Bicester
Encyclopedia
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 Banbury
. It has good road links to Oxford
, Kidlington
, Brackley
, Buckingham
, Aylesbury
and Witney
, as well as rail service.
. The name Bicester, which has been in use since the mid 17th century, derives from earlier forms including Berncestre, Burencestre, Burcester, Biciter and Bissiter (the John Speed
map of 1610 shows four alternative spellings and Miss G. H. Dannatt found 45 variants in wills of the 17th and 18th centuries). Theories advanced for the meaning of the name include "of Beorna" (a personal name), "The Fort of the Warriors" or literally from Latin Bi-cester to mean "The 2 forts". The ruins of the Roman
settlement of Alchester
are 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town and remains of an Augustinian
priory founded in 1180 survive in the town centre.
The West Saxons established a settlement in the 6th century at a nodal point of a series of ancient routes. A north-south Roman road
, known as the Stratton (Audley) Road, from Dorchester
to Towcester
, passed through King’s End. Akeman Street
, an east-west Roman road from Cirencester
to St. Albans lies 2 miles (3.2 km) south, next to the Roman fortress and town at Alchester.
The church at Bicester was founded as a minster perhaps in the mid seventh century after St. Birinus
converted Cynegils King of the West Saxons after their meeting near Blewbury
. The site was just east of the old Roman road between Dorchester and Towcester that passed through the former Roman town at Alchester. The earliest church was probably a timber structure serving the inhabitants of the growing Saxon settlements on each side of the River Bure
, and as a mission centre for the surrounding countryside. Archaeological excavations at Procter’s Yard identified the ecclesiastical enclosure boundary, and a large cemetery of Saxon graves suggesting a much larger churchyard have been excavated on the site of the Catholic Church car park.
The first documentary reference is the Domesday Book
of 1086 which records it as Berencestra, its two manors
of Bicester and Wretchwick being held by Robert D'Oyly
who built Oxford Castle
. The town became established as twin settlements on opposite banks of the River Bure, a tributary of the Ray
, Cherwell
and ultimately the River Thames
.
By the end of the 13th century Bicester was the centre of a deanery
of 33 churches. It is unclear when the church was rebuilt in stone, but the 12th century church seems to have had an aisleless cruciform plan. Earliest surviving material includes parts of the nave north wall including parts of an originally external zigzag string course, the north and south transepts and the external clasping buttress
es of the chancel
. The triangular-headed opening at the end of the north wall of the nave was probably an external door of the early church. Three great round-headed arches at the end of the nave
mark the position of a 13th century tower.
The Augustinian Priory was founded by Gilbert Bassett around 1183 and endowed with land and buildings around the town and in other parishes including 180 acres (72.8 ha) and the quarry at Kirtlington, 300 acres (121.4 ha) at Wretchwick (now called), 135 acres (54.6 ha) at Stratton Audley, and on Gravenhill and Arncott. It also held the mill at Clifton and had farms let to tenants at Deddington, Grimsbury, Waddesdon and Fringford. Although these holdings were extensive and close to the market at Bicester, they appear to have been poorly managed and did not produce much income for the Priory.
The priory appropriated the church in the early 13th century. The church was enlarged by a south aisle, and arches were formed in the nave and south transept walls linking the new aisle to the main body of the church.
A further extension was made in the 14th century when the north aisle was built. The arched openings in the north wall of the nave are supported on thick octagonal columns. The Perpendicular Gothic north chapel (now vestry
) is of a similar date, on the east wall are two windows. The chapel originally had an upper chamber used later for the vicars’ grammar school
, accessed from an external staircase which forms part of the north eastern buttress.
In the 15th century the upper walls of the nave were raised to form a clerestory
with square-headed Perpendicular Gothic windows. The earlier central tower and its nave arch was taken down and the nave roof rebuilt, (the present roof is a copy of 1803). The columns of the north arcade were undercut making them appear very slim and the capitals top heavy. In the east bay of the nave, there is carved decoration probably forming part of a canopied tomb originally set between the columns. The west tower was built in three stages, each stage marked by a horizontal string course running round the outside. The construction would have taken several years to complete. The battlements and crockets on the top of the tower where replaced in the mid nineteenth century.
The priory church was built around 1200, and enlarged around 1300 in association with the construction of the Purbeck marble
tomb of St. Eadburh. This may have been the gift of the priory’s patron Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln
. The walled rectangular enclosure of the Priory lay just south of the church. The gatehouse was on the site of ‘Chapter and Verse’ Guesthouse in Church Lane. The Library, dovecote
and houses in Old Place Yard lie within the central precinct. St Edburg’s House is built partly over the site of the large priory church. This was linked by a cloister to a quadrangle containing the refectory, kitchens, dormitory and Prior’s lodging. The priory farm buildings lay in the area of the present Church Hall, and these had direct access along Piggy Lane to land in what is now the King’s End Estate.
