Cumnor, Berkshire

Description
Cumnor, a village, a township, and a parish, in Berks. The village stands on the brow of a hill, 2 miles E of the river Isis, and 3 1/4 WSW of Oxford, and has a post and money order office, under Oxford; telegraph office, Oxford. The township includes the village. The parish includes also the hamlets of Chawley, Deancourt, Fitchampstead, Henwood, Rockley, and Swinford. Acreage, 5962, of which 32 are water; population, 919. The manor belonged to Abingdon Abbey, was given at the dissolution to the last abbot, and passed in 1560 to Anthony Forster. The mansion on it was the scene of the murder of Amy Robsart, as related in Mickle's ballad of " Cumnor " and Sir Walter Scott's novel of " Kenilworth," but was really a low quadrangular edifice surrounding a small court, and not the spacious and towered structure depicted in these works, and it has entirely disappeared. The surface of the parish is hilly, and there is a mineral spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £277 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Abingdon. The church is partly Norman, consists of nave, north aisle, south chapel, and chancel, with a western tower, and contains an altar-tomb of Anthony Forster, and brasses.