VCH Oxfordshire Publications

This introductory volume, edited by L. F. Salzman, was published in 1939. It contains the following entries:

Parts of the text are available on British History Online, excluding Geology, Botany, Zoology and the Domesday Index. Buy the book here

This volume, edited by William Page, was published in 1907. It contains a history of the medieval Religious Houses in the county, which are all available on British History Online.

The volume also contains the following entries:

The full text is available via British History Online and is available to buy here.

This volume, published in 1954, was edited by H.E. Salter and Mary D. Lobel. It contains the following entries relating to the University of Oxford:

The University of Oxford
The Grammar Schools of the Medieval University
The Buildings of the University
The Colleges and Halls

The full text is available at British History Online and is available to buy here.

Published in 1979, this volume was edited by Alan Crossley. It focuses on the city of Oxford and features entries on:

The City of Oxford: Introduction
Medieval Oxford
Early Modern Oxford
Modern Oxford
Boundaries
Outlying Parts of the Liberty
Communications
Castle
City Walls, Gates, and Posterns
The King's Houses
Markets and Fairs
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This volume was edited by Mary D. Lobel and published in 1957. It covers the 26 parishes of Bullingdon Hundred including Cowley, Cuddesdon and Iffley.

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This volume was published in 1959 and edited by Mary D. Lobel. It covers the parishes of Ploughley Hundred, as well as the town of Bicester.

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Published in 1962, this volume was edited by Mary D. Lobel. It covers the parishes of Dorchester Hundred and Thame Hundred, in the southern part of the county, as well as giving accounts of the towns of Dorchester-on-Thames and Thame.

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This volume was edited by Mar D. Lobel and published in 1964. It features accounts of the parishes in Lewknor Hundred and Pyrton Hundred in the east of the county, bordering Buckinghamshire.

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This volume was edited by Mary D. Lobel and Alan Crossley. It was published in 1969 and covers the parishes of Bloxham Hundred in the far north of the county.

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This volume was published in 1972 and edited by Alan Crossley. The authors included Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, N.H. Cooper, P.D.A Harvey, Marjory Hollings, Judith Hook, Mary Jessup, Mary D. Lobel, J.F.A Mason, Barry S. Trinder and Hilary . covers the ten parishes of Banbury Hundred, as well as the town of Banbury.

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Published in 1983, this volume was edited by Alan Crossley with contributions from A.P. Baggs, Christina Colvin, H.M. Colvin, Janet Cooper, C.J Day, Nesta Selwyn and A. Tomkinson. It contains accounts of the 19 parishes in the northern part of Wootton Hundred including Glympton, Heythrop, Rousham, Sandford St. Martin, the Astons, the Bartons, the Wortons, and the three Tews.

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Volume 12 – This volume was published in 1990 and was edited by Alan Crossley with contributions from A.P. Baggs, W.J. Blair, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, C.J. Day, Nesta Selwyn and Simon Townley. It contains accounts of the parishes in the southern part of Wootton Hundred, including the borough of Woodstock.

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This volume was published in 1996 and was edited by Alan Crossley with contributions from A.P. Baggs, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, C.J. Day, Nesta Selwyn and Simon Townley. It covers the area of the sixteen ancient parishes of Bampton hundred, in the west of the county, bordering onto Gloucestershire to the west and Berkshire to the south.

This volume contains the histories of five ancient parishes in the west of Oxfordshire near the river Thames, comprising the small town of Bampton and some 13 villages and hamlets. Though chiefly looking to markets at Witney and Oxford the area was long dominated by Bampton, the centre of a large Anglo-Saxon estate, site of a late Anglo-Saxon minster, and formerly a market town. A detailed account is given of the town's topography, buildings, and economic developments and the organization of the local landscape from an early date is explored. Most villages were nucleated, and despite some controversial early inclosures, notably at Northmoor, open-field farming prevailed until the 19th century. A few scattered hamlets and farmsteads resulted probably from woodland clearance or late colonisation, and several settlements were shrunk or deserted in the late Middle Ages. Standlake had a medieval market and fair, and until the late 17th century there was textile and leather working notably at Standlake and Bampton. Important buildings include the former Bampton castle, the 15th-century timber-framed manor house at Yelford, and Cokethorpe House. Bampton church is of unusual size and quality, and carvings in Ducklington church may be associated with a late medieval cult of the Virgin. Cote was an important centre of religious nonconformity from the 17th century.

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Published in 2004, this volume was edited by Simon Townley with contributions from A.P. Baggs, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Nicholas Cooper, Alan Crossley, Christopher Day, Nesta Selwyn, Elizabeth Williamson and Margaret Yates.

This volume comprises a history of the large west Oxfordshire town of Witney and its rural townships of Crawley, Curbridge, and Hailey, an area of over 7,000 acres derived from a large, pre-Conquest estate. Witney, probably the site estate centre, was redesigned as a planned `new town' in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century; from the seventeenth century it was widely known for its blanket industry, and became a centre of religious non-conformity. The town's origins, buildings, and physical development are fully discussed, together with its economic, social and religious history. The Windrush valley is also covered - an area of scattered woodland settlements and nucleated villages with open fields; early inclosure was probably in connection with the wool trade and Witney's cloth industry. Important sites discussed include the medieval Witney park, Caswell House, near the site of a deserted medieval settlement, and the bishop of Winchester's recently excavated `palace' at Witney.

