed to his son Victor who, in 1896, sold it with the Cornbury Park estate to Mr. Harvey du Cros. The estate was sold to Vernon J. Watney in 1901, by which date most of the manorial rights had lapsed.

In addition to the rectory estate the dukes of Marlborough acquired other lands in Charlbury after purchasing Cornbury Park in 1751. (fn. 195) In 1759 the Marlborough trustees bought the estate of Sir Robert Jenkinson of Walcot which included extensive lands in Charlbury, some of which had been acquired from the Eyrans family. (fn. 196) By 1761 the duke's five tenants in Charlbury held c. 746 a. in the township, (fn. 197) and the duke's estates expanded further in the early 19th century bringing the total acreage to 876 a. in 1847. (fn. 198) Much of the estate was sold in the early 20th century

The vicar in 1690, William Coles, was a non-juror, but after resigning he continued to reside in Charlbury, acting as chaplain at Cornbury Park, until his death in 1734. (fn. 483) In 1759 James Luck, the vicar, complained to the bishop that while Coles had lived many of the parishioners had considered him their rightful vicar, and that on his death they had transferred their allegiance to John Arrowsmith, the curate of Charlbury, who had assisted Coles at Cornbury Park. (fn. 484) John Brabourne, D.D., a former fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford in 1709, (fn. 485) was vicar from 1697 until 1726. He resided in Charlbury for at least part of his incumbency, (fn. 486) and was described by Thomas Hearne as 'a strange sot, a poor scholar, and good for just nothing'. (fn. 487)

....On the south wall of the south chapel is a modern bronze tablet, replacing an earlier memorial brass, commemorating Joanna (d. 1541), wife of Thomas Bridges, Keeper of Cornbury Park.

The churchyard was extended on the south side by a grant in 1899 by Harvey du Cros of Cornbury Park, who reserved one corner of the new ground for a large family vault. (fn. 539) The registers of baptisms and burials are complete from 1842 and the register of marriages from 1850.

Methodism first appeared in Charlbury parish when Edward Bolton and his family moved from Witney to Manor Farm, Finstock, c. 1774. (fn. 564) Edward Bolton, a farmer, brewer, and weaver, was regarded as one of the best local preachers and his sister Ann was a frequent correspondent of John Wesley. (fn. 565) Wesley wrote to her in 1774 recommending her to distribute small tracts to the poor people in Finstock, (fn. 566) and he preached in the hamlet in 1774 and 1778; he found the place congenial and exclaimed 'How many days should I spend here if I was to do my own will'. (fn. 567) Bolton himself had moved back to Witney by 1775 (fn. 568) and later lived in Blandford (Cornbury) Park. (fn. 569) The family kept the farm, however, and Manor Farm continued to be a meeting place for Methodists until the building of Finstock chapel in 1840.

....Until Lord Churchill's death in 1886 the vicar received another payment of 1s. per head for the depositors in the clothing club. That money, amounting to c. £10 a year, was supposed to be connected with Elizabeth Martin's charity, but in view of the size of the sum the vicar thought it impossible. In 1903 £2 a year was received from Vernon J. Watney of Cornbury Park, who was uncertain whether it was a legal charge on his estate. (fn. 641) The charity had been lost by 1927.

this project is in History Link