I picked up a copy of "The Buildings of England - Berkshire" by Nikolaus Pevsner the other day (ISBN 0140710302 published 1966, reprint 1975), here's what he had to say about Great Coxwell:

ST GILES. At the end of the village. Nave of c.1200. The N wall has two small lancets. In the S wall a jolly lot of odd windows, the earliest early C14 (with cinquefoiled rere-arch). The chancel N side of the same date as the nave, though the chancel arch must be mid C13, the s window with bar tracery (a spherical triangle) later C13, and the E window (three stepped pointed-trefoiled lights under a round arch) late C13. Inside the E window two plain lancet niches. Do they go with the N side? A window like the E window also in the tower W wall, but the top of the tower is Perp; battlements and gargoyles.  - PULPIT. Jacobean.  - COMMUNION RAIL. Later C17, with flat balusters of dumb-bell outline. - NORTH DOOR with impressive, large-scale tracery. It might well be of c.1300.  - STAINED GLASS. In the E window clear glass panes with engraved shields. 1792 by Eginton. - PLATE. Chalice inscribed 1680; Paten probably of the same date. BRASS to William Morys, c.1500; 18 in. figures.

COURT FARMHOUSE. Late C17 stone farmhouse. Front of five bays, the ground-floor windows with stone crosses. Pitched roof. To the farmhouse belongs the magnificent BARN which William Morris (whose country-house was only a few miles away at Kelmscott) called 'as noble as a cathedral'. It is of stone and roofed with stone slates, and is 1524 ft long and 51 ft high. The date is C13. The buttresses are still shallow, also in their set-offs. Entrances by a transept and an archway opposite the transept. The archways are segment-headed and have two continuous chamfers Posts divide the barn into nave and aisles. The coillare and straight braces, transverse in well as longitudinal, are strong and serviceable and entirely utilitarian.

In an Addendum added August 1965:

.. attention must be drawn .. to the explanation of the grandeur of the Great Coxwell barn by the fact of Great Coxwell Manor belonging to the Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu in Hamphire

Back in 1986 there was a project to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book, the previous post with the photo had me wondering whether the photo was from 1986.

Anyway I tracked down the entry for Great Coxwell from the national archives and you can review it here:

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20120318181300/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-424000-192000

Quite an interesting read and certainly of it's time.
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I've been passed a couple of photos by a villager who is keen to know when they were taken, there are definitely some current villagers in the photo.

​Probably best viewed on computer rather than a phone, if you click on the image below it will take you to the high resolution image and you can zoom in to spot the faces.

Please let me know ([email protected]) if you spot yourself and others and I will try to fill in all the names and republish it.

But more importantly in order to settle a bet we need to know when it was taken, what was the occasion and year?
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Email me at [email protected] with any information you have, thanks in advance.
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The current incarnation of the nativity scene up at the Great Barn started in 1999, and even with one pause in 2020 its been running for more than 25 years.

Jennifer has kindly shared some photos with us so I am adding them here.

You can read about the history of the nativity scene in an older post here. In it Ian Beckwith talks about finding some small ceramic nativity figures in the vestry, Joy Lee talks about being inspired by seeing life-size figures of the Nativity in Prague and Jennifer Norman talks about how the current incarnation came about with help from Geoff Lee, John Rounce, Richard May, Peter Turner and Helen Anderson and others no doubt.

The nativity scene and figures have had running repairs over the years, but apart from the Angel and sheep, are broadly the same as they were 26 years ago - a testament to the creativity, ingenuity and hard work of the original barn team and the tenacity of the current team to keep them going.

There were also some Christmas cards produced in the past to help with fund raising, one from 2011 and one from 2015 - both from photos by John Rounce.

Click on an image below to see it full-size, it may take a while to load as the images are quite big.
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For those that were not able to attend the Remembrance Sunday Service at the War Memorial on Sunday 9th November 2025, you can find the words spoken about James Wearn on his page here, along with a more detailed biography and links to relevant artefacts and further information.

I've also taken the time to update the information about Tom Titcombe, who was spoken about back in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of The Armistice, you can find that information on Tom's page here. With much help from a distant relative of Tom's (Richard Titcombe) we've been able to fill in the gaps, I think it's a fascinating tale of Great Coxwell life from the late 19th into the 20th century.

If you have any more stories or information on these 2 soldiers, or any of the soldiers commemorated on the memorial (you can find a list here) please email me.

