Banbury, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Banbury, a municipal borough, market and union town, a parish, and a hundred in Oxfordshire. The town stands on the Cherwell river and the Oxford and Birmingham Canal, 22½ miles N by W of Oxford, and 77 miles by rail from London by the G.W.R. Its name, in the Saxon times, was Banesbyrig, and its site is supposed to have been a Roman station, Roman coins and a Roman altar have been found at it, and a kind of amphitheatre, still existing, is thought to be Roman. A castle was built here about the year 1125, by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, and continued to be an episcopal residence till the reign of Edward VI. During the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, the forces of the Yorkists held possession of the town, and a memorable action, known as the battle of Banbury, was fought in 1469 about 3 miles distant, on Danesmoor, near Edgecott. In the wars of the time of Charles I. The castle was garrisoned for the Parliamentarians and aided by the townspeople, who were almost all Puritans; but it was captured by the Royalists after the battle of Edgehill, and held by them during thirteen weeks, till relieved by the Earl of Northampton; and afterwards it sustained a siege of ten weeks by Colonel Whalley, and surrendered on honourable terms. The only remains of it are three steps in a cottage.

The town has been much improved, and presents a cheerful appearance. The town hall, built in 1854, is a handsome edifice, in the prevailing style of the 15th century, with an apartment 60 feet by 34, and a conspicuous tower. An addition to the Town Hall buildings was made in 1893, consisting of a good council chamber and municipal offices. The parish church is a large costly structure of classic architecture, erected in the place of a very fine Gothic church which was destroyed under an Act of Parliament of 1790; has a tower over the western entrance 133 feet high; and contains two monuments of the Pigott family. The cemetery contains two neat chapels in the Early English style. The Roman Catholic chapel, built in 1838, and a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1864, are fine structures. There are churches in Neithrop, South Banbury, and Grimsbury, twelve dissenting chapels and places of worship, eight public schools, an excellent modern infirmary, a Roman Catholic nunnery, six almshouses, and numerous charitable institutions, supported by voluntary contributions. The Banbury Institute, a fine structure of red brick, presented to the town in 1884 by Sir Bernhard Samuelson, Bart., contains a good library and reading room. Attached to it is a magnificent Technical School, opened in 1893. It was added chiefly at the cost of Sir B. Samuelson. A spire-cross, with a fountain, was erected in 1859, on or near the site of an ancient market cross of great note, and described by Leland. The town has a head post office, stations on the G.W.R. and L. & N.W.R., several wharves on the canal, five banks, and two first-class hotels, with numerous commercial inns and posting houses, and publishes three newspapers. It has a large corn trade, is famous for cakes, and carries on malting, brewing, wool-stapling, agricultural implement making, and the manufacture of plushes and other webbing; it has also a large woollen tweed factory, and a patent box factory. A weekly market is held on Thursday, and fairs every alternate Thursday, and the first Thursday after Old Twelfth Day and three preceding days, the first Thursday after Old Michaelmas Day, the second Thursday before Christmas, and a horse fair is held on the third Thursday in September. The police force of the old borough was increased in 1890 to seven for the whole town. The town was made a borough in the time of Queen Mary; is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; is a seat of petty sessions, and a court of record. In 1889, by a Provisional Order of the Local Government Board, made under the powers conferred by the Local Government Act, 1888, confirmed by Act of Parliament, and which came into operation on 9 Nov., 1889, the boundaries of the borough were extended so as to include within it the whole of the urban sanitary district, comprising the hamlets of Neithrop and Grimsbury. The board of health ceased to exist, and the urban sanitary authority is vested in the Corporation. Banbury formerly gave the title of Earl to the family of Knollys. Whateley, the Puritan author of the "Bride Bush," born in 1583, was a native. The seats of Broughton Castle, Wroxton Abbey, and Wykham Park are in the neighbourhood. A sulphurous spring exists in a shop cellar in High Street; a chalybeate spring is at a short distance from the town; and the pyrites aureus, or golden fire-stone, is frequently found in digging wells. Population of the borough, 12,768; acreage, 4634. Population of the civil parish, 3639; acreage, 81. The living is a vicarage, united with the perpetual curacy of Neithrop, in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £287 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. South Banbury, or Christ Church, is a separate charge, a vicarage of the net value of £290 with residence, also in the patronage of the Bishop of Oxford.

Banbury Parliamentary Division, or North Oxford, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 43,862. The division includes the following:-Banbury and Bloxham—Adderbury (East), Adderbury (West), Alkerton, Barford (St John), Bloxham, Boddicot, Bourton, Broughton, Clattercote, Claydon, Cropredy, Drayton, Epwell, Hanwell, Horley, Hornton, Milcomb, Milton, Mollington, Neithrop, Newington (North), Prescot, Shennington, Shutford (East), Shutford (West), Sibford Ferris, Sibford Gower, Swalcliffe, Tadmarton, Wardington, Wigginton, Wroxton; Chadlington—Ascot-under-Wychwood, Bruern, Chadlington, Charlbury, Chastleton, Churchill, Cornbury Park, Cornwell, Enstone, Fawler, Fifield, Finstock, Heythrop and Dunthrop, Hooknorton, Idbury, Kingham, Langley, Leafield, Lyneham, Milton, Over Norton, Rollright (Great), Rollright (Little), Salford, Sarsden, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Shorthampton, Spelsbury, Swerford, Whichwood; Wootton (North)—Aston (Middle), Aston (North), Aston (Steeple), Barford (Great), Barton (Steeple), Barton (Westcott), Deddington, Duns Tew, Rousham, Sandford, Southnewington, Tew (Great), Tew (Little), Worton (Nether), Worton (Over); Banbury, municipal borough.

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 Banbury from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Banbury (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 Banbury 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.