Tusmore / Toresmere

INFORMATION

FontID: 21533TUS
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Church/Chapel: [disappeared church]
Church Location: present church is St. Mary the Virgin's, at Hardwick-cum-Tusmore
Country Name: England
Location: Oxfordshire, South East
Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A43, 10 km NNE of Bicester
Ecclesiastic Region: [Diocese of Oxford]
Historical Region: Hundred of Ploughley -- Hundred of Kirtlington [in Domesday]
Century and Period: 11th - 13th century, Medieval
Font Notes:
There is an entry for Tusmore [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP5630/tusmore/] [accessed 25 October 2017], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Oxfordshire, vol. 6, 1959) notes: "The first evidence for the possible existence of a church at Tusmore dates from 1074, when a grant (confirmed c. 1127) was made of a part of its tithes (see below). As the early manorial history of Tusmore was so closely interrelated with that of Hardwick and Stoke Lyne, it may be that the township's tithes belonged to one of these churches, but there is no evidence that this was so. No church building has survived at Tusmore and even its dedication is unknown, so neither can provide any clue to the early history of the church. The advowson is first mentioned in 1236 [...] Probably from the time of the depopulation of the village in the 14th century [...] Tusmore ceased to be an ordinary parish church. In the 15th century it is called a chapel or free chapel. [...] The Fermors did not need it as a place of worship; they, and often their dependants, were buried in the Fermor chapel at Somerton. [...] The Tusmore chapel probably ceased to be used in the 16th century. A church of unknown dedication existed by 1236. [...] It was at least partly rebuilt at a later date as fragments of 15th-century masonry have been found on the site. [...] It was probably no longer in use in the 16th century as it was not included in either of the two early 16th-century episcopal visitations, [...] or in the Edwardian inventories of church goods. [...] The building had certainly disappeared by 1718, [...] when Rawlinson visited the village."

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 625306 5758939

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2017-10-25 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.