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Bicester
Bicester (Oxfordshire)
Bicester

Bicester shown within Oxfordshire
Population 28,672 (2001)
OS grid reference SP5822
District Cherwell
Shire county Oxfordshire
Region South East
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town BICESTER
Postcode district OX25 - 27
Dialling code 01869
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
European Parliament South East England
UK Parliament Banbury
List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°54′N 1°09′W / 51.9, -1.15

Bicester (pronunciation (help·info); IPA /ˈbɪstɚ/) is a town in the Cherwell district of north-eastern Oxfordshire in England. History See also History of Oxfordshire The county of Oxfordshire was formed in the early years of the 10th century and is broadly situated in the In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology A nationwide Census, commonly known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 29 April 2001 The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government See also Cherwell local elections Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of Subdivisions of England used for the purposes of Local government outside Greater London History See also History of Oxfordshire The county of Oxfordshire was formed in the early years of the 10th century and is broadly situated in the The region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England, with only one South East England is one of the nine official Regions of England. Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system UK Postal codes are known as postcodes. UK postcodes are Alphanumeric. The OX postcode area, also known as the Oxford postcode area, is a group of postal districts around Abingdon, Bampton, Banbury, Bicester The UK Telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, is the system used for assigning Telephone numbers in the United There are a number of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom. Thames Valley Police is one of the largest Home Office Police services in England and the largest non- metropolitan one covering 2200 sq mi (5700 The fire service in the United Kingdom operates under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, is the Fire Service serving the county of Oxfordshire. The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS Ambulance services in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, South East England is a Constituency of the European Parliament. This is a list of the 646 constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election Banbury is a Constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. A Gazetteer of place names in the United Kingdom showing each place's County, Unitary authority or council area and its geographical coordinates List of places --> List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places This is a list of settlements in both the non-metropolitan shire and ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. See also Cherwell local elections History See also History of Oxfordshire The county of Oxfordshire was formed in the early years of the 10th century and is broadly situated in the England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland

This historic market town is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire. Growth has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London,Birmingham,and Banbury. The M40 Motorway is a motorway in the English Transport network that connects London to Birmingham. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Birmingham ( ˈbɜːmɪŋəm Ber -ming-um Banbury is a Market town located on the River Cherwell in northern Oxfordshire, England. It has good road links to Oxford, Kidlington, Brackley,Buckingham, and Witney, as well as an excellent rail service. Oxford is currently bidding for the 2010 Wikimania Conference Oxford () is a city, and the County town of Oxfordshire, Kidlington is a large Village and Civil parish in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire, England. Brackley is a Town in south Northamptonshire, England. In the 2001 census Brackley had a population of 13331 Buckingham is a Town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, approximately from the border with Northamptonshire. Witney is a town (population 23765 — 2001 census) in Oxfordshire, England, 12 miles west of Oxford and just north of the A40

Contents

History

Bicester has a history going back to Saxon times, The name Bicester which has been in use since the mid seventeenth century, derives from earlier forms including Berncestre, Burencestre, Burcester, Biciter and Bissiter(the John Speed map of 1610 shows four alternative spellings and Miss G H Dannatt found 45 variants in wills of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south John Speed (1542–1629 was a Historian, now best remembered as the Cartographer whose maps of English counties are often found framed in homes throughout the Theories advanced for the meaning of the name include " of Beorna"(a personal name),"The Fort of the Warriors" or literally from Latin Bi-cester to mean "The 2 forts". The ruins of the Roman settlement of Alchester lie 1. This article is about Alchester in Oxfordshire It should not be confused with Alcester in Warwickshire. 5 miles south-west of town and remains of an Augustinian priory established in 1180 survive in the town centre.

Bicester is believed to have been established by the west Saxons in the sixth century at a nodal point of a series of ancient routes. A north-south Roman route, known as the Stratton (Audley) Road from Dorchester to Towcester passed through King’s End. Akeman Street, an east-west Roman road from Cirencester to St Albans lies 2 miles south, adjacent to the Roman fortress and town at Alchester.

