Banbury
Encyclopedia
Banbury is a market town
and civil parish on the River Cherwell
in the Cherwell District
of Oxfordshire
. It is 64 miles (103 km) northwest of London, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Birmingham
, 27 miles (43 km) south of Coventry
and 21 miles (34 km) north northwest of the county town
of Oxford
. The urban area, including surrounding parishes, had a population of 43,867 at the 2001 census
, though this figure has increased in recent years to approximately 45,000.
The Member of Parliament
for Banbury
is Tony Baldry
.
Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area, which is predominantly rural
. Banbury's main industries are car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing, and printing. Banbury is home to the world's largest coffee-processing facility (Kraft Foods
), built in 1964. The town is famed for Banbury cakes
– similar to Eccles cake
s but oval in shape. Since July 2000 Banbury has hosted a unique gathering of traditional mock animals, from around the UK, at the annual Banbury Hobby Horse
Festival.
The surrounding area is known informally as Banburyshire
and covers the north half of the Cherwell district and neighbouring areas. As Banbury lies near the Oxfordshire
border, "Banburyshire" includes parts of Northamptonshire
and Warwickshire
.
. Another known spelling was 'Banesebury' in Medieval times.
During excavations for the construction of an office building in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age
settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone. Later there was a Roman villa
at nearby Wykham Park.
The area was settled by the Saxons around the late 5th century AD. In about 556 Banbury was the scene of a battle between the local Anglo-Saxon
s of Cynric and Ceawlin, and the local Romano-British
. It was a local centre for Anglo-Saxon settlement by the mid 6th century. Banbury developed in the Anglo-Saxon period under Danish influence, starting in the late 6th century AD. It was assessed at 50 hides in the Domesday survey and was then held by the bishop of Lincoln.
The Saxons built Banbury on the west bank of the River Cherwell. On the opposite bank they built Grimsbury
, which was part of Northamptonshire but was incorporated into Banbury in 1889. Neithrop was one of the oldest areas in Banbury, having first been recorded as a hamlet
in the 13th century. It was formally incorporated into the borough
of Banbury in 1889.
Banbury stands at the junction of two ancient roads: Salt Way (used as a bridle path to the west and south of the town), its primary use being transportation of salt; and Banbury Lane, which began near Northampton and is closely followed by the modern 22-mile-long road. It continued through what is now Banbury's High Street and towards the Fosse Way
at Stow-on-the-Wold
. Banbury's mediæval
prosperity was based on wool
.
Banbury Castle
was built from 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln
, and survived into the Civil War
, when it was besieged. Due to its proximity to Oxford
, the King's capital, Banbury was at one stage a Royalist town, but the inhabitants were known to be strongly Puritan
. The castle was demolished after the war.
Banbury played an important part in the English Civil War
as a base of operations for Oliver Cromwell
, who is reputed to have planned the Battle of Edge Hill in the back room (which can still be visited) of a local inn, The Reindeer as it was then known (today's Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn). The town was pro-Parliamentarian, but the castle was manned by a Royalist garrison who supported King Charles I
. In 1645 during the English Civil War, Parliamentary
troops were billeted in nearby Hanwell village
for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them.
The opening of the Oxford Canal
from Hawkesbury Junction
to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire
coal. In 1787 the Oxford Canal was extended southwards, finally opening to Oxford on 1 January 1790. The canal's main boat yard was the original outlay of today’s Tooley's Boatyard
.
Peoples' Park was set up as a private park in 1890 and opened in 1910, along with the adjacent bowling green
.
The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe
and Easington farm were mostly open farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordinance Survey maps of 1964, 1955 and 1947. It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field (now under the Sainsbury’s store), the Municipal Borough of Banbury council’s small reservoir just south of Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it. The Ruscote
estate, which now has a notable South Asian community, was expanded in the 1950s because of the growth of the town due to the London overspill
and further grew in the mid-1960s.
British Rail
ways closed Merton Street station and the Buckingham to Banbury line to passenger traffic at the end of 1960. Merton Street freight depot continued to handle livestock traffic for Banbury's cattle market until 1966, when this too was discontinued and the railway dismantled. In March 1962 Sir John Betjeman
celebrated the line from Culworth Junction in his poem Great Central Railway, Sheffield Victoria to Banbury. British Railways closed this line too in 1966.
The main station, now called simply Banbury, is now served by trains running between London Paddington and Birmingham
via Reading
, Oxford
and Leamington Spa
, and from London Marylebone
via High Wycombe
and Bicester
, the fastest non-stop train taking 68 minutes to London Marylebone
(and 62 minutes for the return journey).
Banbury used to be home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, situated on Merton Street in Grimsbury
. For many decades, cattle and other farm animals were driven there on the hoof from as far as Scotland
to be sold to feed the growing population of London and other towns. Since its closure in June 1998 a new housing development has been built on its site which includes Dashwood Primary School. The estate, which lies between Banbury and Hanwell
, was built in between 2005–06, on the grounds of the former Hanwell Farm.
and local hostility to the plan, including the southern expansion towards Bodicote
.
The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north between 2001 and 2009. It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.
The now derelict former Crest Hotels
headquarters that can be seen behind the Morrisons garage
has been disused since the late 1980s.
s, on the Bishop of Lincoln
's demesne lands, and a fourth which was leased to Robert son of Waukelin by the Bishop. Among Banbury's four Medieval mills was probably a forerunner of Banbury Mill, first referred to by this name in 1695. In the year 1279, Laurence of Hardwick was also paying 3 marks (equivalent to 40 shillings) in annual rent to the Bishop for a mill in the then Hardwick hamlet.
The forerunners of Butchers Row were probably long standing butcher
s' stalls which were known to be in situ by 1438.
The Northern Aluminium Co. Ltd. or Alcan Industries Ltd.
pig and rolled Aluminium
factory was opened in 1931 on land acquired in 1929 on the east of the Southam road, in the then hamlet of Hardwick. The various Alcan facilities on the 53-acre site closed between 2006 and 2007. The factory was demolished between 2008 and 2009. The laboratory was also closed in 2004 and demolished in 2009.
Another major employer is General Foods Ltd, now Kraft Foods
, which produces convenience foods, including custard
and instant coffee
. The company moved to Banbury from Birmingham
in 1965.
