Cassington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northwest of Oxford. The village lies on gravel strata about from the confluence of the River Evenlode with the River Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Worton northeast of the village and the site of the former hamlet of Somerford to the south. Somerford seems to have been abandoned early in the 14th century. Cassington is formed of two parts, "upper" and "lower", each with its own village green. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 750. Archaeology Evidence has been found of Neolithic occupation. Traces have been found of a Saxon settlement with buildings, a village boundary and a field system. Toponym Cassington's toponym is derived from the Old English Caersentun meaning "tun where cress grows". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Cersetone in the Oxfordshire hundred of Wootton. Manors In 1086 William the Conqueror's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux was the feudal overlord of Cassington. Cassington was divided into different manors. Odo granted the mesne lordship of the largest manor to Ilbert de Lacy and two smaller manors to Wadard, a knight in William's court. Ilbert de Lacy's manor at Cassington became part of the honour of Pontefract and passed to de Lacy's descendants, the Earls of Lincoln. When Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln died in 1311 the Pontefract manor at Cassington passed to his son-in-law Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster. Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster had no sons, so when he died in 1361 the Pontefract manor at Cassington passed to one of his daughters, Blanche of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. There is no surviving record of the lordship of this manor thereafter. By 1123 the mesne lord of one of Wadard's manors was King Henry I's chamberlain Geoffrey de Clinton. The mesne lordship was passed down to Geoffrey's descendants until 1242 when it was sold to the de Cauntelo family, who held it until 1356. No record of it survives thereafter. In 1317 William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu, then tenant of this manor, was licensed to crenellate his manor house. The house also had a moat and three fishponds. A mound southeast of the parish church marks the site of the house, and there are remains of the earthworks for the fishponds in a field to the south. By 1235 Wadard's