Early charters promoted Bicester's development as a trading centre, with a market and fair established by the mid 13th century. By this time two further manors are mentioned, Bury End and Nuns Place, later known as Market End and King's End respectively.
of Market End was the Earl of Derby
who in 1597 sold a 9,999 year lease to 31 principal tenants. This in effect gave the manorial rights to the leaseholders, ‘purchased for the benefit of those inhabitants or others who might hereafter obtain parts of the demesne’. The leaseholders elected a bailiff to receive the profits from the bailiwick
, mainly from the administration of the market and distribute them to the shareholders. From the bailiff’s title the arrangement became known as the Bailiwick of Bicester Market End. By 1752 all of the original leases were in the hands of ten men, who leased the bailiwick control of the market to two local tradesmen.
A fire in 1724 had destroyed the buildings on the eastern side of Water Lane. A Nonconformist congregation was able to acquire a site that had formerly been the tail of a long plot occupied at the other end by the King’s Arms. Their chapel built in 1728 was ‘surrounded by a burying ground and ornamented with trees. At the southern and downstream end of Water Lane, there were problems of pollution from animal dung from livery stables on the edge of town associated with the London traffic.
Edward Hemins was running a bell-foundry
in Bicester by 1728 and remained in business until at least 1743. Churches at Ambrosden, Bletchingdon and Wootton in Oxfordshire and Culworth in Northamptonshire
are among those whose ring
of bells still includes one or more cast by Hemins.
King’s End had a substantially lower population and none of the commercial bustle found on the other side of the Bure. The manorial lords, the Cokers, lived in the manor house
since 1584. The house had been rebuilt in the early 18th century remodelled in the 1780s. The park was enlarged surrounded by a wall after 1753 when a range of buildings on the north side of King’s End Green were demolished by Coker. A westward enlargement of the park also extinguished the road which followed the line of the Roman route. This partly overlapped a pre 1753 close belonging to Coker. The effect of the enlargement of the park was to divert traffic at the Fox Inn through King’s End, across the causeway to Market Square and Sheep Street before returning to the Roman road north of Crockwell.
The two townships of King's End and Market End evolved distinct spatial characteristics. Inns, shops and high status houses clustered around the triangular market place as commercial activity was increasingly concentrated in Market End. The bailiwick lessees promoted a much less regulated market than that found in boroughs elsewhere. Away from the market, Sheep Street was considered ‘very respectable’ but its northern end at Crockwell was inhabited by the poorest inhabitants in low quality, subdivided and overcrowded buildings.
By 1800, the causeway had dense development forming continuous frontages on both sides. The partially buried watercourses provided a convenient drainage opportunity, and many houses had privies discharging directly into the channels. Downstream, the Bure ran parallel with Water Lane, then the main road out of town towards London. Terraces of cottages were built backing onto the stream, and here too these too took advantage of the steam for sewage disposal, with privies cantilevered out from houses over the watercourse. Town houses took their water from wells dug into the substrate which became increasingly polluted by leaching of waste through the alluvial bed of the Bure.
Until the early 19th century the road from the market place to King's End ran through a ford of the Bure stream and on to the narrow embanked road across the boggy valley. The causeway became the focus for development from the late 18th century as rubbish and debris was dumped on each side of the road to form building platforms, minor channels of the braded stream were encased and culverted as construction proceeded.
buildings of the town have features of both the Cotswold
dip slope to the northwest and the Thames Valley
to the southeast. The earliest surviving buildings of the town are the medieval church of St. Edburg
; the vicarage of 1500 and two post Dissolution
houses in the former Priory Precinct constructed from reused mediaeval material. These buildings are mainly grey oolitic limestone, from the Priory Quarry at Kirtlington
, five miles (8 km) west on Akeman Street, some ginger lias (ironstone) comes from the area around Banbury
and white and bluish grey cornbrash
limestone was quarried in Crockwell and at Caversfield two miles (3 km) to the north.
Early secular buildings were box framed structures, using timber from the Bernwood Forest
on the western slopes of the Chilterns five miles (8 km) east. Infilling of frames was of stud and lath with lime render
and limewash. Others were of brick or local rubble stonework. The river valley
s to the south and east of the town were the source of clay for widespread local production of brick and tile. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Page-Turners had a brick fields in Wretchwick and Blackthorn
and which operated alongside smaller produces such as the farmer George Coppock who produced bricks as a sideline.