In the central area were built many large shops, a bus station, and a large car park north of Castle Street. In 1969 proposals for the redevelopment of the central area were in hand, leading to the creation of the Castle shopping centre in 1977 (the centre was later combined into the Castle Quay centre). The 1977 plans to build a multi-storey car park
on what is now the open air car park behind Matalan
and Poundland
were scrapped in 1978 and another one was built to the rear of the Castle Shopping Centre in 1978.
The former Hunt Edmunds
brewery premises became Crest Hotels
headquarters, but closed in the late 1970s and was abandoned in the late 1980s, while the Crown Hotel and the Foremost Tyres/Excel Exhausts shops found new owners after they closed in 1976 due to falling sales. Hella Manufacturing, a vehicle Electronics firm, closed its factory on the Southam Road in the mid 2000s. The ironmonger, Hoods, opened in the mid 1960s and closed circa 2007, with the shop becoming part of the then enlarged Marks and Spencer shop.
ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire
, England
is a large food and coffee
producing factory in the north of the town.
It was built in 1964 and was partly due to the London overspill
. Kraft Foods Banbury is the Kraft
centre of manufacturing with the Kraft UK headquarters located at Cheltenham
.
The factory is still sometimes known as General Foods
after the American company which originally owned the building, before 'GF' as it is commonly known was taken over by Kraft.
life in the town and county. It was formally closed in June 1998, after being abandoned several years earlier and was replaced with a new housing development and Dashwood Primary School.
The Oxford Canal
is a popular place for pleasure trips and tourist activity. The canal's main boat yard is now the listed site Tooley's Boatyard
.
Banbury has rail services
run by Chiltern Railways
to and Birmingham
, both running to London Marylebone via the non-electrified Chiltern Main Line. It also has services run by First Great Western
to , and London Paddington. Services to other parts of the country are provided by CrossCountry
via Birmingham New Street, to Cardiff
, Bristol
, Southampton, , , Stansted
, as well as direct services to other cities across England and Scotland.
Banbury has an intra-urban bus service provided by Stagecoach Group
which feeds the outlying villages and provides transport to places such as Oxford
, Chipping Norton and Brackley
. Geoff Amos Coaches runs a intra-urban bus to Rugby
and Daventry
. Heyfordian operates smaller services not covered by those of Stagecoach
including routes from Banbury to places including Bicester
, the Heyfords
, Ardley
, Towcester
, Wappenham
and Northampton
. A local operator - Tex Coaches also runs regular routes from Banbury Town Centre to Brackley
via Kings Sutton and Greatworth
.
Banbury is also served by the National Express coach service which runs regular services in and out of Banbury, to/from major UK towns and cities.
Hennef Way (A422
) was upgraded to a dual carriageway
easing traffic on the heavily congested road and providing better links to north Banbury and the town centre from the M40.
In 2005 Oxfordshire County Council
proposed building a ring road
around Banbury, connecting the M40 to the Oxford Road
at Bodicote
, to ease town centre traffic. However this is not expected to be built until 2016 at the earliest.
rates, dipping as low as 1% in 2005, although it has since risen due to the recession which began in 2008
. with a resultant high demand for labour. Once Poland joined the European Union
in 2004, a number of Banbury-based employment agencies began advertising for staff in major Polish newspapers. According to an estimate by the Banbury Polish Association, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 Poles in the town. The influx of the largely Catholic Polish workers has had a revitalising effect on Banbury's Catholic churches, to the extent that at least one now offers a Mass
said partially in Polish. Additionally specialist Polish food shops have opened as well as supermarkets such as Tesco opening specialist food counters for the Polish migrants.
The Banbury Guardian is published on Thursdays and goes on sale the same day. The Banbury Cake is published on Wednesdays and is released for delivery on Thursday. The Banbury & District Review is published Thursdays and released for delivery on Friday. The Commuter is released for delivery on Monday.
At one time Banbury had many crosses (The High Cross, The Bread Cross and The White Cross), but these were destroyed by Puritan
s on 26 July 1600. Banbury remained without a cross for more than 250 years until the current Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 at the centre of the town to commemorate the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal
(eldest child of Queen Victoria) to Prince Frederick of Prussia
. The current Banbury Cross is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated in Gothic form. Statues of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V were added in 1914 to commemorate the coronation of George V. The cross is fifty-two feet six inches (16 metres) high, and topped by a gilt cross.
The English nursery rhyme
"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
" refers to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans in 1600. In April 2005, The Princess Royal
unveiled a large bronze statue depicting the Fine Lady upon a White Horse of the nursery rhyme. It stands on the corner of West Bar and South Bar, just yard
s from the present Banbury Cross.
in the town centre near Spiceball Park, replacing the old museum near Banbury Cross. It is accessible over a bridge from the Castle Quay Shopping Centre
or via Spiceball Park Road. Admission to the museum is free. The town's tourist information centre is located in the museum entrance in the Castle Quay Shopping Centre.
was built in 1790 and is a historic site with a 200 year old blacksmiths' shop.
in Banbury. It lies east of the Oxford Canal
, mainly west of the River Cherwell
, North of Castle Quay and South of Hennef Way. It includes three large fields, a children's play area and a skateboard park. Across the road from the main park there is the sports centre, which includes a swimming pool
, courts, café and gym facilities.
The sports centre began to be re-developed in late 2009, for a new centre and café, which was completed by mid 2010.
, the town is home to many well known organisations within the industry. Prodrive
, one of the world's largest motorsport and automotive technology specialists, are based in the town, as are a host of race teams involved in competition across many different disciplines and countries.
Within Formula One
, two teams have had their base of operations in Banbury, the former Simtek
team which competed in the 1994 and 1995 F1 World Championships was based on the Wildmere Industrial Estate, whilst the current Virgin Racing
team has it's manufacturing and production facility sited on Thorpe Way Industrial Estate, utilising the building formerly owned by Ascari Cars, a luxury sports car manufacturer. Both Simtek and Virgin Racing have been brought to Banbury by Nick Wirth
, who owned the Simtek team and was the former Technical Director at Virgin. Having bought the Formula 1 arm of Wirth's company, Virgin Racing intend to remain in Banbury for the foreseeable future until a brand new, larger facility is built in the area.
