History of Banbury - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...

is a circa 1,500 year old market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

and civil parish on the River Cherwell

River Cherwell

The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...

in the Cherwell District

Cherwell (district)

Cherwell is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford....

of Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. It is 64 miles (103 km) northwest of London, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, 27 miles (43 km) south of Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

and 21 miles (34 km) north northwest of the county town

County town

A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...

of Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

Origin of the town's name

The name Banbury

Banbury

derives from "Banna", a Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade there in the 6th century, and "burgh" meaning settlement. The Saxon spelling was Banesbyrig. The name appears as "Banesberie" in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

. Another known spelling was 'Banesebury' in Medieval times.

Grimsbury

Grimsbury

Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...

’s name is of early Saxon type, and is the corruption of the Saxon name for a defended enclosure (burh) of the person called ‘Grim’. It is possible that the name was derived from a pseudonym for the pagan god ‘Woden’ (Odin

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

Roman and Medieval history

During excavations for the construction of an office building in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age

British Iron Age

The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...

settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone. Later there was a Roman villa

Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...

at nearby Wykham Park.

The area was settled by the Saxons around the late 5th century AD. In about 556 Banbury was the scene of a battle between the local Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

s of Cynric and Ceawlin, and the local Romano-British

Britons (historical)

The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

. It was a local centre for Anglo-Saxon settlement by the mid 6th century. Banbury developed in the Anglo-Saxon period under Danish influence, starting in the late 6th century AD. It was assessed at 50 hides in the Domesday survey and was then held by the bishop of Lincoln.

The Saxons built Banbury on the west bank of the River Cherwell

River Cherwell

. On the opposite bank they built Grimsbury

Grimsbury

Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...

, which was part of Northamptonshire but was incorporated into Banbury in 1889. Neithrop was one of the oldest areas in Banbury, having first been recorded as a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

in the 13th century. It was formally incorporated into the borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

of Banbury in 1889.

Banbury stands at the junction of two ancient roads: Salt Way (used as a bridle path to the west and south of the town), its primary use being transportation of salt; and Banbury Lane, which began near Northampton and is closely followed by the modern 22 miles (35.4 km)-long road. It continued through what is now Banbury's High Street and towards the Fosse Way

Fosse Way

The Fosse Way was a Roman road in England that linked Exeter in South West England to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath , Cirencester and Leicester .It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at Venonis south...

at Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on top of an 800 ft hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way . The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take...

. Banbury's mediæval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

prosperity was based on wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

.

The manors of Banbury

Banbury

and Cropredy

Cropredy

Cropredy is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-Early history:The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book...

existed in 1086 probably included all those places known to be in the hundred in 1279, namely, Banbury, Cropredy

Cropredy

Cropredy is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-Early history:The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book...

, Hardwick, Great Bourton

Great Bourton

Great Bourton is a village about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Bourton.-History:...

, Little Bourton, Neithrop, Calthorpe

Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.-History:Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury...

, Coton

Coton

-Places:*Coton, Cambridgeshire*Coton, Northamptonshire*Coton, Shropshire*Coton, Staffordshire*Coton Clanford, Staffordshire*Coton Hill, Shropshire*Coton Hill, Staffordshire*Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire...

, Wardington

Wardington

Wardington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Banbury. The village consists of two parts, Lower Wardington and Upper Wardington...

, Williamscot, Prescote

Prescote

Prescote is a hamlet and civil parish about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire Its boundaries are the River Cherwell in the southeast, a tributary of the Cherwell called Highfurlong Brook in the west, and Oxfordshire's boundary with Northamptonshire in the northeast.-History:Prescote's toponym...

, Claydon

Claydon, Oxfordshire

Claydon is a village in Claydon with Clattercot civil parish, about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire. The village is about above sea level on a hill of Early Jurassic Middle Lias clay. Claydon is the northernmost village in Oxfordshire...

, Shutford

Shutford

Shutford is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury in Oxfordshire. The village is about above sea level.-History:The manor house was built in the last quarter of the 16th century. In 1928 the architect Walter Tapper added a western extension and northwest wing...

, Wickham

Wickham

Wickham, formerly spelled Wykeham, is a small historic village and civil parish in Hampshire, southern England, located about three miles north of Fareham. It is within the City of Winchester local government district, although it is considerably closer to Fareham than to Winchester...

, Swalcliffe

Swalcliffe

Swalcliffe is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury, Oxfordshire.-History:North of the village are the site of an Iron Age hill fort on Madmarston Hill, the site of a Roman villa at Swalcliffe Lea, and course of a former Roman Road...

, Swalcliffe Lea, Charlbury

Charlbury

Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in West Oxfordshire. It is on the edge of the Wychwood forest and the Cotswolds.-Place name:The origin of the town's toponym is obscure...

, Cote

Cote, Oxfordshire

Cote is a hamlet about south of Witney and north of the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, England. Cote is part of the civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney...

, Finstock

Finstock

Finstock is a village and civil parish about south of Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England. The parish is bounded to the northeast by the River Evenlode, to the southeast partly by the course of Akeman Street Roman road, and on other sides by field boundaries....

, Fawler

Fawler

Fawler is a hamlet and civil parish in the valley of the River Evenlode, southeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England.There are traces of a Roman villa at Oatlands Farm. The manor house was built in 1660....

, and Tapwell. Although the extra-parochial district of Clattercote

Clattercote

Clattercote or Clattercot is a hamlet in Claydon with Clattercot civil parish, just over north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:In the 12th century Robert de Chesney, Bishop of Lincoln granted land at Clattercote to the Gilbertine Order, on which they founded a small priory dedicated to Saint...

was first included among the vills of Banbury

Banbury

hundred in 1665 and it had formed part of the Bishop of Lincoln's estates and seems to have been included as part of Claydon

Claydon, Oxfordshire

in 1279. The Bishop was reportedly also interested in several parts of land around Kineton

Kineton

Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-eastern Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278....

and Bicester

Bicester

Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...

in the latter part of 1270’s as well.

The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Drayton

Drayton, Cherwell

Drayton is a village and civil parish in the valley of the Sor Brook in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Tesselated tiles and Roman coins found near the parish church indicate that there was a Roman villa in the area of what later became Drayton village.Drayton village is...

had a water mill, which is presumably set on the Sor Brook, on the western boundary of the parish just below the village. There is then a gap of five centuries in which no mill is recorded, but records resume with a mill operating in the parish from 1589 until 1851.

Banbury Castle

Banbury Castle

Banbury Castle was a medieval castle that stood near the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Historian John Kenyon notes that the castle is "remarkable for its early concentric shape".-History:...

was built from 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln

Alexander of Lincoln

Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...

, and survived into the Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, when it was besieged. Due to its proximity to Oxford

Oxford

, the King's capital, Banbury was at one stage a Royalist town, but the inhabitants were known to be strongly Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

. The castle was demolished after the war.

In 1247 The hundred of Banbury was valued at £5 a year and in 1441 ‘certainty money’ due from the northern part of the hundred was 89s. 8d. It was made up of payments from Shutford

Shutford

, Claydon

Claydon, Oxfordshire

, Swalcliffe

Swalcliffe

, Great Bouton and Little Bourton, Prescote

Prescote

, Hardwick

Ruscote

The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...

, Calthorpe

Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.-History:Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury...

and Neithrop, Wickham

Wickham

, Wardington

Wardington

Wardington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Banbury. The village consists of two parts, Lower Wardington and Upper Wardington...

, Williamscot, Swalcliffe Lea, and the former prebend of Banbury. By 1568 these, except the rent from Wardington and amounted to 69s. 4d. in 1652, when the total profits of court were valued at 103s. 4d. a year in ‘certainty money’. In 1875 payments were made only by Williamscot, Swalcliffe, Prescote, Great and Little Bourton, Neithrop, Claydon, and Shutford since the rest were freed from their rent obligations.

For centuries, trade in wool, ale, cakes and cheese created wealth for the town. Wool was first referred to in 1268, and cheese was manufactured from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Three Jewish tradesmen and craftsmen and a French draper lived in Banbury in the first half of the 13th century.

In 1355 two Welshmen killed a local man in a quarrel in and in 1377 a pardon was given to another Welshman who after killing another Welshman

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

, after the accused had taken sanctuary in Banbury church.

By the late 14th century Epwell

Epwell

Epwell is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire about west of Banbury. Its toponym is believed to be derived from the Old English Eoppa's Well....

village, formerly part of Dorchester hundred, began to be included in Banbury hundred. The Abbots of Eynsham early acquired many of the land rights in Charlbury formerly belonging to the Bishops of Lincoln, including by the year 1363 a 3 weeks' court and a portmoot. The payment of 3s, 4d. were payable to the town’s hundred bailiff recorded in both 1372 and 1373, which was perhaps made in connexion with the view of a frankpledge

Frankpledge

Frankpledge, earlier known as frith-borh , was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected through kinship, or some other kind of tie such as an oath of fealty to a...

, at which the constable of Banbury had to be present as well as the abbot's steward for the hundred.

The Bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

's vast Banbury

Banbury

estate, except for Neithrop and Calthorpe, was sold to the Duke of Somerset

Duke of Somerset

Duke of Somerset is a title in the peerage of England that has been created several times. Derived from Somerset, it is particularly associated with two families; the Beauforts who held the title from the creation of 1448 and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547 and in whose name the title is...

in 1547, but by 1550 he granted it (except for of Hardwick) to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick

Earl of Warwick

Earl of Warwick is a title that has been created four times in British history and is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the British Isles.-1088 creation:...

, then the Duke of Northumberland

Duke of Northumberland

The Duke of Northumberland is a title in the peerage of Great Britain that has been created several times. Since the third creation in 1766, the title has belonged to the House of Percy , which held the title of Earl of Northumberland from 1377....

shortly afterwards, who in 1551 granted it to the Crown in exchange for other lands.

Long before enclosure, the tenants of Neithrop had become freeholders, as recorded in the land deeds of 1583 to 1608 and 1614, with the permission of both Sir Anthony Cope and then his son Sir William Cope.

