Bloxham is a village and

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 authorit ...

in northern Oxfordshire several miles from the Cotswolds, about southwest 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 Oxfordshir ...

. It is on the edge of a valley and overlooked by Hobb Hill. The village is on the

A361 road The A361 is an A class road in southern England, which at is the longest three-digit A road in the UK. History When first designated in 1922, the A361 ran from Taunton (Somerset) to Banbury (Oxfordshire). It was later extended west through ...

. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 3,374.

History

Roman

Under Roman rule between the 1st and 5th centuries AD there were several farms and a burial site in the Bloxham area. A poor farming community lived at a site west of the present village.

Saxon

The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''Blocc's Ham'' (the home of Blocc) from the 6th century, when a Saxon settlement was built on the present site of the village, on the banks of a tributary of the Sor Brook. In 1086 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 manus ...

called the village ''Blochesham''. Its name was subsequently recorded as ''Blocchesham'' in 1142, ''Blokesham'' in 1216, and finally Bloxham in 1316. In the late Anglo-Saxon era Bloxham was part of a large estate, belonging to the

Earl of Mercia Earl of Mercia was a title in the late Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Danish, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. During this period the earldom covered the lands of the old Kingdom of Mercia in the English Midlands. First governed by ealdormen under t ...

, stretching from the boundary with Tadmarton and Wigginton in the west to 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 ...

. As the '' caput'' of a

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

it had been important since at least the time of

Edward the Elder Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...

Medieval

Around the time of the Norman Conquest of England a group called the Bloxham

Feoffees Under the feudal system in England, a feoffee () is a trustee who holds a fief (or "fee"), that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner. The use o ...

formed. The name, of Anglo-Norman origin, denotes someone invested with a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

, which was often heritable land or property but could be rights or revenue. Comprising between 8 and 16 local yeomen, the Feoffees were responsible for the well-being of the village community. In return for helping the poor and services such as repairing the bridges, they were bequeathed money and land by the Crown. Until the 20th century they continued their village maintenance despite being replaced by a parish council after the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

. Today they give financial help to Bloxham residents. The Feoffees own land in Grove Road (which is now rented to the Warriner School), the former allotment field in South Newington Road and the Old Court House. The

of 1086 recorded ''Blochesham'' as having six mills and trading in wool and corn. In the Middle Ages it was a large parish with 403 contributors to the poll tax of 1377, of whom 78 lived in neighbouring Milcombe. At this time, the village's north and south parts, separated by the brook, were distinct communities called in Anglo-Norman ''le Crowehead Ville'' and ''le Downe End''.

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

held Bloxham manor by 1067. King Stephen granted it to Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, but it returned to being a royal manor in the reign of Henry II. In 1155 Bloxham was divided in two manors. In 1269 the half later called Bloxham Beauchamp was given to Queen Eleanor, and later bestowed upon Edward III's

chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

Roger de Beauchamp and sold in 1545 to Richard Fiennes, 6th

Baron Saye and Sele Baron Saye and Sele is a title in the Peerage of England held by the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family. The title dates to 1447 but it was recreated in 1603. Confusion over the details of the 15th-century title has led to conflicting order for t ...

. The other half, called Bloxham Fiennes, was passed to Amaury de St Amand, came to be called

Saint Amand Amandus ( 584 – 679), commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium. Life The chief source of details ...

's, and was subsequently sold to Thomas Wykeham and reunited with Bloxham Beauchamp when Baron Saye and Sele inherited it. Beauchamp Manor stood roughly on the site of Park Close and the Manor of St Amand was on the area now occupied by Godswell House. Although neither manor remains, the

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

of St Amands is still visible next to Dovecote House. By the 15th century St Mary's Church, Bloxham had become one of the grandest parish churches in southern England, showing Bloxham's medieval wealth. The medieval street plan survives in the narrow winding alleys where some houses retain a medieval core hidden by later exteriors and alterations. Many of the present street names derive from families living in Bloxham in the early 16th century, e.g. Humber, Job and Budd Lane; although these may remain from Middle Ages they were not documented until 1700. Bloxham has a large number of well-built yeomen's houses dating from this time, including Bennetts, Seal Cottage and the Joiners Arms. Many have been comparatively little altered, retaining their original details and plans.

Early modern

Bloxham took part in the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Rising of 1549 against the Edwardine Reformation. John Wade, Bloxham's vicar, was identified as a ringleader and threatened with being hanged from his own church tower, but was later pardoned. From the 17th century Nonconformism flourished and was closely linked with the dissenting movement in Banbury. In the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

the Fiennes family of Bloxham was strongly Parliamentarian and the area had a reputation as a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

stronghold. There are suggestions that houses in Sycamore Terrace were used as barracks during this time, but this is unsubstantiated. It is believed that Parliamentarian troops caused the damage to the lavishly-decorated interior of St Mary's church as they passed through Bloxham. In the 17th century many houses such as those in Sycamore Terrace were used as weavers' cottages. From the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the area around Banbury was known for weaving a fabric called

plush Plush (from French ) is a textile having a cut nap or pile the same as fustian or velvet. Its softness of feel gave rise to the adjective "plush" to describe something soft or luxurious, which was extended to describe luxury accommodation, or s ...

. It is made of wool or worsted and linen, the finer types also incorporating silk or mohair. It was used in a wide variety of ways from horse girths to furnishing fabrics.

Modern

In 1770 the main road between Banbury and Chipping Norton, which passes through Bloxham, was made into a turnpike. In 1815 the turnpike's trustees straightened the main road to follow its current course. They bought two cottages on the brook and demolished them to make the High Street bridge. The main road ceased to be a turnpike in 1871. In 1922 it was classified as the

. The agricultural depression of the late 18th and early 19th centuries led to a decline in population and some

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...