The Formula Fast Karting centre, a kart racing
circuit itself designed by former Formula One
race engineers, was established in 2009 as a leisure facility for the public, as well as offering training and technical support to drivers competing in karting across the UK. The track is located on the Wildmere Industrial Estate, close to Junction 11 linking the town to the M40 motorway
.
, Banbury School
and Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College
- and a number of primary schools
.
Banbury was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. It retained a borough council until 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972
it became part of the traditionally Conservative-ruled Cherwell District Council, an unparished area
with Charter Trustees
. A civil parish with a town council was set up in 2000.
Banbury is located at the bank of the River Cherwell
which sweeps through the town, going just east of the town centre with Grimsbury
being the only estate east of the river.
The town is at the northern extreme of the UK's South East England
region, just two miles from the Midlands
border.
Heavy clay
and Ironstone
deposits surround Banbury.
The Neithrop district of Banbury was the scene of rioting in 1589 after the Neithrop's maypole
was destroyed by Puritans.
Reverend William Whateley (1583–1639), whose father was several times bailiff
or mayor of Banbury, was a notable Banbury vicar and was instituted in 1610, but had already been a 'lecturer' there for some years. In 1626 Whateley refused communion to his own brother, who had been presented for religious incompetence. A report by the church wardens in 1619 said he was a well liked and tolerant priest. The Quakers' meeting hall by the town centre lane called 'The Leys' was built in 1751.
The dominant Religion in the town is Christianity, with many various denominations such as Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, etc. all present. The fastest growing demonination is Catholicism - the growth started mainly with large scale migration of Catholics to the town in 1960s in search of work. The Catholic population at this time was largely Irish or those of Irish descent. More recently since the start of the EU expansion in 2004, numbers of Catholics in Banbury have swelled again, this time due to a large influx of Eastern European Catholics, many originating from Poland.
football club. There are also rugby
, canoeing
, golf
and cricket
clubs. These clubs represent a variety of age groups, and play at varying levels, from amateur to national.
Banbury United F.C.
was first formed as Spencer Villa in 1931 and their home matches played at Middleton Road. At this time it was essentially a works club. In 1934, they changed their name to Banbury Spencer and moved to the Spencer Stadium. They had a lot of early success, winning most of the leagues which they played in.
in France, Since 1982. Hennef
in Germany, Since 1981.
Twinning in Banbury began on 26 October 1978, at a public meeting held at the Post-Graduate Education Centre, and called on the initiative of the late Councillor Ron Smith, the then Town Mayor of Banbury. Initial visits between Banbury and Ermont
in 1979, and for a long time after there was a period of informal relationship before a formal agreement was signed in 1982. Contact was first made with Hennef
about a possible agreement in October 1980 and within a year the formal agreement was signed.
As a consequence of this, two roads in Banbury (Hennef Way and Ermont Way) have been named after the two towns. Likewise a former Railway station square in Hennef
has been named Banburyplatz.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and civil parish on the River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
in the Cherwell District
Cherwell (district)
Cherwell is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford....
of Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. It is 64 miles (103 km) northwest of London, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, 27 miles (43 km) south of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and 21 miles (34 km) north northwest of the county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...
of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. The urban area, including surrounding parishes, had a population of 43,867 at the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
, though this figure has increased in recent years to approximately 45,000.
The Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Banbury
Banbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Banbury is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a strongly Conservative seat.The constituency was created January 26, 1554 through the efforts of Henry Stafford and Thomas Denton...
is Tony Baldry
Tony Baldry
Anthony Brian 'Tony' Baldry is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Banbury.-Early life:...
.
Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area, which is predominantly rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
. Banbury's main industries are car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing, and printing. Banbury is home to the world's largest coffee-processing facility (Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
), built in 1964. The town is famed for Banbury cakes
Banbury cakes
A Banbury cake is a spiced, currant-filled, flat pastry cake similar to an Eccles cake, although it is more oval in shape. Once made and sold exclusively in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, Banbury cakes have been made in the region to secret recipes since 1586 or earlier and there they are still...
– similar to Eccles cake
Eccles cake
An Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter and can sometimes be topped with demerara sugar.-Name and origin:Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles...
s but oval in shape. Since July 2000 Banbury has hosted a unique gathering of traditional mock animals, from around the UK, at the annual Banbury Hobby Horse
Hobby horse
The term hobby horse is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. They are particularly associated with May Day celebrations, Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in...
Festival.
The surrounding area is known informally as Banburyshire
Banburyshire
-Location:Banburyshire is an informal area of England that is centred on the market town of Banbury. The county of Oxfordshire has two main commercial centres, the city of Oxford itself that serves most of the south of the county, and Banbury that serves the north plus parts of the...
and covers the north half of the Cherwell district and neighbouring areas. As Banbury lies near the Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
border, "Banburyshire" includes parts of Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
and Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
.
Origin of the town's name
The name Banbury derives from "Banna", a Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade there in the 6th century, and "burgh" meaning settlement. The Saxon spelling was Banesbyrig. The name appears as "Banesberie" in Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
. Another known spelling was 'Banesebury' in Medieval times.
General history
During excavations for the construction of an office building in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone. Later there was a Roman villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
at nearby Wykham Park.
The area was settled by the Saxons around the late 5th century AD. In about 556 Banbury was the scene of a battle between the local Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
s of Cynric and Ceawlin, and the local Romano-British
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
. It was a local centre for Anglo-Saxon settlement by the mid 6th century. Banbury developed in the Anglo-Saxon period under Danish influence, starting in the late 6th century AD. It was assessed at 50 hides in the Domesday survey and was then held by the bishop of Lincoln.
The Saxons built Banbury on the west bank of the River Cherwell. On the opposite bank they built Grimsbury
Grimsbury
Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...
, which was part of Northamptonshire but was incorporated into Banbury in 1889. Neithrop was one of the oldest areas in Banbury, having first been recorded as a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in the 13th century. It was formally incorporated into the borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
of Banbury in 1889.
Banbury stands at the junction of two ancient roads: Salt Way (used as a bridle path to the west and south of the town), its primary use being transportation of salt; and Banbury Lane, which began near Northampton and is closely followed by the modern 22-mile-long road. It continued through what is now Banbury's High Street and towards the Fosse Way
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road in England that linked Exeter in South West England to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath , Cirencester and Leicester .It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at Venonis south...
at Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on top of an 800 ft hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way . The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take...
