Adderbury, Oxfordshire
Historical Description
Adderbury, a village, two townships, and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands near the Oxford Canal and the river Cherwell, 3 miles NW of Aynho station on the G.W.R., and 3½ S of Banbury, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Banbury. Its church is cruciform, and chiefly Early English and Decorated, with a lofty Decorated spire. The chancel was built by William of Wykeham, and has his arms on the outer wall. The church was thoroughly restored in 1886 at a cost of £3000. The ancient parsonage and the old tithe-barn are adjacent. A Norman castle, and afterwards a palace of the Dukes of Buccleuch, stood at Adderbury. The former is extinct, but the latter has been converted into a modern residence. An impostor, who pretended to be the Saviour, was crucified here in 1219, by order of an Episcopal synod. Wilmot, the witty, profligate Earl of Rochester, took from Adderbury the title of Baron, and lived and died in the mansion near Adderbury Green; and Pope the poet afterwards made a visit there to the great Duke of Argyll, and wrote- "With no poetic ardour fired, I press the bed where Wilmot lay." The townships of Adderbury are called East and West. The church, previously described, is in East Adderbury. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, with the chapelry of Milton annexed; joint net value, £380, in the gift of New College, Oxford. Area of East Adderbury, 2022 acres of land and 36 of water; population, 846. West Adderbury has an area of 1159 acres; population, 331. At Milton there is a chapel of ease, erected in 1856. Area of the hamlet, 810 acres; population, 136. There is a Wesleyan chapel at East Adderbury, and at West Adderbury a Congregational chapel and Friends' meeting-house. Adderbury House, which belonged in succession to the Earl of Rochester and the families of Argyll and Buccleuch, is now the property of the Larnach family.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Oxfordshire | |
| Civil parish | East Adderbury | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | East Adderbury St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Bloxham | |
| Poor Law union | Banbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1598.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
he church ot St. Mary, which stands on elevated ground, is a cruciform edifice of various dates, chiefly Decorated, consisting of chancel with vestry, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, transepts north and south porches and a western tower with spire and pinnacles, containing a clock and 8 bells:- the chancel, a work of the Early Perpendicular period, was built by William of Wykeham, who, in 1385, gave this vicarage to New College, Oxford, of which he was the founder; his bust and armorial bearings, carved in stone, appear on the external wall over the east window as well as on the woodwork of the roof: on the north side of the chancel is the original vestry with a room over it, reached by a newel staircase, and an oriel window: the transepts retain arcading of the Early English period: in the north transept is an aumbry and in the south two piscinæ: the nave has a fine timber roof and Decorated stone porches: there is a brass of a man in armour wearing a collar, and his wife, c. 1460; another to Jane, wife of George Smythe, 1508; an inscription on brass to Roger Wells, merchant, and his wives Joan and Agnes, and a memorial to Thomas More, 1536: in the chancel is buried Sir George. Cobb, 3rd bart. the last lineal representative of an ancient family once resident here, who was accidentally drowned 29 March, 1762, at the seat of John Blagrave esq, near Reading, aged 90; in the chancel was also buried Alice (Wild), wife of William Cobb esq. who died 23 Oct. 1627, and Sir William Cobb kt. interred here 16 March, 1658: there is here also a monument to William Oldys D.D. vicar here from 1627, shot by soldiers of the Parliamentary army during the Civil war in 1645: the stained east window was erected by a bequest of the Rev. Charles Alcock M.A. vicar from 1836: the rood loft and screen have been finely restored, and the former is reached by the ancient stairway: in 1891-2 niches were filled with figures of the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and the small niches with those of the twelve Apostles, St. Paul and St. Barnabas, at a cost of £180: the chancel was restored in 1834 under the direction of Mr. Buckler, architect, of Oxford, and in 1886 the church was thoroughly restored and reseated with oak benches under the direction of Mr. John Oldrid Scott F.S.A. architect, at a cost of £2,907: there are 500 sittings. In the churchyard is a monument to William Beaw D.D. sometime major of a regiment of horse in the army of Charles I. afterwards a volunteer in the Swedish army in the war with Poland during his exile, vicar of Adderbury 1661-1706, and Bishop of Llandaff 1679-1706.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel, Adderbury West
There is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1835, with sittings for 150 persons.
Methodist
Wesleyan Chapel
The Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1893, will seat 200 persons.
Society of Friends
Society of Friends Meeting House, Adderbury West
There is a Meeting House for the Society of Friends.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Adderbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Adderbury, West)
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online
Maps
Online maps of Adderbury are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Oxfordshire newspapers online:
- Oxford Journal
- Banbury Advertiser
- Banbury Guardian
- Oxford University and City Herald
- Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
- Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
- Oxford Times
- Banbury Beacon
- Ossett Observer
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.