Souldern, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Souldern, a parish, with a village, in Oxfordshire, 1½ mile ESE of Aynho station on the Oxford and Banbury branch of the G.W.R., 3½ miles E of Deddington, and 7½ NW of Bicester. It has a post office under Banbury; telegraph office, Fritwell. Acreage, 1496; population, 453. Some Saxon antiquities have been found. The parish is bounded on the W by the Cherwell, but the river is about a mile and a half from the village, and there is an ancient Saxon barrow, known as Ploughley Hill, in the parish. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £419 with residence. Patron, St John's College, Cambridge. The church is of various dates, consists of nave, S aisle, S porch, and an Early Norman tower. A new chancel was erected in; 1895-96. The church has some ancient brasses and some good stained windows. There is an endowed Church of England. school, also a Roman Catholic chapel and school, and a Reformed Methodist meeting-place.

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 Souldern from the following:

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