Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, flanking the road to Oxford, which lies 6m N, is thought to have provided Oliver Goldsmith with the inspiration for his famous poem, 'The Deserted Village'. What is surprising about Goldsmith's poem is the way in which a deserted village is made to appear a thing of mystery, for in his time dozens of old villages were being removed in the course of grandiose scheme for 'landscape improvement' by owners of the great houses.
Nuneham Courtenay has become something of a classic in the annals of improved, removed and model villages, and its case is well documented. Both the inspiration and execution of the grand plan for Nuneham Courtenay derived from the local magnate, Simon, 1st Earl Harcourt, antiquarian, designer and a leading light at the royal court. During the 1760s he began to implement the grand design for his park - and since the original village, intruded upon his vision of a classical landscape, a vista to be enjoyed from the big house, it was swept away. The cottages are designed according to a Georgian variant of the local vernacular style with pairs of plain semi-detached cottages set on either side of the Oxford road in ribbon fashion. Chequer brick and grassy verges featured in the design and provision was made for a curate's house, forge and inn.
The old village stood on a hill behind the Palladian mansion which was still only partly built when the removal of the village began; the village street became an open avenue through the landscaped setting, a classical temple appeared near the site of the old village church and even the village name did not escape the transformation as Newnham became Nuneham. The new village became a minor landmark and probably the inspiration for several later exercises in landscape manipulation.
The church of All Saints on the hill in the park was built in 1764 to the Earl's designs which included both Greek and Roman influences, with Ionic columns, a marble floor and a certain austerity of atmosphere. A second church of All Saints was provided in 1872 to relieve the villagers of the uphill trek to the original. In this case, a more traditional 13th century design was employed, with a S chapel in the Perp style being added in 1890. Nuneham Park was set up on a site selected for its landscape capabilities and its prospect of distant Oxford, and incorporates various 18th and early 19th century features. In 1780 the gardens were described by Horace Walpole as being the most beautiful in the world.
