Cote, Oxfordshire

Cropmarks have been found east of Cote Lane that suggest prehistoric occupation.[1] There have been isolated finds of Neolithic and Bronze Age items near the north end of Cote Lane and Iron Age pottery and a brooch have been found south of Cote House.[1] In the 19th century two Roman coins were found at Cote: one each from the reigns of Trajan (reigned AD 98-117) and Hadrian (reigned AD 117-138).[1] Other cropmarks on river gravel terraces east of Cote suggest Saxon sunken huts.[1]

In the Anglo-Saxon era Cote was part of the manor of Bampton.[2] The earliest known written record of Cote dates from 1203.[1]

Cote may be the site of a messuage and building plot for a manor that Henry III granted to one Imbert Pugeys in 1238.[2] The present Cote House is largely 16th and 17th century but may be on the site of the medieval buildings.[2] The east front of Cote House includes a two-light 13th century window with plate tracery[3] that is not in its original position but may well have been salvaged from the mediaeval house.

Alan Horde of the Middle Temple bought Cote manor in 1553.[2] The hall range and west wing of Cote House were probably built after 1583 for either Thomas Horde (died circa 1607) or Sir Thomas Horde (died 1662).[2] The west wing and hall still have an early 17th-century staircase and fireplaces and some 17th-century panelling.[2] In 1665 Cote House was assessed at 11 hearths for Hearth Tax.[4]

A new main entrance was added to the north front of Cote House in about 1700, presumably for Thomas Horde (died 1715).[2] The principal rooms were refurbished at the same time,[2] including the present panelling of the drawing room.[3] One set of iron gates is dated 1704[5] and bears the initials of Thomas Horde.[2]

Late in the 16th century Thomas Horde was convicted of recusancy and the Crown seized two-thirds of his manor for non-payment of fines.[2] When he died in 1607 his remaining debts were pardoned and the seized part of his manor was restored to his heirs.[2]

By 1239 Cote and Aston shared a single open field system.[4] Cote Common was often called Cote Moor.[4] In 1497 Mary, Lady Hastings and Botreux, demolished a tenant's house at Cote and enclosed its 20 acres (8.1 ha) landholding as pasture.[4] In the 1660s the Lord of the Manor Thomas Horde enclosed about 120 acres (49 ha) close to Cote House and promoted a general enclosure of the manor, but most tenants enclosed no more than 2 acres (0.81 ha) or 3 acres (1.2 ha) each.[4] The open meadows tended to flood and in 1668 new channels were dug to drain them.[4]

Cote Farmhouse and Cote Cottage were built in the 17th or early in the 18th century.[1] Milton Lodge was rebuilt in about 1720 with a symmetrical five-bayed front.[1] East of Cote is a Windmill Field but no windmill has survived.[4]

In 1834 tenants of Aston and Cote sought enclosure and initially Caroline Horde supported them.[4] However, most proprietors did not and the proposal was defeated.[4] Parliament finally passed an Enclosure Act for Aston and Cote in 1852 and the land award was completed in 1855.[4] Most landholdings both before and after enclosure were mixed farms.[4]

In the 19th century the Gillett family of Cote House Farm were noted Oxford Down sheep breeders.[4] In 1862 Charles Gillett won prizes at the Royal Agricultural Show.[4]

In the middle of the 19th century a new straight road was built northwards from the end of Cote Lane for a distance of just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to where it joined the road between Yelford and Lew.[1] By 1876 Cote Lodge Farm had been built west of the new road and around the same time new farm labourers' cottages were built.[1]

Sir Thomas Horde built a malthouse in 1657 but by 1659 it was making a loss.[4] There is another isolated record of a maltster in Cote in 1725.[4] Cote had a public house, the Black Horse, from 1779 to 1801.[1] In the 1840s Cote House Farm produced cider.[4] The hamlet had a beerhouse from 1869 (when Parliament passed the Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869) but it closed after 1939.[1]

Other trades in Cote in 1939 included a hurdle-maker and a saddler.[4]

In 1893 Cote suffered a diphtheria epidemic that may have been caused by contaminated wells.[1] Cote had a mains gas supply by 1939, mains electricity by 1949 and mains water from about 1967.[1]

Cote has never had a Church of England parish church. Cote was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Bampton,[6] and Cote residents would have worshipped at the chapel of ease at Shifford until it became derelict some time between 1772 and 1784.[7] Cote appointed a warden for Shifford chapel probably in the 15th century and continued to do so for the rebuilt chapel late in the 19th century.[8]

Former Baptist chapel from the south-west

A Baptist congregation was established in Cote in about 1656,[5] initially sharing a minister with the Baptist congregation at Longworth on the opposite side of the Thames.[7] Cote's first Baptist chapel was completed and registered for worship in 1704.[7] It was replaced by the present building in 1756, and chapel membership grew from 85 in 1772 to more than 100.[7] In 1850-51 attendance at Sunday morning worship averaged 200. Benjamin Arthur, who was pastor 1856-82, had the chapel interior extensively reordered in 1859.[9] The present single gable on the east front of the chapel[5] was added at the same time, replacing a previous double gable and hiding a central roof valley.[7] During Rev. Arthur's ministry, membership rose to about 195 and congregations regularly numbered around 400.[7]

For a number of lengthy periods in the 20th century the Baptist congregation lacked a minister and the deacons managed the chapel.[7] Membership declined to 92 in 1906 and 52 in 1935.[7] It had recovered to 104 by 1971 but fell again to about 85 in 1990.[7] The chapel was still in use for worship in 1992[7] but is now disused. It is a Grade II* listed building and is now managed and maintained by the Historic Chapels Trust.[9]

• Crossley, Alan; Currie, C.R.J. (eds.); Baggs, A.P.; Chance, Eleanor; Colvin, Christina; Day, C.J.; Selwyn, Nesta; Townley, Simon C. (1996). A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 13: Bampton Hundred (Part One). Victoria County History. pp. 6–80.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 557–558. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.