. Banbury's mediæval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
prosperity was based on wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
.
Banbury Castle
Banbury Castle
Banbury Castle was a medieval castle that stood near the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Historian John Kenyon notes that the castle is "remarkable for its early concentric shape".-History:...
was built from 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...
, and survived into the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, when it was besieged. Due to its proximity to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, the King's capital, Banbury was at one stage a Royalist town, but the inhabitants were known to be strongly Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
. The castle was demolished after the war.
Banbury played an important part in the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
as a base of operations for Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, who is reputed to have planned the Battle of Edge Hill in the back room (which can still be visited) of a local inn, The Reindeer as it was then known (today's Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn). The town was pro-Parliamentarian, but the castle was manned by a Royalist garrison who supported King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. In 1645 during the English Civil War, Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
troops were billeted in nearby Hanwell village
Hanwell, Oxfordshire
Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Remains of a substantial Roman villa have been found just west of the B4100 main road....
for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them.
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
from Hawkesbury Junction
Hawkesbury Junction
Hawkesbury Junction or Sutton Stop is a canal junction at the northern limit of the Oxford Canal where it meets the Coventry Canal, near Hawkesbury Village, Warwickshire, on the West Midlands county border, England...
to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
coal. In 1787 the Oxford Canal was extended southwards, finally opening to Oxford on 1 January 1790. The canal's main boat yard was the original outlay of today’s Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...
.
Peoples' Park was set up as a private park in 1890 and opened in 1910, along with the adjacent bowling green
Bowling green
A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...
.
The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe
Calthorpe, Oxfordshire
Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.-History:Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury...
and Easington farm were mostly open farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordinance Survey maps of 1964, 1955 and 1947. It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field (now under the Sainsbury’s store), the Municipal Borough of Banbury council’s small reservoir just south of Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it. The Ruscote
Ruscote
The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...
estate, which now has a notable South Asian community, was expanded in the 1950s because of the growth of the town due to the London overspill
London overspill
London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...
and further grew in the mid-1960s.
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 Merton Street station and the Buckingham to Banbury line to passenger traffic at the end of 1960. Merton Street freight depot continued to handle livestock traffic for Banbury's cattle market until 1966, when this too was discontinued and the railway dismantled. In March 1962 Sir John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
celebrated the line from Culworth Junction in his poem Great Central Railway, Sheffield Victoria to Banbury. British Railways closed this line too in 1966.
The main station, now called simply Banbury, is now served by trains running between London Paddington and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
via Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...
, and from London Marylebone
Marylebone station
Marylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...
via High Wycombe
High Wycombe
High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
and 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 fastest non-stop train taking 68 minutes to London Marylebone
Marylebone station
Marylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...
(and 62 minutes for the return journey).
Banbury used to be home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, situated on Merton Street in Grimsbury
Grimsbury
Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...
. For many decades, cattle and other farm animals were driven there on the hoof from as far as Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
to be sold to feed the growing population of London and other towns. Since its closure in June 1998 a new housing development has been built on its site which includes Dashwood Primary School. The estate, which lies between Banbury and Hanwell
Hanwell, Oxfordshire
Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, northwest of Banbury.-Early history:Remains of a substantial Roman villa have been found just west of the B4100 main road....
, was built in between 2005–06, on the grounds of the former Hanwell Farm.
Local development plans
There was a plan in the late 2000s to expand the Bretch Hill estate westwards into local farmland, but this has now been suspended due to the credit crunchCredit crunch
A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...
and local hostility to the plan, including the southern expansion towards Bodicote
Bodicote
Bodicote is a village and civil parish south of the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:A windmill that stood next to the grove at the top of Bodicote is mentioned in the Domesday Book of AD 1086...
.
The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north between 2001 and 2009. It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.
The now derelict former Crest Hotels
Crest Hotels
Crest Hotels Limited was a Bass-Charrington subsidiary operating the hotel interests of the brewery company in the United Kingdom. Crest's headquarters were in the former Hunt Edmunds brewery premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire....
headquarters that can be seen behind the Morrisons garage
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
has been disused since the late 1980s.
Industry and commerce
The Domesday Book in 1086 listed three mills, with a total fiscal value of 45 shillingShilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s, on the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
's demesne lands, and a fourth which was leased to Robert son of Waukelin by the Bishop. Among Banbury's four Medieval mills was probably a forerunner of Banbury Mill, first referred to by this name in 1695. In the year 1279, Laurence of Hardwick was also paying 3 marks (equivalent to 40 shillings) in annual rent to the Bishop for a mill in the then Hardwick hamlet.
The forerunners of Butchers Row were probably long standing butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s' stalls which were known to be in situ by 1438.
The Northern Aluminium Co. Ltd. or Alcan Industries Ltd.
Alcan
Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...
pig and rolled Aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
factory was opened in 1931 on land acquired in 1929 on the east of the Southam road, in the then hamlet of Hardwick. The various Alcan facilities on the 53-acre site closed between 2006 and 2007. The factory was demolished between 2008 and 2009. The laboratory was also closed in 2004 and demolished in 2009.
Another major employer is General Foods Ltd, now Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
, which produces convenience foods, including custard
Custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...
and instant coffee
Instant coffee
Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...
. The company moved to Banbury from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1965.
In the central area were built many large shops, a bus station, and a large car park north of Castle Street. In 1969 proposals for the redevelopment of the central area were in hand, leading to the creation of the Castle shopping centre in 1977 (the centre was later combined into the Castle Quay centre). The 1977 plans to build a multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on what is now the open air car park behind Matalan
Matalan
Matalan is a British retailer that specialises in shoes and clothes. It was founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. It currently has 200 stores across the UK. The 200th store opened on 22 September 2006 in Croydon...
and Poundland
Poundland
Poundland is a British-based variety store chain which sells every item in its stores for £1. Established in April 1990 by Dave Dodd and Stephen Smith, Poundland stock a variety of around 3,000 home and kitchen-ware, gifts, healthcare and other products, across 16 categories many of which are brand...
were scrapped in 1978 and another one was built to the rear of the Castle Shopping Centre in 1978.
