Chipping Norton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the town in Oxfordshire, UK. For the suburb of Sydney, Australia, see Chipping Norton, New South Wales.

Chipping Norton
Market Hall and the Co-op - geograph.org.uk - 236399.jpg
The Town Hall (built 1842) in the town centre
Chipping Norton is located in Oxfordshire
Chipping Norton
Chipping Norton
Location within Oxfordshire
Population5,719 (2011 Census)
OS grid referenceSP309269
• London74+1⁄2 miles (120 km)
Civil parish
  • Chipping Norton[2]
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townChipping Norton
Postcode districtOX7
Dialling code01608
PoliceThames Valley
FireOxfordshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
  • Witney
WebsiteChipping Norton Town Council
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire
51°56′N 1°33′W / 51.94°N 1.55°W / 51.94; -1.55Coordinates: 51°56′N 1°33′W / 51.94°N 1.55°W / 51.94; -1.55

Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Banbury and 18 miles (29 km) north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as 5,719. It was estimated at 6,254 in 2019.[3]

History[]

Pre-1800[]

St Mary the Virgin parish church, rebuilt c. 1485

The Rollright Stones, a stone circle 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Chipping Norton, is evidence of prehistoric habitation in the area. The town's name means "market north town", with "Chipping" (from Old English cēping) meaning "market". Chipping Norton began as a small settlement beneath a hill where the earthworks of the motte-and-bailey Chipping Norton Castle can still be seen. The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin was built on the hill next to the castle. Parts of the present building may date from the 12th century.[4] It retains features of the 13th and 14th centuries.[5] The nave was largely rebuilt in about 1485 with a Perpendicular Gothic clerestory.[6] It is believed to have been funded by John Ashfield, a wool merchant, making St Mary's an example of a "wool church".[6]

In July 1549 the vicar of Chipping Norton, Henry Joyes or Joyce, led parishioners in a popular rising after the suppression of chantries and other religious reforms left him to minister alone to a congregation of 800 and reduced the budget for schooling.[7] The rising was brutally put down by Lord Grey de Wilton. Joyes was captured and then hanged in chains from the tower of his church.[8] The bell tower rebuilt in 1825[4][9] has a ring of eight bells,[10] all cast in 1907 by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It also has a Sanctus bell cast in 1624 by Roger I Purdue[10] of Bristol.[11]

Wool in the Middle Ages made the Cotswolds one of the wealthiest parts of England and many of the medieval buildings survive in the centre of town. There is still a market every Wednesday and a mop fair in September, when the High Street is closed to through traffic. In 1205 a new market place was laid out higher up the hill. Sheep farming was largely displaced by arable. Agriculture remained important in the area. Many original houses round the market place received fashionable Georgian façades in the 18th century. An inscription on the almshouses records that they were founded in 1640 as "The work and gift of Henry Cornish, gent".[12]

Chipping Norton Almshouses, founded in 1640

Post-1800[]

In 1796 James and William Hitchman founded Hitchman's Brewery in West Street. In 1849 the business moved to a larger brewery in Albion Street that included a malthouse and its own water wells. Three generations of Hitchmans ran the brewery, but in 1890 Alfred Hitchman sold it as a limited company that acquired other breweries in 1891 and 1917. In 1924 it merged with Hunt Edmunds of Banbury and in 1931 the brewery here was closed.[13] Other local industries included a woollen mill (see below), a glove-making factory, a tannery and an iron foundry.

Chipping Norton had a workhouse by the 1770s. In 1836 the architect George Wilkinson built a larger one with four wings radiating from an octagonal central building, similar to the one that Wilkinson was building at Witney. The architect G. E. Street added a chapel to Chipping Norton workhouse in 1856–1857. The building became a hospital in the Second World War and was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948 as Cotshill Hospital, which later became a psychiatric hospital. It closed in 1983,[14] and has been redeveloped as private residences. Chipping Norton was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Its neoclassical town hall was built in 1842.

Chipping Norton Railway (CNR) opened in 1855, linking with Kingham on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.[15] In 1887 a second railway opened to the Oxford and Rugby Railway at King's Sutton and the CNR became part of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway (B&CDR). Extending the railway from Chipping Norton involved a tunnel 685 yards (626 m) long under Elmsfield Farm west of the town.[16] In 1951 British Railways withdrew passenger services between Chipping Norton and Banbury. In 1962 it withdrew passenger services to Kingham and closed the station, and two years later closed the B&CDR to freight and dismantled the line. The disused railway tunnel is bricked up at both ends for safety and used as a refuge for bats. (See Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981)

In May 1873 rioting occurred after the conviction and sentencing of the Ascott Martyrs – 16 local women accused of trying to interfere with strikebreakers at a farm. Bliss Tweed Mill in the west of town was built as a tweed mill by William Bliss in 1872. In 1913 to 1914 the millworkers struck for eight months. The mill closed in 1980 and was turned into flats. It remains a landmark, visible from Worcester Road. The town lost its status as a municipal borough in 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 made it a successor parish in the district of West Oxfordshire. The neoclassical Holy Trinity Roman Catholic church was built in 1836 by the architect John Adey Repton, grandson of the English garden designer Humphry Repton.