The first documentary reference in Domesday Book survey of 1086 when it is recorded as Berencestra, its two manors of Bicester and Wretchwick being held by Robert d'Oily who built Oxford Castle. The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey The town became established as a poly-focal settlement on opposite banks of the Bure, a tributary of the Ray, Cherwell and ultimately the Thames. Early charters promoted the development as a trading centre with a market and fair established by the mid thirteenth century. By this time two further manors are mentioned, Bury End and Nuns Place, later known as Market End and Kings End respectively. The latter was acquired in 1584 by the Coker family.

The Lord of the manor of Market End was the Earl of Derby who, in 1597 sold a 9,999 year lease to 31 principle tenants . Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers 1st Earl of Derby under a creation of 1139 This in effect gave the manorial rights to the leaseholders, ‘purchased for the benefit of those inhabitants or others who might hereafter obtain parts of the demesne’ . The leaseholders elected a bailiff to receive the profits from the bailiwick, mainly from the administration of the market, and distribute them to the shareholders. From the bailiff’s title and authority the arrangement became known as the Bailiwick of Bicester Market End. By the eighteenth century all of the original leases where in the hands of ten men, who by 1752, had leased the bailiwick control of the market to two local tradesmen who thereafter and set stallage charges.

By the early eighteenth century the slightly rolling countryside around the town which suited equestrian pursuits had become well known venue for horserace meetings lasting several days which attracted aristocrats and gentry from London and the surrounding area. Sir Edward Loganville was unfortunate enough to break his neck whilst competing at Bicester Races in 1718 . Perhaps as a compliment to the thrills and danger, balls and theatrical events were presented in the evenings by travelling companies to entertain the visitors. (Playbill ORO No P205. )


By 1755 Bicester Races were taking place in King’s End Fields and were advertised widely. This annual event over several days continued until 1837. Foxhunting began to be formalised from 1778 by J Ward of Swift’s House in King’s End and Sir Thomas Mostyn. Meets took place in the Market Square where drinking, dining and accommodation facilities were available at the King’s Arms, The Swan, The Cross Keys and the Crown. Craft specialists including farriers, saddle and harness makers, horse clippers, ostlers and grooms and equestrian tailors became a feature of town trade .

Buildings

The vernacular buildings of the town have characteristics associated with both the Cotswold dip slope to the northwest and the Thames river system to the southeast. The earliest surviving buildings of the town are the medieval church of St Edburg; the vicarage of 1500 and two post dissolution houses the former priory precinct , constructed from reused mediaeval material. These buildings are mainly grey oolitic limestone, from the Priory quarry at Kirtlington, five miles west on Akeman Street, ginger lias (ironstone) the area around Banbury , and white and bluish grey cornbrash limestone quarried in Crockwell and at Caversfield two miles north .

Early secular buildings were box framed structures, using timber from the Bernwood forest on the western slopes of the Chilterns five miles east. Infilling of frames was of stud and lath with lime render and limewash. Others were of brick or local rubble stonework. The river valleys to the south and east of the town were the source of clay for widespread local production of brick and tile. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Page-Turners had a brick fields in Wretchwick and Blackthorn and which operated alongside smaller produces such as the farmer George Coppock who produced bricks as a sideline.

Local roofing materials included longstraw thatch, which persisted on older and lower status areas on houses and terraced cottages. Thatch had to be laid at pitches in excess of 50 degrees. This generated narrow and steep gables which also suited the heavy stone tiles, from Stonesfield and elsewhere in the Cotswolds. The other widespread roofing material was local red clay plain tiles. Nineteenth century bulk transport innovations associated with canal and railway infrastructure allowed imports of blue slate from north Wales. These could be laid at much more shallow pitches on fashionable high status houses.

