Broughton, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Broughton, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on an affluent of the river Cherwell, 2½ miles SW by W of Banbury station on the G.W. and L. & N.W.R. The parish includes also the township of North Newington, and has a post office under Banbury, which is the money order and telegraph office. Area of Broughton, 975 acres; population, 164; area of North Newington, 1108 acres; population, 375; population of the ecclesiastical parish of Broughton, with North Newington, 539. The manor belonged to the De Broughtons, passed to the Wykehams and the Fiennses, and belongs now to Lord Saye and Sele. Broughton Castle, the mansion of the manor, stands on low ground, engirt by a wide imoat, and defended by a tower, comprises structures of the 14th, the 15th, and the 16th centuries, built by respectively the De Broughtons, the Wykehams, and the Fiennses, shows marks of injuries sustained during the Civil War, includes apartments where the death of Charles I. was decided on, and where Cromwell's officers were quartered before the battle of Edgehill, and contains some interesting pictures, old arms, and curious works of art. The living is a rectory, with North Newington, in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £740 with residence. The church is of the 14th century, with tower and spire, and contains some very fine monuments. There is a Congregational chapel at North Newington, and an endowed school with £50 a year.

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 Broughton from the following:

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