Chipping Norton Town Hall, built in 1842
Chipping Norton railway station, opened in 1855, pictured here in the early 1900s
Bliss Mill, built in 1872

Governance[]

Chipping Norton is in the Witney parliamentary constituency, whose Member of Parliament from 2001 to 2016 was David Cameron, prime minister from 2010 to 2016 and leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. Since 2016 the MP has been the Conservative Robert Courts. One Conservative and two Labour councillors represent the town on West Oxfordshire District Council.[17]

Amenities[]

The town theatre[18] began life as a Salvation Army Citadel, its first stones, now visible in the auditorium, being laid in 1888. It continued as a furniture warehouse before being spotted by two Royal Shakespeare Company actors, Tamara and John Malcolm, in 1968. In 1973, fundraising for the new theatre began in earnest, and a pantomime, Beauty and the Beast was staged in the town hall. The Theatre was opened in 1975 by Tom Baker (who played the title character, the Doctor, in the BBC science-fiction TV show Doctor Who), beginning with a light programme including films and lunchtime jazz. The adjoining cottage was purchased and converted to become the bar and gallery. In 1990 a building bought in Goddards Lane now serves as green room, offices and rehearsal room.[19]

The town hosts annual arts festivals: Chipping Norton Literary Festival ('ChipLitFest'),[20] Chipping Norton Music Festival,[21] and a jazz festival.[22] The Theatre Chipping Norton opened in 1975 as a theatre, cinema, gallery and music venue for original productions and touring companies.[23]

The town acts as a retail and leisure centre, with three supermarkets and numerous shops, including branches of national chain stores. It has four pubs, two hotels with public bars and three schools. Holy Trinity Roman Catholic School[24] and St Mary's Church of England School[25] are primary schools. Chipping Norton School[26] is the town's secondary school with a sixth form.

Chipping Norton Golf Club, now the Cotswold Club and part of Cotswold Hotel and Spa, is the oldest in Oxfordshire. It started in 1890 on Chipping Norton Common.[27]

The first XV of Chipping Norton Rugby Union Football Club[28] plays in the Southern Counties North League. It was league champion in 2007–2008.

Chipping Norton Town F.C. (known as 'The Magpies' or 'Chippy') was founded in 1893 and plays at Walterbush Road. It resigned from the Hellenic Football League and now plays in the Witney & District Football League.[29]

Chipping Norton Town Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division 6. The town also has a bowls club.[30]

Chipping Norton has a Women's Institute,[31] a Rotary Club,[32] and a Lions Club.[33]

Landmarks[]

Recording studio[]

The former British Schools building at 28–30 New Street, subsequently Chipping Norton Recording Studios

Between 1972 and 1999 the former British Schools building in New Street was Chipping Norton Recording Studios. Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, In The Army Now by Status Quo, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, I Should Have Known Better by Jim Diamond, Perfect by Fairground Attraction, I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew and Bye Bye Baby by the Bay City Rollers were recorded there. Jeff Beck, Barbara Dickson, Duran Duran, Marianne Faithfull, Alison Moyet, Nektar, Radiohead, The Supernaturals, Wet Wet Wet, XTC, Mark Owen and Chris Rea also used them.

Castle[]

Chipping Norton Castle was a timber Norman motte-and-bailey castle to the north-west of the town. Little of the original structures remains apart from earthworks.

Transport[]

Chipping Norton railway station served the town until 1962. Now the nearest stations are at Kingham and Ascott-under-Wychwood. A community bus network called The Villager links residential roads and nearby villages with the town centre. Longer-distance buses run to Oxford and Banbury. Johnsons and Stagecoach in Warwickshire operate service X50/50 to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Chipping Norton set[]

Main article: Chipping Norton set

Several media, political and show-business acquaintances who live near the town, including ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, have been referred to as the "Chipping Norton set".[34][35][36] Members regularly met socially. It gained notoriety in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, which involved several members.[37] Those affected along with several attending their social functions were victims of phone hacking by the News of the World.[35] Notable meetings of the group included the nearby wedding reception Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, a 2010 Christmas dinner at the Brooks's, and Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud's 2011 Summer party at Burford Priory.

