Burford, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Burford, a market-town, a township, and a parish in Oxfordshire. The town stands on the river Windrush, near Wychford forest, 5 miles S of Shipton station on the G.W.R., 7 W from Witney, and 18 W by N of Oxford. It is a place of high antiquity. A synod was held here in 705, in presence of the kings Ethelred and Bertliwald, to correct opinions respecting Easter. A battle was fought in its vicinity, at Battle-Edge, in 752, between Ethelbald, king of Mercia, and Cuthred of the West Saxons, who was tributary to him, when Cuthred obtained the victory, and threw off the Mercian yoke. A stone coffin, of great size and weight, was found some years ago a little below the surface near the scene of action, and is supposed to have been deposited there after the battle. An action was fought in the vicinity also in 1649, between Fairfax and the Royalists, when the latter were defeated, and some of them imprisoned in the church. The town contains many old houses, consists chiefly of three streets, and has a good water supply. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), a town-hall, a parish church, Baptist, Quaker, and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed grammar school, and almshouses. Area of the township, 760 acres; population, 1346. The church is large, cruciform, and interesting, has a Norman central tower, other Norman portions, and some Early English work, but is mainly Perpendicular, of various dates; includes several large chapels, and a very rich south porch, and contains curious monuments of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Edmund Harman, and others. The living is a vicarage with the chapelry of Fulbrook annexed, in the diocese of Oxford; joint net value, £165 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. A weekly market is held on Saturday, and fairs on the last Saturday of April and 25 September. A considerable trade in saddlery, rugs, and other articles was formerly carried on, but has greatly declined. Heylin, the author of "Micro-cosmos" Needham, the author of '' Mercurius Britannicus" and Beechey the painter, were natives. The town gives the title of Earl to the Duke of St Albans. The parish includes also the hamlets of Upton and Signett. Population of the ecclesiastical parish with Fulbrook, 1907. A small priory, a cell to Keynsham abbey in Somerset, anciently stood near the town, and was given at the dissolution to Edmund Harman, and conveyed by the Long Parliament to he famous Speaker Lenthall. A mansion, in the Tudor style, and called Burford Priory, which was partly erected by Speaker Lenthall on the site of an ancient religious institution, lias now been allowed to fall into deplorable and premature decay. About half a mile SW from Burford were the St Christopher's or Kitt's quarries, from which were supplied much of the material used in the erection of St Paul's Cathedral.

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 Burford from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Burford (St. John the Baptist))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Burford 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.