Kingston Blount has for many Centuries been a more populous Village than the Mother Village of Aston. The name means the King’s ‘Tun’ (or ‘Vill’) & no doubt derives from a period before the Conquest when it was probably a Royal Vill. It acquired its 2nd name of Blount from the Family Name of the Lords of the Manor from 1237 until the early-15thC. Later it was sometimes called Kingston Yorke or Kingston Hungerford after Families Holding the Manor in the 15th & 16thCs. It stands near the Eastern Boundary of the Parish between the Ancient Trackways called the Icknield Way & the Lower Icknield Way & is one of the String of Villages that sprang up on the Spring Line below the Chiltern Hills. It probably once had a large Green, but Kingston Green now consists only of a small piece of rough Grass on the West side of the Village. This was the Common Land that was left unenclosed by the Inclosure Award of 1835. The Village is built around a Square of which the Lewknor-Chinnor & the Sydenham-Stokenchurch Roads form 2-Sides. The ‘Red Lion‘ recorded in 1833 once stood at the Junction of these 2-Roads. The Village expanded considerably in the 18th & 19thCs & in 1852 was described in Gardner’s Directory as ‘Large & Respectable’. In 1958 it had 3-Shops, a Post Office, 3-Public Houses – the ‘Royal Oak‘, the ‘Cherry Tree‘ & the ‘Shoulder of Mutton‘ – a Youth Club & a Sports Field.
OS Map 1919 Sth Oxon XLVII.4 (Aston Rowant; Kingston Blount, Crowell)
Kingston Brook runs from Kingston Hill via Brook Street to Ford on the Lower Icknield Way & Beyond.
Many of the old Timber-framed Houses with Tiled or Thatched Roofs survive. There must have been at least 2–Manor-Houses in Kingston, but their Site is not known. The Manor-House of Kingston Narnett’s Fee is mentioned in 1631, when Robert Chapman, Gent, was living there. He Sold it to Andrew Crooke & it was for this House presumably that Andrew Crooke returned 4-Hearths for the Tax of 1665. There are 2-Records of the ‘Blounts‘ Medieval Manor-House. In 1300 Hugh le Blount impleaded the Tenant, William, Bishop of Wells, for pulling down a Chapel, worth 8-Marks, a Kitchen & Bakehouse, each worth 100s & in 1317 he & his wife Nicola were living there when they undertook a Journey to London at the expense of John de Stonor with whom they had Legal Business to Transact. It is possible that ‘Moat Manor‘ represents one of the Manor-Houses. It is a Timber-framed Building with Brick & Flint Filling; is L-shaped & has an overhanging Upper Storey on the Northside; the West Gable-end has herring-bone Brick filling and consists of 3-Storeys, whereas the rest of the House is of 2-Storeys. In the 19thC, the House was divided into 3-Cottages. Another 16thC House is ‘Old Croft‘ near Pleck Lane. It is a Timber-framed Structure with Brick filling, some of the Bricks being arranged in herring-bone pattern and with Shingled Tiles covering part of the Front. The House has a Central Chimney-stack with a Group of 4-Brick Shafts. In the High Street, there are several 16th & 17thC Cottages: some are Built of Brick & Flint, others are Timber-framed with Brick Filling, and many have fine Box Hedges which add to their attractive appearance.
‘Lavengro‘, a 2-Storeyed House, once 2-Cottages and used in the 1940s as a Butcher’s House & Shop, is an interesting example. Its Centre Block consists of 17thC Timber-framing with Infilling of colour-washed Brick; its 16thC East Wing is also Timber-framed, but is filled with herring-bone Brick and is lower in height and its 18thC Westend is constructed of Chequer Brick. Until just recently the East Wing had contemporary Leaded Casement Windows & Panelled shutters; it retains Stone fireplaces on both floors. There is a central Chimney-Stack with a group of Square Shafts.
