Appendix C
Suggestions For Further Reading
This appendix lists a small selection of books which may be of interest to the general reader. For details of publishers see Appendix B, where the authors are listed alphabetically.
Background Reading
(Not specific to the Thames Valley)
John Bossy's 'The English Catholic Community, 1570-1850' is the most comprehensive sociological survey of the community from the Elizabethan Settlement until the re-establishment of a formal Catholic hierarchy in England.
J. C. H. Aveling's 'The Handle and the Axe' is a comprehensive history of Catholicism in England during the recusant period.
Edward Norman's 'Roman Catholicism in England' is a concise history covering the period from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Second Vatican Council.
A. Morey's 'The Catholic Subjects of Elizabeth I' and Alison Plowden's 'Danger to Elizabeth' both contain much about Catholics during the reign of the last Tudor monarch.
Prof. Scarisbrick's 'The Reformation and the English People' describes the long and erratic process of the English Reformation, and the responses to it by ordinary men and women.
Fr Godfrey Anstruther's two volumes on 'The Seminary Priests' contains biographies of the Catholic secular clergy of the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods.
Michael Hodgetts's 'Secret Hiding Places' is the definitive book on priest-holes and gives good coverage to Ufton Court and Nicholas Owen.
Dom Aidan Bellenger's 'The French Exiled Clergy' tells the story of the French clergy who sought refuge in England during the French Revolution.
Catholicism in the Thames Valley
(Many of these books should be held by the local studies sections of the Reading or Oxford central libraries)
'The Victoria County Histories' contain much on ecclesiastical, monastical and parish history. The Oxfordshire volumes are not yet complete. However, unlike the much older Berkshire volumes, they clearly identify recusant history for each parish.
Mrs Bryan Stapleton's 1906 book 'A History of the Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire' is a major source of information.
John Eppstein's 'History of the Faith in an English Town', written in the 1920s, tells the story of Catholicism in Reading.
Dom Geoffrey Scott's booklet 'St Mary's Church, Woolhampton' contains much information on the survival of Catholicism in the Kennet Valley.
R. J. Stonor's 'Stonor' comprehensively recounts the story of the Stonor family and its associates.
Emily Climenson's 'The History of Shiplake' is nearly a hundred years old and contains much about the Plowdens of Shiplake Court.
Mary Sharp lived at Ufton Court during the late nineteenth century. Her book 'The History of Ufton Court' contains much on the Perkins and their connections.
E. C. Davey's 'Memoirs of an Oxfordshire Old Catholic Family etc.' is another late nineteenth century book and covers the Davey family of Dorchester and area.
Christine Kelly's 'Blessed Thomas Belson' is full of information on his life and times. It was published to coincide with his beatification in 1987 and was the main source for the chapter on Thomas Belson.
A. L. Humphreys 'East Hendred', written in the 1920s, contains much interesting information about the Eystons and their associates.
Volume two of Kathleen Philip's 'Reflected in Wantage' has a chapter on the survival of Catholicism in the Wantage area. It deals particularly with Lyford and East Hendred.
A. S. N. Wright's 'History of Buckland' contains much about the Yates and their successors, the Throckmortons.
Part of Biddy O'Sullivan's 'The Two Britwells' covers Britwell House and its Catholic history.
Michael Hodgett's recent and well illustrated 'Midlands Catholic Buildings' is a glove box sized 'Popish Pevsner' with details of about a hundred sites in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. More than a dozen of them are in southern Oxfordshire.