A History of Hanwell | Just Beyond the Cotswolds

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Hi there and welcome to the cotwell Explorer I’m Robin Shakra and we are exploring the wonderful region of the kwells in Southwest England for the last couple of years we’ve been following in the footsteps of Herbert Evans who wrote this wonderful book highways and byways in Oxford and the costells in 195 And today you find Ross widget Gizmo and me in the little village of hanwell just outside banur it’s a beautiful little place with a surprising and exciting Church the other thing is it’s got the remnants of wonderful Castle this time actually above ground we’re going to show you around come with

Me for the description of this lovely Village I’m going to rely mainly on Herbert Evans our invaluable guide around the highways and byways of Oxford and the godwal and of whose brilliant book our cotswald Explorer Edition has just recently been published available indeed on the link in the description to this

Video in his telling of the story of hanwell he is at his brilliant gossipy best describing the families who’ve lived here over the centuries with his usual learned and astute historical mind his illustrator Frederick Griggs also clearly fell for the place and produced a lovely drawing of what was left at the

Castle before that however I want to relate a cheering tale of my own when we arrived outside the church we met a small group of young young people who were cycling around exploring the village I gather they were staying the weekend with friends and looked to

An old fellow like me anyway as if they were in their early teens they all had phones of course and they were busy filming and photographing the scenery and posting their images on the usual platforms needless to say I was a perfect Target for mild ridicule and they pointed their friends in my

Direction with comments like what do you want to say to our followers then one of them noticed the little black bubble on my chest and said hey are you miked up such a 21st century question that is I was really much amused and I explained we had just been in the church filming

The beautiful things inside and they asked me if they were allowed to go in slightly depressing thoughts that they may have S they weren’t anyway after a brief lecture from me about respect for the place they left their bikes and gear in a pile outside and went

In half an hour later they’d still not reappeared and I like to think that I’ve started off a whole new generation of church lovers they would have found some excellent things to look at a late Norman font with a wooden jackban cover a modern 20th century Stone pull

Pit the open mechanism of the turret clock ticking away as it has since 1671 and an amazing Alabaster Effigy of Sir Anthony and Lady cope of whom more later as well as a selection of the cope ferial armor all rare and excellent pieces of interest to young boys and girls I do

Hope they enjoyed themselves and so to Evans and part of his description of this lovely Place hanwell lies across the valley to the west and a Bend to the right after entering the village brings us face to face with a massive Tower of brick with stone coins and large Stone Mion Windows

Now blocked up it reminds us of the almost contemporary work at Hampton Court or of some the college gate houses at Cambridge this Tower is the sole surviving one of four which stood at Each corner of the Mansion for three centuries the seat of the Cope Family it was built by William cope

Cofferer of the household to Henry iith who died in 1513 and was buried at banry his tomb of black marble shared the fate of that church in 1790 and after lying there for 277 years his body was again exposed to the light and of course immediately crumbled to

Dust this was indeed an age in which the spirit of destruction ramped unchecked in this neighborhood some 10 years previous to the demolition of the Church of Banbury hanwell Castle was wly pulled down and nothing left but this Tower and part of the adjoining buildings The Remains are now used as a

Farmhouse on the east side sloping down to the valley are the once well-kept Terrace Gardens and fish bonds one of the latter alone is left and the whole has a strangely pathetic wistful air of desolation yet here in Henry VII St time lived Sir Anthony cope courtier traveler scholar and

Writer here his grandson another Sir Anthony kept a hospitable house in the Old English style counting even royalty among his guests here the latter’s son Sir William again entertained his Sovereign and here in the days of a third St Anthony were hatched some of the schemes which led to

The Happy restoration of his late Majesty King Charles II it’s so beautifully done that it sort of covers the centuries but what is interesting is that those fish ponds and Lawns and Gardens are no longer by any means desolate they are beautifully kept and I don’t know who lives in this

Lovely place now but it is quite clearly much loved we enjoyed ourselves in this lovely little village I think it’s worth a vis is it I do hope you’ve enjoyed our little spin around handw I’m standing here in the sunshine of an English summer with moan lawns all

Around me a beautiful medieval church and even the remains of a glorious ancient castle it’s almost beyond belief really it’s an extraordinarly beautiful place we’ve enjoyed ourselves don’t forget to subscribe to the channel press the subs subcribe button and the Little Bell beside it and we will always let you know exactly what

We’re up to you can find us on most of the usual platforms and visit our website the cost explorer. co.uk where you’ll find details of everything we’ve done in the past we look forward to seeing you very soon somewhere else in the cotwell