Local roofing materials included longstraw thatch, which persisted on older and lower status areas on houses and terraced cottages. Thatch had to be laid at pitches in excess of 50 degrees. This generated narrow and steep gables which also suited heavy limestone
roofs made with Stonesfield slate or other roofing slabs from the Cotswolds
. The other widespread roofing material was local red clay plain tiles. 19th century bulk transport innovations associated with canal and railway infrastructure allowed imports of blue slate from North Wales
. These could be laid at much more shallow pitches on fashionable high status houses.
Apart from imported slate, a striking characteristic of all of the new buildings of the early 19th century is the continued use of local vernacular materials, albeit in buildings of non-vernacular design. The new buildings were constructed alongside older wholly vernacular survivals and, sometimes superficially updated with fashionable applied facades, fenestration
or upper floors and roofs.
in the Vendée
, in the Pays de la Loire
in western France
, Czernichów
in southern Poland
, Neunkirchen-Seelscheid
in North Rhine-Westphalia
in western Germany
. Novi Ligure
in Piedmont
in northern Italy
.
Coker’s Bicester militia had sixty privates, and six commissioned and non-commissioned officers led by Captain Henry Walford. The militia briefly stood down in 1801 after the Treaty of Amiens. But when hostilities resumed after 1804 invasion anxiety was so great as to warrant the reformation of the local militia as the Bicester Independent Company of Infantry. It had double the earlier numbers to provide defence in the event of an invasion or Jacobin insurrection. The Bicester Company was commanded by a captain, with 2 lieutenants, an ensign, 6 sergeants, 6 corporals and 120 privates. Their training and drill were such that they were deemed ‘fit to join troops in the line’. The only action recorded for them is in 1806 at the 21st birthday celebrations of Sir Gregory O Page-Turner when they performed a feu de joie ‘and were afterwards regaled at one of the principal inns of the town’.
During the First World War an airfield was established north of the town for the Royal Flying Corps
. This became a Royal Air Force
station, but is now Bicester Airfield
, the home of Windrushers Gliding Club
, which was absorbed into the military gliding club previous based there, to re-emerge in 2004 when the military club left the airfield. There is now a campaign by the BCH to turn the RAF centre into a museum. They say that it is 'the best example of a historic RAF site in the UK.
The British Army
's largest ordnance depot - the Central Ordnance Depot of the Royal Logistic Corps
- is located just outside the town. The depot has its own internal railway system, the Bicester Military Railway
.
of the 1840s. The Buckinghamshire Railway
completed the railway between and in 1851, opening "a neat station at the bottom of the London road" in 1850 to serve Bicester. The town's first fatal railway accident occurred at this station in September. In 1910 the Great Western Railway
built the Bicester cut-off line through Bicester to complete a new fast route between London and Birmingham, and opened a large station on Buckingham Road to serve Bicester. The GWR station is , and to avoid confusion the Buckinghamshire Railway station is now called . Trains now only go from Bicester Town station to Oxford and do not continue to Bletchley.
Bicester is going to benefit from the Chiltern Evergreen 3 project which allows trains to run from London Marylebone to Oxford via Bicester's 2 stations. Bicester Town Station will be completely rebuilt, Bicester North will be refurbished and the journey between Bicester and Oxford will be 15 minutes, half the current journey time.
Bicester also has local bus services to Oxford
and Banbury
, and is served by long-distance route X5
between Oxford and Cambridge
.
(BCC) and the Cooper School. There are a number of primary schools including: Langford Village Primary; Glory Farm Primary; Southwold; Brookside Primary School; St Edburg's; Five Acres; Longfields; and Bure Park Primary.
The new Kingsmere development (south of Bicester) is due to create a two-form primary school and a secondary school.
South of Bicester beyond Pingle Field is Bicester Village Shopping Centre
. Further towards Oxford is Bicester Avenue
, one of the largest garden centres in the UK.
Churches Together
in Bicester: St. Edburg's Parish Church (Church of England
); Emmanuel Church (Church of England, meeting in Bure Park School); Bicester Community Church (meeting in the Salvation Army Hall); Bicester Methodist Church; The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic); Elim Lighthouse Church (Pentecostal
- meeting in Bicester Methodist church); Orchard Baptist Fellowship (meeting in Cooper School); and The Salvation Army.
Churches independent of Churches Together are: Bicester Baptist Church (meeting in Southwold Community Centre); and Hebron Gospel Hall.
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 northeastern Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
in 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...