In about 1629 Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet. sold a large area of land at Drayton

Drayton, Cherwell

to William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele

William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele

William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was born at the family home of Broughton Castle near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the only son of Richard Fiennes, seventh Baron Saye and Sele...

of Broughton Castle

Broughton Castle

Broughton Castle is a medieval manor house located in the village of Broughton which is about two miles south-west of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England on the B4035 road ....

. By 1790 the same property belonged to Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford

Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford

Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford , known as The Lord Guildford between 1729 and 1752, was a British peer and politician.North was the son of Francis North, 2nd Baron Guilford, and his wife Alicia...

of Wroxton Abbey. In 1935 and 1942 the Norths then sold their lands at Drayton to Trinity College, Oxford

Trinity College, Oxford

The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

During the English Civil War

Banbury was ravaged by heavy urban fire in 1628. Although some of the buildings have survived to the present day, many of them were destroyed.

Banbury played an important part in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

as a base of operations for Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, who is reputed to have planned the Battle of Edge Hill in the back room (which can still be visited) of a local inn, The Reindeer as it was then known (today's Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn). The town was pro-Parliamentarian, but the castle was manned by a Royalist garrison who supported King Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

.

In 1645 during the English Civil War, Parliamentary

Roundhead

"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

troops were billeted in nearby Hanwell village

Hanwell, Oxfordshire

Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Remains of a substantial Roman villa have been found just west of the B4100 main road....

for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them.

The English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

helped develop Banbury’s then arms industry. The Royalist garrison was constantly at work early in 1645 digging up the saltpetre

Potassium nitrate

Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...

in King's Sutton and making gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

out of it in a house specially built near Banbury. Just over 10 years earlier a government saltpetreman had operated at Banbury for a year, having moved there from the then small market town of Coventry

Coventry

, before moving on to Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

as short while afterwards. Apparently King's Sutton was a local centre for saltpetre

Potassium nitrate

excavation and digging at the time.

The English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

and the short two sieges noticeably damaged town's prosperity. It all started after two members of the Vivers family and two other fellow Bambarians petitioned Parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

for an official redress (what we now call compensation) in 1646 and 1647, making the claim that their houses had been burnt and plundered to their total loss of £20,000 in today’s money. They said the principal looter was a captain in the King's garrison ate Banbury Castle

Banbury Castle

. Another self-claimed sufferer was the mercer Edward Russell, who after nearly being executed for trying to subvert the Royalist officers to turn Parliamentarian, was jailed for three months in 1644. He also claimed his shop and house were plundered, looted and destroyed by the castle’s Royalist garrison's use. The garrison was soon defeated and the castle partly blown up and demolished with gunpowder

Gunpowder

. The Parliamentarian forces appeared to have also used the River Cherwell

River Cherwell

for access in to Banbury at one point and briefly set up camp in the location of the Canalside trading estate, next to the then public gallows

Gallows

A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...

.

The Banbury mutiny

Banbury mutiny

The Banbury mutiny was a mutiny by soldiers in the English New Model Army. The mutineers did not achieve all of their aims and some of the leaders were executed shortly afterwards on 17 May 1649.The mutiny was over pay and political demands...

was a mutiny

Mutiny

Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

by soldiers of the English New Model Army

New Model Army

The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...

. The mutineers did not achieve all of their aims and some of the leaders were executed shortly afterwards on May 17, 1649. The mutiny was over pay and political demands.

1768 to 1900

Villagers farmed the parish on a two-field open field system

Open field system

The open field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe from the Middle Ages to as recently as the 20th century in some places, particularly Russia and Iran. Under this system, each manor or village had several very large fields, farmed in strips by individual families...

until 1768, when Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet bought out the rights of copyhold

Copyhold

At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....

ers, life- and lease

Lease

A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...

holders and enclosed

Enclosure

Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...

the common lands.

The opening of the Oxford Canal

Oxford Canal

The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...

from Hawkesbury Junction

Hawkesbury Junction

Hawkesbury Junction or Sutton Stop is a canal junction at the northern limit of the Oxford Canal where it meets the Coventry Canal, near Hawkesbury Village, Warwickshire, on the West Midlands county border, England...

to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

coal. In 1787 the Oxford Canal was extended southwards, finally opening to Oxford on 1 January 1790. The canal's main boat yard was the original outlay of today’s Tooley's Boatyard

Tooley's Boatyard

Tooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...

.

Prior to the arrival of James Brindley's Oxford Canal

Oxford Canal

in 1779, the 'Canalside' area comprised a undeveloped, low-lying watermeadows. The canal was then extended to Oxford

Oxford

by Banbury’s engineer, John Barnes in 1790. Both Parker's Wharf

Wharf

A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...

and Bridge Wharf were serviced by fly-boats to may distant cross country destinations and by market boats to Oxford and Coventry

Coventry

. The canal brought much growth and prosperity to Banbury over the years and is still popular with boat users today. The canal's main boat yard is now the listed site today’s Tooley's Boatyard.

The Cobb family may have obtained The hundred of Banbury when they bought the land site of Banbury castle in 1792 and in 1853 Edward Cobb was lord of the hundreds of Banbury and Bloxham

Bloxham

Bloxham is a village and civil parish in northern Oxfordshire on the edge of the Cotswolds, southwest of Banbury.-Early settlement:Under Roman rule between the 1st and 5th centuries there were several farms and a burial site in the Bloxham area....

.

In an unusual twist of fate, the council objected to the planting of trees in Horse Fair Road, and in 1826 John Walford was then accused of injuring trees planted by the town’s commissioners which he considered, like the trees they were planting, to be a waste of money. The commissioners were heckled as a rioting mob destroyed all the trees and fences.

In 1836 by the town council took over the running of Banbury and the right to erect gas-works was relinquished in 1833 to the Banbury Gas Light and Coke Company.

One of the first acts of the town’s newly appointed Paving Commissioners in 1825 was to appoint a committee to report on the condition of the town's streets. In 1826 the streets were reportedly paved with official approved Yorkshire flagging stones at a cost of over £3,000, but by 1840 it was noted that, as 'poor quality' stone had been used, the kerb was considered worthless. Between 1852 and 1888 the Local Board of Health

Local board of health

Local Boards or Local Boards of Health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their...

continued the official supervision of streets, laid out several new roads, and started numbering the houses for identification and postal purposes.

Living conditions had improved greatly in Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

times with the removal of several poorly built cottages that were deemed to be only 'hovel

Hovel

Hovel can mean:*A small poor-quality house: see wikt:hovel*Hövels is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....

s' and a reduction in childhood ill health in the early 19th century. Many cottages in the district of 'Waterloo', which apparently lay just east of Banbury Bridge to the north of the road, had been transformed after the early 19th century so that by 1841 'Waterloo' was considered one of the better off parts of Grimsbury. Banbury was booming, and Grimsbury's principal expansion occurred between 1852 and 1881, when some 500 houses were built, around Middleton Road, Causeway, Merton Street, Duke Street, and North Street.

Banbury’s Freehold land Societies came into existence in the 1840s as part of a new pro-Democracy political movement inspired, organised by Liberal Radicals to effect Parliamentary Reform. Liberalised Banbury’s off shoot was a settlement in New Grimsbury

Grimsbury

Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...

. The hamlet was originally called Freetown in the 1840s. Early in 1851 an audience of 300 attended a rally lead by James Taylor of Birmingham lecture in Banbury on Freehold Land Societies. Mr Taylor was a disciple of the Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

minister George Dawson, and thus became a vigorous crusader for the working-classes.

The first two railways to reach Banbury opened in 1850. First the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line

Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line

The Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line was a railway branch line constructed by the Buckinghamshire Railway which connected the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury with the Buckinghamshire town of Bletchley via the historic county town of Buckingham and the Northamptonshire town of Brackley, a...

from Bletchley

Bletchley railway station

Bletchley is a railway station that serves the southern districts of Milton Keynes , and the north-eastern parts of the Buckinghamshire district of Aylesbury Vale....

on the London and North Western Railway

London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

via Buckingham

Buckingham railway station

Buckingham was a railway station which served Buckingham, the former county town of Buckinghamshire, England, between 1850 and 1966.- Opening :...

and Brackley

Brackley railway station

- History :From 1899 until 1963, Brackley was served by two railway stations on different lines. Brackley Central - opened by the Great Central Railway - was the second, the Buckinghamshire Railway having already connected the town to the railway in 1850...

formed a terminus

Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

at Merton Street

Banbury Merton Street railway station

Banbury Merton Street was the first railway station to serve the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury in England. It opened in 1850 as the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway providing connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closing for passengers in 1961 and goods in 1966.- Context...

. Within months the Oxford and Rugby Railway from Oxford

Oxford railway station

Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, northwest of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road, and on the line linking with . It is also on the line for trains between and Hereford via...

on the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

via the Cherwell Valley opened a station at Bridge Street

Banbury railway station

Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is currently operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.-History:...

. The GWR extended the Oxford and Rugby Railway northwards in 1852. In 1900 the Great Central Railway

Great Central Railway

The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...

opened a branch line

Branch line

A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...

to Banbury from Culworth Junction on its main line

Great Central Main Line

The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...

. The axis from south-east to north-west and apart from the Buckinghamshire Railway to Verney Junction (1850) as well.

Upper and Lower Cherwell Streets and Windsor Street had also been built before 1851 as the town first began to grow. Neithrop expanded further between 1850 and 1881, with new housing providing for the Municipal Borough of Banbury’s planned slum clearance from 'Waterloo' in Grimsbury and to deal with the then growing population and for the expanding population. This was followed by the building between Windsor Street and Broad Street so that by 1881 there were some 350 then modern houses in the whole area. The street known as Back Lane began converted into Castle Street West, as Castle Street East was created as part of a slum clearance from central Banbury in 1852.

A Quaker Pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

was one of the leading figures in Banbury and set up its first two water treatment works in the 1860s.

In the early 1870s the east side of Regents Place was developed by a Mr William Wilkins between the years of1852 and 1871.

