Oxfordshire, History, Bampton Hundred, Witney, Economic history, Local government, Parish churches, Church life, Roman Catholicism, Protestant nonconformity, Education, Charities, Poor, Architecture, Buildings, Manor House, Bishop's palace 

The Victoria History of the Counties of England 

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, late Anglo-Saxon estate. Witney, probably the site of the Anglo-Saxon 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 siteof a deserted medieval settlement, and the bishop of Winchester's recently excavated `palace' at Witney.