| Court Place may
have hidden parts that are very old indeed, and has a plaque with the initials
of John Lewis, 1580. The main drawing room and entrance hall are in late
18th-century style and, as such, would have been enjoyed by the Nowell family
after 1810. They are now enjoyed by postgraduates of the University, which
bought the house in 1965. (For some former occupiers of Court Place, see
Iffley People when added.)
Iffley perversely calls another
house "The Manor House" but this is it, and the place where
the manorial court was held. The Manor of Iffley, held by the St Remy
family in the 12th century, passed through numerous hands until it was
given by Richard II's queen to Sir Richard Abberbury. In 1393, he founded
almshouses at Donnington, Berkshire, where his castle was, and endowed
them with the rents from Iffley. The Donnington Hospital has been Iffley's
largest landowner ever since.
The Manor did not include the
whole township; there was also the estate that went with the Rectory (see
4), and two estates belonging to Lincoln College – one that went
with the Mill (see 3) and a farming estate with the house called The Manor
House (see 17). Other Oxford colleges had small amounts of land.
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