.
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
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...
linking it to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 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...
and Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
. It has good road links 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...
, Kidlington
Kidlington
Kidlington is a large village and civil parish between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and southwest of Bicester.-History:...
, 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...
, Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
, Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
and Witney
Witney
Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....
, as well as rail service.
Early history
Bicester has a history going back to Saxon timesHistory of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
. The name Bicester, which has been in use since the mid 17th century, derives from earlier forms including Berncestre, Burencestre, Burcester, Biciter and Bissiter (the John Speed
John Speed
John Speed was an English historian and cartographer.-Life:He was born at Farndon, Cheshire, and went into his father's tailoring business where he worked until he was about 50...
map of 1610 shows four alternative spellings and Miss G. H. Dannatt found 45 variants in wills of the 17th and 18th centuries). Theories advanced for the meaning of the name include "of Beorna" (a personal name), "The Fort of the Warriors" or literally from Latin Bi-cester to mean "The 2 forts". The ruins of the Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
settlement of Alchester
Alchester
Alchester is the Anglo-Saxon and modern name for a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its name in Latin is Ælia Castra. It is located two miles south of Bicester, in the northwest corner of the civil parish of Wendlebury in the English county of Oxfordshire...
are 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town and remains of an Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
priory founded in 1180 survive in the town centre.
The West Saxons established a settlement in the 6th century at a nodal point of a series of ancient routes. A north-south Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
, known as the Stratton (Audley) Road, from Dorchester
Dorchester, Oxfordshire
Dorchester-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thame in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. Despite its name, Dorchester is not on the River Thames, but just above the Thame's confluence with it...
to 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...
, passed through King’s End. Akeman Street
Akeman Street
Akeman Street was a major Roman road in England that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way. Its junction with Watling Steet was just north of Verulamium and that with the Fosse Way was at Corinium Dobunnorum...
, an east-west Roman road from Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
to St. Albans lies 2 miles (3.2 km) south, next to the Roman fortress and town at Alchester.
The church at Bicester was founded as a minster perhaps in the mid seventh century after St. Birinus
Birinus
Birinus , venerated as a saint, was the first Bishop of Dorchester, and the "Apostle to the West Saxons".-Life and ministry:After Augustine of Canterbury performed initial conversions in England, Birinus, a Frank, came to the kingdoms of Wessex in 634, landing at the port of "Hamwic", now in the...
converted Cynegils King of the West Saxons after their meeting near Blewbury
Blewbury
Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs about south of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Prehistory:...
. The site was just east of the old Roman road between Dorchester and Towcester that passed through the former Roman town at Alchester. The earliest church was probably a timber structure serving the inhabitants of the growing Saxon settlements on each side of the River Bure
River Bure
The River Bure is a river in the county of Norfolk, England, most of it in The Broads. The Bure rises near Melton Constable, upstream of Aylsham, which was the original head of navigation. Nowadays, the head of navigation is downstream at Coltishall Bridge...
, and as a mission centre for the surrounding countryside. Archaeological excavations at Procter’s Yard identified the ecclesiastical enclosure boundary, and a large cemetery of Saxon graves suggesting a much larger churchyard have been excavated on the site of the Catholic Church car park.
The first documentary reference is the Domesday Book
Domesday 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...
of 1086 which records it as Berencestra, its two manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Bicester and Wretchwick being held by Robert D'Oyly
Robert D'Oyly
Robert D'Oyly was a Norman nobleman who accompanied William the Conqueror on the Norman Conquest, his invasion of England. He died in 1091.-Background:Robert was the son of Walter D'Oyly and elder brother to Nigel D'Oyly...
who built Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle situated on the west edge of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced with stone in the 11th century and played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy...
. The town became established as twin settlements on opposite banks of the River Bure, a tributary of the Ray
River Ray
The River Ray is a river in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England. It rises at Quainton Hill and flows west through a flat countryside for around 25 km or 15 miles. It passes the village of Ambrosden and then flows through Otmoor...
, 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...
and ultimately the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
.
By the end of the 13th century Bicester was the centre of a deanery
Deanery
A Deanery is an ecclesiastical entity in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a Dean.- Catholic usage :...
of 33 churches. It is unclear when the church was rebuilt in stone, but the 12th century church seems to have had an aisleless cruciform plan. Earliest surviving material includes parts of the nave north wall including parts of an originally external zigzag string course, the north and south transepts and the external clasping buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es of the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
. The triangular-headed opening at the end of the north wall of the nave was probably an external door of the early church. Three great round-headed arches at the end of the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
mark the position of a 13th century tower.