Duke Street, was located at the edge of Wilkins’ (now demolished) brick pit

Clay pit

A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...

, was developed around 1870. South of the Causeway, the newly designated Merton Street was developed by various speculators between the years of 1873 and 1882. It is worth noting the cramped development of the housing on the Causeway and Merton Street (known locally as the ‘Railway Terraces’) that built by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

, for the company’s workers to use on payment of a rent

Renting

Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...

to the GWR. It is also interesting to compare this with the then contemporary, but more generous, development of the freehold land estate with its forward looking ‘build-to-own’ policy and public ethos. Development of site in the area continued into the twentieth century, Avenue Road constructed in 1911 being a case in point. Allotments began to encroached on the mostly closed clay pit

Clay pit

by 1923.

Banbury town council also built the houses in King's Road and on the Easington estate at that time. More houses were built for the working population at the south end of Britannia Road and the area to the east between 1881 and 1930, and also in both Old Grimsbury Road and Gibbs Road in Grimsbury, and more up-market houses were built in both the Marlborough Road area and in Bath Road, Kings Road, Park Road, and Queen Street in Neithrop. The mostly late 19th-century suburb of Grimsbury witnessed rapid growth between 1881 and 1930. The former church hall of Christ Church, (now known as Oriel House), the former nonconformist chapel on Gatteridge Street, now the Kingdom Hall and the former Mechanics Institute on Marlborough Road all built in 1884. Part of and the former Mechanics Institute is now divided Banbury Public Library.

In 1891 the local medical officer for Banbury found that 62 cottages were dangerously filthy, 63 had defective drains, and 21 no water supply. By 1900, Banbury had a population of 12,968.

The land that was Peoples' Park had been enclosed in Hanoverian

House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

times and was set up as a private park in 1890 and opened in 1910, along with the adjacent bowling green

Bowling green

A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...

Life after 1901

In 1911 many people were living in houses unfit for human habitation. The Municipal Borough of Banbury set up a housing committee which some houses were constructed in Kings Road. The Banbury Co-operative Society completed 12 houses in 1913 in Hightown Road.

The 1919 Housing Act was followed by the building of the Easington housing estate of 361 council houses in what was one of the first slum clearance schemes in the country. By 1930 the town's medical officer reported 131 houses still unfit for habitation. So in 1933 Banbury council opened the Ruscote housing estate of 160 houses. The heavily increased population between 1931 and 1949 was accommodated by the expansion of the town in three main areas, in each of which houses were built both by the town corporation and by private housing companies. Between the Oxford and Bloxham roads about 500 houses were built before 1939 to form the bulk of the suburb of Easington, and in the area of the older village and suburb of Neithrop some 500 houses were built before 1939 both around the earlier houses and further west in new streets on either side of the Warwick Road, a development which was extended to the south-west after 1945.

The mostly late 19th-century suburb of Grimsbury witnessed rapid growth between 1881 and 1901. About 300 more houses were built after 1945. To the north of Grimsbury Square is the 1945-55 area of 'New Grimsbury' and south of it is the 1901 and earlier old town of 'Old Grimsbury'.

A total of 770 council houses were built between 1919 and 1940, and another 2,545 (including Withycombe Drive in 1947) during the period from 1945 to 1967 as the population began to grow significantly. The housing developments were mainly in the western parts of the town between the Warwick and Broughton roads, with others being built on the site of the former brickworks in Grimbury. In 1961 a total of 6,504 households were built, mostly in the style of those around Neithrop's Admiral Holland pub. 231 other, older buildings in the town centre still had no indoor toilets, 1,325 had no fixed baths, 1,643 had no hot water taps, and 98 had no cold water tap.

Broughton Road and The West Bar area were mostly built in 1922, with a few building like the Gothic Villa dating from 1871 and the neighbouring West Bar Surgery GP’s practice dating from the early 1960s.

The town saw rapid expansion during the 1930s and 1940s as housing was built for newcomers from nearby towns and the emerging London overspill

London overspill

London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...

. A later expansion between the 1950s and 1970s would reach Hardwick, Ruscote, Easington, Bretch Hill and Poets' Corner, due to influxes from the London overspill

London overspill

and from the West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

.

The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.-History:Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury...

Clay pit

, kiln

Kiln

A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

and brick works lay near the Poet’s Corner estate. The pit was of mid Victorian origin and the buildings were put up by the issuing of the 1881 O.S. map. The pit had been filled in by the 1920s, the buildings closed by the 1940s and the site was built on by the late 1960s. Bankside road was constructed from 1965 to 1975 in a north to south direction as the local street testifies to.

The Woodgreen swimming pool

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

was built in the early 1960s and renovated in the late 1970s. It was closed in the early 2000s, heavily renovated in 2009 and reopened in 2010.The much frequented outdoor pool is closed from September to March due to the bad seasonal weather

The Ruscote

Ruscote

The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...

estate, which now has a notable South Asian community, was expanded in the 1950s because of the growth of the town due to the London overspill

London overspill

and further grew in the mid-1960s.

British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways closed Merton Street station and the Buckingham to Banbury line to passenger traffic at the end of 1960. Merton Street freight depot continued to handle livestock traffic for Banbury's cattle market until 1966, when this to was discontinued and the railway dismantled. In March 1962 Sir John Betjeman

John Betjeman

Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...

celebrated the line from Culworth Junction in his poem Great Central Railway, Sheffield Victoria to Banbury. British Railways closed this line too in 1966.

Banbury's growth accelerated after the 1970s with the completion of the M40 motorway

M40 motorway

The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...

which gave faster access to London and Birmingham

Birmingham

. By the 1971 census the town's population was 26,540, in 1977 it was 28,520 and in 2001 it had reached 41,802 for the town and 43,867 including the outlying villages like Drayton. In 2002 an estimate for the town went as far as 46,800 in total. Most of the Hardwick estate built in the 1970s because of the growth of the town due to the Birmingham overspill and a slum clearance scheme in Smethwick

Smethwick

Smethwick is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the edge of the city of Birmingham, within the historic boundaries of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire....

. Some Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

families have moved in since. It was expanded further in the mid-1980s. The main shopping facility is the now partly closed Hardwick arcade. Trinity Close was mostly built between 1973 and 1975, while both New Grimsbury and Bretch Hill continued to grow in the 1980s according to the O.S. street maps of those times.

Trinity Close and Powys Grove they were originally created as separate entities between the late 1960s and early 1980s as the 1973, 1977 and 1983 Ordinance Survey maps help illustrate. It is also to be noted that the Bretch Hill Road may have remained a long cul-de-sac

Cul-de-sac

A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...

and not reached the main road if the long planned Banbury by-pass had gone ahead in the 1970s. The housing around Appleby Close was built during the 1970s and may have been replaced by a proposed link between the by-pass and Bretch Hill, if the project had gone ahead. Since then there has been much redevelopment work done, with the demolition of the old lock-up garages between 52.065821°N 1.366000°W(approx) Appleby Close and Edinburgh Close making way for a car park and a small housing development.

Banbury used to be home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, situated on Merton Street in Grimsbury

Grimsbury

Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...

. For many decades, cattle and other farm animals were driven there on the hoof from as far as Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

to be sold to feed the growing population of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

and other towns. Since its closure in June 1998 a new housing development has been built on its site which includes Dashwood Primary School.

The town was renovated in 1981 and partly pedestrianized in 1991. Bretch Hill's Thornbury Drive went up for sale in 2000. The rather upmarket Hanwell estate, which lies between Banbury

Banbury

and Hanwell

Hanwell, Oxfordshire

Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Remains of a substantial Roman villa have been found just west of the B4100 main road....

, was built in between 2005–06, on the grounds of the former Hanwell Farm, which has become one of the constant houses, due to the natural growth of the town's commuter population.

Recent crime and anti-social behaviour

There was a 200 strong riot in the Market Place in 1988, which was quickly brought under control by the police.

There have been some concerns over antisocial behaviour and heavier than average litter

Litter

Litter consists of waste products such as containers, papers, wrappers or faeces which have been disposed of without consent. Litter can also be used as a verb...

levels in Princess Diana Park and Hillview Park, and also about fly-tipping

Fly-tipping

Fly-tipping is a British term for dumping waste illegally instead of in an authorised rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land, i.e...

in Banbury which affects some streets and footpaths such as on the Ironstones’ paths.

Narcotics finds (principally ecstasy) and muggings have been on the decline since 2000.

Local redevelopment plans

Woodgreen's 45 year old youth club was closed in April, 2010, demolished during July 2010, and its replacement is due to open in early 2011. The redevelopment plan was valued at £3,000,000.

There was a plan in the late 2000s to expand the Bretch Hill estate westwards into local farmland, but this has now been suspended due to the credit crunch

Credit crunch

A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...

and local hostility to the plan, including the southern expansion towards Bodicote

Bodicote

Bodicote is a village and civil parish south of the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:A windmill that stood next to the grove at the top of Bodicote is mentioned in the Domesday Book of AD 1086...

.

The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north during 2008 and 2009. It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.

Over the past few years there have been plans to build a new estate on the undeveloped College Fields adjoining both Bodicote

Bodicote

and the Cherwell Heights housing estate of Banbury. In February 2006 Cherwell District Council

Cherwell (district)

voted to approve the plans despite a 20,000 signature petition against it. About 1,070 houses will be built in the estate, which will include local shops, a public house, a church, a restaurant, a school and other local services.

The now derelict former Crest Hotels

Crest Hotels

Crest Hotels Limited was a Bass-Charrington subsidiary operating the hotel interests of the brewery company in the United Kingdom. Crest's headquarters were in the former Hunt Edmunds brewery premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire....

headquarters behind the Morrisons garage

Filling station

A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...

was abandoned in the late 1980s but may re-open in the future as a youth hostel.

The former Penryth Road/Appleby Close play-park 52.066235°N 1.366614°W(approx) was closed and the facilities (a roundabout, bench, bicycle rack and spring rider) were removed in the 1990s due to vandalism. The area may now be redeveloped as a car park.

