Ardley is a village in Ardley with Fewcott civil parish in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Bicester

Bicester

Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...

. The parish includes the village of Fewcott that is now contiguous with Ardley.

History

The limestone

Cotswold stone

Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic limestone quarried in many places in the Cotswold Hills in the south midlands of England. When weathered, the colour of buildings made or faced with this stone is often described as 'honey' or 'golden'....

 quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 at Ardley has yielded a significant find of dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 tracks (ichnite

Ichnite

An ichnite is a fossilised footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. Over the years, many ichnites have been found, around the world, giving important clues about the behaviour of the animals that made them...

s), discovered in 1997 and thought to have been left by Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...

 and possibly Cetiosaurus

Cetiosaurus

Cetiosaurus meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek cetus/κητος meaning 'sea monster' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', was a sauropod dinosaur from the Mid to Late Jurassic Period in what are now Europe and Africa. It is estimated to have been about long and to have weighed roughly...

. There is a site of special scientific interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the village with a colony of the great crested newt

Great Crested Newt

The Great Crested Newt, also called Northern Crested Newt or Warty Newt is a newt in the family Salamandridae, found across Europe and parts of Asia.-Distribution:...

s and an outcrop of Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 limestone.

Ardley Castle

Ardley Castle

Ardley Castle was a castle to the southwest of the village of Ardley, Oxfordshire, England.It is thought to have been an adulterine castle erected in the reign of King Stephen and demolished by order of Henry II after 1154. It now consists of an oval enclosure with a shallow ditch.-Notes:...

 is a motte-and-bailey

Motte-and-bailey

A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...

 which is believed to have been built early in the 12th century during the civil war between Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...

 and King Stephen

Stephen of England

Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...

.

The Church of England parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 of Saint Mary

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

 dates from at least 1074. The original church was demolished and completely rebuilt, but both the chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 and the bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 of the present building contain small amounts of re-used Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

 stonework. The present Early English Gothic chancel was built late in the 12th or early in the 13th century. The tower, which has a saddleback roof, and may have been built in the 13th or 14th century. The present nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 was built in 1792.

St. Mary's is now part of the Cherwell Valley Benefice along with five other ecclesiastical parishes: Fritwell

Fritwell

Fritwell is a village and civil parish about northwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The parish's southern boundary is a stream that flows eastwards through Fewcott and past the villages of Fringford and Godington before entering Buckinghamshire where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of...

, Lower Heyford

Lower Heyford

Lower Heyford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, beside the River Cherwell about west of Bicester.-Prehistory:Aves ditch is pre-Anglo-Saxon and may have been dug as a boundary ditch...

, Somerton

Somerton, Oxfordshire

Somerton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, in the Cherwell valley about northwest of Bicester.-Early history:More than a dozen Saxon or early Mediaeval graves have been discovered in the yard of Somerton's former Free School....

, Souldern

Church of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Souldern

The Parish Church of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Church of England parish church of Souldern, a village in Oxfordshire about northwest of Bicester and a similar distance southeast of Banbury.-History:...

 and Upper Heyford

Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire

Upper Heyford is a village and civil parish about northwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.-Location:Upper Heyford is on the east bank of the River Cherwell. "Upper" distinguishes it from Lower Heyford which is about "lower", downstream along the Cherwell valley...

.

In 1910 the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 completed a new main line linking Ashendon Junction

Ashendon Junction

Ashendon Junction in Buckinghamshire, England, was a major mainline railway junction where, from July 1910, the Great Western Railway's London-Birmingham direct route diverged from the Great Central Railway's main London-Sheffield route....

 and Aynho Junction to shorten the high-speed route between its termini at and . The line passes within a few hundred yards of Ardley and the GWR opened a railway station on the main road just south of the village. British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways closed Ardley station

Ardley railway station

Ardley railway station was a railway station serving the village of Ardley in Oxfordshire, England. It was on what is now known as the Chiltern Main Line, south of Ardley Tunnel.-History:...

 in 1963. The railway is now part of the Chiltern Main Line

Chiltern Main Line

The Chiltern Main Line is an inter-urban, regional and commuter railway, part of the British railway system. It links London and Birmingham on a 112-mile route via the towns of High Wycombe, Banbury, and Leamington Spa...

.

In 1990 the section of the M40 motorway

M40 motorway

The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...

 between Wheatley, Oxfordshire

Wheatley, Oxfordshire

Wheatley is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of Oxford.-Archaeology:There was a Roman villa on Castle Hill, about southeast of the parish church. It was excavated in 1845, when Roman coins dating from AD 260 to 378 and fragments of Roman pottery and Roman tiles were...

 and Hockley Heath

Hockley Heath

Hockley Heath is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. The parish is to the south of the West Midlands conurbation, from Birmingham from Solihull and from Stratford on Avon...

 was built. M40 Junction 10 with the A43 trunk road

A43 road

The A43 is a primary route in the English Midlands, that runs from the M40 motorway near Ardley in Oxfordshire to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Through Northamptonshire it bypasses the towns of Northampton, Kettering and Corby which are the three principal destinations on the A43 route...

 is about 550 yards (502.9 m) northeast of Ardley and its Cherwell Valley services are about 1100 yards (1 km) from the village.

Amenities

Ardley has a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, the Fox and Hounds. Fewcott also has a pub, the White Lion Inn.

The village has no shops, but those at Cherwell Valley services are within easy reach.

Ardley United Football Club is an amateur association football club that plays in the Hellenic Football League

Hellenic Football League

The Hellenic Football League is an English football league covering an area including the English counties of Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, southern Buckinghamshire, southern Herefordshire, western Greater London, and northern Wiltshire. There is also one team from Hampshire.The league...

Premier Division.