Edge Hill: The Battle and Battlefield; With Notes on Banbury & Thereabout

The Borough Arms: The Sun in glory or’ and on a mount vert. A lily argent in pare the letters B.A.

Manufactures: Agricultural implements and machinery, patent files, patent boxes, and cabinet goods; linen garments; cloth; cakes; ale and beer; horse girths; patent gates.

Geology: Lower town, Middle Lias clays and thin limestones; Middle town, Middle Lias seleniferous marls and thin limestones; High town, Middle Lias rock (ironstone); Crouch Hill and Constitution Hill, capped with thick Upper Lias clays and Inferior Oolite limestones and sand.

Banbury Cross.—A fine hexagonal Gothic structure, fifty feet in height, was erected from the designs of the architect, Mr. John Gibbs, in 1859, in commemoration of the marriage of the Princess Royal with Prince Frederick William of Prussia. On the buttresses of the lower stage are painted the municipal seals of old Banbury. Between the buttresses are pedestals intended to receive statues. Statues of the late Queen, Oliver Cromwell, and Whateley would complete the beauty of the structure if accompanied by the removal of the palisading. The upper panels are enriched with conventional ornaments of vine, ivy, rose, and other flowers, and bear the arms or cyphers of Queens Mary and Victoria, Kings Charles I. and George I., the Princess William of Prussia, the Earls of Banbury and Guildford, Viscount Saye and Sele, Sir William Cope, Sir William Compton, the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Rev. W. Whateley. The celebrated old Cross is believed to have stood near the site of the present one, and was destroyed about the year 1602, at which time it went ill with the other Crosses which formerly adorned the town, owing to excesses of religious zeal. The High Cross mentioned in King Ed. VI.’s reign is probably the same as The Bread Cross repaired in 1563, on the site of which the present Cross is supposed to be. Of the White Cross “outside Sugarford” (West) Bar and of the Market Cross no more can be said. From a passage in Leland’s Itinerary, it appears that the Cross was of some note, and from the old nursery rhyme, “Ride a cock-horse,” &c., if from no more veracious record, it seems that it was honoured by an occasional pageant.

The Parish Church (St. Mary’s).—The old church, of which there is abundant record in engravings and contemporary drawings, stood on the ground where now is the new church. Of fine proportions and good style, its destruction (1790) appears to have been an ill-judged measure. It had a massive west tower, embattled and crowned by eight ornamented pinnacles and a series of beautiful windows on the south and south-east sides. Its chantry of St. Mary was founded in 1413, and there was another chapel dedicated to honour the resurrection of our Lord. Records remain of the armorial glass, nearly all of which was destroyed during the time of the siege of Banbury Castle, when the church was used as a vantage point. There were sixty coats of arms. The church was said to be the burying place of Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, its founder, also of William Pope, cofferer to Henry VII., and of Captayn Wm. Danvers who died “in the service of God and the King” in 1643. Mr. Arden’s list of the Vicars of Banbury gives the date of death of Vicar Roger as 1278. Many of the remains of the old fabric are in use as ornaments in Banbury gardens.

Erected about 1797, the present church stands in architecture far away from the taste of the time. It is nevertheless a bold and good design by Cockerill of domestic Doric style. Betwixt its beginning and its completion so many years intervened as to give birth to the rhyme:

“Proud Banbury, poor people,Built a church without a steeple.”

The portico with its semicircle of plain columns and the circular tower, 133 feet high, with its ornamental quartrefoiling and the balconied alleis are not without massive beauty of their own. The bareness and heavy structure of the body are compensated for by the beauty of the interior decoration, which is of the best of the mural work of the kingdom. The galleries and dome are supported by twelve graceful Ionic pillars, arranged in an octagonal figure. The chancel has been re-built in unison with the original design, and the apse is worked in colour in three divisions representing the twelve apostles with trees of scripture in the background. The ceiling illustrates the enthronement of Christ (Rev. iv.) On the wall, at the east of the nave, are inscribed the tables of the commandments. A band of gold encircles the dome, bearing the text, “The Lord is in His holy temple,” &c. The painted windows are good examples of modern work; one in the north-west gallery is in memory of the explorer, Admiral Sir G. Back, uncle of the late vicar, and represents arctic scenes and figures. The work was carried out at the cost of and during the office of the late vicar, the Rev. H. Back, aided by Miss Wyatt and others. The decorators were Messrs. Heaton, Butler and Baines. There is also a richly inlaid marble font, and pulpit. At the time of the Victorian Jubilee the peal of eight bells was overhauled, and new chimes with shifts for three weeks added to the clock tower. Beesley gives four of the bells as having been made by the Bagleys’ of Chacombe, where they had a well known 17th century bell foundry. The eighth bell bears the inscription:

“I ring to Sermon with a lusty boomeThat all may come and none may stay at home.”

