Bicester, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Bicester (popularly Bister), a market town and head of a poor law union and county court district, in Oxfordshire. The town stands in a rather flat situation on Akeman Street, near the ancient Alcester, 12 miles NNE of Oxford, and 54¼from London, and has a station on the L. & N.W.R. It was called by the Saxons Burenceaster or Bernaceaster, and is styled Berencestre in the Domesday Survey, was probably built in the time of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester, from the ruins of Alcester, and was a frontier garrison of the West Saxons against the Mercians. An Augustinian priory, dedicated to St Edburg, was founded at it in 1182 by Gilbert de Basset, baron of Hedingdon, and given at the dissolution to Charles, Duke of Suffolk. Both parties in the civil war of the time of Charles I. inflicted damage on it, and the Royalists in 1643 were defeated in a skirmish here. The hospice of the priory, now a dwelling-house, still exists; a spring called St Edburg's Well, formerly held in high repute for medicinal virtue, is in the neighbourhood; and a path called Edburg Balk, a corruption of St Edburg's Walk, leads from the priory to the well. Numerous ancient coins and other relics have been found. The town is neat, contains many recently rebuilt houses, and has of late years been much extended by new streets and buildings. The parish church, dedicated to St Edburg, is spacious, was erected in 1182, and has a seemingly Saxon arch, Early English and Decorated nave, and Perpendicular tower. It has a number of interesting brasses and tombs, and some fine memorial windows, one erected in 1885 being in memory of General Gordon, who fell at Khartoum in that year. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £320 with residence. There are also a Congregational chapel erected in 1729, and a Wesleyan Methodist chapel erected in 1841. St Edburg's Hall, opened in 1882, has large reading and refreshment rooms on the ground floor, and an assembly room on the upper floor, with accommodation for 500 persons. The cemetery, which communicates with the churchyard, was opened in 1861, has a Nonconformist mortuary chapel, and is controlled by a burial board of eight members. The town is governed by a local board of twelve members, under the Local Government Act of 1858. Formerly the town was divided into the two districts and townships of MARKET END and KING'S END, but in 1862 the King's End district was dissolved, and the Market End district enlarged and renamed the Bicester district. The townships still elect their own churchwardens, guardians, and overseers, but only form one ecclesiastical parish. A handsome county courthouse was erected in 1864. The town has a head post, money order, and telegraph office, is a seat of petty sessions, and publishes two weekly newspapers. Its chief business arises from its weekly market, which is held on Friday, its cattle markets held on the first and third Monday in each month, and the fairs held on the Friday in Easter week, the first Friday in June and July, 5 August, the Friday before and the Friday after 11 Oct., and the Friday after 11 Dec. The town has an excellent water supply. The area of the parish of Market End is 2283 acres, and of King's End, 1457 acres; together, 3740 acres. Population of King's End, 322, and of Market End, 3021. WRETCHWICK. is a hamlet in the township of Market End, and is under the government of the Bicester Local Board.

The chief seats are the Priory, a modern building erected on the site of the convent mill, and Bignell House, a mansion standing in its own grounds about a mile and a half from the town. The kennels of the Bicester Hunt are at Stratton Audley, 3 miles NE of Bicester.

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 Bicester from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Bicester 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.