Before 1870

The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

in 1086 listed 3 mills, with a total fiscal value of 45 shilling

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

s, on the Bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

's demesne lands, and a fourth which was leased to Robert son of Waukelin by the Bishop. Among Banbury's four Medieval mills was probably a forerunner of Banbury Mill, first referred to by this name in 1695. In the year 1279, Laurence of Hardwick was also paying 3 marks (equivalent to 40 shillings) in annual rent to the Bishop for a mill in the then Hardwick hamlet.

The fore-runners of Butchers Row were probably long standing butcher

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

s' stalls which were known to be in situ by 1438.

In 1639, the woollen cloth draper

Draper

Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...

, Robert Vivers, who was also lessee of the prebendal estate, owned the Banbury Mill. In 1648 he sold it to London

London

ers Edward Darnelly, who was apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

and his friend, the bowyer

Bowyer

A bowyer is someone who makes or sells bows. Bows are used for hunting and for archery. The development of gunpowder and muskets slowly led to the replacement of bows as weapons of war which decreased the importance of bowyers. Someone who makes arrows is a fletcher.-History:Historically, a huge...

Thomas Brightwell, and in 1671 Mr Darnelly leased the mill windmill in Easington, for £44 a year to Samuel Bradford, the owner of Moor Mill in Oxford

Oxford

. Banbury's first major printer was John Cheney. He started out in 1765 as the innkeeper of the 'Unicorn' inn by next year he started selling paper as a side-line he had is known to have set up as a jobbing-printer by 1767. A boat-building yard was opened in 1790 on the canal at the end of Factory Street and boats were built there until the canal ceased to be used for commercial transport. In the 18th century New Bank (and later called the Gillett Bank) had also been Richard Tawney, who was the owner of a major brewery at Oxford. The coming of the railway enhanced Banbury's position as a market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

, local economic epicentre and regional centre. This was the main factor behind the expansion of the New Bank under Joseph Ashby Gillett and his successors. The Cobb's factory for 'weaving, webbing, and horsecloths' was founded around 1700 and continued in production until 1870. In the early 19th century the most successful brewery in Banbury was the one owned by Thomas Hunt's

Hunt Edmunds

-History:The brewery was founded by John Hunt in 1840, but it was Thomas Hunt who went into partnership with William Edmunds in 1850. Edmunds' son, Charles Fletcher Edmunds became a partner in 1886, and succeeded his father in 1896. His son Maurice Edmunds was a later chairman...

, opened in Bridge Street just before 1847. A blacking factory was also opened by 1832 and it had five employees in 1851, but closed around 1872. The Italianate Elms House on Oxford Road, is a substantial villa built in 1863 for Jonathan Gillet, one of the senior partners of Gillet’s Bank, is now the offices of the Primary Care Trust, which lies within the grounds of the Horton Hospital site.

The Canalside area began to develop became a centre of Banbury's agricultural, transport, and electrical engineering industry at about the same time as the arrival of the railways in 1850. By the year 1861 the Britannia Works agricultural machinery

Agricultural machinery

Agricultural machinery is machinery used in the operation of an agricultural area or farm.-Hand tools:The first person to turn from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to farming probably did so by using his bare hands, and perhaps some sticks or stones. Tools such as knives, scythes, and wooden...

plant had become by far the largest single enterprise, employing 380 men and boys, and the Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...

industrial railway and steam engine works employed between 40 and 50 people. Until the mid-19th century Banbury's trade and industry were based mostly on the products of agriculture and stock raising, with a modest volume of weaving, milling, baking, brewing and boat building.

The agricultural implements and milling equipment works at the Vulcan Foundry, was begun in 1837 by the firm of Lampitt and Co., a local firm that was established two years earlier by Mr Lampitt. Both Charles Lampitt produced a mobile steam-engine in 1847, and John Lampitt invented systems of 2-speed gearing and 3-speed gearing for traction engines. Among the various products of the works were portable and fixed industrial steam engines and a major industrial steam engine which supplied the power for the Hunt Edmunds Brewery for 90 years. Other engineering firms included Barrows and Carmichael, the Cherwell Engineering Works, a local branch of the Mr. Humphris Built Traction Engines in a workshop in North Bar Street.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851 exhibits by firms and individuals from Banbury

Banbury

included the following items and displays:

A Charles Lampitt horse-seed-driller,
Britannia Works agricultural machinery,
An anti-attrition threshing machine,
Various pharmaceutical preparations,
A public demonstration of the action of phosphate of lime and magnesia on the soil,
Inflated saddles,
Plushes,
Various mohair, hemp and sackcloth, blacking, mangles with mahogany tables and
An ornate lady's walnut worktable.

The coming of the local railways made possible the expansion of the approximately 200 year old agricultural implement manufacturing business in Banbury

Banbury

. The Britannia Works company's site was set up by Sir Bernard Samuelson from the earlier foundry established by James Gardner

James Gardner

James or Jim Gardner is the name of:* James Gardner , musician and composer* James Gardner , American journalist and news anchor* James A...

. Sir Samuelson had obtained a licence to make McCormick reapers by 1851, and by 1859 the firm was producing numerous agricultural machines, including turnip cutters, a patent digging and forking machine, a patent reaping machine, and lawn mower

Lawn mower

A lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...

s. It is interesting to note that the firm also built the now demolished railway viaduct at Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

. By 1881 the production of the company's produce was carried out at two separate works in south-east Banbury, which were linked by a tramway with a depot beside the railway, south of the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

's station. Britannia Works was one of the town's major employers until the 1920s.

After 1869

In 1870 Mr. T. R. Cobb sold his web-girth making mill to a company that later became the Banbury Tweed Co. Grain, brewing, wool and cloth were the centuries old trade of Banbury, but the Banbury Tweed Co. factory finally closed its factory in 1932, bringing an end to an era. The historic background to Banbury’s industry began with a few grain merchant's mills and weavers’ loom

Loom

A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...

s under the Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

and this was continuing in some form until the last tweed factory closed in the 1920s, despite of the then new industry’s like the nearby lime kiln and cabinet manufacture works, Neithrop’s timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

yard or Grimbury’s clay pit and clay kilns.

The economic decline from the 1870s until the 1920s slowed down the rate of urban expansion as the various sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

s, timber yards, flour mills, a tweed

Tweed (cloth)

Tweed is a rough, unfinished woolen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is made in either plain or twill weave and may have a check or herringbone pattern...

factory, a lime kiln and a malthouse

Malthouse

A malt house, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the...

all closed. Grimsbuy and Nietrop were the centres of the timber trade, while the rest was largely set along the canalside, apart from the odd out of town clay pit.

Duke Street, was located at the western edge of Wilkins’ (now demolished) brick pit, was developed around 1870. There was a substantial 'brick, tile and drain works' with a short tramway in it to the east of Grimsbury in the versinaty of Howard Street according to the 1882, 1883 1900, 1910, 1922 1923 and 1947 Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

maps. It had closed by 1923 and the last workshops had shut in 1955. It was mostly built on by 1965 according to the 1955 and 1965 O.S. maps.

Co-operative Society built their shop in Broad Street during 1907 and it offices at the Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

Banbury Co-operative Building in 1920. They had moved on by 1935.

In 1917 the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway

Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway

The Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway was a standard gauge mineral railway that served an ironstone quarry near the village of Wroxton in Oxfordshire.-The line's History:...

opened between an iron ore

Ironstone

Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...

quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

north of Wroxton

Wroxton

Wroxton is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire about west of Banbury.-History:Wroxton is recorded as having a church in 1217, but the present Church of England parish church of All Saints is early 14th century. A Perpendicular Gothic clerestory and porch were added early in the...

and a junction on the GWR

Great Western Railway

just north of Banbury. It was heavily used during World War II but closed in 1967. Heavy clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

and Ironstone

Ironstone

deposits surround Banbury.

The growth of Banbury's population had nearly stopped by the 1920s, and people left the town as its market and its economic importance in the district declined: it is recorded that only 9,700 animals were sold there in the whole of 1924, compared with 6,300 at the town's Michaelmas Fair alone in 1832. The town's existing industries were mostly unsuccessful and in steady decline. The Banbury Tweed Co. closed its factory in 1932 and the Britannia Works, which made agricultural machinery, closed in 1933. But in the 1930s the town's economy became more diversified and less closely linked with the surrounding countryside and towns such as Daventry

Daventry

Daventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...

, Bloxham

Bloxham

, Bicester

Bicester

and Southam

Southam

Southam is a small market town in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 6,509 in the town.The nearest sizeable town to Southam is Leamington Spa, located roughly 7 miles to the west...

. In 1927 a large factory for corsets and surgical supports (Spencer Corsets Ltd) opened in a disused clothing factory in Britannia Road, and the manufacture of electrical equipment by Switchgear and Equipment Ltd. started in 1932, first in part of the disused machinery Britannia Works; it moved to a newly built factory on the Southam road around 1939. New industries continued to be attracted to Banbury after the Second World War, and in the 1950s the council established the Southam Road Industrial Estate, which attracted a wide range of industrial installations and works to the town. The 60 year old cabinet works near The Mill centre and the Cherwell Engineering works on the Canalside estate also closed in the late 1950s.

In the late 1920s the economy of Banbury was revolutionised by the arrival of new industries and in particular by the relocation of the out of town livestock market to Grimsbury it used to be held in Neithrop and/or Bridge Street, Banbury. The new site selected due to its proximity to the railway station.

The Northern Aluminium Co. Ltd. or Alcan Industries Ltd.

Alcan

Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...

pig and rolled Aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

factory was opened in 1931 on land acquired in 1929 on the east of the Southam road, in the then hamlet of Hardwick. The various Alcan facilities on the 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) site closed between 2006 and 2007. The factory was demolished between 2008 and 2009. The laboratory was also closed in 2004 and demolished in 2009.