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This volume was edited by Simon Townley and published in 2006, with contributions from Christina Colvin, Carol Cragoe, Veronica Ortenberg, Robert Peberdy, Nesta Selwyn and Elizabeth Williamson/ It covers Carterton, Minster Lovell, and environs, totalling eight rural parishes in west Oxfordshire, between Burford and Witney.

This volume is devoted to eight parishes between the market towns of Burford and Witney in the west of the county. The area is predominantly rural, the only urban centre being Carterton. Founded in 1900 as a colony of smallholders, it became one of the county's fastest growing towns after the Second World War due to its proximity to Brize Norton's military airbase.

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This volume was published in 2011 and edited by Simon Townley.

Focused on the south-west Chilterns, this volume looks at the riverside market town of Henley-on-Thames, now famous for its annual Royal Regatta, and at the four neighbouring parishes of Bix, Harpsden, Rotherfield Greys and Rotherfield Peppard.
Henley began as a planned town, probably in the late twelfth century, and became a major inland port, funnelling grain, wood and (later) malt into London. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it developed as a coaching centre, and from the nineteenth flourished as a fashionable resort and commuting area, following the belated arrival of the railway and the self-conscious promotion of the Regatta. The adjoining parishes stretch from the river to the Chilterns uplands, comprising a mixed landscape of wood pasture, small hedged closes, and (in the Middle Ages) small open fields. Settlement is characteristically dispersed, and as elsewhere in the Chilterns the balance between crops, grazing and wood exploitation varied over time. The area contains deserted or shrunken settlements, including Bolney and the newly-discovered site of Bix Gibwyn church; its important buildings include Greys Court, established probably in the eleventh century, while Henley itself contains a richness of eighteenth-century brick-built houses alongside medieval timber-framing, several examples of which have recently been dated by dendrochronology.

It covers Henley-on-Thames parish and borough, and the parishes of Bix, Harpsden, Rotherfield Greys and Rotherfield Peppard.

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Published in 2012, this volume was edited by Simon Townley. It covers the parishes of Broadwell, Broughton Poggs and Langford in west Oxfordshire.

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This volume was edited by Simon Townley and published in 2016. It covers the 14 parishes of Benson, Ewelme and the Chilterns that make up Ewelme Hundred in south-east Oxfordshire.

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This volume was edited by Simon Townley, with contributions from Simon Draper and Mark Page and was published in 2019. It contains accounts of the parishes within Wychwood Forest and Environs.

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Edited by Simon Townley and published in February 2022, this volume covers a dozen parishes Chiltern parishes including Goring and Caversham.

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Written by Antonia Catchpole and Robert Peberdy, the book was published in 2008.

Nestling in the Windrush Valley at the 'Gateway to the Cotswolds,' the small west Oxfordshire town of Burford is well known for its picturesque qualities. Its streets, set against the backdrop of a spectacular medieval church, display a rich variety of stone and timber-framed buildings, which together lend much of its charm. This book is about the creation of the town we see today: its buildings, its townscape and the people who, over the centuries, have lived in and helped shape it. Chronological chapters set Burford in context, looking at its creation by medieval planners, its role in the Cotswold wool trade, and its later history as a small market and (briefly) coaching town. Chapters on the buildings explore not only their construction and materials, but their changing uses over time, re-populating them with the people who built, used and lived in them. Grand houses, humble cottages and shops or workshops are all included, while two chapters are devoted to the church and the other religious buildings. A house-by-house gazetteer summarises the history of every building along the main street, which visitors can use to help explore the town. The book draws on extensive fieldwork and documentary research over several years, much of it carried out with the help of volunteers. Most of the buildings have never been studied in such depth, and several have been scientifically tree-ring dated for the first time. The book will allow visitors, residents and specialists alike to see the town with new eyes, casting fresh light on its origins and growth, on its built character, and on the lives of its inhabitants.

Town and River: A History of Henley-on-Thames

Written by Simon Townley, the book was published in 2009.

Set amidst the rolling tree-covered slopes of the south-west Chilterns at a picturesque bend in the river, Henley-on-Thames is best known for its attractive timber and brick buildings, its graceful 18th-century bridge, and its annual Regatta, established in 1839. The Regatta reflected Henley's 19th-century emergence as an inland resort and fashionable social centre. But the town's relationship with the river and the surrounding Chilterns landscape is much older and much more varied. This book traces the history of the town and river over time, from Henley's origins as a planned medieval market town and inland port shipping grain to London, through to its 18th-century development as a coaching centre and its present-day role as a small service, tourist and commuting town. Ordinary townspeople and river-workers feature prominently, alongside merchants, landowners, and prosperous incomers. Separate chapters summarise the development of the Thames river trade, and the town's striking buildings are fully discussed and set in context. The book draws on extensive research over several years, some of it carried out with the help of volunteers and local groups. Its broad perspective casts new light on the town and its relationship with the river, allowing visitors, residents and specialists to view it with new eyes.