Lavengro: House early-17thC, with mid-17thC Addition to left. Flint Plinth; Large Timber-framing with Brick Infill, some in Herringbone Bond; old Plain-Tile Roof; Brick Ridge Stack to Centre. 2-Unit Lobby-entry Plan. 2-Storey, 3-Bay Range. Sash Door to Centre. Irregular Fenestration of Casements. Lower Wing to left of 2-Storey, 2-Bay Range. Flint Plinth; Large Timber-framing with Brick Infill; old Plain-Tile Roof. Sash Door to right. Irregular Fenestration of Casements. Interior not Inspected.
Richard Davis’s Map Of Oxfordshire 1797
18th & early-19thC prosperity is reflected in the Buildings. The Cherry Tree Public House, for example, which was Licensed at least by 1794, if not earlier, is a late-18thC House of 2-Storeys constructed of Chequer Brick; it has offset Eaves of Denticulated Brick, a Slate Roof, Sash Windows, and a 6-panelled Doorway. The Door is in the angle formed by the main Building and its Wing projects to the North-west. Another 18thC Building is a Chequer-brick Cottage of 2-Storeys lying next to the School. It has eaves of Denticulated Brick, flanking Chimneys, Casement Windows of 3-lights and a plain Central Door with a Brick panel above. Town Farm, once owned by the Belsons and known as Belson Farm in 1832, also dates from the 18thC.
Kingston Blount – Bucks OS Map Sheet XL 1883
The Chief 19thC additions to the Village were the Methodist Chapel (1859), the Congregational Chapel (1861), the Anglican Chapel (1877) & the School.
Outside the Village John Brown built Kingston House in 1855. In the 20thC, a number of Council Houses have also been built on the Outskirts of the Village. Five pairs were Built before WW2 & 20-Red-Brick ones were Erected in 1953-55.
One of Kingston’s Hamlets, Kingston Stert, lies 1¾-miles to the North of the Village and in 1958 consisted only of a few Cottages and of Kingston Villa. The name Stert is said to mean ‘a Tongue of Land‘, and the place, it seems, developed in the 17thC when Kingston was itself expanding. Kingston Stert was mentioned in 1645 and occurs in the Register in 1696, when it was the home of Thomas Munday, a substantial Yeoman Farmer. It had a Public House, the ‘Barley Mow‘, in 1881, but this no longer exists. Kingston’s other Hamlet of Linley, or Kingston Lilly, as it was sometimes called, has long been a ‘Deserted’ Hamlet and its precise Site has not yet been discovered, although it is likely to have been on the Hill near Gurdon’s Farm (Stokenchurch). In the 13thC, it had its own Chapel, and the Prior of Wallingford Priory held 2-Virgates of Land there to support the Serving of a Chantry in the Chapel 3 times a week.
Natural History of Oxfordshire ~ Robert Plot
Wakelins Cottage on the High Street dates from the mid-15thC and was originally a Wheelwrights Shop owned by Amos Wakelin. The Cottage is situated on the Edge of the Village with far-reaching Views towards The Ridgeway.
The former Red Lion Public House on the High Street is now in Residential use and called Lion House. This Pub was in existence by 1833.
Dr Jacob Bronowski was born on 18th January 1908, at Łódź, Poland, the 1st of 3-children born to Haberdasher Abram Bronowski & Celia Bronowski (née Flatto). One of his siblings was a sister called Lilian. The Family Fled to Germany from the Russian Occupation of Poland during WW1, remaining in Germany until 1920, when the Family moved to London. Though not being able to speak English when he 1st arrived in England, Jacob obtained a sufficiently good Education at London’s Central Foundation School to secure a Scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge (1927-33), where he Studied Mathematics, starting in 1927 & Graduating in 1930, getting an MA. He had been 1st Class Wrangler in the Maths Tripos Part 1, then Senior Wrangler in Part 2. He continued to Study at Cambridge & was Awarded a PhD in 1933. While at Cambridge, though Academically a Mathematician, he displayed an interest in Poetry & Literature. He co-edited a Literary Magazine called Experiment, with another Student. From about 1931 to 1938 or later, the Jacob lived with his Parents at 26 Rookwood Hill or Road, Hackney, London. Sister Lilian is listed as Resident at the same address from 1932 onwards. After finishing his PhD Thesis, he went in 1933 on a Trip to Mallorca with Eirlys Roberts, a women who later co-founded the Consumer Magazine “Which?”, living for a while in Mallorca, supposedly to be near Poets Robert Graves & Laura Riding, who had been living in Mallorca since Graves’s separation from his Wife back in England. He became a British Citizen in 1933. Dr Bronowski’s most ambitious attempt to describe the place of Science in Human History, was a 13‐part Television series for the British Broadcasting Corporation called “The Ascent of Man.” He was a frequent participant in the BBC TV Series “The Brains Trust.”