Since World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the increasing pace of local industrialization of the town had led to a great enlargement of the urban area, the chief residential features being extension in the northwest and, north of the Warwick Road, westward between the Warwick Road and Bloxham Road, in the south around the Easington estate and on the west bank of the Oxford canal

Oxford Canal

, principally, the Cherwell Heights. The industrial

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

building has continued on both sides of the Southam road and in the late 1950s the council acquired 86 acres (348,030 m²) of land on the west side of the road for an Industrial Estate to house the influx of planned new .

Another major employer is General Foods Ltd, now Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

, which produced convenience foods, including custard

Custard

Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...

and instant coffee

Instant coffee

Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...

. The company moved to Banbury from Birmingham

Birmingham

in 1965. Kraft Foods Banbury

Kraft Foods Banbury

Kraft Foods in the Ruscote ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England is a large food and coffee producing factory in the north of the town.It was built in 1964 and was partly due to the London overspill...

has become an icon of the town's economic rebirth after the mid-1960s. The Fine Lady Bakeries also opened in the 1950s and expanded its local operations in 1965.

In the central area were built many large shops, a bus station, and a large car park north of Castle Street. In 1969 proposals for the redevelopment of the central area were in hand, leading to the creation of the Castle Quay shopping centre in 1977 and the nearby multi-story car park in 1972. The 1977 plans to build another multi-story car park on what is now the open air car park behind Matalan

Matalan

Matalan is a British retailer that specialises in shoes and clothes. It was founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. It currently has 200 stores across the UK. The 200th store opened on 22 September 2006 in Croydon...

and Poundland

Poundland

Poundland is a British-based variety store chain which sells every item in its stores for £1. Established in April 1990 by Dave Dodd and Stephen Smith, Poundland stock a variety of around 3,000 home and kitchen-ware, gifts, healthcare and other products, across 16 categories many of which are brand...

were scrapped in 1978 and another one was built to the rear of the Castle Quay shopping mail in 1978.

The former Hunt Edmunds

Hunt Edmunds

brewery premises became Crest Hotels

Crest Hotels

headquarters, but closed in the late 1970s and was abandoned in the late 1980s, while the Crown Hotel and the Foremost Tyres/Excel Exhausts shops found new owners after they closed in 1976 due to falling sales. Hella Headlamps

Hella (company)

Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. is an internationally operating German automotive part supplier with headquarters in Lippstadt, North Rhine-Westphalia. Core businesses are vehicle lighting and electronics systems and components. Hella is also involved in the areas of vehicle diagnostics and thermal...

, a vehicle headlamp

Headlamp

A headlamp is a lamp, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car or a motorcycle, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as darkness or precipitation. Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by...

s firm closed its 20 year old factory on the Beaumont Industrial Estate in the mid-2000s. The much missed local ironmonger, Hoods, opened in the mid-1960s and closed circa 2007, with the shop becoming part of the then enlarged Marks and Spencer shop.

Banbury has several shops in suburban local centres and in the town centre. There is a market held on Thursdays and Saturdays in the market place, as well as a farmers' market

Farmers' market

A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

on the first Friday of every month.

A shopping centre, Castle Quay, is in the centre of Banbury. It opened as the Castle Shopping Centre in 1977 to cover the former Factory Street, before being expanded over the Castle Garden allotments in the 1990s. The centre has over 80 stores including well-known names such as Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, Bhs, WH Smiths, F. Hinds (the Jewellers), J.J.B. Sports

JJB Sports

JJB Sports plc is a United Kingdom sports retailer. It currently operates 251 stores in the UK and Ireland.- History :The sportshop chain was founded in 1971, when ex-footballer Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan. The original store was established by JJ Broughton in the early...

and Debenhams

Debenhams

Debenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...

.

There are many local convenience shops scattered about the town in places like the Ruscote Arcade, Hardwick Arcade and Bradley Arcade.

Kraft Foods, Banbury

Kraft Foods in the Ruscote

Ruscote

The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...

ward of Banbury

Banbury

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

is a large food and coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

producing factory in the north of the town.

It was built in 1964 and was partly due to the London overspill

London overspill

. Kraft Foods Banbury is the Kraft

Kraft Foods

centre of manufacturing with the Kraft UK headquarters located at Cheltenham

Cheltenham

Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

.

The factory is still sometimes known as General Foods

General Foods

General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...

after the American company which originally owned the building, before 'GF' as it is commonly known was taken over by Kraft.

During October 2006, a block of Kraft Foods that was being prepared for demolition caught on fire and remained on fire for most of the day.

There was a notable, but non-lethal, fire at the coffee plant on Tuesday 7 December 2010.

In Spring 2010, a lorry load of Kenco Coffee

Kenco

Kenco is a brand of instant coffee, and roast & ground coffee distributed by Kraft Foods in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Originally known as the Kenya Coffee Company, they started distributing coffee to Britain in 1923...

was stolen by a driver who conned his way into the plant.

The Tramway and Canalside industrial estates

The Tramway industrial estate and Canalside estate are mostly built on land once owned by the Britannia Works. The Tramway industrial estate is named after the industrial tramway that ran between factories on Windsor Street, Upper Windsor Street, Canal Street, Tramway Street and the plant next to Banbury station and the station's corporate freight siding between around 1881-1935. The estate is now a home to many businesses like the Stagecoach bus depot, a Wacky Wardrobe fancy-dress shop, Magnet Kitchens' show, Teamtalk clothing limited room and a small local oil tanker depot by the station.

The other industrial estates

The mid 1950s saw the council established the Southam Road Industrial Estate. The estate was successful in bringing a wide range of industrial to the town. The most important newcomer at the time was General Foods Ltd, formerly Alfred Bird & Sons, and now Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods

, which produced convenience' foods, like custard

Custard

and instant coffee

Instant coffee

. The company moved to Banbury from Birmingham in 1965 and received active political and fiscal co-operation from the council. A new factory with a floor space 80000 square feet (7,432.2 m²) was being constructed in 1969 for Encase Ltd and a factory was being built for Demag Hoists and Cranes Ltd., a subsidiary of Demag Zug, one of the world's largest manufacturers of lifting equipment. The industrial estate had become one of the 'ecanomic epicenters' of the Banburyshire

Banburyshire

-Location:Banburyshire is an informal area of England that is centred on the market town of Banbury. The county of Oxfordshire has two main commercial centres, the city of Oxford itself that serves most of the south of the county, and Banbury that serves the north plus parts of the...

region by the early 1970s.

The Overthorpe industrial estate was built in the 1960s and 1970s and the Wildmear industrial estate was created in the late 1970s and early 1980s, over the former farm house, small late Victorian

Victorian era

local Swimming pool

Swimming pool

and pond

Pond

A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...

as the 1973 and 1983 Ordinance Survey maps show. The Thorpe Way industrial estate, which is next to the long established spittle fields sewerage works, started up in the 1950s and grew further towards the Overthorpe industrial estate (which is named after the nearby village of Overthorpe, Northamptonshire) in the 1960s.

Farming

Banbury was once home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, on Merton Street in Grimsbury. The market was a key feature of Victorian

Victorian era

life in both the town and countryside. In the late 1920s the economy of Banbury was revolutionised by the arrival of new industries and in particular by the relocation of the out of town livestock market to Grimsbury it used to be held in Neithrop and/or Bridge Street, Banbury. The new site selected due to its proximity to the railway station. It was formally closed in June 1998, after being abandoned several years earlier and was replaced with a new housing development and Dashwood Primary School.
The Barber family were local landlords, who let out their Easington estate's lands, examples being Little Wood close was leased to a local man in 1690, the adjacent lands in Berrymoor to another in 1692. The Barber family's property in Easington was thus farmed as a whole by successive tenants until late Victorian

Victorian era

times.

The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe, Oxfordshire

Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.-History:Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury...

and Easington farm were mostly open farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordinance Survey maps of 1964, 1955 and 1947. It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field (which briefly became a rugby ground and is now under the Sainsbury’s store), and the Municipal Borough of Banbury council’s small reservoir just south Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it.

Berrymoor farm was finally demolished in circa 2004 after many years of dereliction had made it unsafe to use and became today's St. Mary's View. Much of the farm land was used to build a children's day-care, an industrial storage facility, a small electrical substation, and a branch of De Montfort University

De Montfort University

De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...

(now a branch of the Oxford and Cherwell College

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College

Oxford & Cherwell Valley College is a multi-campus college in Oxfordshire, England. It was created in 2003 as "Oxford & Cherwell College" - a result of the merger between Oxford College of Further Education, North Oxfordshire College in Banbury and Rycotewood College in Thame...

) on in the late 1960s.

Bretch Farm, near Claypits close, opened in about 1900, was expanded slightly in 1910, lost a large part of its land to the Bretch hill development (the watertower and communications transmissions mast

Radio masts and towers

Radio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. They are among the tallest man-made structures...

) in the 1960s, closed in 1990 and has lain derelict ever since.

The 2008-2010 credit crunch

The credit crunch

Credit crunch

and subsequent UK recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

has lead unemployment rising sharply upwards (it was only 1% in 2001 and 2002, but rose sharply circa 2007-2008). Several places closed, mostly between 2007 and 2011, but most have subsequently re-opened since. The Gloria Jean's café has reopened as Café Mocha, a Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

s Express store opened up in recently closed Grimsbury Pub/Restaurant, Buffalo Bills and Focus Do It All became Argos's second store. The SCS branch adjacent to the new Argos store has become a NEXT department outlet and the former Powerhouse

Powerhouse (shop)

Powerhouse was a United Kingdom electrical goods retail chain which went into administration in 2003 and finally entered receivership in August 2006...

electrical goods retailer (also situated on the retail park) became Pets at Home

Pets at Home

Pets at Home is a large pet supplies retail chain in the United Kingdom. With 300 stores nationwide, it is the largest pet supplies retail chain in the United Kingdom Pets at home currently have over 5000 employees...

. B-Wise became the Family Bargains discount store; the old Littlewoods

Littlewoods

Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...

Index store became Wilkinsons

Wilkinsons

Wilkinsons could refer to:*The Wilkinsons, a country music group.*The Wilkinsons , a reality TV show following the group of the same name.*Wilkinson a British store....

and Peacocks

Peacocks (retailer)

Peacocks, is a fast fashion retailer based in Cardiff, Wales. The chain is owned by The Peacock Group plc and employs over 6,000 people. There are currently over 600 Peacocks stores in the United Kingdom and more than 200 in 12 overseas countries...

retail outlets.

