Population in 1801, 1,552.   In 1829, 1,847.   In 1831, 2,078. In 1841, 2,025. Last census (1931), 1,234.

Looking back from our present vantage ground certain outstanding events catch the eye, more prominent in a general survey than in chapters wherein local history is studied piecemeal.

With Mr. T. A. Manchip as guide it is interesting to pause in order to learn something about the battle of Deddington, 1643. He begins by quoting from Beesley's Banbury.

'In 1643, Lord Wilmot, in August, was appointed to the command of a strong body of the King's horse, which was stationed about Banbury to watch and if possible prevent the advance of the Parliamentarian forces to the relief of Gloucester. On the 20th the king in person took the conduct of the siege of the city.'

(May's Hist. Parl.)—'The Parliament ordered the Earl of Essex to relieve it, and on the 26th he began his march to Beacons-field and afterwards proceeded to Brackley Heath, where the Earl awaited a reinforcement from London of the trainbands and other auxiliaries. These arriving on the 1st September his army amounted to 15,000 men. Essex took up his quarters at Aynho and sent a regiment forward that night to Deddington, under the command of Col. Middleton, who hearing of two regiments of the King's horse being there, first sent two companies of dragoons and a party of horse to approach the town. The King's horse thereupon retreated to a passage towards Oxford where Lord Wilmot was with 50 troops.

The next morning two Parliamentarian regiments, conducted by Col. Middleton and Sir James Ramsay, advanced to that pass where the King's army stood, in two great bodies ; and after some skirmish gained the pass and placed dragoons to maintain it. The King's forces, however, drew up again towards it, and a very hot skirmish ensued, which lasted many hours. At length the King's troops made a retreat, but perceiving that Col. Middleton's marched back towards the main army, they sent a party of horse to fall upon his rear, who followed them through Deddington, but were beaten back through the town in some confusion.'

After the battle of Cropredy, June 29th, 1644, on that night and the next, (Sunday) the King slept at Williamscot, and on Monday, July 1st, set out with much military pomp, 'drum beating, colours flying and trumpets sounding' (see extract from Captain Symonds' Diary in Chapter 3 (Streets and Houses) through Aynho-on-the-Hill to Deddington, where that night the Army rested, the king sleeping at the Parsonage House.   An exchange of prisoners with the opposing force seems to have been the principal event of that day, but Deddington was frequently after on the fringe of encounters, and constantly had troops quartered in the town.

War has left its trace in the name of 'Battle Thorn Hills'. Though this may refer to earlier fighting it probably dates from the Civil War, where on July 1st, 1644, the Royalist troops left Aynho to move along under the shelter of these hills whose northern face is thus called. In this way they would avoid the open road, following the contour by the Pest House (where a sword has been found ; also bullets and human bones in the arable field nearby, below the barn, known as Deddington Field Barn, belonging to Mr. Hugh W. Stilgoe). And in all likelihood they would have stopped to drink at the spring above the Pest House, called the King's Spring to this day.

Five years later, the 'Levellers' (as mentioned already) called the 'Green Men' from the sea-green colours they hoisted, quartered themselves at their 'Randescvous' (Deddington) from whence they issued a 'Declaration on behalf of the Oppressed People of the Nation.' The movement was crushed by Cromwell who had several of their leaders executed.

THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT IN DEDDINGTON.

Jackson's Oxford Journal for October 14th, 1865, publishes the orders for the 6th Oxon Rifles Deddington Corps for the week commencing Oct. 13th.

Company Drill in Market Place 5 p.m. Tuesday, by order of Henry Churchill, Ensign. And this :—The Annual Inspection of the Sixt Oxon Rifles. Deddington Rifle Corps assembled in the Market Place at 11 a.m., mustering between 40 and 50, and marched thence to the Castle Grounds. They were put through their exercises and complimented by the Inspecting Officer. 'After the inspection the members present were invited by Ensign Churchill to partake of an excellent cold collation, which he had kindly and considerately caused to be prepared under the Pavilion, an invitation which was gladly and promptly responded to.'

With regard to this there is a local joke, or rather jocular tradition, preserved in the birdseye view map of Deddington, photographed from the one in possession of Dr. G. H. Jones. Unfortunately this had to be on a much reduced scale. Taking a magnifying glass the detachment of volunteers can be seen drawn up by the town hall, while away far off in St. Thomas' Street is their drummer, beating the big drum, quite alone.

This map was made by Joseph Wilkins, a local self-taught artist who lived in the Style ; several of his drawings are reproduced in this 'Village History'. The goodness of the collation is supposed to be responsible for the drummer's absence of mind—and body. As this individual was John Knibbs, town crier, and 'Ale taster by appointment of Court Leet,' it was certainly a tribute to the excellence of Deddington's malt liquor. His photograph shows him to have been of a fine country type. John Knibbs died at the age of 94.

LIGHTING DEDDINGTON.

A company was formed in July 1862, called the Deddington Gas, Coke and Coal Company Limited, and on January the 7th, 1863, the following prospectus was issued :—The directors desire to remind their fellow townsmen that the introduction of gaslight into Deddington offers the tradespeople an advantage for carrying on their respective business, and would induce a large influx of persons to the town who now frequent other places for the purchase of their merchandise......'  The legal firm of Messrs. Kinch & Co.

were requested to make enquiries respecting a site where gasworks sufficient to provide 300 lights could be erected. The neat red brick house at the commencement of the Clifton road still called 'the Gas House' commemorates this first effort by its name. Gas was later supplied by the United District Gas Co., Adderbury. For the past year electric light has also been available through the Wessex Electricity Company, who have installed it in some of the shops and many dwelling houses, though road lamps are still lit by gas.