Shortly after they met, Rita Coblentz asked her husband-to-be, Jacob Bronowski, to pose for a life drawing & offered him a volume of William Blake’s poems to pass the time while he sat for her in the nude. Thus began Jacob’s (or Bruno’s – since everyone, including his children, called him that) lifelong interest in Blake. She married Bruno in 1941 & the couple’s 1st 2- children were born during his & Service in WW2 in the Military Research Unit of the Home Office for Bomber Comand. Dr Bronowski did it so effectively that he was invited to the US to help advise them on their Attacks on Japanese Cities. After the Americans dropped 2-Atomic Bombs Jacob Bronowski was sent to Japan to observe the after-effects, as part of a British Government Mission. On a fine November day in 1945, late in the afternoon, I was Landed on an Airstrip in Southern Japan. From there a Jeep was to take me over the mountains to join a Ship which Lay in Nagasaki Harbour. Suddenly I was aware that we were already at the centre of Damage in Nagasaki. The shadows behind me were the Skeletons of the Mitsubishi Factory Buildings, pushed backwards & sideways as if by a giant hand. What I had thought to be broken Rocks was a concrete Power House with its Roof punched in. I could now make out the outline of 2-crumpled Gasometers; there was a Cold Furnace festooned with Service Pipes; otherwise nothing but cockeyed Telegraph Poles & loops of wire in a bare waste of Ashes. I had blundered into this Desolate Landscape as instantly as one might wake among the Craters of the Moon. The horrors he Witnessed there changed his life forever, he never forgot entering the Ruins of one Japanese Bakery to find the Owner’s Skeleton in the Oven; the man had crawled in when the Bomb fell, in a futile effort to escape the Flames.
After the War, Rita made warm and welcoming homes in Cheltenham and then London (the small number of their surviving friends still talk about their parties). In 1964, they moved to La Jolla, California, at the invitation of the research scientist Jonas Salk. Bruno became a founding fellow of the Salk Institute for Biological Study
Jardine [née Bronowski], Lisa Anne (1944–2015), Historian & Public Intellectual, was born on 12th April 1944 at Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford, the eldest of the Siblings (Judith, Nicole & Clare) of Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974), Polish Mathematician, Literary Critic & Broadcaster, and his wife, Rita, née Coblentz (1917–2010), Sculptor. At the time of her Birth Registration her Parents lived at Hill House, Kingston Blount.
Jacob Bronowski died on 22nd August 1974 in Long Island, New York, having suffered a Heart Attack. His was a life devoted to bringing humanity to bear on Science & to exploring what this – & all forms of human creativity – could teach us about ourselves & others. It was these devotions & the compulsion to share them, which made Bronowski such a Consummate Humanist.
The Economist Eric Roll, who worked with Bronowski in Hull, said of him: He was a warm & vibrant human being. Every encounter with him was a powerful tonic which left one feeling intellectually & emotionally stimulated and enhanced. He did not, however, suffer fools gladly and could be bitingly sardonic about human folly or about the glaring discrepancies so often to be found between public acclaim and true worth. To his friends he was kind & affectionate, a companion whose gaiety & wit counterbalanced his serious approach to life
Now where are the Blue Plaques?
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 