Chipping Warden is a village in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England about northeast of the

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

town of

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

. The parish is bounded to the east and south by the

River Cherwell The River Cherwell ( or ) is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Hellidon, Northamptonshire and flows southwards for to meet the Thames at Oxford in Oxfordshire. The river gives its name to the Cherwell local g ...

, to the west by the boundary with Oxfordshire and to the north by field boundaries. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 529 in 234 households, increasing to 537 in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Chipping Warden and Edgcote at the 2011 census.

Toponymy

'Warden' means 'Watch hill', referring to Warden Hill a mile northeast of the village. It had a 'market' from the late 14th century hence the 'Chipping' addition. The hundred is named after Chipping Warden.

Archaeology

Just south of Chipping Warden village is

Arbury Banks Arbury is a district and electoral ward of the city of Cambridge, England. The ward borders the following other wards (from North, proceeding clockwise): Histon, King's Hedges, West Chesterton, Market and Castle. History The area has been occu ...

, the remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

. It is about in diameterPevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 149 and has been heavily damaged by centuries of ploughing. At Blackgrounds about east of the village are the remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

beside the River Cherwell. An investigation in 1849 found a Roman bathhouse long by wide, and four human burials have been found that may be related to the settlement.

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomi ...

found at the site indicate that it was inhabited in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

has placed the villa on its

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

, citing threats from ploughing and a risk of collapse.

Geology

east of the village is Upper Cherwell at Trafford House at the confluence of the river Cherwell and Eydon Brook, which is designated as a

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

due to its importance in the development of the theory of

underfit stream A misfit stream is a river that is either too large or too small to have eroded the valley or cave passage in which it flows. This term is also used for a stream or river with meanders that obviously are not proportional in size to the meanders ...

Manor

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

records that in 1086 the manor of Chipping Warden was the ''

caput Latin words and phrases {{Short pages monitor