Beckley, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Beckley, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on the line of the Roman road from Alcester to Wallingford, on an eminence overhanging the south side of Ottmoor, 3 miles SE of Islip station on the L. & N.W.R., and 5 NE of Oxford, under which it has a post office; money order and telegraph office, Headington. It was the burial-place of the British saint Donanverdh,and the hereditary property of King Alfred. The parish includes also the hamlets of Studley and Horton-cum-Studley, and by the Divided Parishes Act of 1882 Stowood, formerly a distinct parish, was made a hamlet of Beckley. Area, 3620 acres; population of the civil parish, 345; of the ecclesiastical, 395. A Benedictine priory was founded at Studley in the time of Henry II. by Bertrand de St Walery, passed at the dissolution to the Crokes, and was converted into a dwelling-liousc in 1587. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £148 with residence. The church is an interesting structure of the 14th century, and has remains of very curious frescoes, a font with ancient stone desk, and tombs of the Crokes.

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.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Beckley from the following:

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