Apart from imported slate, a striking characteristic of all of the new buildings of the early nineteenth century is the continued use of local vernacular materials, albeit in buildings of non-vernacular design. The new buildings were constructed alongside older wholly vernacular survivals and, sometimes superficially updated with fashionable applied facades, fenestration or upper floors and roofs.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century the two townships or Kings End and Market End had begun to evolve distinct spatial characteristics. Inns, shops and high status houses clustered around the triangular market place as commercial activity was increasingly concentrated in Market End where the Bailiwick lessees promoted a much less regulated mart than that found in boroughs elsewhere. Away from the market, Sheep Street was considered ‘very respectable’ but its northern end at Crockwell was inhabited by the poorest inhabitants in low quality, subdivided and overcrowded buildings.

A road ran east from the market place towards the church of St Edburg, and the other township – King’s End. Until the early nineteenth century this road ran through a ford in the widest of the channels of the Bure stream and on to the narrow embanked road across the boggy valley. The causeway became the focus for development from the late eighteenth century as rubbish and debris was dumped on each side of the road to form building platforms, minor channels of the braded stream were encased and culverted as construction proceeded.

By 1800, the causeway had dense development forming continuous frontages on both sides. The partially buried watercourses provided a convenient drainage opportunity, and many houses had privies discharging directly into the channels. Downstream, the Bure ran parallel with Water Lane, then the main road out of town towards London. Terraces of cottages were built backing onto the stream, and here too these too took advantage of the steam for sewage disposal, with privies cantilevered out from houses over the watercourse. Town houses took their water from wells dug into the substrate which became increasingly polluted by leaching of waste through the alluvial bed of the Bure.

The fire 1724 had destroyed the buildings on the eastern side of Water Lane . A nonconformist congregation was able to acquire a site that had formerly been the tail of a long plot occupied at the other end by The King’s Arms. Their Chapel built in 1728 was ‘surrounded by a burying ground and ornamented with trees. At the southern and downstream end of Water Lane, there were further problems of pollution from animal dung from livery stables on the edge of town associated with the London traffic.

King’s End had a substantially lower population and none of the commercial bustle found on the other side of the Bure. The manorial lords, the Cokers, lived in the manor house since 1584. The house had been rebuilt in the early eighteenth century remodelled in the 1780’s The park was enlarged surrounded by a wall after 1753 when a range of buildings on the north side of King’s End green were demolished by Coker. A westward enlargement of the park also extinguished the road which followed the line of the Roman route. This partly overlapped a pre 1753 close belonging to Coker . The effect of the enlargement of the park was to divert traffic at the Fox Inn, through King’s End, across the Causeway to the Market Square and Sheep Street before returning to the Roman Road north of Crockwell.

Modern-day Bicester

Twinning

The town is twinned with Neunkirchen-Seelscheid near Bonn and Cologne in Germany and also with Canton des Essarts in the Vendée, between Nantes and Bordeaux in France. Neunkirchen-Seelscheid is a municipality in the Rhein-Sieg district in the southern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Les Essarts is a commune of the Vendée département in France. Nantes (Naoned Gallo: Naunnt) is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast ( Gascon: Bordèu) is a port city in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

Military links

The town has a long-standing connection to the military. During the Civil War(1642-49) Bicester was used as the headquarters of parliamentary forces. Following the outbreak of the French Wars from 1793, John Coker, the manorial lord of Bicester King’s End formed an ‘Association for the Protection of Property against Levellers and Jacobins’ as an anti-Painite loyalist band providing local militia and volunteer drafts for the army. When in Oxford ‘a regiment consisting of five hundred matriculated members of the university’ was formed in 1798, it was John Coker who was elected Colonel.

Coker’s Bicester militia had sixty privates, and six commissioned and non- commissioned officers led by Captain Henry Walford. The militia briefly stood down in 1801 after the Treaty of Amiens. But when hostilities resumed after 1804 invasion anxiety was so great to warrant the reformation of the local militia as the Bicester Independent Company of Infantry. It had double the earlier numbers to provide defence in the event of an invasion or Jacobin insurrection. The Bicester Company was commanded by Captain, with 2 lieutenants, an ensign, 6 sergeants, 6 corporals and 120 privates . Their training and drill was such that were deemed ‘fit to join troops in the line’ . The only action recorded for them is however the 21st birthday celebrations of Sir Gregory O Page-Turner in 1806 where they performed a feu de joie ‘and were afterwards regaled at one of the principal inns of the town.