The Unicorn and Three Pigeons pubs closed in 2009, along with the Old Flyer, which reopened as the Old Auctioneer in 2011. The Yates night club closed in 2007, but had roped as of 2010 as the Also Known AS Nightclub. The local branch of The Officers Club

The Officers Club

The Officers Club was a menswear retailer based in the United Kingdom.- History :The company was founded in the 1990s in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, and latterly had its headquarters in Cramlington, Northumberland. There were over 150 stores across the country at the firm's peak...

had moved to a smaller store, but had also weathered the economic storm. The Local branch of Woolworths is now a branch of H&M Clothing

H&M

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children....

. The Littern Tree Pub closed in 2005 to be replaced by the J D Wetherspoons Fleur De Lis

Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...

in 2008. Chalky's, a local music retailer formerly based on the High Street had moved into Castle Quay shopping centre to accommodate a larger floor space; sadly the recession had caused the store to cease operations and was closed only after a few months having been situated within Castle Quay in the Spring of 2009.

The Polish delicatessens – Griosk, the varicose new shops in the Hanwell Fields Housing Estate and a recruitment drive by Prodrive

Prodrive

Prodrive is a British motorsport and automotive engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Subaru, Aston Martin and Ford...

have reduced the unemployment levels over the latter part of 2010 as the local economy began to improve.

Local government

In January 1554 Banbury was granted royal charter that established legally the town as a borough to be thus governed by the aldermen of the town.

Until the year 1889 the Town Council

Town council

A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

's activities were limited to the administration of local justice, the town's 'morality goal

Moral turpitude

Moral turpitude is a legal concept in the United States that refers to "conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals." It appears in U.S. immigration law from the nineteenth century...

', the police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

, markets, fairs, trading standards

Trading Standards

Trading Standards is the name given to local authority departments in the UK formerly known as Weights and Measures. These departments investigate commercial organisations that carry out trade in unethical ways or outside the scope of the law.-History:...

and the upkeep of municipal property. By 1889 its functions were extended to include the repairing, cleansing, and lighting of the streets, which had been the responsibility of the Paving Commissioners from 1825 until 1852 and of the Local Board of Health

Local board of health

from 1852 until 1889, and then sewerage, all sanitary matters, hospitals, the cemetery, public baths, swimming pools, recreation grounds, parks and the local fire brigade for which the Local Board of Health

Local board of health

had been responsible. Later the responsibility for elementary education passed in to the town council’s control under the Education Act of 1902. Following the Reform Act of 1867, the 3 most important voting qualifications were being a man, the ownership of a freehold with a minimum value of 40 shillings and the occupation of a house worth at least £10 a year in rent moneys. This substantially enlarged the local electorate

The town’s supply of gas, electricity and water was in the hands of private companies until 1947, when the town council purchased the water company. In 1967, the water company’s former undertakings and assets that had passed to the Municipal Borough of Banbury (the then town council) were absorbed into the Oxford and District Water Board. The council also lost control to the county councils of the police in 1925 and elementary education in 1944, and the local fire brigade in 1947. The hospitals were nationalized by the Attlee

Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...

government in 1946.

Banbury was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. It retained a borough council until 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972

Local Government Act 1972

The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

it became part of the traditionally Conservative-ruled Cherwell District Council, an unparished area

Unparished area

In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...

with Charter Trustees

Charter Trustees

In England and Wales, charter trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established...

. A civil parish with a town council was set up in 2000.

Notable mayors

Banbury has had several notable mayors over the years since the post was created in 1607.

Thomas Webb was the first Mayor of Banbury town and held office in 1607, 1619, 1629 and 1638.

George Mieholl was mayor in 1608.

Local business man, and Parliamentarian sympathiser, Richard Vivers held it twice in 1621 and 1633.

Thomas Whatley was mayor in 1623

Mathew Whately was mayor in 1636.

Organ Nicholls held it in 1641 and Aholiah West held the position from 1644 to 1645. They have the most unusual given/1st names to date.

Lyne Spurrell was the first female mayor in 1838.

Richard Goffe also has the longest run at five years, but not consecutively, in 1845, 1849, 1853, 1854, 1855.

William Edmunds was mayor from 1887 to 1889 and oversaw the major expanding of the town council's borders and powers.

William James Harding held the post from 1914 to 1918 (5 years), making his tenure the longest consecutive run so far.

Surinder Dhesi was the town's first Asian mayor in 2004 and 2005.

The Wheatly, Cheney (Cheyne in earlyer years) and Edmunds families have produce more of Banbury's mayors than any others over the years with-
Nathaniel Wheatly (1643 and 1688), William Wheatly (1667) and Richard Wheatly (1671, 1683, 1742).
Richard Edmunds (1858, 1863 and 1864), William Edmunds (1887 to 1889) and Percy Spencer Edmudns (1895)
Robert Cheyne (1746), John Cheney (1936) and Mary Cheney (1949).

An housing estate was named after Thomas Tims (1840).
Roads are named after Sarah Beatrice Gillett(?) (1926), William George Mascord (1929), Fred Mold (1930) and Arthur Fairfax (1897 and 1905).

Major Schools

52.0718°N 1.3672°W
Former Cherwell British (Infants) School, and the old Dashwood school in Britannia Road was closed in the mid 2000’s, with a new Dashwood school opening near by

Banbury School

Banbury School

Banbury School is a mixed, multi-heritage, fully comprehensive school with 1,650 students situated on Ruskin Road, in the Easington ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. The school is a specialist Humanities College....

is a mixed, multi-heritage, fully comprehensive school

Comprehensive school

A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

with 1650 students (including sixth form

Sixth form

In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...

) situated on Ruskin Road, in the Easington ward of Banbury

Banbury

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, England

England

. The school is a specialist Humanities College

Humanities College

Humanities Colleges were introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, humanities. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Humanities...

.
Drayton School

Drayton School

Drayton School was a comprehensive school with 650 students. It was situated on Stratford Road in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. Its buildings are now occupied by the North Oxfordshire Academy which has replaced Drayton since 2007.- Overview :...

was a comprehensive school

Comprehensive school

with 650 students. It was situated on Stratford Road in Banbury

Banbury

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. Its buildings are now occupied by the new North Oxfordshire Academy

North Oxfordshire Academy

North Oxfordshire Academy is a city academy in Banbury, Oxfordshire which opened in September 2007, replacing the former Drayton School. Its sixth form opened in September 2008. The Principal of North Oxfordshire Academy is Sara Billins.The previous Principal, Ruth Robinson, left in October...

which has replaced Drayton.

The school was first opened in 1973 to help relieve the pupil demand for the oversubscribed Banbury School

Banbury School

and was then exceed in 2 more stages.
. In its first year, it was called Drayton Hall as it was affiliated to Banbury School. In 1974, it gained independent status and was re-named Drayton School. The school made local headlines in 1982 when pupils staged a rooftop protest in response to a teachers' strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

.

Drayton school was well known for its sports facilities, in particular the Astroturf and the athletics track, both owned by Cherwell District Council. As a result, Drayton achieved a "Sportsmark" award by "Sports England".

In December 1997, Drayton was put in Special Measures by Ofsted

Office for Standards in Education

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

following a poor inspection. Drayton was at the bottom of the league table for Oxfordshire, reaching an all-time low of 9% of pupils getting 5 or more A*-C grades in their GCSEs.

In September 1999, Graham Robb became head teacher of Drayton School, with a mission to remove Drayton from special measures and for the school to go through a successful Ofsted inspection. By 2001, weaknesses in the curriculum and in teaching and learning had been addressed and the Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools

Office for Standards in Education

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

(HMI), judged the school to have improved enough to be removed from Special Measures. As a result of the improvements between 1999 and 2001, the school received a ‘School Achievement Award’ in 2002. In the same year Drayton joined the "Specialist School and Academies Trust". In 2003, Drayton had a successful Ofsted inspection.

April 2003 proved to be a critical time for Drayton as Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire County Council, established in 1889, is the county council, or upper-tier local authority, for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire, in the South East of England, an elected body responsible for the most strategic local government services in the county.-History:County Councils...

wanted to amalgamate Banbury School

Banbury School

and Drayton School

Drayton School

together in the Banbury School and Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic

Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College, Banbury

Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College is a Roman Catholic Secondary school which was recently awarded sports college status. It is located on Addison Road in the Easington ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. The school has many outbuildings and includes an Astroturf...

site. Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School wanted to move to the Drayton School site as the school was over-subscribed. Drayton School

Drayton School

was also planning a joint campus with Oxford and Cherwell College

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College

.

However, in the face of enormous opposition, due to the improved local reputation of the school, the County Council abandoned this proposal at an executive meeting in October 2003.

Examination results also improved during this period. For example, the results of the SAT

National Curriculum assessment

National Curriculum assessments are a series of educational assessments, colloquially known as Sats or SATs, used to assess the attainment of children attending maintained schools in England...

tests the students take at age 14 improved dramatically in 2003.

In July 2004, Graham Robb left Drayton School having achieved his two objectives. He is currently involved in an anti-bullying project. After the refurbishment he piloted, Drayton was one of the few schools in Oxfordshire to have achieved a "Healthy Oxfordshire Schools" award set by Oxfordshire County School.

In Summer 2006, Drayton achieved another all-time GCSEs record since it opened. It then became the North Oxfordshire Academy in 2007.
North Oxfordshire Academy

North Oxfordshire Academy

is a city academy

Academy (England)

In the education system of England, an academy is a school that is directly funded by central government and independent of control by local government in England. An academy may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors, either financially or in kind...

in Banbury

Banbury

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

which opened in September 2007, replacing the former Drayton School

Drayton School

. Its sixth form opened in September 2008. The Headteacher of North Oxfordshire Academy is Ruth Robinson.