THE GREAT WAR.

Between pre-war and post-war lies so immeasurable a division it seems absurd to count its years as only four. Economic upheaval has followed in the wake of its terror, but material anxieties must never dim for us what were its glories—the spirit of honour and chivalry that answered the call of 1914, the dogged duty that carried on.

On the outbreak of war Deddington had a creditable number of Territorials, both in the Oxfordshire Hussars (Yeomanry) and the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire 1/4 Battalion of Light Infantry.  These were, of course, mobilised on declaration of war and intensive training began. The first detachment of the Oxfordshire Hussars landed in France on September the 18th, 1914— three days only after the London Scottish, who were actually the first territorial regiment to disembark. Our county Yeomanry received their 'baptism of fire' at Messines, on October the 31st, 1914, in the first battle of Ypres. Subsequently the Oxfordshire Hussars took part in some of the fiercest fighting on the Western Front. Loos, Arras, the Somme, Vermelles, Amiens, Cambrai, the Sambre, St. Quentin, Gillemont Farm and Rifle Wood are among the engagements in which they fought, the four last-named being the scenes of their heaviest casualties. They were also among the first to suffer from poison gas attack on May 2nd, 1915.

Deddington Territorials of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry had to bide their time, chafing at the delay, till March the 30th, 1915, before landing in France. They had been training in Essex and were detained in the Eastern Counties till the invasion scare was over. Once on the Western Front they had not long to wait before getting under fire in the trenches of Ploegsteert Wood, ("Plug Street"), during the first week of April, 1915. Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Festubert, Pozieres, are among the battles in French and Flemish Flanders on the list of this battalion. In December, 1917, they were sent into Italy to assist Italian troops against the Austrian offensive on the Piave. Here they were under a terrible bombardment on June 16th, receiving severe casualties.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry were dispersed in March, 1919, after exactly four years service overseas.

Among Deddington men who took part in the war were some attached to the regular army ; either on active service or in reserve. These were, of course, not necessarily in local units. As their records show, some fought—and died—in far distant areas of hostility. A few members of our Territorials were drafted into regiments for service in African and Asian theatres of war.

Dr. G. H. Jones and his partner Dr. G. M. Hodges both served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Dr. Hodges was in France from 1914 to 1916. On his return Dr. Jones joined for active service, 1916 to 1918, being part of that time on hospital ships and part in Egypt. Dr. W. Turner, who held Sergeant's rank in the Volunteers, remained for medical duty in the place.

Unhappily, Deddington's War Memorial is, neither in its design nor its position—a remote part of the cemetery—worthy of its glorious purpose.

But, standing before it, criticism is silenced, for it is indeed 'Sacred to the memory of the men who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918.' These words are in the front. Below, and on either side are these names.

A. ADEY.  J. AUSTIN.  E. BLISS.  W. F. BOLTON.

R. P. BULL.    C. CALLOW.    W. J. CARVILL.

A. CASTLE.   J. H. CHECKLEY.   H. G. S. CHURCHILL

A. J. CHISLETT.     N. CHISLETT.     G. I. DAVIS.

S. H. DEELEY.    O. A. J. DORE.    W. J. DUNN.

A. J. ELL.     H. FREEMAN.      W. L. FRENCH.

W. A. GARDNER.    J. GODFREY.    A. GOMM.

H. GRACE.   H. GRIFFIN.   W. D. HANCOX.

W. R. HANCOX.  A. E. HANCOX.   F. HAWKINS.

J. F. HAWKINS.   B. HAWKINS.   J. W. HIORNS.

A. W. HUTT.    F. HUTT.    T. A. MANCHIP.

J. E. MUNDY.    P. PINFOLD.    A. SPENCER.

G. SYKES, Junr.  F. T. TUSTAIN.  M. J. TUSTAIN.

J. E. TWISSELL.  W. A. WEAVER.  B. WHEELER.

G. H. WHITE.    W. WILKINS.    A. E. YERBURY.

At the back of the memorial is inscribed : "Live thou for England, we for England died."

A brass memorial tablet in the church again commemorates the names of those who made the Supreme Sacrifice ; nearby are several wooden crosses, among them those from the graves of the three brothers Hancox, and of 2nd Lieutenant Ronald Page Bull, killed a few days before Armistice, aged 19.

Above the brass tablet hangs the wreath of laurels and Haig poppies placed there annually at the Armistice Service by the Deddington branch of the British Legion, which forms a centre of comradeship and aid for local ex-service men.

Deddington never came under enemy fire, the nearest aerial bombardment being over Derby. But Deddington saw the Germans as prisoners working on local farms. These were for the most part poor country lads, drawn into the universal whirlpool, grateful for the peacefulness of their surroundings and the humanity of their employers.

At the time of writing, work is scarce and agriculture depressed. But in spite of all this there is a glorious note of hopefulness sounded in each succeeding report on the condition of the children. The medical inspection of schools has wrought wonders. This and the appointment of official women health visitors have definitely raised the physical standard of the rising generation, and thereby the mothers have been stimulated and helped. In Deddington an Infant Welfare Society meets monthly under the supervision of a medical man with the health visitor in attendance, who give useful advice and information, and help where further treatment is required.

The Women's Institute, affiliated to the Oxfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes, founded here in the autumn of 1925 with a membership of over 70, still carries on with vigour, numbers being often above, but seldom below, the first enrolment. Its object ('for Home and Country') is kept well uppermost, and the remark made when it was started, that it was the first social meeting place for all women ever known in Deddington, still holds good, and has immensely increased our understanding of one another.

End mark