During the first world war an airfield was established north of the town for the Royal Flying Corps. This became aRoyal Air Force station, now Bicester Airfield

The British Army's largest ordnance depot - the Central Ordnance Depot of the Royal Logistic Corps (formerly the Royal Army Ordnance Corps) - is located just outside the town. Bicester Aerodrome, formerly RAF Bicester, is an airfield on the Outskirts of the English town of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. Royal Logistic Corps is the British Army Corps that provides the logistic support for the Army The Royal Army Ordnance Corps ( RAOC) was a former Corps of the British Army. The depot has its own internal railway system, the Bicester Military Railway. Bicester Military Railway was originally built in 1941 within the Bicester Central Ordnance Depot.


Social infrastructure

Rail links

Bicester was included in the 'Railway boom'of the 1840's. The line from Bletchley to Oxford formed part of the ‘Buckinghamshire Railway’ and was completed in 1848,(see below- Varsity Line),along with ‘a neat station at the bottom of the London-road’ which opened in 1850. This is now Bicester Town Station. Bicester’s fist fatal railway accident occurred at the station in September 1851.

The town now has two railway stations: Bicester North and Bicester Town. |}A train station, railway station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which Passengers may board and alight from Trains Bicester North is a station on the Chiltern Main Line, and is one of two stations serving Bicester. Bicester Town is one of two Railway stations serving the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire; the other being Bicester North. Bicester North is served by Chiltern Railways train services between London (Marylebone) and Birmingham (Snow Hill). Chiltern Railways is a train operating company in England. It was formed by the Privatisation of British Rail in 1996 and operates mainline passenger London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Marylebone station or London Marylebone station is a National Rail and London Underground station in central London, England. Birmingham Snow Hill is a railway station and tram stop in the centre of Birmingham, England on the site of a much larger station which was built by Bicester Town, located to the south of the town has a branch line service to Oxford and Islip which follows the old Varsity Line track between Oxford and Cambridge. A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route usually a main line. Islip (ˈaɪslɪp is a Village in Oxfordshire, England. It is situated on the western edge of the fens of Otmoor, on the River Ray and River Varsity Line (or Oxford to Cambridge Line) is an informal name for the Railway service which formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford

Schools

Bicester is home to two secondary schools: Bicester Community College (BCC) and The Cooper School. Bicester Community College is a mixed multi-heritage Comprehensive school, with around 1200 students (including a Sixth form) and has been a Government-designated There are also a number of primary schools (including Brookside Primary) in the locality. More Schools are set to be built as Bicester is projected to double in size from 30,000 to 60,000 in between 2007 and 2027.

Shopping

The historic shopping streets, particularly Sheep Street and Market Square have a wide range of local and national shops together with cafes pubs and restaurants. Sheep Street is now pedestrianised with car parks nearby. Weekly markets take place in the town centre along with Farmers Markets and an occasional French Market. A £70 million development of the town centre is due to take place from 2008 to include 15 restaurants, a cinema and numerous shops. South of Bicester beyond Pingle Field is the retail outlet Bicester Village Shopping Centre. Bicester Village Shopping Centre is an outlet centre in Bicester in the English county of Oxfordshire, for several high-end brands including Ralph Further towards Oxford is one of the largest Garden Centres in the UK.

Churches

Bicester has numerous churches under the Churches Together banner such as St Edburg's Parish Church (Anglican); Emmanuel Church (Charismatic Anglican, meeting in Bure Park School); the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic); the Methodist Church; Orchard Baptist Fellowship (meeting in Cooper School); Elim Lighthouse Church (Pentecostal - meeting in the Methodist church); Bicester Community Church (meeting in the Salvation Army Church) and The Salvation Army itself. Not part of the Churches Together group are the Bicester Baptist Church (meeting in Southwold Community Centre) and Hebron Gospel Hall.

Trivia

References

External Links

Bicester Links Local authority links, printable map, bus & taxi links etc.

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