South Leigh

Manor

South Leigh was not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but was recorded in 1190 as Stanton Lega.

The manor house was built in the second half of the 16th century. It is now called Church Farm House.

In the middle of the 17th century William Gore acquired the manor. The Gores consolidated South Leigh as a separate estate within Stanton Harcourt parish, but this led to a series of disputes over landholdings intermixed between the two. When Stanton Harcourt's common lands were being enclosed in 1773, its enclosure commissioners suggested promoting a single Parliamentary bill to enclose both estates. Edward Gore and his tenants in South Leigh disagreed due to the unresolved boundary disputes and consequent disagreement over what lands would be allotted to whom under the enclosure award. Instead Stanton Harcourt's enclosure commissioners were empowered to settle a definitive boundary between the two estates.

Church of England

The Church of England parish church of Saint James the Great began as a chapel of the parish of Stanton Harcourt, and remained so until 1868. The oldest parts of the church building date from the latter part of the 12th century. The present chancel arch was built about 1300, the tower arch was built during the 14th century and the south doorway of the nave dates from about 1400. The church building was extensively altered in the 15th century: the north aisle and chapel were added, the bell tower was completed, and new windows were inserted in the south and east walls of the chancel.

In 1871–72 the architect Ewan Christian restored the chancel and C. C. Rolfe began restoring the nave. Rolfe's cousin H. W. Moore completed the nave restoration in 1887-88. During the restoration extensive 15th century wall paintings were discovered. They include a Doom painting over the chancel arch, the seven deadly sins, Saint Michael weighing souls, the Virgin Mary (originally part of an Annunciation scene) and a rare painting of Saint Clement. Burlison and Grylls heavily restored the paintings, re-drawing the weighing of souls at twice its original size.

St. James' tower has a ring of eight bells, all of which were cast by Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1907. The church has also a Sanctus bell cast by an unknown founder in about 1399.

Methodist

John Wesley preached in South Leigh in 1771. A small Methodist congregation was established in the village by 1817, and met in private houses until it had its own chapel built in 1876. By 1968 the chapel was used for worship only once a month, and in 1969 it was sold. It is now a private house.

Economic and social history

Somewhen after 1773 the Gores sold South Leigh estate to John Sibthorp. In 1792, a generation after Stanton Harcourt's enclosure, two thirds of South Leigh's land remained unenclosed. Sibthorp obtained an Act of Parliament that led to their enclosure in 1793. About 1,663 acres (673 ha) were enclosed, of which the commissioners awarded 1,233 acres (499 ha) to Sibthorp. South Leigh had coppices of pollarded elms to supply wood for various purposes. Between 1793 and 1795 Sibthorp had more than 3,000 trees around the estate, most of them pollarded elms, were felled to make fences for the new enclosures. Sibthorp wrote that in the first ten months after the enclosure award:

I have worked up between 2000 and 3000 trees to posts and rails for my enclosure, besides a great quantity of timber used in the general repair of the farmhouses and cottage. I have quicked near upon 100 furlongs and fenced with posts and rails one-half of it. Gates and gateposts on the enclosures. I had three teams of horses constantly employed during the summer, yet unequal to my work.

The Sibthorps felled large timber trees as well as wood, and early in the 19th century there were two major auctions of ash, elm and oak.

The Witney Railway was built through the parish and opened in 1861. South Leigh railway station served the parish until 1962, when British Railways withdrew passenger services from the line. BR closed the line to freight traffic in 1970 and the track was dismantled sometime thereafter.

St. James' National School was built in 1871 and was reorganised as a junior school in 1931. Declining numbers of pupils led to the school being closed down in 1946. The former school building is now the village hall.

St. James' College next to the parish church was founded in 1875 as a preparatory school. By 1923 it had become an orphanage, Holyrood Hospital.

Mason Arms

South Leigh had a public house: the Mason Arms, whose landlord from 1995 until 2013 was Gerry Stonhill. He ran it as a gastropub, with a traditional French menu and Old World wine list that were commended by Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White. The Mason Arms had a number of celebrity customers and its facilities included a helipad for customers.

Stonhill is a cigar smoker who allowed his customers to continue smoking indoors in defiance of the ban on smoking in public buildings in England introduced in 2007 under the Health Act 2006. In April 2008 West Oxfordshire District Council successfully prosecuted Mr Stonhill at Witney Magistrates' Court, which imposed five separate fines and prosecution costs totalling £5,750. After his conviction Mr Stonhill told news reporters: "You make up what you want, old boy. I'm not making any comment, except Tony Blair can stick his anti-smoking law up his arse". However, he also conceded that thereafter he would comply with the law.

In May 2013 Stonhill closed the Mason Arms and offered it for sale. A pub company agreed to buy it but withdrew in October 2013 shortly before it was due to exchange contracts. In 2014 Stonhill took over the Railway Arms in Fairford, Gloucestershire. Since his departure from South Leigh, the Mason Arms has not reopened.

South Leigh residents and their Parish Council fear that the new owner, John Rodger, would like planning permission to convert the pub into a house and build more homes on the rest of the site. In 2015 they got the Mason Arms listed as an asset of community value under 2012 regulations arising from the Localism Act 2011. They hope this will deter a change of use, and encourage Mr Rodger to sell the Mason Arms to the village to be a community pub.