Seacourt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seacourt is a lost village near Botley in Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire). Its name comes from the Old English, and apparently means the homestead of a man called Seofeca[1]. The village was first mentioned in a charter of 957, and was also mentioned in the Domesday Book, but by 1439 all the houses in the parish except two were ruined and uninhabited[2].

The parish of Seacourt continued in existence until 1900, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Wytham.

The village site was excavated between 1937 and 1939.[3]

Seacourt Farm survived to 1963[4], but nothing remains of the village today, except a few bumps in the fields. The name is remembered in Seacourt Stream, the Seacourt Bridge pub by Seacourt Road, Seacourt Tower and the nearby Park and Ride car park.

  1. ^ Ekwall, E (1964), Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names.
  2. ^ Victoria County History, Berkshire.
  3. ^ Report in Oxoniensia, Vol. 5
  4. ^ Hanson, J (1995), The Changing Faces of Botley and North Hinksey, Robert Boyd Publications