The Vicarage House, dated 1649, stands against the south-west corner of the churchyard, and is a handsome specimen of the domestic architecture of the period. The gabled front, window mullions and porch remain of the old work, and also the hall and front rooms. The room over the porch, used as a private chapel, seems to be of its old service. Very carefully has the interior ornamentation been carried out, of which the cornice of music staves of the front room is an instance.

Old Houses.—The gabled houses on the north side of the High Street, and on the south and west sides of the Market Place, are good examples of domestic architecture of late Tudor or early Stuart times. An old sun-dial, bearing the motto “Aspice et abi,” is attached to the front of the High Street houses. The barge boards and pargeting of the front and the good casemated windows of the west side remain, but the roof has been stripped of its Stonesfield slate, and the finials are badly restored. Also worth notice is the front of No. 11 Market Place, and the old jail, No. 3 (1646), though the lower stage has been cut away. Orchard House, Neithrop, the front of which it is said was protected by woolsacks during the siege of Banbury Castle, stands on a mound away from the road side. It bears the appearance of a manor house, as it probably was, and it has a massive oak stair-way. The Woodlands, Horse Fair, has a handsome garden front; it was formerly an inn. The Woodlands, as well as the school house near by, now Banbury Academy (and here Dean Swift commenced his Gulliver’s Travels, taking the title of Gulliver from the name on a tomb in the churchyard opposite), are typical houses of the time. A beautifully carved oak cornice remains in the north-west room of house No. 47 North Bar, Mrs. J. Bolton’s.

Calthorpe House.—The Calthorpe Manor of old time is now sadly diminished, its fish pond drained and its park a building ground. The north-west part of the house is in use as a wool warehouse, but yet the east front, now Calthorpe House School, stands in good order with stone porch, and armorial shield of the Hawtayne’s, and a good oriel window above bearing the arms in stained glass of the Brancestre (1545) and Danvers’ families. The inscriptions thereon are “Danvers Matched D’Oyley,” “Danvers long time owned Calthropp,” etc. The house, one of the religious houses of early date and probably part of the hospice of St. John, was linked with the early history of the town. Beesley and Macnamara speak of its associations with the Brancestre family in the time of Richard II. (1378), and later with that of Danvers. The former granted lands to the master of St. John, thus implying a religious holding. By its reconstruction in Queen Elizabeth’s days we know the reformation had swept away its religious order, and the fine oriel window is of that date. It is said that Nonconformity was preached for the first time in Banbury in the oriel room.

Old Inns.—The Reindeer, in Parson’s Street, is probably older than any of the houses before mentioned; the wooden gates are dated 1570, and have inscribed on them the names Iohn Knight, Ihone Knight, David Horne. The richly moulded ceiling and the fine panelling of the principal room, known as the Globe Room, are of the style of the Italian renaissance, and above the window is an inscription of the date 1570. The Unicorn Inn, in the Market Place, and the adjoining house, at one time no doubt part of the inn, belong to a later period; the massive wooden gates are carved with the date 1648. The Old George (1614) seems to have formerly borne the name of The George and Altarstone, from a supposed Roman altar dug up on the site of the inn, and formerly exhibited in one of the rooms.

The Bars.—The entrances to the town were formerly crossed by gates, or bars, five in number. The North Bar, from which the present street is named, stood near the tan-yard, southward of the corner of Warwick Road. The Cole Bar closed the old Adderbury and Oxford Road, which entered the town by way of New Land and Broad Street before the making of the turnpike road. St. John’s Bar closed the entrance from Chipping Norton, and stood at the spot where Monument Street now enters South Bar. When the Bar was destroyed its site was marked by an obelisk, long since removed, from which Monument Street takes its name. Sugarford Bar stood in West Street, close to where it is now crossed by the Shades, and the Bridge Gate stood on the old bridge over the Cherwell. Not a vestige of any of the bars remains.

The Mechanics’ Institute, founded 1835, received the gift of its new building in Marlborough Road in 1884. It has a general library and a reference library and news and magazine rooms well suited to the requirements of the day. There is an excellent replica of Herkomer’s portrait of the donor in the news room.

