Beckley

"BECKLEY, a parish partly in the hundred of Bullingdon, in the county of Oxford, and partly in the hundred of Ashendon, in the county of Buckingham, 5 miles to the N. E. of Oxford, its post town. It includes the hamlet of Horton-with-Studley. A Roman way passed through the parish, and the manor belonged to King Alfred. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Oxford, value £112, in the patronage of the Rev. T. L. Cooke. The church, an edifice in the early English style, is dedicated to St. Mary, and contains monuments of the Cookes, of Studley Priory. Here are some almshouses founded by one of that family, the income of which is now about £90 a year. A castle existed in this place in the reign of Henry II., of which there are still some vestiges. The chief residence is Beckley Park, a little to the east of the village."

"HORTON, a township in the parish of Beckley, county Oxford, 6 miles N.E. of Oxford. It is joined with Studley to form a township."

"STUDLEY, a hamlet in the parish of Beckley, hundreds of Ashendon and Bullingdon, county Oxford, formerly in Bucks, 6.5 miles N.E. of Oxford, and 7 N.W. of Thame. It is joined with Horton to forma township. Here was formerly a Benedictine nunnery, founded by Bernard de St. Valery in 1184, and valued at the Dissolution at £102."

[The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]