Hethe or Heath, Oxfordshire
Historical Description
Hethe or Heath, a village and a parish in Bicester union, Oxford. The village stands on an affluent of the river Ouse, 5 miles NNE from Bicester, which is the nearest station (L. & N.W.R.) It has a post office under Bicester; money order office, Fringford; telegraph office, Stratton Audley. The parish comprises 1621 acres; population of the civil parish, 380; of the ecclesiastical, 371. The manor belongs to the Harrison family. Hethe House is a chief residence. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £90, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor. The church is a small building of stone in mixed styles, consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and S porch, and has a very ancient font. There are Roman Catholic and Wesleyan chapels, and some small charities.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Oxfordshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Heath St. George and St. Edmund | |
| Hundred | Ploughley | |
| Poor Law union | Bicester |
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 Hethe or Heath from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Heath, or Hethe (St. George and St. Edmund))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online
Maps
Online maps of Hethe or Heath 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.