Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide -
Castle Eaton,
Map: Castle Eaton
By a swingbridge over the canal and a walk of a mile or so along Thames' side you cross the River into Castle Eaton; Ayton,
they call it. About half way the River becomes a county boundary for the first time in its course, except for about half a
mile, higher up, in the neighbourhood of Hailstone Hill above Cricklade; an office it never again loses.
During a freezing shower from the east,"which glazed the very plumage of the birds with ice," nineteen rooks were taken up
alive in Castle Eaton meadow on the nineteenth of January, 1809. Here Leland noted "Eiton Castelle, wher great Ruines of a
Building in Wyleshire, as in ulteriori ripa remayne yet. . . . Eiton the Lord Zouche's Castelle. " Nothing now exists of
these ruins, but they were of Lord Zouche's castle, a fortress which gave the village the first word of its present name. De
la Zouche is a Norman title which looms huge and vague out of the mists of centuries; but I find nothing salient about the
family, and this little village is not mentioned in such records of their possessions as I have searched. You know, however,
the Leicestershire town which incorporates their name in its own. I hear of another old title for the village: Eaton
Maizey. The Maizeys are said to have held in the twelfth century; their name survives at Meysey Hampton. Probably the
lowering battlements and heavy sullen name of de Ia Zouche crushed their memory out of existence. One Eva is said to have
been the last of them, and to have been buried at Meysey Hampton.
A very new and very hideous trough of a bridge spans the water here at Castle Eaton. Who was it said that whenever a new
bridge is built across the Thames it is sure to be of iron, and red, and hideous? Who would not weep for Sonning? though
since Sonning matters have improved a little; the railway bridge at Shiplake and the rebuilt one at Nuneham are a quite
harmonious green. Perhaps the shaft of ridicule pierced even the aes triplex of a railway company. Would that little Castle
Eaton had not been too early to share in the improvement; a village with a past much more important than its present aspect
indicates.
The church of St. Mary overlooks the River as closely as Eaton Hastings; and if Kempsford be splendid, surely the
thirteenth century sanctus bellcote here is delightful. These saints' bells were "always rung out when the priest came to
that part of the service: Sancte, Sancte, Domine Deus Sabaoth; purposely that they who could not come to church might
understand what a solemn office the congregation were at that instant engaged in and be moved to lift up their hearts to Him
that made them. " The original bell is still here and in use, found in the west tower and replaced in quite modern times; a
circumstance perhaps almost unique in England. There is a mutilated cross at the entrance of the churchyard path and how the
grand expanse of the high-pitched nave roof holds the eye all along the River meadows! There are some Early English arches
with a curious zigzag border upon them; you may see the same pattern upon a Norman arch in St. Mary's, Cricklade. Do not
miss the fine hagioscope, nor the quite handsome Early English piscina. You will find here, as so commonly, a Norman south
door; and in the nave are some wooden columns, and a very unusual fluted wooden pillar surmounted with a shield bearing a
coat-of-arms. It is dated 1704, and is a rather fine piece of work, having formerly helped to support the gallery at the
west end of the church. Rescued from neglect, like the sanctus bell, it now stands where you may see it; a memorial perhaps
of the family of Tracy-Goddard. The beautiful old font with a flowing Greek pattern is also notable; it is altogether a
handsome little church of great interest.
The Red Lion inn stands, they say, upon part of the site of the Zouche castle. They used to throw a wooden bridge across
from the rectory meadow to the Bowstead on the village feast day, so that folk might disport themselves and return in
comfort. The custom was discontinued about 1894, and the ancient feast itself is dying out.
There is a tradition that a savage trail crossed the ford at Castle Eaton; a branch from the Way the Romans paved between
Spinae and Cirencester. This branch passed here, and went through Marston Meysey and Poulton on to Cirencester; "guarded
probably by the earthworks at Poulton and Ranbury. " But the story sounds a little vague. Ireland mentions an old mill at
Castle Eaton; perhaps the one that Taunt marks the site of about half a mile above the church. Not a single stone or other
trace could I find. Mr. Taunt says of this reach: "in the past the stream murmured through a rush-covered bed, the rushes
often so high as to hide the boat to its very mast pole, and right across the river as close as a well grown field of
standing corn."
Along Marston Meadow, and about half a mile above the site of the mill, a little stream runs in from Marston Meysey; and at
a further half mile you will find the backwater on the left bank called by the curious name of Cow Neck. It may possibly be
the ancient bed of the Thames; but the junction is now filled in, or at least earthed and grown over, and you may walk
across on fairly firm ground; so that from the water you would probably miss it altogether. It is written of as very deep,
and a favourite resort of fishermen. A Cricklade man, discontented with the tame methods and slow results of ordinary
angling, once managed, it is said, to bore a series of holes in the bank below the surface of the water, in which the fish
loved to conceal themselves, whereupon he would secure them by diving and scooping them out with his hands. It would not be
advisable, I think, to attempt much diving now; I remember only the clear dark central opening among the thick reeds and the
lilies.
Leaving Cow Neck you go almost due south for a mile and a half. All along, though the water is generally very shallow, a
mere thread sometimes between miniature sandbanks, the channel is quite wide and the banks high. At the bend where you turn
west again stands the new Water Eaton House, on the right bank, just below an iron footbridge.
[In Additions and Corrections Fred adds: This old manor house at Water Eaton had a tradition attaching to it that it was a
"house of mercy" connected with Oxford. There are remains of fish-ponds adjacent, you can trace the dry bed of the stream
that fed them; and carved stone was found in it at demolition. It looks interestingly as though Godstow actually had
perhaps a cell upon their property here. ]
Of the ruins some of the books speak of I could see no sign from across the River except an isolated pillar carrying a ball
of stone. Close here stood Water Eaton church, whose site cowsheds now occupy. An old man of Latton is remembered who in
his youth saw the gravestones lying about in heaps.
[ Fred, in Additions and Corrections, adds: Big slabs and broken fragments of carved stone still remain upon the ground in
this pathetic spot. ]
I learnt of this destruction only upon my last visit and it explained part of the misdirection I had suffered previously
going to Hannington from Cricklade, of which I still have to tell you.
Just above Water Eaton the Ray comes in upon the right bank: a muddy brook. And higher Thames indeed diminishes, dwindling
gradually from a little river to a streamlet both in width and depth, but brighter than below the junction of the Ray.
Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide -
Castle Eaton,
Map: Castle Eaton