The former Hunt Edmunds
Hunt Edmunds
-History:The brewery was founded by John Hunt in 1840, but it was Thomas Hunt who went into partnership with William Edmunds in 1850. Edmunds' son, Charles Fletcher Edmunds became a partner in 1886, and succeeded his father in 1896. His son Maurice Edmunds was a later chairman...
brewery premises became Crest Hotels
Crest Hotels
Crest Hotels Limited was a Bass-Charrington subsidiary operating the hotel interests of the brewery company in the United Kingdom. Crest's headquarters were in the former Hunt Edmunds brewery premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire....
headquarters, but closed in the late 1970s and was abandoned in the late 1980s, while the Crown Hotel and the Foremost Tyres/Excel Exhausts shops found new owners after they closed in 1976 due to falling sales. Hella Manufacturing, a vehicle Electronics firm, closed its factory on the Southam Road in the mid 2000s. The ironmonger, Hoods, opened in the mid 1960s and closed circa 2007, with the shop becoming part of the then enlarged Marks and Spencer shop.
Kraft Foods, Banbury
Kraft Foods in the RuscoteRuscote
The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...
ward of Banbury, 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...
is a large food and coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
producing factory in the north of the town.
It was built in 1964 and was partly due to the London overspill
London overspill
London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...
. Kraft Foods Banbury is the Kraft
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
centre of manufacturing with the Kraft UK headquarters located at Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
.
The factory is still sometimes known as General Foods
General Foods
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...
after the American company which originally owned the building, before 'GF' as it is commonly known was taken over by Kraft.
Cattle Market
Banbury was once home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, on Merton Street in Grimsbury. The market was a key feature of VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
life in the town and county. It was formally closed in June 1998, after being abandoned several years earlier and was replaced with a new housing development and Dashwood Primary School.
Transport and infrastructure
The Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
is a popular place for pleasure trips and tourist activity. The canal's main boat yard is now the listed site Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...
.
Banbury has rail services
Banbury railway station
Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is currently operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.-History:...
run by Chiltern Railways
Chiltern Railways
Chiltern Railways is a British train operating company. It was set up at the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, and operates local passenger trains from Marylebone station in London to Aylesbury and main-line trains on the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham Snow Hill with its associated branches...
to and Birmingham
Birmingham Snow Hill station
Birmingham Snow Hill is a railway station and tram stop in the centre of Birmingham, England, on the site of an earlier, much larger station built by the former Great Western Railway . It is the second most important railway station in the city, after Birmingham New Street station...
, both running to London Marylebone via the non-electrified Chiltern Main Line. It also has services run by First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....
to , and London Paddington. Services to other parts of the country are provided by CrossCountry
CrossCountry
CrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva...
via Birmingham New Street, to Cardiff
Cardiff Central railway station
Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...
, Bristol
Bristol Temple Meads railway station
Bristol Temple Meads railway station is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for public transport in Bristol, with bus services to various parts of the city and surrounding districts, and a ferry service to the city centre in addition to the...
, Southampton, , , Stansted
Stansted Airport railway station
Stansted Airport railway station serves London Stansted Airport in Essex, England.It is situated at the end of a short branch from the West Anglia Main Line. The branch was constructed at a cost of £44 million and opened in 1991, to coincide with the completion of the airport's new terminal building...
, as well as direct services to other cities across England and Scotland.
Banbury has an intra-urban bus service provided by Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
which feeds the outlying villages and provides transport to places such as Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Chipping Norton and Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
. Geoff Amos Coaches runs a intra-urban bus to Rugby
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...
and Daventry
Daventry
Daventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...
. Heyfordian operates smaller services not covered by those of Stagecoach
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
including routes from Banbury to places including 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 Heyfords
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...
, Ardley
Ardley
Ardley is a village in Ardley with Fewcott civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about northwest of Bicester. The parish includes the village of Fewcott that is now contiguous with Ardley.-History:...
, Towcester
Towcester
Towcester , the Roman town of Lactodorum, is a small town in south Northamptonshire, England.-Etymology:Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove; Bosworth and Toller compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa...
, Wappenham
Wappenham
Wappenham is a linear village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is south-west of Towcester, north of Syresham and north-west of Silverstone and forms part of the district of South Northamptonshire...
and Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
. A local operator - Tex Coaches also runs regular routes from Banbury Town Centre to Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
via Kings Sutton and Greatworth
Greatworth
Greatworth is a village about north-west of Brackley, Northamptonshire, England.-History:The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter was built in the 13th century and the bell tower was added in about 1300. The architect H.R. Gough rebuilt the chancel arch in 1882. In 2005 a new ring of six...
.
Banbury is also served by the National Express coach service which runs regular services in and out of Banbury, to/from major UK towns and cities.
Hennef Way (A422
A422 road
The A422 is an "A" road for east-west journeys in south central England, connecting the county towns of Bedford and Worcester by way of Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon. For most of its length, is a narrow single carriageway....
) was upgraded to a dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
easing traffic on the heavily congested road and providing better links to north Banbury and the town centre from the M40.
In 2005 Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire County Council, established in 1889, is the county council, or upper-tier local authority, for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire, in the South East of England, an elected body responsible for the most strategic local government services in the county.-History:County Councils...
proposed building a ring road
Ring road
A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...
around Banbury, connecting the M40 to the Oxford Road
A4260 road
The A4260 is a road that leads from the A422 Henneff Way, Banbury to Frieze Way near Oxford. It is single carriageway for a majority of the route, except for a section near Steeple Aston for and on Frieze Way where the A4260 meets the A34 at Peartree Interchange, Oxford, where it becomes a dual...
at Bodicote
Bodicote
Bodicote is a village and civil parish south of the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:A windmill that stood next to the grove at the top of Bodicote is mentioned in the Domesday Book of AD 1086...
, to ease town centre traffic. However this is not expected to be built until 2016 at the earliest.
