Leafield
Leafield is a village and civil parish about northwest of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Langley, west of Leafield village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 945. The village is above sea level in the Cotswold Hills. It was the highest point in Oxfordshire until the 1974 county boundary changes enlarged the county.
Archaeology
There are a number of tumuli in the parish, including Leafield Barrow, locally called Barry's Hill Tump, on top of the hill just to the north of the village. Leafield Barrow also has archaeological evidence for being the site of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle called Leafield Castle. The castle would be situated at a position in the village which would have given it a commanding view of the settlement. There are visible earthworks present which would add to the castle's defensive capability. The castle is believed to form a similar shape to that of Ascot d'Oilly Castle.History
The parish is within the former limits of the Wychwood forest. The area of forest south of Langley was cleared in 1857–58, leaving straight, regular field boundaries typical of the 18th and 19th century enclosures. The village has the remains of a medieval preaching cross. The steps and lower part of its base are old. A new Gothic Revival shaft and top were added in 1873 in thanksgiving for the village escaping a smallpox epidemic. King James I stayed at Langley in August 1605.Leafield was a dependent chapelry of the ecclesiastical parish of Shipton-under-Wychwood until the 19th century. Leafield's Church of England parish church of Saint Michael and All Angels was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, built in 1859 and consecrated in 1860. The bell tower was completed in 1874 and has a ring of six bells, all cast that year by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. St. Michael's is now a member of the Forest Edge Benefice.
Leafield Church of England Primary School opened in 1839. It was expanded by the building of additional classrooms in 1871, 1897 and 1904. The 1871 classroom was designed by the architect C.C. Rolfe. Leafield's school district was expanded in 1873 to include Asthall, Langley and Wychwood. Leafield C of E School resisted Oxfordshire County Council's attempts to reorganise it as a junior school until after the Second World War. The school's catchment area was expanded in 1986 to include Ascott-under-Wychwood.