. This period saw a marked increase in poor relief, mainly as a result of successive poor laws including the

Speenhamland system The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty in England and Wales at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The law was an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law. It was created as ...

, which exacerbated the effects of the Enclosure of land and the decline in the wool market. However the industrial boom in Banbury brought prosperity back to Bloxham. The 19th century saw the demolition of institutions for the poor such as the Almshouses next to the parish church, the

Workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

, the pest house, which stood near the railway line and the poor-houses on the green. All Saints' School, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

public school now known as

Bloxham School Bloxham School, also called All Saints' School, is an independent co-educational day and boarding school of the British public school tradition, located in the village of Bloxham, three miles (5 km) from the town of Banbury in Oxfordshir ...

, was founded in 1853. It closed for a time, but the Rev PR Edgerton reopened it in 1860. In 1896 All Saints joined the

Woodard Corporation Woodard Schools is a group of Anglican schools (both primary and secondary) affiliated to the Woodard Corporation (formerly the Society of St Nicolas) which has its origin in the work of Nathaniel Woodard, a Church of England priest in the Anglo- ...

. The main school building, designed in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style by George Edmund Street, dominates the north of the village. The headmaster's house is on top of Hobb Hill, above the Pig Sty playing fields, so called after their use during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

to provide meat for the school. The late 19th century saw an expansion of residential housing to the north of the village in Strawberry Terrace and along the Banbury Road. Bloxham railway station 1836244 2544a754

Bloxham railway station 1836244 2544a754

In 1875, the

Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway (B&CDR) was a railway company through the Cotswolds in England that built a line between points near Banbury and Cheltenham. Its principal objective, as well as a general rural rail service, was the conve ...

opened a railway station on the south side of Bloxham. The B&CDR contracted the Great Western Railway to operate the line and station in return for a share of the receipts. The GWR took over the smaller company in 1897. British Railways closed Bloxham station in 1951 and closed the railway completely in 1964. Houses in Bloxham in Hyde Grove, Orchard Grove and on the south side of Colesbourne Road are on the site of the former Bloxham railway station and trackbed. In 1919 the Hunt class minesweeper was launched for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. As the First World War had ended she was not commissioned for service and the Admiralty sold her in 1923. In 1960 the countryside to the east and north of Bloxham was threatened by a proposal to

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

iron ore from the marlstone. A community campaign opposed the proposal at the Oxfordshire Ironstone Enquiry. The claim that the area was not one of natural beauty was countered by commissioning photographs of the area. The protest succeeded and the proposal was withdrawn. Production versions of the rare Jaguar XJ220

supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

were produced at Wykham Mill in Bloxham from 1992 until 1994. The

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

transferred the factory to Aston Martin for production of the DB7 from 1994 until the factory's closure in 2004. Wykham Mill is now Vantage Business Park, named after the DB7 V12 Vantage which was the last Aston Martin model to be built there.

Churches

Church of England

The Church of England parish church of St Mary's, Bloxham is one of the grandest in England. Its 14th-century tower and spire is a local landmark and said to be the highest in Oxfordshire, at . Originally under the patronage of the Crown, its advowson was granted to

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

in 1547 following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The earliest surviving parts of St Mary's building are 12th century, although most of the present building is from the 14th and 15th centuries. It is notable for its intricate stone carving, dating from the 14th century, and some surviving wall paintings. In the 15th century the Perpendicular Gothic Milcombe chapel was added. The church was extensively renovated by the Gothic Revival architect

G.E. Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford, London, Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Gothic Revival architecture, Vi ...

between 1864 and 1866. St Mary's benefice is now combined with those of Milcombe and South Newington. The vicar of Bloxham was hanged from the steeple of the church in 1549.

Baptist

There has been a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

congregation in Bloxham since 1682. The current Baptist church was built in 1862 and enlarged in 2001.

Chapels

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel was built about 1870 but it is now a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

belonging to

. Bloxham School has a large

chapel that is used for school services.

Amenities

Bloxham has two County schools. Bloxham Church of England primary school in Tadmarton Road is for pupils 5–11 years old. The Warriner School in Banbury Road is a technology college for pupils 11–16 years old. Bloxham had several public houses, three of which are still trading: *The Drum and Monkey *The White Lion *The Elephant & Castle, a 17th-century former coaching inn in Humber Street ( Hook Norton Brewery). *The Hawk and Partridge, opposite the church, ceased trading in 2006 and is now a private house. *The Joiners Arms, is a 16th-century building in Old Bridge Road and is now a gastropub. * The Red Lion, on the High Street, was closed by its owners, Fuller's Brewery, in summer 2013. The pub reopened in July 2016. Bloxham has several shops on the High Street, including a post office, hairdressing salon, pharmacy, convenience store, newsagent and a fish and chip shop. Other amenities include a filling station, a GP's practice and a

Dental practice Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...

. Bloxham Football Club men's team plays in Division One of the Banbury District and Lord Jersey FA league. Bloxham FC also has a youth team, ten boys' teams and two girls' teams. Bloxham Village Museum is in the Court House in a corner of St Mary's churchyard. This was rebuilt in the 1680s and retains some 14th century details.

References

Sources and further reading

* * * – article about the parish church of Our Lady * * * * * *

External links

Bloxham Parish CouncilThe Bloxham BroadsheetBloxham Village Museum
* * {{authority control Cherwell District Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Villages in Oxfordshire