Polish and East European immigration
Banbury has one of the UK's lowest unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
rates, dipping as low as 1% in 2005, although it has since risen due to the recession which began in 2008
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
. with a resultant high demand for labour. Once Poland joined the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in 2004, a number of Banbury-based employment agencies began advertising for staff in major Polish newspapers. According to an estimate by the Banbury Polish Association, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 Poles in the town. The influx of the largely Catholic Polish workers has had a revitalising effect on Banbury's Catholic churches, to the extent that at least one now offers a Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
said partially in Polish. Additionally specialist Polish food shops have opened as well as supermarkets such as Tesco opening specialist food counters for the Polish migrants.
Local newspapers
Banbury has four local newspapers:- The Banbury GuardianBanbury Guardian newspaperThe Banbury Guardian is a local tabloid newspaper published in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It serves north Oxfordshire, southwest Northamptonshire and southeast Warwickshire...
, which costs 50p and is a tabloid - The Banbury & District Review, which is a free tabloid
- The Banbury Cake, also a free tabloid
The Banbury Guardian is published on Thursdays and goes on sale the same day. The Banbury Cake is published on Wednesdays and is released for delivery on Thursday. The Banbury & District Review is published Thursdays and released for delivery on Friday. The Commuter is released for delivery on Monday.
Banbury Cross
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
s on 26 July 1600. Banbury remained without a cross for more than 250 years until the current Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 at the centre of the town to commemorate the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal
Victoria, Princess Royal
The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III...
(eldest child of Queen Victoria) to Prince Frederick of Prussia
Frederick III, German Emperor
Frederick III was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days in 1888, the Year of the Three Emperors. Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl known informally as Fritz, was the only son of Emperor William I and was raised in his family's tradition of military service...
. The current Banbury Cross is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated in Gothic form. Statues of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V were added in 1914 to commemorate the coronation of George V. The cross is fifty-two feet six inches (16 metres) high, and topped by a gilt cross.
The English nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" is an English language nursery rhyme connected with the English town Banbury. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 21143.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,...
" refers to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans in 1600. In April 2005, The Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
unveiled a large bronze statue depicting the Fine Lady upon a White Horse of the nursery rhyme. It stands on the corner of West Bar and South Bar, just yard
Yard
A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...
s from the present Banbury Cross.
Banbury Museum
Banbury has a museumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in the town centre near Spiceball Park, replacing the old museum near Banbury Cross. It is accessible over a bridge from the Castle Quay Shopping Centre
Castle Quay Shopping Centre
Castle Quay Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in the town of Banbury, north Oxfordshire, England.The shopping centre is located in the centre of Banbury by the Oxford Canal, off Castle Street. Banbury Museum and Tooley's Boatyard are also located here. Close by is Spiceball Park...
or via Spiceball Park Road. Admission to the museum is free. The town's tourist information centre is located in the museum entrance in the Castle Quay Shopping Centre.
Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's BoatyardTooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...
was built in 1790 and is a historic site with a 200 year old blacksmiths' shop.
The spiceball centre and park
The Spiceball Park is the largest parkUrban park
An urban park, is also known as a municipal park or a public park, public open space or municipal gardens , is a park in cities and other incorporated places to offer recreation and green space to residents of, and visitors to, the municipality...
in Banbury. It lies east of the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
, mainly west of the River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
, North of Castle Quay and South of Hennef Way. It includes three large fields, a children's play area and a skateboard park. Across the road from the main park there is the sports centre, which includes a swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, courts, café and gym facilities.
The sports centre began to be re-developed in late 2009, for a new centre and café, which was completed by mid 2010.
Other recreational areas and parks
Neithrop is home to the People's Park which opened in 1910, and has a bird house, tennis courts, a large field and a children's play area. The park is often used in the summer to hold small festivals. The park is also one of the town's biggest in terms of the area covered and one of the few major ones not to be built on a steep hill. Easington Recreation Ground is another principal park and recreational area.Motorsport
Owing to the surrounding area's notable links with world motorsportMotorsport
Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...
, the town is home to many well known organisations within the industry. Prodrive
Prodrive
Prodrive is a British motorsport and automotive engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Subaru, Aston Martin and Ford...
, one of the world's largest motorsport and automotive technology specialists, are based in the town, as are a host of race teams involved in competition across many different disciplines and countries.
Within Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
, two teams have had their base of operations in Banbury, the former Simtek
Simtek
Simtek was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The F1 engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved in many areas of Formula One, including wind tunnel construction and chassis building for third...
team which competed in the 1994 and 1995 F1 World Championships was based on the Wildmere Industrial Estate, whilst the current Virgin Racing
Virgin Racing
Marussia Virgin Racing, the trading name of Virgin Racing Limited, is a Russian owned Formula One racing team based in the United Kingdom and racing on a Russian licence, which made its debut in the 2010 Formula One season. It was granted entry as Manor Grand Prix on 12 June 2009, as one of four...
team has it's manufacturing and production facility sited on Thorpe Way Industrial Estate, utilising the building formerly owned by Ascari Cars, a luxury sports car manufacturer. Both Simtek and Virgin Racing have been brought to Banbury by Nick Wirth
Nick Wirth
Nicholas John Peter "Nick" Wirth is an automotive engineer and the founder and owner of Wirth Research.He is also the former owner of the Simtek Formula One team, a former aerodynamicist at March and former technical director at the Benetton, and Virgin Racing teams.- Education and early...
, who owned the Simtek team and was the former Technical Director at Virgin. Having bought the Formula 1 arm of Wirth's company, Virgin Racing intend to remain in Banbury for the foreseeable future until a brand new, larger facility is built in the area.
The Formula Fast Karting centre, a kart racing
Kart racing
Kart racing or karting is a variant of open-wheel motorsport with small, open, four-wheeled vehicles called karts, go-karts, or gearbox/shifter karts depending on the design. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits...
circuit itself designed by former Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
race engineers, was established in 2009 as a leisure facility for the public, as well as offering training and technical support to drivers competing in karting across the UK. The track is located on the Wildmere Industrial Estate, close to Junction 11 linking the town to 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...
.
Notable place names
- A bridge (no. 164) on the Oxford CanalOxford CanalThe Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
in Banbury has borne Tom Rolt's name (in commemoration of his book Narrow Boat) since 1999, as does a centre at the boat museum at Ellesmere PortEllesmere PortEllesmere Port is a large industrial town and port in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated on the south border of the Wirral Peninsula on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, which in turn gives access to the River...
in CheshireCheshireCheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. A blue plaque to Mr Rolt was unveiled at Tooley's BoatyardTooley's BoatyardTooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...