For those new to the village you might like to know that in remembrance of the soldiers of Great Coxwell the streets on the development on land of Steeds Farm were named for them. The land formed part of the Parish of Great Coxwell before the development and the Parish Council were asked to name the streets, now called Fern Hill Gardens, James H Wearn and James L Wearn were commemorated with a road name (Wearn Road) on the opposite side of the Coxwell Road.

Many thanks,

Gavin Anderson - biographical research
Robbie Burns - militrary research

Historic England has a great collection of photos, some of which show Great Coxwell, mostly the barn and church - the ones from 1895 show how much has changed.

I've put them on a new Local History page - here.

I recently received a lovely email from Janet Longstreeth (was Morse) who lived in Great Coxwell between 1945 and 1969.

"The lady that ran the post office was  Mrs Sweetland and her daughter Phyllis was my friend. I also  remember Mr & Mrs Hunter who ran the Royal Oak; and the old lady who had the shop next to The Laurels was called Miss Roberts. The Laurels was my family home, we were the Morse family. The house is now I think called Warrene house. I also have a painting of the house done during the 2nd world war by Fred Jarchow and wondered if this was the same person mentioned in the letter who did paintings in a shed [as referred to here]. I also remember Mr Cox and his milk round with his pony."

If you have anything to add or would like to share any memories of Great Coxwell for the website please email [email protected].

I am told that some of you will remember Bob Miles who used to farm pigs at the top of Puddleduck Lane.  Bob passed away on 7th March and is to be buried with his late wife in our churchyard on Maundy Thursday, 6th April at 12 noon.
 
His daughter, who grew up in the village, and her family would welcome anyone from the village who remembers Bob to join them at his funeral. 
 
Pat
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The Vale’s conservation area appraisal of Great Coxwell is now published on the District Council’s website https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/conservationareadocuments

You can access the PDF document by clicking this link.

Great excitement today as I found and read a copy of the neighbourhood plan for above. I recently visited Great coxwell with my son and grandson when we dropped said grandson in Oxford to study and couldn’t resist bringing them to see where I lived for a few years and attended the village school during the 2nd world war. Myself and my brother and sister went to live with my aunt and uncle who lived in the house (I believe now divided into 3) i.e. I believe from the map Jenners and Pear Tree Farm and I believe properties on either side are listed, attached to what was then the public house called “The Royal Oak“. My mother had died (we lived in Cheshire I believe,) at the age of 32, and I was aged 4 and young as I was I have many memories of my time there I think that the pub was open only occasionally and I think my uncle ran it when open as he also work at Watchfield (I think an army base) as well. My uncle and aunt were named Harold and Doris Hunter. I remember the school and how we wrote on slates and sand trays also there was only one teacher for the whole school. Our milk was delivered in churns in a pony and cart that we labelled Cox's cavalry as it was Mr Cox who drove it he lived in the village and I believe sold black market cigarettes from his back door. I well remember the church and actually my grandfather Captain Clark who fought in the Boer War, also was in India where his daughter was born i.e. Doris Hunter, is buried in the village churchyard I also remember the Americans who sometimes came to the pub bringing chocolate and gum and silk stockings to us!! We had the VE party on our lawn and the whole of the occupants of Great Coxwell came to tea and I still have the China that was used. Post office was run by a Mrs Swindles who had a daughter called Phyllis, and coincidentally I saw in the neighbourhood plan a desire for a village shop. Well in my day there was one, and the elderly lady who ran it dressed in a long dress and bonnet, there was very little stock in the shop and she kept the money in an OXO tin. We also had a boy billeted with us from the east end of London called Alfie who much to my aunt's delight became as a son to her. We also had a prisoner of war came every day to help in the garden, a very large garden complete with a stream. Pigs and goats as there were no other houses behind ours and as you can imagine it was a large garden. He too became as one of the family and painted many lovely oil paintings in our stables and back at his presumably close by POW camp. I have many more memories, in fact more than I have of my recent past also a few photos if you are interested. My name is Mrs Kay Creed nee Clark (address withheld - Editor). I am in my 80s but think my memory is not too bad. I also remember the pump! Since writing this I have amazed myself as to how much more as a small child I can remember  I must say having seen your wonderful Reading Room teas I am tempted to "come to tea" one day. I will continue to try and remember more of Great Coxwell in the war and perhaps write my musings down. It is obviously a much larger place now than it was at the beginning of the war but I do remember it being a very friendly caring village with many celebrations, parties and fancy dress events. Of course nearly all knew what the others did!

Kindest regards to Great Coxwell and all its inhabitants you live in a very beautiful village.
Kay Creed