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The Manor

Flora Thompson
& Lark Rise

Old Manor Farm immortalised in one of England's best-loved portraits of rural life, the "old Tudor farmhouse with its stone, mullioned windows and reputed dungeon."

Literary Heritage

Featured in
Lark Rise to Candleford

Old Manor Farm appears by description in Flora Thompson's celebrated trilogy Lark Rise to Candleford, one of the most vivid accounts of Victorian rural life ever written.

Flora Thompson (1876–1947) grew up in Juniper Hill, a small hamlet less than two miles from Cottisford. Her loosely autobiographical account of childhood in north Oxfordshire uses fictional names for real places, but the buildings, lanes and characters she described were drawn directly from life.

Cottisford appears in the book as "Fordlow," the larger mother village to the hamlet of "Lark Rise" (Juniper Hill). In her description of Fordlow, Thompson records the manor house of Old Manor Farm with unmistakable clarity.

The Oxfordshire countryside, the pastoral landscape Flora Thompson immortalised in Lark Rise to Candleford
Page from Lark Rise to Candleford: Chapter III, Men Afield, describing the village of Fordlow and its old Tudor farmhouse

Lark Rise to Candleford: Chapter III, Men Afield. The passage describing Fordlow (Cottisford) and its manor house, as written by Flora Thompson.

The Reference

The Old Tudor
Farmhouse

In Chapter III of Lark Rise, titled "Men Afield," Thompson describes a walk through the village of Fordlow. Among the church, the rectory and the scattered cottages, she writes:

"…then the old Tudor farmhouse with its stone, mullioned windows and reputed dungeon. These, with the school and about a dozen cottages occupied by the shepherd, carter, blacksmith, and a few other superior farm-workers, made up the village."

Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford (1945), Chapter III, Men Afield

The "old Tudor farmhouse" is Old Manor Farm. The "stone, mullioned windows" survive to this day. The "reputed dungeon" reflects local folklore that had long attached itself to the building, one of those village stories passed down through generations, lending the old farm a certain mystery in the telling.

Thompson's brief mention places the farm in the same literary landscape as the fields, the church and the people she grew up among, giving it a presence not just in England's architectural heritage but in its rural literary memory.

About the Author

Flora Thompson
1876–1947

Flora Jane Thompson was born in Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire in 1876, the hamlet she would immortalise as "Lark Rise." The daughter of a stonemason, she grew up in rural poverty but possessed a sharp, observant intelligence and a deep love of the countryside around her.

She began writing late in life, publishing Lark Rise in 1939, Over to Candleford in 1941, and Candleford Green in 1943. The three volumes were combined and published as Lark Rise to Candleford in 1945, just two years before her death. The book is now considered a masterpiece of English rural writing: unsentimental, precise, and deeply humane.

The places she described, Juniper Hill, Cottisford, Fringford, still exist, largely unchanged. Old Manor Farm remains the most significant historic building among them: a Grade I Listed survivor of the world she knew as a child, now held in trust for those who come after.

The Real Places

Fiction &
Reality

Thompson used fictionalised names throughout Lark Rise to Candleford, but the places were real and remain identifiable today.

In the book

Lark Rise

The hamlet where Laura (Flora) grew up, a cluster of cottages "on the edge of a wide, flat, lonely plain."

In reality

Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire

A small hamlet approximately 1.5 miles from Cottisford, where Flora Thompson was born and raised.

In the book

Fordlow

The "mother village", larger than Lark Rise, with a church, rectory, school, and the old Tudor farmhouse.

In reality

Cottisford, Oxfordshire

The village where Old Manor Farm stands, unchanged in character from Thompson's description.

In the book

The old Tudor farmhouse

"…with its stone, mullioned windows and reputed dungeon", one of the defining buildings of Fordlow.

In reality

Old Manor Farm

Grade I Listed, c. 13th century. The stone and the mullioned windows survive to this day.

In the book

Candleford

The nearby market town to which Laura eventually moves, a place of greater prosperity and social complexity.

In reality

Fringford, Oxfordshire

Candleford Green, the village where Laura works as a postmistress, is most closely identified with Fringford, a village just a few miles from Cottisford. Some readers and scholars also associate the town of "Candleford" with Buckingham or Brackley, the nearest market towns; the name has become attached to all these places in different ways.

Watch

Lark Rise
on Screen

Flora Thompson's world brought to life, the BBC adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford, set in the very countryside surrounding Old Manor Farm.

Further Afield

More on
Flora Thompson

Old Manor Farm is not the only place that keeps Flora Thompson's memory alive in the local area.

⌂

Permanent Exhibit · Buckingham

Buckingham Old Gaol Museum

The Buckingham Old Gaol, a volunteer-run museum on Market Hill in Buckingham, holds a permanent exhibit on Flora Thompson as part of its Magnificent Women of Buckingham collection. Buckingham is the town most closely associated with "Candleford" in Thompson's trilogy, making it a natural home for this display.

Visit their website ↗
Visit & Support

A living part of
England's story

Old Manor Farm has stood through every era Flora Thompson described, and it stands still. Your support helps ensure it stays part of the living landscape of Oxfordshire for generations to come.

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