At the end of the Summer Term 2007, two of the school’s four main blocks, A Block and C block, were cleared and sealed off ready for refurbishment work that took place from September 2007 to the middle of 2009.

North Oxfordshire Academy is run by the United Learning Trust

United Learning Trust

The United Learning Trust is an education charity and the largest single sponsor of academies in the UK with 20 academies and one City Technology College currently open. ULT's objective is to bring out "the best in everyone", driving educational improvement across its family of academies and...

and sponsored by Vodafone and the United Learning Trust Wikipedia Entry

United Learning Trust

.

In a recent Ofsted/HMI report the officials advised that the academy had innovative strategies was continuing to move in a positive direction.
The Warriner School

The Warriner School, Bloxham

The Warriner School is a secondary school which opened in 1971 and is situated on the Bloxham Road in Bloxham, Oxfordshire. The school has 1,114 pupils in the 11–16 range. It has Technology College status and serves the villages in the northern half of the Cherwell District...

is a secondary school (with farm) which opened in 1971 and is situated on the Bloxham Road in Bloxham

Bloxham

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. The school has 1,114 pupils in the 11–16 range. It has Technology College status and serves the villages in the northern half of the Cherwell District. The school has a catering service and canteen, although school farm produce is not used for student consumption.

The school premises contain a farm, 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) in size and fully organic

Organic farming

Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...

for livestock and grassland. The school has won the NFU

NFU

NFU is a three-letter acronym which may stand for:* National Farmers Union* New Foundations with Urelements* National Formosa University, a University in Taiwan* Nuclear No first use policy...

's Rural School Of The Year Award 2005 and SSAT

SSAT

SSAT is an abbreviation for:*Samsung Aptitude Test*Secondary School Admission Test*Specialist Schools and Academies Trust*Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test*Social Security Appeals Tribunal...

's Most Improved Schools Club Award 2005-06. The farm sells its produce, including, meat, eggs, and livestock.

The Warriner Farm is also useful to student education, as Rural Studies lessons can be held out on the farm, giving the teachers the ability to demonstrate with live animals.

Water treatment and sanitation

Apart from assuming the functions of the Paving Commissioners, the Local Board of Health

Local board of health

was responsible for sewage

Sewage

Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...

, sewers, town culvert

Culvert

A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...

s, health, and all sanitary

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

matters, etc. vial the local Sanitary Board. The Local Board of Health was unable to finance a regular supply of water to the town, so the responsibility was taken up by the Banbury Water Co. in 1854. They would also build a reservoir on land by the Oxford Road Banbury Water Co. was formed in 1854 to take water from the River Cherwell

River Cherwell

near Grimsbury, purify it by artificial (that is to say via a sand bed

Slow sand filter

Slow sand filters are used in water purification for treating raw water to produce a potable product. They are typically 1 to 2 metres deep, can be rectangular or cylindrical in cross section and are used primarily to treat surface water...

) filtration, and then pump it to a covered storage reservoir on land by the Oxford Road, but the works were not in operation until 1858.

Banbury has had 3 sewerage works since the mid-19th century. They were planned out in the 1850s along with a water pumping station. The first was founded by a Quaker Pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

in the 1860s in the north of the then town, near the location of today's Spice Ball Park, and another a few years later under what is known as the Beaumont Industrial Estate. Both of these would cease operation in circa 1910, due to becoming obsolete.

The public’s opposition to a rate increase prevented the Local Board of Health from purchasing the water company in 1863. By 1870 the District Medical Officer urged the Local Board of Health and Sanitary Board that town’s use of the company's water should be made obligatory. The Boards were concerned by any possible public backlash over the cost or assumed reduction in civil liberties

Civil liberties

Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...

the locals may have incurred due to the project.

In 1888 the local Sanitary Board and Local Board of Health

Local board of health

were disbanded and its duties were taken over by the town council.

By 1900 the Banbury Water Co. was supplying nearly the whole town with water and by 1914 a service reservoir with a capacity of 250,000 gallons had been constructed on the west side of the Oxford Road. It was then slightly enlarged after World War 2.

The local council, the Municipal Borough of Banbury had taken most local waterworks over by the 1880s, along with a small reservoir near Easington farm, and the Banbury Rural District

Banbury Rural District

Banbury was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from the bulk of the Banbury rural sanitary district, which had been divided between three counties...

had built another on the present Spitalfields site in the 1890s as the need for formal sewerage treatment as well as water purification

Water purification

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, materials, and biological contaminants from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose...

grew as the town expanded ever outward as illustrated in the 1882, 1900, 1910 and 1922 Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey

maps. It would be expanded after World War II

World War II

and modernised thereafter. Banbury Rural District

Banbury Rural District

built Grimsbury Reservoir and the Langford Lane water pumping stations near today's Hennef

Hennef

Hennef is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 7 km south-east of Siegburg and 15 km east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Hennef (Sieg) is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of...

Way road in abbot the mid 1960s.

A water tower was built in Neithrop circa 1964.

Hospitals

The Horton General Hospital

Horton General Hospital

The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service run hospital, located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton...

and Foscote Private Hospital are in the ward. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton. It was briefly threatened with closure in 2009, but this threat has now receded due to local pressure. It was modernised steadily from the 1960s onwards.

Transport

Waterways

The Oxford Canal

Oxford Canal

is a popular place for pleasure trips and tourist activity. The canal's main boat yard is now the listed site Tooley's Boatyard

Tooley's Boatyard

Railways

The main station, now called simply Banbury after Merton Street

Banbury Merton Street railway station

closed in the 1960s, is now served by trains running between and Birmingham

Birmingham

via Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, Oxford

Oxford

and Leamington Spa

Leamington Spa

Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...

, and from London Marylebone

Marylebone station

Marylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...

via High Wycombe

High Wycombe

High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...

and Bicester

Bicester

, the fastest non-stop train taking 68 minutes to London Marylebone

Marylebone station

(and 62 minutes for the return journey).

Banbury has rail services

Banbury railway station

run by Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways is a British train operating company. It was set up at the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, and operates local passenger trains from Marylebone station in London to Aylesbury and main-line trains on the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham Snow Hill with its associated branches...

to and Birmingham

Birmingham Snow Hill station

Birmingham Snow Hill is a railway station and tram stop in the centre of Birmingham, England, on the site of an earlier, much larger station built by the former Great Western Railway . It is the second most important railway station in the city, after Birmingham New Street station...

, both running to London Marylebone via the non-electrified Chiltern Main Line. It also has services run by First Great Western

First Great Western

First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

to , and London Paddington. Services to other parts of the country are provided by CrossCountry

CrossCountry

CrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva...

via Birmingham New Street, to Cardiff

Cardiff Central railway station

Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...

, Bristol

Bristol Temple Meads railway station

Bristol Temple Meads railway station is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for public transport in Bristol, with bus services to various parts of the city and surrounding districts, and a ferry service to the city centre in addition to the...

, Southampton, , , Stansted

Stansted Airport railway station

Stansted Airport railway station serves London Stansted Airport in Essex, England.It is situated at the end of a short branch from the West Anglia Main Line. The branch was constructed at a cost of £44 million and opened in 1991, to coincide with the completion of the airport's new terminal building...

, as well as direct services to other cities across England and Scotland.

The buses

Midland Red, the marketing name of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO) was a former bus company that operated in the Midlands, including Banbury. The first garage opened in the town during 1919, with an initial allocation of three buses that had increased to five vehicles by 1922. Some of the larger bus companies were nationalised in 1947, by the Attlee government; but BMMO, as part of the British Electric Traction

British Electric Traction

British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.- Early history :The company was founded as...

group, was not nationalised until 1967.

BMMO was renamed Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited in March 1974 and Banbury's division was, later to join several other towns under the title of Midland Red South Limited when the Midland Red Omnibus Company Limited split up during privatisation in 6 September 1981.
Midland Red South Limited was bought out by Stagecoach in late 1993. It traded as Stagecoach Midland Red. It became part of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire and was corporately merged with Thames Transit Limited’s country wide depot services in 2002.

Banbury has an intra-urban bus service provided by Stagecoach Group

Stagecoach Group

Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...

which feeds the outlying villages and provides transport to places such as Oxford

Oxford

, Chipping Norton and Brackley

Brackley

Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...

. Stagecoach also now runs the intra-urban bus to Rugby

Rugby, Warwickshire

Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...

and Daventry

Daventry

that was provided by Geoff Amos Coaches until they closed in August 2011. Heyfordian operates smaller services not covered by those of Stagecoach

Stagecoach Group

including routes from Banbury to places including Bicester

Bicester

, the Heyfords

Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire

Upper Heyford is a village and civil parish about northwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.-Location:Upper Heyford is on the east bank of the River Cherwell. "Upper" distinguishes it from Lower Heyford which is about "lower", downstream along the Cherwell valley...

, Ardley

Ardley

Ardley is a village in Ardley with Fewcott civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about northwest of Bicester. The parish includes the village of Fewcott that is now contiguous with Ardley.-History:...

, Towcester

Towcester

Towcester , the Roman town of Lactodorum, is a small town in south Northamptonshire, England.-Etymology:Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove; Bosworth and Toller compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa...

, Wappenham

Wappenham

Wappenham is a linear village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is south-west of Towcester, north of Syresham and north-west of Silverstone and forms part of the district of South Northamptonshire...

and Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

. A local operator - Tex Coaches also runs regular routes from Banbury Town Centre to Brackley

Brackley

via Kings Sutton and Greatworth

Greatworth

Greatworth is a village about north-west of Brackley, Northamptonshire, England.-History:The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter was built in the 13th century and the bell tower was added in about 1300. The architect H.R. Gough rebuilt the chancel arch in 1882. In 2005 a new ring of six...

. Banbury is also served by the National Express coach service which runs regular services in and out of Banbury, to/from major UK towns and cities.

The Banburyshire Community Transport Association Ltd charity provides special transport services for disabled in and around the town of Banbury.