The Municipal School buildings adjoin the Institute, and are also in part a gift to the town by the Right Hon. Sir Bernhard Samuelson (Parliamentary representative of Banbury for 30 years). It is also a School of Science and Art, with well equipped rooms for art study, and with good laboratories and class rooms. The School of Science and Art was a continuation of science and art classes which were among the earliest started in the kingdom (1861). It shows a good record of work. The buildings are well proportioned, and the doorways of the local (Hornton) stone are bold, and have good mouldings.

The Town Hall.—The old Hall stood on the open space in the Market Place in front of the Exchange Hall. It was a plain brick building, standing on arcading, forming a Market Hall on the ground floor, and it has been re-erected in Cherwell Street as a warehouse. The first Hall was built in Queen Mary’s reign, 1556. The Hall of to-day, built in 1853, was enlarged in 1892. Portraits of Mr. Tancred, the late High Steward (Lord Saye and Sele), and Aldermen Draper and Barford are hung in the Court Room. Formerly a good painting by Hayn had a place there.

The Horton Infirmary, presented to the town by the late Miss Horton, of Middleton Cheney, and her nephew, J. H. Horton, Esq., is on the Oxford Road. Two Corn Exchanges existed in the Corn Hill and Market Place; one has become an Inn with covered court yard, the other is used as a Theatre but is also used for corn sales on Thursdays; Christ Church, St. John’s Priory and Church, the Wesleyan Chapels, and the various other denominational places of worship, do not admit of full description.

BROUGHTON CASTLE, the old seat of Lord Saye and Sele, now the residence of Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, is about two and a half miles to the westward of Banbury. The older parts are at the east end, and comprise a chapel, several small rooms and groined passages, and an embattled and loopholed tower, all of early decorated or 14th century work. The chapel contains a geometrical window and stone altar. Both north and south fronts, together with a wooden inner lobby at the entrance to the drawing room, are figured in Skelton’s “Antiquities of Oxfordshire.” The north front, of the date 1544, is best seen from the meadow adjoining the Broughton Road. In the hall, dining and drawing rooms, are rich plaster ceilings of a half century later. The moat, which still encircles the castle grounds, is spanned by a modern bridge with a turretted gatehouse of early 15th century work. The outbuildings on the east side of the gatehouse are of contemporaneous date. The embattled wall on the west side is part of the original castle, and belongs to an early part of the 14th century. In the hall are portraits of Charles I. and Cromwell, by Dobson, and in other parts of the building works by Westall, Dorcy, and Gainsborough. A large historical painting of Lord Saye before Jack Cade (Shakespeare’s King Henry VI., pt. 2, sc. 7) formerly hung at the end of the drawing room. After the Edge Hill fight, Banbury surrendered to the Royalists, who attacked Broughton on the following day. The Castle, with wool-sacked windows, stood siege for a day, and then it is said to have been taken by Prince Rupert. There is little or no evidence to show the phases of the fight, but when it is remembered that the Fiennes’ in the vale of the Red Horse were within an hour’s ride, and that Ramsay and some of his troops found a way to Banbury on the Sunday, it would point to the probability of fierce defence. Bretch Cave, on the Banbury Road, has the common repute of being a secret passage to the Castle, and perhaps some sally port of the kind may have a tale to tell.

The two paper mills on the borders of the Broughton estate, the Woad Mill and the Fulling Mill, together with the settlements of the plush and other weavers near by, point to surroundings of industry connected, it must be believed, with the old house.

Broughton Church (St. Mary’s) is a beautiful church of good Early English work with a broach spire. The nave is on the north side of the church; the south aisle appears to end as a chapelry. As a place of sepulture of so many of the Fiennes’ family, it is enriched by their tombs and those of others of the house. The tomb of John de Broughton (circa 1306) is in a richly decorated and canopied niche in the south wall. The high corner tomb is that of Edward Fiennes (1528) and that near by with the effigy of the Knight is believed to be of the father, Richard Fiennes (1501). In the chancel are the rich alabaster effigies of Sir Thomas Wykham and wife (circa 1441), and also plain tombs of Wm. Viscount Saye and Sele and wife (dated 1642-1648).7 The stone chancel screen with incised diaper ornament, and the exceedingly well proportioned windows, place the good work of the church amongst the typical gothic of the country side: especially to be noticed are the geometrical tracery of the east window of the south aisle; the south window with later perpendicular shafting; the south chancel window and the square-headed early English windows of the south wall. There is a finely crocketed ogee west door and plain south porch.

