Tackley History Mysteries No. 11
Angelino’s Corner
Angelino’s (or possibly Angelina’s) Corner, now the site of a water pumping
station, is one of the more unusual place names in Tackley — along with
Crecy Hill, Bunkers Hill and
Gibraltar. So far, there has been no satisfactory explanation of its
origin.
One suggestion is that it derives from the name of a keeper of the toll
gate, Sansom’s Gate, on the turnpike road from London to Worcester — Angela
perhaps. The toll house used to be just opposite the site of the pumping
station on the western corner of the Wootton and Woodstock roads. The
section of the road between Enslow Bridge and Rollright was taken over by a
turnpike trust in 1730. The gate house was demolished not long after 1878
when the trust was disbanded and the road came under public ownership.
However, there is no one with a name remotely similar to Angelino associated
with the toll gate; and none of the census returns for 1841 to 1881 list any
likely names.
Another possible origin has come to light while I have been searching among
local field names for evidence of Neolithic long barrows in and around
Tackley. Medieval field and place names that end in hlaw,
laue, lawe, law, low or lowe indicate the
presence of a burial mound. Cutteslowe, for example, means the long barrow
of Cutha, a leader of the West Saxons who died in 584.
We know that there were three long barrows
on either side of the Banbury Road less than a kilometre from the
pumping station. The boundary between the parishes of Tackley and
Shipton-on-Cherwell lies 200 metres to the south of the toll gate, and
four of the old names of Shipton fields in this area indicate the presence
of barrows: Brokenlowe, Coppedelowe, Littlelowe and Angelowe. It is not
impossible to imagine that Angelino’s is a corruption of Angelowe. A mystery
solved?
Research and text: John Perkins.
Published: 2021
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