The public roads

The M40 motorway

M40 motorway

now runs close to the west of the village of Aynho with the nearest access at junction 10, with the A43

A43 road

The A43 is a primary route in the English Midlands, that runs from the M40 motorway near Ardley in Oxfordshire to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Through Northamptonshire it bypasses the towns of Northampton, Kettering and Corby which are the three principal destinations on the A43 route...

trunk road about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south.

By the turn of the 1980s, plans had been unveiled to extend the motorway from Oxford to Birmingham through Banburyshire

Banburyshire

, Cherwell Valley and Warwickshire

Warwickshire

. This was constructed between 1988 and 1990 from Junction 8 joining the M42 (Junction 3A) near Hockley Heath

Hockley Heath

Hockley Heath is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. The parish is to the south of the West Midlands conurbation, from Birmingham from Solihull and from Stratford on Avon...

.

There was a particularly nasty crash just north of Banbury in the winter of 1997, in which 1 person died and 9 were injured, due to a lorry hitting black ice

Black ice

Black ice, sometimes called glare ice or clear ice, refers to a thin coating of glazed ice on a surface.While not truly black, it is virtually transparent, allowing black asphalt/macadam roadways to be seen through it, hence the term "black ice"...

and skidding in to an oncoming tanker truck. Several cars were also later involved in the incident.

The Hennef Way bypass in central Banbury was built in 1985 to relieve town centre congestion and improve accessibility between the town and motorway. It was built between Grimbury's Old Manor farm and the Grimsbury Reservoir. The farm was demolished and replaced by an office and car show room. Hennef Way was named after the German town of Hennef

Hennef

. Hennef Way (A422

A422 road

The A422 is an "A" road for east-west journeys in south central England, connecting the county towns of Bedford and Worcester by way of Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon. For most of its length, is a narrow single carriageway....

) was then upgraded to a dual carriageway

Dual carriageway

A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

easing traffic on the heavily congested road and providing better links to north Banbury and the town centre from the M40.

A bypass was planned for the mid-1980s as both the 1983 and 1985 O.S. maps and a planning application of that time map show. The route would have been roughly from outside Drayton School

Drayton School

, past Trinity Close and then through the still inbuilt part of Bretch Hill and Appleby close, past Dover Avenue, then beyond the water tower and communications mast (both made circa 1964), and in to Easington via land just south of Crouch Hill and finally coming on to the main road south of the Poets' Corner or Timms estates. It is also to be noted that the Bretch Hill Road may have remained a long cul-de-sac

Cul-de-sac

A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...

not reached the main road near the Drayton School or have had Appleby and Penrith closes added to it, if the long planned Banbury bypass had gone ahead in the early to mid-1980s as the 1973, 1977, 1983 and Ordinance Survey maps help illustrate.

In 2005 Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire County Council

proposed building a ring road

Ring road

A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...

around Banbury, connecting the M40 to the Oxford Road

A4260 road

The A4260 is a road that leads from the A422 Henneff Way, Banbury to Frieze Way near Oxford. It is single carriageway for a majority of the route, except for a section near Steeple Aston for and on Frieze Way where the A4260 meets the A34 at Peartree Interchange, Oxford, where it becomes a dual...

at Bodicote

Bodicote

, to ease town centre traffic. However, this is not expected to be built until 2016 at the earliest.

Banbury United F.C.

Banbury United is a football club based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, who play in the Southern League Premier Division. They are nicknamed The Puritans and they play their home matches at the Spencer Stadium...

was first formed as Spencer Villa in 1931 and their home matches played at Middleton Road. At this time it was essentially a works club. In 1934, they changed their name to Banbury Spencer and moved to the Spencer Stadium. They had a lot of early success, winning most of the leagues which they played in.

Banburyshire

Banburyshire is an informal (approximately 20 mile) area(52.06278°1.33816′N 1°17′W) of England

England

that is centred on the market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

of Banbury

Banbury

. The county of Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

has two main commercial centres, the city of Oxford

Oxford

itself that serves most of the south of the county, and Banbury that serves the north (such as Adderbury

Adderbury

Adderbury is a large village and civil parish in northern Oxfordshire, England. It is about south of Banbury and from Junction 10 of the M40 motorway. The village is divided in two by the Sor Brook. The village consists of two neighbourhoods: West Adderbury and East Adderbury...

, Deddington

Deddington

Deddington is a civil parish in Oxfordshire about south of Banbury. In scale Deddington is a village, but it has a town centre with a market place and the local football team is called Deddington Town FC.-History:...

, Wroxton

Wroxton

, Great Bourton

Great Bourton

Great Bourton is a village about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Bourton.-History:...

and Bloxham

Bloxham

) plus parts of the neighbouring counties of Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

and Warwickshire

Warwickshire

. Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

brewery, on the outskirts of Banburyshire, is one of Britain's last working tower breweries (by April 2006) and supplies several Banbury and Oxfordshire pubs with beer.

From the former, the villages of King's Sutton

King's Sutton

King's Sutton is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England in the valley of the River Cherwell. The village is about south-east of Banbury, Oxfordshire...

and Middleton Cheney

Middleton Cheney

Middleton Cheney is a civil parish and the largest village in South Northamptonshire, England. It is situated between Banbury and Brackley. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 3,753.-Local amenities:...

, and possibly also Aynho

Aynho

Aynho is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England, on the edge of the Cherwell valley about southeast of the north Oxfordshire town of Banbury and southwest of Brackley...

, Fenny Compton

Fenny Compton

Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, about eight miles north of Banbury. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 797. Its church of St. Peter and St. Clare was built in the 14th century...

, Charlton

Charlton, Northamptonshire

Charlton is a village in the parish of Newbottle, Northamptonshire, England in between Brackley and Kings Sutton, lying close to a small tributary of the River Cherwell. It is a small village with a population about 200....

and Croughton

Croughton, Northamptonshire

Croughton is a small village in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. It is close to the border with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and is six kilometres southwest of the town of Brackley...

could be considered part of Banburyshire, and from the latter Upper and Lower Brailes also fall within Banbury's sphere of influence. Both the settlements of Bicester

Bicester

, Hinton-in-the-Hedges

Hinton-in-the-Hedges

Hinton-in-the-Hedges is a small village and civil parish in South, Northamptonshire, England, due west of the town of Brackley. West of the village is Hinton-in-the-Hedges Airfield. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 179 people. In 2010 it had increased to approximately...

, Chipping Norton

Chipping Norton

Chipping Norton is a market town in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about southwest of Banbury.-History until the 17th century:...

and Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

are also on the border of Banburyshire's area.

It is effectively encompassed by the former Banbury Rural District

Banbury Rural District

, Woodstock Rural District, Municipal Borough of Banbury, Southam Rural District

Southam Rural District

Southam Rural District was a rural district in the county of Warwickshire, England. It was created in 1894 and consisted of 26 parishes, a further six parishes were added in 1932, when the Farnborough Rural District was disbanded...

, Brackley Rural District, Middleton Cheney Rural District

Middleton Cheney Rural District

Middleton Cheney was a rural district in Northamptonshire, England from 1894 to 1935.It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from that part of the Banbury rural sanitary district which was in Northamptonshire...

and the north west of Ploughley Rural District

Ploughley Rural District

Ploughley was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England, from 1932 to 1974. It entirely surrounded Bicester but did not include it.It was created in 1932 from parts of the abolished Bicester Rural District, Headington Rural District and Woodstock Rural District, along with a couple of non-urban...

(the part that was not in either Bicester Rural District or Headington Rural District

Headington Rural District

Headington was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England from 1894 to 1932, based on the Headington rural sanitary district. It covered an area to the east of the city of Oxford. The parish of Headington was split out as a separate urban district in 1927....

before 1931) local government areas, which were abolished between 1935 and 1974.

Roman and Anglo-Saxon events

During excavations for the construction of an office building in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age

British Iron Age

settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone. Later there was a Roman villa

Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...

at nearby Wykham Park. Remains of a substantial Roman villa

Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...

were been found just west of the B4100 main road, near Hanwell, Oxfordshire

Hanwell, Oxfordshire

Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Remains of a substantial Roman villa have been found just west of the B4100 main road....

. A Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

town once stood at Blacklands

Blacklands

- Places : * Blackland, New Brunswick, Canada* Blackland, Prentiss County, Mississippi* Texas Blackland Prairies-Music:* Blacklands , the second and final album from Music for Pleasure and was released in 1985- See also :* Black earth...

, 0.5 miles (804.7 m) north of the village of King Sutton and coins from the 4th century AD have been alo been found there.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

recorded that Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

s raided the village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

of Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

in AD 913. Banburyshire

Banburyshire

, Warwickshire

Warwickshire

and Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

were on the Front line

Front line

A front line is the farthest-most forward position of an armed force's personnel and equipment - generally in respect of maritime or land forces. Forward Line of Own Troops , or Forward Edge of Battle Area are technical terms used by all branches of the armed services...

of the Viking

Viking

/Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

conflict of that time. and a parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

was built there by AD 922. The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

records that in 1086 Hook Norton

Hook Norton

Hook Norton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England. It is northeast of Chipping Norton.-Toponym and early history:...

had 76 villagers and two mills

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

Cherwell Edge

Cherwell Edge in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

(52°6′N 1°17′W) is near the River Cherwell

River Cherwell

, north-west of Banbury

Banbury

, England

England

. The once heavily wooded hill and valley was mostly cleared by 1925 and the near by golf courses was built in the early 1960s. The area now also covers the nearby Cherwell Edge Golf Club that was recently built by it to. The golf club is used by various local residents and is one of Banburyshire's leading courses.

External links

North Oxfordshire Academy
The Former Drayton School
Drayton School
Drayton School was a comprehensive school with 650 students. It was situated on Stratford Road in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. Its buildings are now occupied by the North Oxfordshire Academy which has replaced Drayton since 2007.- Overview :...
United Learning Trust's website for the proposal of North Oxfordshire Academy
FT.com / Middle East / Politics & Society - Egyptian military dissolves parliament
A Banburyshire genealogical resource
Banburyshire Community Transport Association
http://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html?z=14&x=-1.336&y=52.061 A 1930s OS map.

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