WROXTON ABBEY or PRIORY, 3 miles north-west of Banbury, was founded by Michael Belet; it passed into the hands of Sir Thos. Pope after the troubles of the Reformation time, and thence by marriage to the Earls Guildford and North. It is the seat of Lord North, and is famed for its beautifully terraced gardens and park. The chapel, which is supposed to date from the time of King John, contains a window in the Decorated style, with old glass, and the carved woodwork is of the best in the neighbourhood. The other part of the mansion was re-built in 1618, excepting a wing which has been added within the last few years. On the west front is a good porch, in the Italian style, of the time of James I. The principal features of the hall are the carved woodwork of the gallery, the fireplace, and the stag’s head brackets and pendants. The ceiling of the dining-room is a beautiful specimen of the classical work of the Stuart period. Amongst the paintings are some portraits by Vandyke, Holbein, Jansen and Kneller, and landscapes by Wouvermans, Hobbema, and others. The famous “Garden Party,” by Watteau, is one of the collection. King James and King Charles I. visited Wroxton, the latter at the time of the meeting of the King and Queen at Kineton in the year following the battle of Edge Hill. A medal was struck to commemorate the meeting. Pleasant paths to Banbury and Broughton lead across the fields.

All Saints’ Church, Wroxton, is of plain Gothic style. The chief points of interest are a good decorated font, two sedilia, and a tomb with effigies of Sir W. and Lady Pope, erected about the middle of the 17th century.

ADDERBURY.—Altitudes: high town 342, low town 300; population, 1132; 3¼ miles south of Banbury. It retains its old mansions and homesteads and the wide margin of its ways to a fuller degree than other villages in the north of the shire. The old rectory house, the manor house, formerly Lord Rochester’s home, and others on the south side of the green, are good buildings. Nothing remains of the Cross once standing on the green, and of Sir Thos. Cobb’s famous house there remain but the gateways and kitchen. The village during the time of the Great Rebellion was held as a Royalist outpost in the Banbury area. Mr. Wilmot, afterwards Lord Rochester, with his local troops of horse fought on the left wing of the Royalists’ Army at Edge Hill. A cavalry fight took place during the war near Bodicot, on the Banbury road, when Fiennes had some success.

St. Mary’s Church is remarkable for its elegant chancel, built by William of Wykeham. The chancel windows are in the early style of perpendicular architecture, and are fine illustrations of the architect’s skill. His arms are to be seen above the exterior of the east window. The north door is in the decorated style, and is rich in mouldings and crocketed canopies. A good example of perpendicular work is to be seen in the square-headed vestry door. The spire dates from the 14th century, and is massive and imposing. The frieze under the cornice of the north wall is filled with grotesque sculpture. In the interior, the timber roof of the nave, the clustered columns, and the sedilia and piscina are excellent specimens of work of the decorated period.

HANWELL.—Altitudes: 476-416; population, 176; 3 miles north-west of Banbury. The village winds in one long street down-hill. It rests on the ferruginous red rock of the Middle Lias. Midway in the village an old oak tree covered the village stocks and the outflow of an aquaduct, probably the Saint Ann’s Well of past time. Pleasant footways follow the hill side on the north to Shotteswell and on the south to Banbury. When King Charles took the Castle after the battle of Edge Hill it would seem that it was not without a fight. An old rhyme runs:

Hornton in the hollow,Long Horley on the hill,Frowsty little Drayton,Bloody Hanwell hill.