The Augustinian Priory was founded by Gilbert Bassett around 1183 and endowed with land and buildings around the town and in other parishes including 180 acres (72.8 ha) and the quarry at Kirtlington, 300 acres (121.4 ha) at Wretchwick (now called), 135 acres (54.6 ha) at Stratton Audley, and on Gravenhill and Arncott. It also held the mill at Clifton and had farms let to tenants at Deddington, Grimsbury, Waddesdon and Fringford. Although these holdings were extensive and close to the market at Bicester, they appear to have been poorly managed and did not produce much income for the Priory.
The priory appropriated the church in the early 13th century. The church was enlarged by a south aisle, and arches were formed in the nave and south transept walls linking the new aisle to the main body of the church.
A further extension was made in the 14th century when the north aisle was built. The arched openings in the north wall of the nave are supported on thick octagonal columns. The Perpendicular Gothic north chapel (now vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
) is of a similar date, on the east wall are two windows. The chapel originally had an upper chamber used later for the vicars’ grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, accessed from an external staircase which forms part of the north eastern buttress.
In the 15th century the upper walls of the nave were raised to form a clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
with square-headed Perpendicular Gothic windows. The earlier central tower and its nave arch was taken down and the nave roof rebuilt, (the present roof is a copy of 1803). The columns of the north arcade were undercut making them appear very slim and the capitals top heavy. In the east bay of the nave, there is carved decoration probably forming part of a canopied tomb originally set between the columns. The west tower was built in three stages, each stage marked by a horizontal string course running round the outside. The construction would have taken several years to complete. The battlements and crockets on the top of the tower where replaced in the mid nineteenth century.
The priory church was built around 1200, and enlarged around 1300 in association with the construction of the Purbeck marble
Purbeck Marble
Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarried in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England.It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods....
tomb of St. Eadburh. This may have been the gift of the priory’s patron Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln was a confidant of Edward I of England.In 1272 on reaching the age of majority he became Earl of Lincoln...
. The walled rectangular enclosure of the Priory lay just south of the church. The gatehouse was on the site of ‘Chapter and Verse’ Guesthouse in Church Lane. The Library, dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
and houses in Old Place Yard lie within the central precinct. St Edburg’s House is built partly over the site of the large priory church. This was linked by a cloister to a quadrangle containing the refectory, kitchens, dormitory and Prior’s lodging. The priory farm buildings lay in the area of the present Church Hall, and these had direct access along Piggy Lane to land in what is now the King’s End Estate.
Early charters promoted Bicester's development as a trading centre, with a market and fair established by the mid 13th century. By this time two further manors are mentioned, Bury End and Nuns Place, later known as Market End and King's End respectively.
Later history
The Lord of the ManorLord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Market End was the Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end of the reign of Henry III and died in 1279...
who in 1597 sold a 9,999 year lease to 31 principal tenants. This in effect gave the manorial rights to the leaseholders, ‘purchased for the benefit of those inhabitants or others who might hereafter obtain parts of the demesne’. The leaseholders elected a bailiff to receive the profits from the bailiwick
Bailiwick
A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
, mainly from the administration of the market and distribute them to the shareholders. From the bailiff’s title the arrangement became known as the Bailiwick of Bicester Market End. By 1752 all of the original leases were in the hands of ten men, who leased the bailiwick control of the market to two local tradesmen.
A fire in 1724 had destroyed the buildings on the eastern side of Water Lane. A Nonconformist congregation was able to acquire a site that had formerly been the tail of a long plot occupied at the other end by the King’s Arms. Their chapel built in 1728 was ‘surrounded by a burying ground and ornamented with trees. At the southern and downstream end of Water Lane, there were problems of pollution from animal dung from livery stables on the edge of town associated with the London traffic.
Edward Hemins was running a bell-foundry
Bellfounding
Bellfounding is the casting of bells in a foundry for use in churches, clocks, and public buildings. A practitioner of the craft is called a bellmaker or bellfounder. The process in Europe dates to the 4th or 5th century. In early times, when a town produced a bell it was a momentous occasion in...
in Bicester by 1728 and remained in business until at least 1743. Churches at Ambrosden, Bletchingdon and Wootton in Oxfordshire and Culworth in 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,...
are among those whose ring
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
of bells still includes one or more cast by Hemins.
