other manor at Cassington was part of the honour of Saint Valery, which by 1300 belonged to Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. However, by 1414 it was part of the Honour of Wallingford. By the end of the 12th century the mesne lordship of the manor had been divided and after 1247 the mesne lord of one part granted it to Godstow Abbey. The lordship of the other part changed hands down the centuries. In 1661 it was bought by Henry Allnut, and in 1711 his son (also Henry) sold it to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. In the 13th century Godstow Abbey acquired part of the Pontefract manor at Cassington as well as part of the St Valery manor. The abbey combined them in a single manor which it retained until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. The manor house was on the south side of the village, apparently where Thames Mead Farm now stands. The current farmhouse on the site bears a date stone of 1607. Church and chapel Geoffrey de Clinton built the Church of England parish church of Saint Peter in the Norman style before 1123. In 1318 Lady Montacute, who was a major benefactor of the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford, made Decorated Gothic additions to St Peter's: the west window of the nave, east window of the chancel, the broach spire and the upper part of the tower on which it rests. Fragments of Medieval wall painting from this period survive in the church, including a Doom over the Norman chancel arch. St Peter's church tower has a ring of six bells. James Keene of Bedford, whose bell-foundries included one at Woodstock, cast the third bell in 1640 and the fourth bell in 1652. His son Richard Keene cast the treble and fifth bells in 1665 and the tenor bell in 1666. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the second bell in 1953, the year of Elizabeth II's coronation. St Peter's is now part of the Benefice of Eynsham and Cassington. After 1827 a Methodist congregation developed in Cassington, with itinerant preachers holding meetings in villagers' cottages. In 1870 the congregation built its own Primitive Methodist chapel. The chapel had closed by 1982 and is now commercial premises. Economic and social history The parish's common lands were inclosed in 1801. In the 18th century the village had at least