Fringford

infobox UK place
country = England
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static_image_caption=
latitude= 51.9532
longitude= -1.1225
official_name =Fringford
population =
shire_district=
shire_county= Oxfordshire
metropolitan_borough=
metropolitan_county =
region=South East England
constituency_westminster=
post_town=
postcode_district =
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= SP6028

Fringford is a settlement in Oxfordshire, England.

Fringford

Fringford, Godington, Hethe, Stoke Lyne and Stratton Audley are parishes with an intriguing history. They are now linked to form one benefice of Stratton Audley with Godington, Fringford with Hethe and Stoke Lyne. These five form the southern part of the Shelswell Group of Churches, which number ten in all. The Rector for the southern part of the group lives at Stratton Audley.

In the fourth and fifth centuries Saxon tribes from North Germany invaded England. They used the Roman roads to explore the country and to find places to build their homes. One tribe, the Ferrings or Fcarings came to live and give their name to what is now known as Fringford. They were not the first settlers (Celts and Romans were before them) and it is believed that from the earliest camps at Fringford, they went in search of ferns and roots for their medicines to the rough uncultivated ground where Hethe now stands.

It is nowadays difficult to accept that the narrow stream flowing around three sides of Fringford was once such an obstacle that it could only be crossed at a ford. It was so, however, and from this fact the village derives its name - Ferringas-ford.

Then came another invader, the Normans. On Christmas Day 1066 William was crowned King. Bishop Odo, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry rallying Norman soldiers, was given estates by the King which included Fringford. The Bishop's ambitions did not please the King, Odo was exiled and the village went to Baron William de Arsic of Cogges. It was his son, Baron Manessah Arsic who at least by the early twelfth century, built a stone church in place of the wooden church, which had served the villagers for hundreds of years. The new building was dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels and granted to the Priory of Black Monks, instituted at Cogges by Baron William.

Baron Mannessah's building was sound. For centuries no repair work is recorded. The south aisle may have been rebuilt in the fourteenth century and sometime before the end of the seventeenth, the peal of bells must have been hung. The only maintenance recorded before the nineteenth century, is in 1788, when £18.4.3d. was spent on general repairs.

In 1814 a new Rector, Henry Dawson Roundel arrived. He is described as having ample means and he proved to be both generous and forethinking. He started a plan for the letting of small allotments to labourers in the parish and, throughout his life, he was the driving force for the restoration of the church. Except that the north aisle was rebuilt in 1905 and the roof restored in 1909, the building we use today is much as the Roundel family left it. The Rector's restoration work has been highly praised, although one cleric is on record as saying there is so much stained glass that no one can see to read his prayer book.

Notes from local pamphlet titled "A Guided Tour of Five Churches of the Shelswell Group" about Fringford, Oxfordshire, England.