Visitor Guides and Observations
Below is a selection of visitor information and impressions of Marston from over the centuries.
Topographical Dictionary of England 1845
MARSTON (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Headington, hundred of Bullingdon, county of Oxford, 1 3/4 mile NNE from Oxford; containing 396 inhabitants.
n the Civil War in the reign of Charles I, the treaty for the surrender of Oxford to the Parliamentarians, was negotiated here, in the ancient mansion-house of the family of Croke, now converted into a farm house.
The parish comprises 1177 acres, of which 220 are arable, 950 pasture and 7 woodland; the meadows on the banks of hte River Cherwell are luxuriantly rich.
The living is a discharged vicarage; net income £195; patron, incumbent and impropriator, rev. T. H. Whorwood
[S. Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of England (1845) (5th ed.)]
A Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford 1846
Marston Church = see 'A Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford', Oxford Society for Promoting the Study of Gothic Architecture. Parker, Oxford 1846 [City Ref L]
pp 185-188 ill.: ground plan; Sculpture over E. Window; dripstone termination; chancel door; arch south of Nave.
Last Sentence:
CROSSES: In the church-yard there wes formerly a cross, which was taken down to mend the wall with in the yeat 1830; and in the village another cross, which was used about the same period to mend the roads with!
p188 (re Crokes house) This house was pulled down in 1843
On the Effects of Elevation and Floods on Health 1866
Marston, which is about a quarter of a mile from the River Cherwell is not much above the flood level and has more pools and stagnant water in it than I believe can be found in any other village in the neighbourhood. Annual deaths 1 in 53.2 persons. Average age 30 years 9 months. "The healthful condition of the lowest and dampest compared with those that are higher and dryer. The average death rate is 16% less in the valley than on the hills and the average life 7% in favour of these dampest and least exposed localities." (p21, [G. A. Powell (assistant in Oxford Museum, author of essay on Beneficent Distribution of Sense of Pain) Williams and Norgate 1866. Printed by Henry Alden, printer, Cornmarket Street, Oxford) 'On the Effects of Elevation and Floods on Health: City Ref. Oxford Pamphlets 5-17 Pamphlets relating to the Public Health of Oxford L378.42PAM, 1849 - only Cholera death in damp valleys recorded was in Marston
Planning: Marston 1931
This is one of three villages - Marston, Woodeaton and Elsfield - which, lying to the east of of Oxford and seperated from its nothern residential area of the Cherwell River, are somewhat inaccessible. With improved communication from Oxford, possibly by a new road from the Banbury Road, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Holywell Park and crossing the Cherwell, these three charming and comparatively unspoiled agricultural villages might form the nuclei for well-controlled residential development in the neighbourhood. Marston, the largest of the three, can hardly be expected long to escape an innundation of working-class houses from the near neighbourhood of Headington with which it is presently connected. Marston may also form one day an outpost of cottages to an important offshoot of buildings (possibly cottages) which may shortly discover the advantageous situation of the stretch of elevated land so near to Oxford, which lies in its vicinity. The new by-pass road will pass, as planned, north of Marston. [Regional Survey, 1931, p48 - {Oxfordshire: a regional survey. Regional Planning Report: The Earl of Mayo, S. D. Adshead, Patrick Abercrombie OUP 1931
County Books 1945
East of the city worse things were to happen. Early in the twentieth century, in his modest bicycle shop, William Morris, patching tyres and straightening handlebars, dreamed of the combustion engine, and now homes for the workers, gimcrack in shed-speckled gardens, engulf the lyric slopes of Shotover, Headington's passionate village, mud-bound Marston and Littlemore's road to the hills[p. 97] (Oxfordshire. Joanna Cannon. The County Books) Robert Hale Ltd n.d. but just post WW2
Vision of England 1949
Marston might please the 'Waterstock, Wytham and Waterperry' poet. There is a ferry over the Cherwell; a stubborn hold on the Oxfordshire village sense in some charming stone, thatch, and even pink wash; and the nearness to Oxford. But I think it is too near. Summertown and an arterial road and Headington hedge it about too closely. It would be easy to be there 'student and don', but hardly, I fear, 'countryman'. Still, it is, perhaps, more fortunate than any other village so close to the city. [p89, 'Vision of England', Reginal Turnor. Elek 1949]
Shell Guide to Oxfordshire 1953
Marston (11), overpowering development outside Oxford. Village spread. The church has a lot of its old woodwork (Shell Guide to Oxfordshire. John Piper. Faber 1953)
James Morris 1965
The church at Old Marston is famous for its bell-ringing and has a delightful new bell loft of polish oak.
The parish church at Old Marston is a well-known centre of bell-ringing. In 1958 its ringers rang a world record peal of doubles, 12600 changes in 6 hours 20 minutes beating a record established in 1775, and if you look at the board in the belfry you will find that the methods they have initiated there include the Magdalen Bob, the Wadham Bob, the Nuffield Bob, and even one named for St. Frideswide (p131 Moris)
The Victoria Arms at Marston Ferry, with a nice peeling inn-sign of the young queen, is a popular place to punt for breakfast on May morning (p137) [James Morris, Oxford, Faber 1965]
