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The village and civil parish of Thorpe Mandeville lies in the hills South Northamptonshire approximately 6 miles northeast of Banbury, Oxfordshire. The population of the village has rarely exceeded 200 souls for the past several centuries.

Thorpe Mandeville sits on Banbury Lane, an historic livestock drover’s road still in use through at least the early 19th century. It runs 22 miles from west of Banbury to Northampton. The Three Cronies public house was built in 1622 and provided overnight lodging to the drovers and their livestock. It remains open today.

Thorpe Mandeville may have originated as a Danish settlement after the Danes invaded England in the 9th century. The Domesday Book records the village as Thorp in 1086. The village had a parish church by the end of the 11th century. It was part of the endowments to the Cluniac priory of the Abbey of La Charité-sur-Loire, founded at Preston Capes in 1090.

The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, although it is likely the site was a holy place centuries before the building of the church. Supporting this theory is a massive yew tree in the churchyard, which is well over 1000 years old. Most of the church building today dates from the early 14th century. Windows in the chancel date to 1300, and wall paintings date from the 14th and 15th centuries. One of the tower’s three bells was cast in 1636 according to its inscription.

Opposite the Manor on Bulls Lane is the former Rectory of the parish church, home to the Humfrey family fro 1727 to 1902. The Rectory also served as a boarding school during the late 1800s. The Rectory was sold to private parties in 1923, and is now Thorpe Mandeville Court.

The “Mandeville” part of the village name comes from Richard de Amundeville, lord of the manor in the 13th century. Richard received a license for a weekly market and annual village fair in 1281. The manor house and land at Thorpe Mandeville were listed as part of the Augustinian priory of Chacombe’s estates in 1346. The great Battle of Danes Moor was fought in 1469 just yards from Thorpe in the adjoining parish of Edgecote.

During the Civil War, the lord of the manor was Thomas Kirton. Kirton’s wife Mary was a first cousin of Oliver Cromwell, and Cromwell garrisoned the manor during the War. King Charles stayed at the next village of Culworth while his troops stayed at the manor house. The Kirtons occupied the Thorpe Mandeville manor house from 1554 until 1685.

The village and parish were so small and sparsely populated that it came under the Poor Law Commissioner’s “closed village” definition. The village development depended on the lord of the manor for homes, work and church sites. It was not until well into the 20th century that many of the homes and lands were released from the church estates and manor holdings.

The current manor house was constructed of ironstone in the early 1700s, replacing the former manor house, which stood west of the church. The earthworks of the original manor house are still visible. The current house served as a boy’s preparatory school in the late 1800s. After the school closed in 1882, the lord of the manor, William Peareth, again occupied the house.  

During the Second World War, Army personnel were billeted throughout the parish. Tanks were stationed in the village, and concrete reinforcements were put in place to shore up the lanes. Electricity did not come to Thorpe Mandeville until 1949, and even the medieval open fields were not enclosed until recent years.

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