Bampton, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Bampton, an ancient parish, a market-town, and a hundred in Oxfordshire. The town, which is in the Witney County Court district and union, stands on a small tributary of the Thames, is 5 miles SW from Witney, 14 W from Oxford, and 79 from London by the G.W.R. It consists chiefly of three streets with a spacious market-place. A horse fair is held on 26 and 27 of August. It has a parish church, a handsome cruciform edifice with a tall spire, which includes features of almost every period from Early Norman to modern times, and which was restored in 1870. There are also places of worship for the Baptists and Wesleyans. Formerly a castle, built by Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, stood near the church, and picturesque remains of it still exist in two farmhouses called Ham Court and Castle Farm. Acreage, 4530; population, 1346. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Faringdon. Phillips, the author of "Cyder" and the "Splendid Shilling," was a native.

The civil parish of Bampton was divided in 1845 into the three ecclesiastical parishes of Bampton Proper, Bampton Aston, and Bampton Lew. The living of Bampton Proper is a vicarage of the net yearly value of £439; that of Bampton Aston a vicarage of the net yearly value of £484; and that of Bampton Lew a vicarage of the net yearly value of £108, with residence. They are all in the diocese of Oxford, and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Bampton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bampton (St. Mary))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Bampton 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.