Easington, Banbury, Oxfordshire

Easington, Poets Corner and the Timms estate are three interconnecting estates in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Easington is a ward and former Mediaeval village in the south-west of the market town of Banbury. Easington, which was a rural estate attached to the former Calthorpe Manor, was first mentioned in 1279. Its demesne lands were subsequently leased out over the years.

In 1505 the Easington estate was leased out for a rent fee for 15 years to Anne, the relict of the lord, Sir William Danvers and after her death in 1520 a new lease for 40 years was made to the local mercer, William Pierson. Laurence Pierson was farmer of Easington from 1540 to 1541 and by 1545 the lease had family passed to John Crocker of Hook Norton, to hold let his son-in-law Edward Hawten use it for a rent. The Bishop of Lincoln's vast Banbury estate, except for Neithrop and Calthorpe, was sold to the Duke of Somerset in 1547, but by 1550 he granted it (except for of Hardwick) to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, then the Duke of Northumberland shortly afterward, who in 1551 granted it to the Crown in exchange for other lands. After 1551 the lordship of Easington seems to have remained with the Crown as no one took up the rent or apparently owned the letting rights.

The Barber family were local landlords, who let out their Easington estate's lands, examples being Little Wood close was leased to a local man in 1690, the adjacent lands in Berrymoor to another in 1692, and some 16 acres in Farm Field to yet another in 1691. by 1728, the Berrymoor lands were leased along with the first Berrymoor Farm, and some 30 acres of land along with and ½ yard land in Farm Field to the same owner. As of 1734, a large portion of the estate (including Easington Farm and 93 acres of arable land) was leased to a local man, in 1760 a further 30 acres were included in the lease lands of Easington Farm, and in 1787 the whole lease lands of 147 acres of the adjacent Farm field and several village closes were included in the deal from 1799 onwards. The Barber family's property in Easington was thus farmed as a whole by successive tenants until late Victorian times.

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