King’s End had a substantially lower population and none of the commercial bustle found on the other side of the Bure. The manorial lords, the Cokers, lived in the manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
since 1584. The house had been rebuilt in the early 18th century remodelled in the 1780s. The park was enlarged surrounded by a wall after 1753 when a range of buildings on the north side of King’s End Green were demolished by Coker. A westward enlargement of the park also extinguished the road which followed the line of the Roman route. This partly overlapped a pre 1753 close belonging to Coker. The effect of the enlargement of the park was to divert traffic at the Fox Inn through King’s End, across the causeway to Market Square and Sheep Street before returning to the Roman road north of Crockwell.
By 1800, the causeway had dense development forming continuous frontages on both sides. The partially buried watercourses provided a convenient drainage opportunity, and many houses had privies discharging directly into the channels. Downstream, the Bure ran parallel with Water Lane, then the main road out of town towards London. Terraces of cottages were built backing onto the stream, and here too these too took advantage of the steam for sewage disposal, with privies cantilevered out from houses over the watercourse. Town houses took their water from wells dug into the substrate which became increasingly polluted by leaching of waste through the alluvial bed of the Bure.
Until the early 19th century the road from the market place to King's End ran through a ford of the Bure stream and on to the narrow embanked road across the boggy valley. The causeway became the focus for development from the late 18th century as rubbish and debris was dumped on each side of the road to form building platforms, minor channels of the braded stream were encased and culverted as construction proceeded.
Architecture
The vernacularVernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
buildings of the town have features of both the Cotswold
Cotswold
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in central England that give their name to:*Cotswold *Cotswold *Cotswold Chase, a horse race*Cotswold Games, annual games in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire...
dip slope to the northwest and the Thames Valley
Thames Valley
The Thames Valley Region is a loose term for the English counties and towns roughly following the course of the River Thames as it flows from Oxfordshire in the west to London in the east. It includes parts of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire, Surrey and west London...
to the southeast. The earliest surviving buildings of the town are the medieval church of St. Edburg
Edburga of Bicester
Eadburh of Bicester was an English saint from the 7th century. A daughter of King Penda of Mercia, Edburga was a nun for most of her life....
; the vicarage of 1500 and two post Dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
houses in the former Priory Precinct constructed from reused mediaeval material. These buildings are mainly grey oolitic limestone, from the Priory Quarry at Kirtlington
Kirtlington
Kirtlington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about west of Bicester.-Archaeology:The Portway is a pre-Roman road running parallel with the River Cherwell on high ground about east of the river. It bisects Kirtlington parish and passes through the village. A short stretch of it is now...
, five miles (8 km) west on Akeman Street, some ginger lias (ironstone) comes from the area around Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
and white and bluish grey cornbrash
Cornbrash
In geology, Cornbrash was the name applied to the uppermost member of the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic formation in England. It is an old English agricultural name applied in Wiltshire to a variety of loose rubble or brash which, in that part of the country, forms a good soil for growing corn...
limestone was quarried in Crockwell and at Caversfield two miles (3 km) to the north.
Early secular buildings were box framed structures, using timber from the Bernwood Forest
Bernwood Forest
Bernwood was one of several forests of the ancient kingdom of England and was a Royal hunting forest. It is thought to have been set aside as Royal hunting land when the Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at Brill in the 10th century and was a particularly favoured place of Edward the Confessor, who...
on the western slopes of the Chilterns five miles (8 km) east. Infilling of frames was of stud and lath with lime render
Lime Render
Lime render is a lime-based cementitious mix applied to the external surfaces of traditionally-built stone buildings. It allows the building to 'breathe' - as lime is porous, it allows for the collection and evaporation of moisture...
and limewash. Others were of brick or local rubble stonework. The river valley
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
s to the south and east of the town were the source of clay for widespread local production of brick and tile. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Page-Turners had a brick fields in Wretchwick and Blackthorn
Blackthorn, Oxfordshire
Blackthorn is a village and civil parish in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire about southeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded by the River Ray to the south, tributaries of the Ray to the east and north and field boundaries to the west...
and which operated alongside smaller produces such as the farmer George Coppock who produced bricks as a sideline.
Local roofing materials included longstraw thatch, which persisted on older and lower status areas on houses and terraced cottages. Thatch had to be laid at pitches in excess of 50 degrees. This generated narrow and steep gables which also suited heavy limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
roofs made with Stonesfield slate or other roofing slabs from the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
. The other widespread roofing material was local red clay plain tiles. 19th century bulk transport innovations associated with canal and railway infrastructure allowed imports of blue slate from North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. These could be laid at much more shallow pitches on fashionable high status houses.
Apart from imported slate, a striking characteristic of all of the new buildings of the early 19th century is the continued use of local vernacular materials, albeit in buildings of non-vernacular design. The new buildings were constructed alongside older wholly vernacular survivals and, sometimes superficially updated with fashionable applied facades, fenestration
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
or upper floors and roofs.