, Banbury on 7 August 2010 as part of the centenary celebrations of his birth.
- Concorde Avenue was named in a 1995 street naming contest in honour of the 50 years' peace (1945–1995) in Europe since the Second World War.
- Claypits Close was built circa 2007 and named after the old clay pit it was built on. There were many small, VictorianVictorian eraThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
clay pits and kilns in the south west of Banbury, but they had closed by the 1920s.
- Gillett Avenue was either named after Joseph Ashby Gillett, He ran Banbury's branch of 18th century Britain’s New Bank or his descendant Sarah Beatrice Gillett, who was mayor in 1926.
Education
One of the campuses of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College is situated in Banbury. The town also has three secondary schools - North Oxfordshire AcademyNorth Oxfordshire Academy
North Oxfordshire Academy is a city academy in Banbury, Oxfordshire which opened in September 2007, replacing the former Drayton School. Its sixth form opened in September 2008. The Principal of North Oxfordshire Academy is Sara Billins.The previous Principal, Ruth Robinson, left in October...
, Banbury School
Banbury School
Banbury School is a mixed, multi-heritage, fully comprehensive school with 1,650 students situated on Ruskin Road, in the Easington ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. The school is a specialist Humanities College....
and Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College
Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College, Banbury
Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College is a Roman Catholic Secondary school which was recently awarded sports college status. It is located on Addison Road in the Easington ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. The school has many outbuildings and includes an Astroturf...
- and a number of primary schools
Primary schools in Banbury
-Dashwood School:Dashwood Primary School is a long-established school formerly situated on Dashwood Road, Banbury. In September 2008 it moved to new premises in Merton Street in the Grimsbury district of Banbury. But this was accompanied by a disastrous Ofsted report which put the school into...
.
Local government
In January 1554 Banbury was granted royal charter that established legally the town as a borough to be thus governed by the aldermen of the town.Banbury was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. It retained a borough council until 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
it became part of the traditionally Conservative-ruled Cherwell District Council, an unparished area
Unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...
with Charter Trustees
Charter Trustees
In England and Wales, charter trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established...
. A civil parish with a town council was set up in 2000.
Notable mayors
Banbury has had several notable mayors over the years since the post was created in 1607.- Thomas Webb was the first Mayor of Banbury town and held office in 1607, 1619, 1629 and 1638.
- Surinder Dhesi was the town's first Asian mayor in 2004 and 2005.
- A housing estate was named after Thomas Tims(?) (1840), although it is called the Timms Estate and is generally believed to be named after the developer (Timms).
- Roads are named after Sarah Beatrice Gillett(?) (1926), William George Mascord (1929), Fred Mold (1930) and Arthur Fairfax (1897 and 1905).
Geography
Banbury is located in the Cherwell Valley, and consequently there are many hills in and around the town. Apart from the town centre much of Banbury is on a slope and each entrance into the town is downhill. Estates such as Bretch Hill and Hardwick are built on top of a hill and much of the town can be seen from both. Other notable hills include the suburban, Crouch Hill and the more central Pinn Hill, and Strawberry Hill on the outskirts of Easington. Mine Hill and Rye Hill lie along with many others to the north east, south east and west of the town.Banbury is located at the bank of the River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
which sweeps through the town, going just east of the town centre with Grimsbury
Grimsbury
Grimsbury is a largely residential area forming the eastern part of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It is east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railway.-History:...
being the only estate east of the river.
The town is at the northern extreme of the UK's South East England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
region, just two miles from the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
border.
Heavy clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
and Ironstone
Ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
deposits surround Banbury.
Religion
In the year 1377 a pardon was given to a Welshman, who was wanted for killing another Welshman, after the accused person had taken sanctuary in Banbury church.The Neithrop district of Banbury was the scene of rioting in 1589 after the Neithrop's maypole
Maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...
was destroyed by Puritans.
Reverend William Whateley (1583–1639), whose father was several times bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
or mayor of Banbury, was a notable Banbury vicar and was instituted in 1610, but had already been a 'lecturer' there for some years. In 1626 Whateley refused communion to his own brother, who had been presented for religious incompetence. A report by the church wardens in 1619 said he was a well liked and tolerant priest. The Quakers' meeting hall by the town centre lane called 'The Leys' was built in 1751.
The dominant Religion in the town is Christianity, with many various denominations such as Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, etc. all present. The fastest growing demonination is Catholicism - the growth started mainly with large scale migration of Catholics to the town in 1960s in search of work. The Catholic population at this time was largely Irish or those of Irish descent. More recently since the start of the EU expansion in 2004, numbers of Catholics in Banbury have swelled again, this time due to a large influx of Eastern European Catholics, many originating from Poland.
Sport
Banbury has several sporting clubs, most notably Banbury UnitedBanbury United F.C.
Banbury United is a football club based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, who play in the Southern League Premier Division. They are nicknamed The Puritans and they play their home matches at the Spencer Stadium...
football club. There are also rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, canoeing
Canoeing
Canoeing is an outdoor activity that involves a special kind of canoe.Open canoes may be 'poled' , sailed, 'lined and tracked' or even 'gunnel-bobbed'....
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
clubs. These clubs represent a variety of age groups, and play at varying levels, from amateur to national.
Banbury United F.C.
Banbury United F.C.
Banbury United is a football club based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, who play in the Southern League Premier Division. They are nicknamed The Puritans and they play their home matches at the Spencer Stadium...
was first formed as Spencer Villa in 1931 and their home matches played at Middleton Road. At this time it was essentially a works club. In 1934, they changed their name to Banbury Spencer and moved to the Spencer Stadium. They had a lot of early success, winning most of the leagues which they played in.
Twinning
Banbury is twinned with: ErmontErmont
Ermont is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It has some around 28,000 inhabitants, which makes Ermont one of the most important city in Val d'Oise.-Transport:...
in France, Since 1982. Hennef
Hennef
Hennef is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 7 km south-east of Siegburg and 15 km east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Hennef (Sieg) is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of...
in Germany, Since 1981.
