Manor Courts & Officers: Lord John de Mandeville & possibly his Tenants owed Suit to Benson Manor Court in the 1270s & despite the creation of a separate Nettlebed Manor the Tithing owed Suit at Benson’s Annual Views of Frankpledge until the 19thC. In 1296-97 the Vill was Fined for failure to present a Full Tithing there & in the 15th & 16thCs the Tithingman Presented Minor Misdemeanours & paid 15d cert money. By the 16thC he was joined there by a Constable, one of whose Predecessors was Recorded raising Militiamen c.1480. Sir Francis Stonor (d.1625) subsequently claimed View of Frankpledge at Nettlebed, but in the 1650s-70s only a Court Baron was held there & cert money was still paid at Benson. After the Stapletons resurrected the Benson Views in 1778 a Nettlebed Tithingman & Constable were Elected there Annually until 1842. The Lord of Nettlebed’s remaining Jurisdiction effectively Ceased in 1906, when Regulation of the Commons (including Power to make By-laws) passed to a Body of Conservators.
As Lord of Soundess, the Abbot of Dorchester was Found in the 14thC to be liable for Repair of Medieval Cobbe Lane, rendered almost Impassable in the late-14thC by the Collapse of its Banks (perhaps a Holloway). His Soundess Tenants (like those at Warborough) may have Attended the Dorchester Manor Court: no Local Courts are known, even though in 1536/37 most of the Abbey’s Soundess Land was Held by Copy of Court Roll (Copyholders). Later Owners of Soundess, including the Freemans, Held an occasional Court Baron to resolve Minor disputes. Rewley Abbey owed Suit to Benson for its Nettlebed Lands until 1535, but in 1293 was Exonerated from Suit to County or Hundred Courts.
Rewley Abbey, Oxford: To explore the Rewley Abbey area, return from Isis Lock to the Rewley Road Bridge, turn left across the Bridge & left again on to the Footpath which follows the Castle Mill Stream towards Upper Fisher Row. To your right, tall neo-Victorian Houses of Red Brick with Stone Dressings are another part of the Persimmon Homes Estate, built in c.1998. They occupy an area to the North of Rewley Abbey which included the Abbey Fishpond and, during the Civil War, an outlying Sconce or Fort in the City’s Defences. Rewley Abbey was founded in 1280 by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall as a place of Study for Cistercian Monks. The name Rewley derives from the French ‘roi lieu’, meaning King’s Place & refers back to Edmund’s father, Richard, King of the Romans (d.1272). The Church was dedicated in December & the Surviving Foundation Stone, unearthed in the early-18thC, confirms that ‘Ela Longspee, Countess of Warwick, made this chapel, whose reward be Christ in Glory. Amen.’ Rewley Abbey was much smaller than Osney Abbey, having just 15-Monks at its Foundation & 21 when it was Dissolved in 1536. The Abbey Buildings included a Cruciform Church, a Cloister and the usual Domestic buildings and, on this low-lying Riverside Site, they were surrounded by Water. You entered the Complex from the South through an Outer & Inner Gate along a forerunner of today’s Rewley Road. Facing onto the South-West side of the Oxford Canal. All the Buildings have been destroyed except a short length of Wall in which is a 15thC Stone Doorway; it has a 2-centred Watergate Arch in a Square Head with Spandrels in which are Quatrefoils; there is a Label above with Stops & the Jambs are Moulded.
Parish Government & Officers: Nettlebed had 2-Churchwardens by 1530, briefly assisted in the 17thC by a Sidesman. A Petty Constable was mentioned from 1662 to 1843 & Parish Clerks from the 1680s. Presumably they & other Officers (including Overseers of the Poor & Surveyors of Highways) were appointed by a Parish Vestry, but no Minutes are known. Stocks were used by the Old Constables to put the Criminals in for being Drunk & Other Crimes
& was kept in C Phillip’s Carpenter’s Shop by Wanbourne Pond (Watlington Street)
After 1834 the Parish belonged to Henley Poor Law Union, becoming part of Henley Rural District in 1894 when a New Parish Council was formed. An early complaint concerned the Lack of Public Wells in the Village, but the Parish Council was reluctant to meet the Expense & Water Supply remained inadequate until Pipes were laid in the 1920s. Parsimonious Ratepayers also discouraged other Public Works: a Sewerage Scheme was not agreed until the 1950s & ‘Night-Soil’ Collection continued until the 1960s. Gas remained unavailable in 2015.
The Vestry’s responsibility for Church Matters passed in the 20thC to a Parochial Church Council, which continued in 2008; by then, there were variously 1 or 2-Churchwardens. Under Local Government re-Organisation in 1974 the Civil Parish became part of South Oxfordshire District.
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 