Modern-day Bicester
Twinning
Bicester is twinned with: Canton des EssartsLes Essarts, Vendée
Les Essarts is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.- Geography :...
in the Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
, in the Pays de la Loire
Pays de la Loire
Pays de la Loire is one of the 27 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" ¹...
in western France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Czernichów
Czernichów, Silesian Voivodeship
Czernichów is a village in Żywiec County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Czernichów. It lies approximately north of Żywiec and south of the regional capital Katowice....
in southern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Neunkirchen-Seelscheid
Neunkirchen-Seelscheid
Neunkirchen-Seelscheid is a municipality in the Rhein-Sieg district in the southern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Beside the two principal places Neunkirchen and Seelscheid there are numerous smaller localities among the municipality....
in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
in western Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Novi Ligure
Novi Ligure
Novi Ligure is a town and comune north of Genoa, in the Piedmont region of the province of Alessandria of northwest Italy.The town produces food, iron, steel, and textiles. It is an important junction for both road and railroad....
in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Military links
The town has a long-standing connection with the military. Ward Lock & Co's 'Guide to Oxford and District' suggests that Alchester was 'a kind of Roman Aldershot'. During the Civil War (1642–49) Bicester was used as the headquarters of parliamentary forces. Following the outbreak of the French Wars from 1793, John Coker, the manorial lord of Bicester King’s End, formed an ‘Association for the Protection of Property against Levellers and Jacobins’ as an anti-Painite loyalist band providing local militia and volunteer drafts for the army. When Oxford University formed a regiment in 1798, John Coker was elected Colonel.Coker’s Bicester militia had sixty privates, and six commissioned and non-commissioned officers led by Captain Henry Walford. The militia briefly stood down in 1801 after the Treaty of Amiens. But when hostilities resumed after 1804 invasion anxiety was so great as to warrant the reformation of the local militia as the Bicester Independent Company of Infantry. It had double the earlier numbers to provide defence in the event of an invasion or Jacobin insurrection. The Bicester Company was commanded by a captain, with 2 lieutenants, an ensign, 6 sergeants, 6 corporals and 120 privates. Their training and drill were such that they were deemed ‘fit to join troops in the line’. The only action recorded for them is in 1806 at the 21st birthday celebrations of Sir Gregory O Page-Turner when they performed a feu de joie ‘and were afterwards regaled at one of the principal inns of the town’.
During the First World War an airfield was established north of the town for the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
. This became a Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
station, but is now Bicester Airfield
Bicester Airfield
Bicester Aerodrome, formerly RAF Bicester, is an airfield on the outskirts of the English town of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The RAF left in 2004....
, the home of Windrushers Gliding Club
Windrushers Gliding Club
Windrushers Gliding Club is a gliding club flying from Bicester Airfield, where it moved to from Little Rissington in 1956, later merging with the Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association....
, which was absorbed into the military gliding club previous based there, to re-emerge in 2004 when the military club left the airfield. There is now a campaign by the BCH to turn the RAF centre into a museum. They say that it is 'the best example of a historic RAF site in the UK.
The British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
's largest ordnance depot - the Central Ordnance Depot of the Royal Logistic Corps
Royal Logistic Corps
The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army, comprising around 17% of its strength...
- is located just outside the town. The depot has its own internal railway system, the Bicester Military Railway
Bicester Military Railway
The Bicester Military Railway is a railway in Oxfordshire, England belonging to the Ministry of Defence. It links military depots at Piddington, Arncott and Graven Hill with the Oxford to Bicester Line.The line has no road bridges...
.
Transport
Bicester benefited from the Railway ManiaRailway Mania
The Railway Mania was an instance of speculative frenzy in Britain in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, more and more money was poured in by speculators, until the inevitable collapse...
of the 1840s. The Buckinghamshire Railway
Buckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
completed the railway between and in 1851, opening "a neat station at the bottom of the London road" in 1850 to serve Bicester. The town's first fatal railway accident occurred at this station in September. In 1910 the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
built the Bicester cut-off line through Bicester to complete a new fast route between London and Birmingham, and opened a large station on Buckingham Road to serve Bicester. The GWR station is , and to avoid confusion the Buckinghamshire Railway station is now called . Trains now only go from Bicester Town station to Oxford and do not continue to Bletchley.
Bicester is going to benefit from the Chiltern Evergreen 3 project which allows trains to run from London Marylebone to Oxford via Bicester's 2 stations. Bicester Town Station will be completely rebuilt, Bicester North will be refurbished and the journey between Bicester and Oxford will be 15 minutes, half the current journey time.