Twinning in Banbury began on 26 October 1978, at a public meeting held at the Post-Graduate Education Centre, and called on the initiative of the late Councillor Ron Smith, the then Town Mayor of Banbury. Initial visits between Banbury and Ermont
Ermont
Ermont is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It has some around 28,000 inhabitants, which makes Ermont one of the most important city in Val d'Oise.-Transport:...
in 1979, and for a long time after there was a period of informal relationship before a formal agreement was signed in 1982. Contact was first made with Hennef
Hennef
Hennef is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 7 km south-east of Siegburg and 15 km east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Hennef (Sieg) is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of...
about a possible agreement in October 1980 and within a year the formal agreement was signed.
As a consequence of this, two roads in Banbury (Hennef Way and Ermont Way) have been named after the two towns. Likewise a former Railway station square in Hennef
Hennef
Hennef is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 7 km south-east of Siegburg and 15 km east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis Hennef (Sieg) is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of...
has been named Banburyplatz.
People associated with Banbury
- Anthony BurgessAnthony BurgessJohn Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, the celebrated novelist, taught at Banbury Grammar School (now Banbury SchoolBanbury SchoolBanbury School is a mixed, multi-heritage, fully comprehensive school with 1,650 students situated on Ruskin Road, in the Easington ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. The school is a specialist Humanities College....
) for several years during the 1950s. - Alan Lloyd HodgkinAlan Lloyd HodgkinSir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, PRS was a British physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles....
, British physiologist and biophysicist and Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner, was born in Banbury - Lancelot HollandLancelot HollandVice Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland, CB commanded the British force in the Battle of Denmark Strait in May, 1941 against the German battleship Bismarck. Holland was killed during the battle.-Early life:...
, the admiral who lost his life in HMS HoodHMS HoodThree ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hood after several members of the Hood family, who were notable Navy officers: was a 91-gun second-rate ship of the line, originally laid down as HMS Edgar, but renamed in 1848 and launched in 1859. She was used for harbour service from 1872 and was...
in 1941 commanding the fleet which engaged the German battleship, Bismarck, grew up in the Banbury area. - Police inspector James Roy Bradley, who was run down and killed by a suspect car at a local police road block in 1967 - the Bretch Hill estate's Bradley Arcade is named after him.
- Gordon RamsayGordon RamsayGordon James Ramsay, OBE is a Scottish chef, television personality and restaurateur. He has been awarded 13 Michelin stars....
went to local secondary school Drayton in Banbury. - Larry GraysonLarry GraysonLarry Grayson , born William Sulley White, was an English stand-up comedian and television presenter of the 1970s and early 80s...
was born in Banbury but grew up in NuneatonNuneatonNuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
. - The former Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Lord North was also the MP for Banbury. - Richie HawtinRichie HawtinRichard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...
– better known as Plastikman – was born in the town in 1970. - John Brooke-LittleJohn Brooke-LittleJohn Philip Rudolph Dominic Derek Aloysius Mary Brooke-Little, CVO, KStJ, FSA, FSG, FHS, FHG , FRHSC , FHSNZ, KM, GCGCO was an influential and popular British writer on heraldic subjects and a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London...
was a former officer of armsOfficer of armsAn officer of arms is a person appointed by a sovereign or state with authority to perform one or more of the following functions:*to control and initiate armorial matters*to arrange and participate in ceremonies of state...
who lived in Banbury at the end of his life. - Dermot GallagherDermot GallagherDermot J. Gallagher is a retired English-based association football referee, who lives in Banbury, Oxfordshire. He refereed in the Premier League of English football until May 2007.-Career:...
Irish football referee is a current resident. - Chris HutchingsChris HutchingsChristopher "Chris" Hutchings is an English former footballer and former manager of Walsall. He played for a number of clubs including Chelsea and played more than 100 games for Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town...
Former resident and current Wigan Athletic coach. - Benjamin GeenBenjamin GeenBenjamin Geen is a former nurse convicted of murdering two patients and causing grievous bodily harm to 15 others while working at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire.-Crime:...
was born in Banbury and employed as a staff nurse at the Horton General HospitalHorton General HospitalThe Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service run hospital, located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton...
. During December 2003 and January 2004, Geen poisoned 17 patients for the thrill of trying to resuscitate them. He was found guilty of two murders and 15 charges of grievous bodily harm in April 2006. Source: the Banbury Guardian newspaperBanbury Guardian newspaperThe Banbury Guardian is a local tabloid newspaper published in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It serves north Oxfordshire, southwest Northamptonshire and southeast Warwickshire...
http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=687&ArticleID=1453995, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4918462.stm. - Gary GlitterGary GlitterGary Glitter is an English former glam rock singer-songwriter and musician.Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s...
, born Paul Francis Gadd in Banbury, glam rockGlam rockGlam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
star and convicted paedophile.
Companies based in Banbury
- Kraft Foods BanburyKraft Foods BanburyKraft Foods in the Ruscote ward of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England is a large food and coffee producing factory in the north of the town.It was built in 1964 and was partly due to the London overspill...
- Westminster group plcWestminster group plcThe Westminster Group plc is a worldwide security company that specialises in Fire, Safety, Security and Defence. The firms' headquarters are at Westminster House, Blacklocks Hill, Overthorpe, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom...
- Banbury Sound 107.6FM
- Banbury GuardianBanbury GuardianThe Banbury Guardian is a local tabloid newspaper published in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It serves north Oxfordshire, southwest Northamptonshire and southeast Warwickshire...
- ProdriveProdriveProdrive is a British motorsport and automotive engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Subaru, Aston Martin and Ford...
- AlcanAlcanRio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...
See also
- Banbury Rural DistrictBanbury Rural DistrictBanbury was a rural district in Oxfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from the bulk of the Banbury rural sanitary district, which had been divided between three counties...
- Banbury railway stationBanbury railway stationBanbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is currently operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.-History:...
- Banbury Merton Street railway stationBanbury Merton Street railway stationBanbury Merton Street was the first railway station to serve the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury in England. It opened in 1850 as the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway providing connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closing for passengers in 1961 and goods in 1966.- Context...
- BanburyshireBanburyshire-Location:Banburyshire is an informal area of England that is centred on the market town of Banbury. The county of Oxfordshire has two main commercial centres, the city of Oxford itself that serves most of the south of the county, and Banbury that serves the north plus parts of the...