Wheatley, Oxfordshire One Place Study
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Location: Wheatley, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Surnames/tags: One_Place_Studies England
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Wheatley, Oxfordshire One Place Study
Wheatley is a village in Oxfordshire, England about 5 miles east of Oxford. It includes the adjacent hamlet of Littleworth. The purpose of this One Place Study is to identify and record the lives of as many people as possible who lived in the village in the past. The current list of individuals included in the One Place Study can be viewed HERE (click any name to view more detail).
The current focus of the One Place Study is to document people who appear in Wheatley on the 1881 census. People outside this timescale may also be added where they are of particular interest or where they form a connection between different family groups.
A wealth of information about the history and inhabitants of the village is also available from the excellent Wheatley Village Archive. For general context about the village please see Victoria County History and Wikipedia.
Geography
- Continent: Europe
- Sovereign State: United Kingdom
- Country: England
- County: Oxfordshire
- GPS Coordinates: 51.747, -1.139
- Elevation: 80.0 m or 262.5 feet
Population (per census figures)
- 1851: 1,020
- 1871: 1,040
- 1881: 1,022
- 1891: 950
- 1901: 872
- 1911: 966
- 2011: 3,913
Notables
The following notable people are from (or lived in) Wheatley:
- The British Prime Minister Theresa (Brasier) May MP grew up in Wheatley
- The rock band Supergrass was formed in Wheatley in 1993
- Scottish poet William Julius (Meikle) Mickle (1735-1788) settled in Wheatley after marrying his wife Mary who was from nearby Forest Hill
- Comic actor Julian Orchard (1930-1979) was born in Wheatley, where his father worked as the local GP for many years
- John Mansel Miller GCVO DSO MC was a British Army officer and Crown Equerry who lived at Shotover House, just outside Wheatley.
Wheatley in the 1880s
There are 1,022 individuals listed on the 1881 census for Wheatley (544 males and 478 females). They are split across 242 households.
As of January 2024 about 90% of the individuals from the 1881 Wheatley census have been added to Wikitree.
Significant members of the local community in 1881 include:
| Name | Role | Details |
| Rev Edward Elton | Vicar | Vicar of Wheatley 1849-1884, lived at what is now the local GP surgery. |
| Alexander Samuel Lysaght Newington | Doctor | Village doctor for approx 5 years before returning to his native Sussex to run the mental health hospital established by his great grandfather. Signatory on formation of the Howe Trust. Slayer of tigers. |
| PC Thomas Savings | Police constable | Born at Water Eaton, settled in Wheatley with his second wife Elizabeth (a former servant at Waterperry House). |
| Matthew Charles Tubb | Census enumerator | Completed the 45 pages of the 1881 census for Wheatley. |
| Joseph Hussey Cooper | Owner of brickworks | Lived at Old House, Westfield Road. Manufactured bricks from local clay and provided employment to 18 local men and women. Had 14 children with wife Mary Jane who was from the Isle of Wight. |
| George Cripps | Windmill owner | Owner of 2 windmills which ground wheat and ochre, one of which still stands in the modern day and is a distinctive feature of the village. |
| William Hancock | Station master | Originally from Wiltshire, moved to Wheatley in the mid-1860s. |
| John Russell | Postmaster | From Cuddesdon. Following his death in 1889 his wife Margaret was postmistress. |
| Lt Col James Miller and Mrs Sarah D Miller | Owners of Shotover House and Estate (just outside Wheatley) | James Miller purchased Shotover in 1871. Mrs Miller made a generous gift to the people of Wheatley by funding construction of the Merry Bells, still in use as a community facility in modern times. |
| William Earle Biscoe | Owner of the Holton Park Estate (just outside Wheatley) | Born in Berkshire, great nephew of Elisha Biscoe who had purchased the estate in 1800. William inherited the estate on the death of his maiden aunts. |
In addition to the above individuals who lived in/ just outside Wheatley on the 1881 census Edward William Harcourt (1825-1891) was the MP for the local constituency. He lived at Nuneham Courtenay.
Other interesting individuals who appear on the 1881 census:
| Name | Details |
| Joseph Slaymaker | Joseph was a 6 year old boy on the 1881 census, 4 years later he stole a purse from the vicar's house and as punishment was detained at an 'industrial school' for boys on a ship anchored 1/2 a mile off the coast from Portishead. He went on to serve his country in WW1 and died in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1918 having been promoted to the rank of Acting Sergeant Major. |
| Alice Maud Tubb | Alice's father was the local registrar of births and deaths and completed the 1881 census for Wheatley. Sadly both he and Alice's mother died within a few years of this leaving Alice and her 4 siblings orphans. Alice spent time in a London orphanage before returning to Wheatley and becoming postmistress. |
| Eliza Gould | Eliza supported women in her community as a midwife. On 2 occasions she appears in the local press on charges of concealment of a birth. Two women she attended (one of them her own daughter) had babies who did not survive and the births were not registered and bodies not properly disposed of (one was buried in a back garden in Crown Road the other secretly added to the coffin of another infant). Eliza and the 2 mothers were charged with concealment of a birth but found not guilty. |
| Various: men of Wheatley who died in WW1 | Most of the Wheatley men who died in WW1 were not yet born in 1881, however a small number were and appear on the census. In addition many of the parents of those who died appear. For further details see Wheatley War Memorial |
| Various: Wheatley residents in the Workhouse | Headington Union Workhouse was the local workhouse. In the 1881 census one Wheatley resident was employed at the Workhouse (Elizabeth Gomm) and 4 people born in Wheatley & Littleworth were workhouse inmates: Ferdinando Cooper, William Munt (81), Henry Stow (76), Jane Currill (38, stated to be an 'imbecile' of Littleworth) |
| Various: Petty crime | Local newspapers of the time record a number of residents involved (or alleged to be involved) in petty crime, including:
|
Wheatley folk around the world
A number of families and individuals who lived in Wheatley in the past left the village to emigrate or to fight in wars overseas. One way to explore some of these locations and stories is the map of birth and death locations available HERE (zooming in on individual dots on the map will reveal the name of the individuals who were born or died there)
Sources
- Bygone Wheatley, A History of Wheatley from Roman Times, Michael Heaton on behalf of Wheatley Village Archive, 2020
- List of relevant research resources for Wheatley at Family Search
- Wikidata: Item Q1997905
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