Handborough, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Handborough (properly Hanborough; in Domesday Haneberge, " the high hill," a name amply justified by the commanding position of the parish church), a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The parish is bounded on the N and E by the river Evenlode, has a station on the G.W.R., and is 5 miles SW from Woodstock. It consists of two parts-Church Hanborough, containing the parish church and rectory, with a population of about 200; and Long Hanborough, containing a population of upwards of 800, and stretching some 4 miles along the Woodstock and Witney Road. There is a church, built in 1894, called Christchurch, God's Acre, an old manor house of the 17th century, a post and money order office, under Woodstock, with telegraph office at the railway station; also a Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapel. The parish comprises 2270 acres; population, 1002. The manor belongs to the Duke of Marl-borough, granted to the first Duke by Queen Anne. Selenite is found here. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £340 with residence. Patrons, St John's College, Oxford. The church is of different dates, from Norman to Late Perpendicular; has an inner Norman door with a curious sculpture of St Peter, also a good spire 147 feet high, and contains pulpit and font, part of a rood-loft, all of the 15th century, and a brass of Alexander Belsyre, the first president of St John's College.

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 Handborough from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Handborough (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Land and Property

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

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.