Wroxton, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Wroxton, a parish, with Balscote chapelry, in Oxfordshire, 3½ miles WNW of Banbury station on the L. & N.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Banbury. Acreage, 2543; population, 643. The manor belongs to Trinity College, Oxford. Wroxton Abbey is the seat of Lord North, was built in 1618 by Sir W. Pope, occupies The site of an Augustinian priory founded in the time of Henry III. by M. Belet, and given at the dissolution to Sir T. Pope. It retains some arches and other parts of the ancient priory, presents the appearance of a fine Tudor manor house, and contains a valuable collection of family portraits. Some beautiful pleasure grounds, laid out in terraces, adjoin the mansion. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £272 with residence, in the gift of Lord North. The church is a building in the Decorated style of the 14th century, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and an embattled western tower. It has a good octagonal Decorated font, and some fine ancient tombs and monuments. There are Roman Catholic and Wesleyan chapels at Wroxton.

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 Wroxton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wroxton (All Saints))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Wroxton 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.