- Chiltern RailwaysChiltern RailwaysChiltern 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...
trains between and call at Bicester North. - Chiltern also now run the Bicester LinkOxford to Bicester LineThe Oxford to Bicester Line is a branch line linking Oxford and Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.-History:The line was opened in 1850 as part of the Buckinghamshire Railway, which in 1879 became part of the London and North Western Railway...
trains to and from Oxford via terminate at Bicester Town.
Bicester also has local bus services 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...
and Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
, and is served by long-distance route X5
Stagecoach bus route X5
Stagecoach bus route X5 is an inter-urban bus service linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Buckingham, Milton Keynes, Bedford and St Neots. The route started in 1995 with an hourly service which was increased to half-hourly in 2005 and new vehicles were introduced in 2009. It has since won...
between Oxford and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
Town Council
- Bicester Town Council has its offices in The Garth within the picturesque and award winning Garth Park grounds.
Residents Associations
Bicester boasts a number of very active residents' associations including: Bure Park Residents' Association; Langford Village Community Association; and Bicester Parkland View Residents' Association.Schools
Bicester has two secondary schools: Bicester Community CollegeBicester Community College
Bicester Community College is a mixed, multi-heritage, comprehensive school, with around 1200 students and has been a Government-designated specialist Technology College since 1998...
(BCC) and the Cooper School. There are a number of primary schools including: Langford Village Primary; Glory Farm Primary; Southwold; Brookside Primary School; St Edburg's; Five Acres; Longfields; and Bure Park Primary.
The new Kingsmere development (south of Bicester) is due to create a two-form primary school and a secondary school.
Shopping
The historic shopping streets, particularly Sheep Street and Market Square, have a wide range of local and national shops together with cafés, pubs and restaurants. Sheep Street is now pedestrianised with car parks nearby. Weekly markets take place on Fridays in the town centre along with farmers' markets and an occasional French market. A £70 million re-development of the town centre, originally planned to start in 2008, had been delayed by the onset of the credit crunch; Sainsbury's pledged develop the project itself in January 2009. Development (phase one) to divert the river to the other side of the road started August 2010. Once the redevelopment is complete, Bicester will have a cinema, civic centre, a new Sainsbury's store and a brighter shopping area. There are also talks of improving the Market Square at a later date.South of Bicester beyond Pingle Field is Bicester Village Shopping Centre
Bicester Village Shopping Centre
Bicester Village Shopping Centre is a designer outlet centre in Bicester in the English county of Oxfordshire, for several high-end brands, including Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Charles Tyrwhitt, Aquascutum, Gieves & Hawkes, Gucci, Dior, Bally and Prada, as well as housing a small...
. Further towards Oxford is Bicester Avenue
Bicester Avenue
Bicester Avenue Home and Garden Centre is a shopping centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire that opened in May 2007 . Some of the stores at Bicester Avenue include Wyevale, Hobbycraft, Lakeland and Cotswold Outdoor...
, one of the largest garden centres in the UK.
Churches
Most churches in Bicester belong to the ecumenical organisationEcumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
Churches Together
Churches Together in England
Churches Together in England is an ecumenical organisation and the national instrument for the Christian church in England. It helps the different Churches to work together instead of separately so that they can be more effective and credible...
in Bicester: St. Edburg's Parish Church (Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
); Emmanuel Church (Church of England, meeting in Bure Park School); Bicester Community Church (meeting in the Salvation Army Hall); Bicester Methodist Church; The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic); Elim Lighthouse Church (Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
- meeting in Bicester Methodist church); Orchard Baptist Fellowship (meeting in Cooper School); and The Salvation Army.
Churches independent of Churches Together are: Bicester Baptist Church (meeting in Southwold Community Centre); and Hebron Gospel Hall.
Closest cities, towns and villages
External links
- Bicester and District Twinning Association
- Bicester's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations
- Bicester Town Council
- Bure Park Residents' Association
- Langford Village Community Association
- Bicester Parkland View Residents' Association
- Langford Village Primary School
- Glory Farm Primary School
- Brookside Primary School
- St Edburg's Primary School
- Five Acres Primary School
- Longfields Primary School
- Bure Park Primary School
- Kingsmere
- St. Edburg's Parish Church
- Emmanuel Church
- Bicester Community Church
- Bicester Methodist Church
- The Church of the Immaculate Conception
- Elim Lighthouse Church
- Orchard Baptist Fellowship
- The Salvation Army
- Bicester Baptist Church
- Hebron Gospel Hall