Hanwell Castle during its tenure as a farm house lost much of its old work in successive alterations. Two massive octagonal turrets and the facing of the west front remain of the old building. The right-handed stairway, a flight of eighty steps in the north turret, is of very thorough Hornton stone work, but the turrets and front are of the good flat red brick in use in Tudor time, with stone quoins. It would appear that the right hand stairway lent itself better to defensive uses; the upper rooms are entered from the turret stair. In the angle of the south turret a small room shows some old oak panelling, and in an adjoining room a hearth and chimney piece of local stone are in the south-east angle. The once “gallant house of Hanwell,” and, according to Dr. Plot, the home of Sir Anthony Cope, the most eminent artist and naturalist, may be seen figured as in its original state by Skelton in his “Antiquities of Oxfordshire,” who says the mansion was quadrangular with two towers at each angle. The stonework of the doorways of the room adjoining the south entrance and most of the masonry of the west side has been preserved. The Copes came into early possession of the Hanwell estate, and John Cope, cofferer to King Henry VIII., built the house which was so well spoken of by Leland. In Tudor and Stuart times they were busy politicians, and James I. and his Queen are said to have visited the Castle. The Copes were with the people in the time of the Great Rebellion, and after Edge Hill the Castle was taken by the Royalists. Subsequently Sir Anthony Cope found residence for the eminent Puritan pastors Harris and Dod, who, with Whateley of Banbury, ministered to enlarge the religious zeal of the neighbourhood. The pool and plantation lie to the east of the grounds, and the plantation below is worth mention from the number of rare plants found therein, amongst them the Bistort, Lungwort, Green Hellebore, and Saracen’s Woundwort.

BLOXHAM.—Altitudes: high town 400, low town 310; population, 1340; 3 miles south-west of Banbury. The village stands on the red rock of the middle Lias which bears a capping of clay on the high lands: the lower levels are of the usual marls. Field ways from Banbury run from the end of West Bar, and by a less direct but pretty route across the farm field on the Oxford Road. The buildings of All Saint’s School, founded about half a century since, are at the entrance of the village. The school has earned good place by the excellence of its tuition. The brook cutting through the town from west to east and the many side streets and jetways add a pleasant appearance to the many good homesteads and gardens.

Bloxham Church (St. Mary’s) is one of the most perfect specimens of Gothic architecture in the county of Oxford. Part of the materials of the chancel, the mouldings, walls, and buttresses are Norman, though the church is mainly of the 14th century, about which time it was re-built. The west doorway is surmounted by figures of the apostles, with a canopied representation of the Saviour at the apex; on the left and right are sculptured representations also of the rising of the dead and the punishment of the lost. The spire, which is 195 feet high, presents a particularly graceful outline. The square tower is crowned by an octagon middle stage, rising above which is a balcony, projected on corbels from the face of the tower. Within the balcony the spire springs, and from the four angles of the square tower stage slender turrets, terminating in spirets, are carried up through the middle stage to above the springing of the spire. The geometric tracery of the windows of the west front, and the grotesque cornice carvings on the north side, are exceedingly good work. The decorated oak chancel screen is again a noticeable feature, and its restoration has brought to light the remains of paintings on its lower panels. There are also remains of a mural painting of St. Christopher on the north wall, and of others on the wall above the rood loft. There are large perpendicular windows in the Milcombe chapelry, on the south side of the church, and in its north aisle is a beautiful decorated column, having an enriched capital, with sculptures of mailed figures and heads of saints. A good Gothic font, the carved work of the hoods of the north and south doorways, and a handsome modern reredos and other portions of the chancel can here be mentioned only.

KING’S SUTTON.—Altitudes: 385-282; population, 1037; 5 miles south-east of Banbury. It is built on the red rock and marls of the Middle Lias. The old life is represented in the handsome manor house, by tradition also connected with the wanderings of King Charles I., and a good house on the south side of the green said to have been a prebendary manor. The town was in the eighteenth century, with the adjoining village of Astrop, of resort for the use of its mineral waters. The chalybeate spring (St. Rumbald’s well) is in Sir Wm. Brown’s park at Astrop. The well basin and the carved stone hood stand as in old time together with the Well House. The Well House, by the work of the doorway and windows, would appear to be of earlier date than the well hood, but the spring is at present conveyed from its source to a replica of the well head by the road side. The associated buildings have long since disappeared, but the pleasant walk up the old road past the Well Close and the Long Spinney remain. Near the railway station at King’s Sutton is the other mineral spring charged with sulphate of soda, yet in common use by the people of the homesteads near. Celia Fiennes in her diary, “Through England on a side saddle,” writes of her journey: “Thence I went to Astrop where is a Steele water much ffrequented by ye Gentry, it has some mixture of Allum so is not so strong as Tunbridge. There is a ffine Gravell Walke that is between 2 high cutt hedges where is a Roome for the Musick and a Roome for ye Company besides ye Private Walkes. The well runnes very quick, they are not curious in keeping it, neither is there any bason for the spring to run out off, only a dirty well full of moss’s which is all changed yellow by the water. There are Lodgings about for ye Company at a little place called Sutton.” Halliwell gives the following rhyme in his nursery series: