Souldern

"SOULDERN, a parish in the hundred of Ploughley, county Oxford, 7 miles S.W. of Brackley, its post town, and the same distance N.W. of Bicester. The village, which is considerable, is situated on a branch of the river Cherwell, near the Oxford canal. In Henry III.'s time Souldern came into the possession of Richard Basset. The soil on the more elevated parts consists of sand and stone brash, but towards the river of clay and loam. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford, value £453, in the patronage of St. John's College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, has a massive tower. It contains tombs of the Goughs. The parochial charities produce about £30 per annum. There is a boys' school with a small endowment. Wordsworth composed some of his sonnets in this neighbourhood. Many Saxon antiquities have been recently found here." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]