Twinning[]

Chipping Norton is twinned with Magny-en-Vexin in France.[38]

Notable residents[]

The list covers notable persons with a Wikipedia page, born or long living in Chipping Norton. References are needed for information absent from the person's page.

  • Sarah Averill (later Sarah Wildes, 1627–1692) migrated to Salem, Massachusetts, where she was hanged for witchcraft.[39][40]
  • Geoffrey Burbidge (1925–2010), astronomy professor
  • Jeremy Clarkson (born 1960), Top Gear and The Grand Tour presenter, journalist and writer
  • James Hind (1616–1652), highwayman born 1616 and executed for high treason in 1652
  • Conroy Maddox (1912–2005), surrealist painter resident here in 1929–1933
  • Princess Margaretha (born 1934), sister of the King of Sweden[41]
  • Janice Meek (born 1944), world record-holding ocean rower
  • Wentworth Miller (born 1972), American actor, star of Prison Break, born here to American parents
  • Keith Moon (1946–1978), The Who drummer, once owned the Crown and Cushion Hotel in the High Street[42]
  • Simon Nicol (born 1950), guitarist and vocalist with Fairport Convention
  • Walter Padley (1916–1984), trade unionist and politician
  • Dominic Sandbrook (born 1974), historian and columnist
  • Rev. Edward Stone (1702–1768), discoverer of the active ingredient of aspirin, lived in the town.
  • Barbara Toy (1908–2001), travel writer and playwright[43]
  • Elizabeth Jane Weston (1581 or 1582–1612), Neo-Latin poet, also known as Westonia, was born here.
  • Andrew Wigmore (born 1966), political activist associated with Arron Banks and Nigel Farage; Belize diplomat known for work on the Leave.EU campaign in the UK 2016 referendum on EU membership
  • Vivian Woodell, politician, founder of The Phone Co-op, based in the town
  • Roy Worvill (1914–2003), a writer on astronomy was born and lived in the town.[44]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Else, David. England. Lonely Planet. p. 243.
  2. ^ "Chipping Norton Town Council". Chipping Norton Town Council. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  3. ^ City Population. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 536.
  5. ^ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, pp. 536–538.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 537.
  7. ^ Beer, Rebellion and Riot, Kent State UP, p. 150.
  8. ^ Vere Woodman 1957, pp. 82–83.
  9. ^ Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Hedgcock, James (30 November 2006). "Chipping Norton S Mary V". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  11. ^ Dovemaster (25 June 2010). "Bell Founders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  12. ^ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 540.
  13. ^ Hitchman's Brewery history. Webcitation.org. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  14. ^ Cotshill Hospital history Archived 7 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Oxfordshirehealtharchives.nhs.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  15. ^ "Archive news from the Oxford Mail". www.oxfordmail.co.uk. Archived from the original on |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help).
  16. ^ "page 1". Railway Tunnel Lengths website. Phil Deaves. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  17. ^ Councillor information: West Oxfordshire District Council Archived 1 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Westoxon.gov.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  18. ^ The Theatre, Chipping Norton Archived 25 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Chippingnortontheatre.co.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.]
  19. ^ "The Theatre, Chipping Norton – History". www.chippingnortontheatre.com. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  20. ^ "ChipLitFest is back for 2016! · Chipping Norton Literary Festival 2017". chiplitfest.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  21. ^ "Chipping Norton Music Festival Home Page". cnmf.org.uk. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  22. ^ Favis-Mortlock, David. "Chippy Jazz And Music (CJAM) – a friendly little gem of a jazz festival!". chippyjazz.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  23. ^ "Brief history of the theatre". The Theatre Chipping Norton. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  24. ^ Holy Trinity RC School Archived 16 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Holy-trinity.oxon.sch.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  25. ^ St Mary's C of E School Archived 16 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine. St-marys-chipping.oxon.sch.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  26. ^ Chipping Norton School Archived 28 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Chipping-norton.oxon.sch.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  27. ^ "Chipping Norton Golf Club: History". Archived from the original on 11 July 2010.
  28. ^ Chipping Norton RUFC Archived 12 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Cnrufc.co.uk (2011-08-10). Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  29. ^ Chipping Norton Town FC Archived 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Chippingnorton.net. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  30. ^ Chipping Norton Bowls Club Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Wospweb.com. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  31. ^ Oxfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes Archived 7 September 2003 at the Wayback Machine. Oxfordshirefwi.freeuk.com. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  32. ^ Chipping Norton Rotary Club Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Rotary-ribi.org. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
  33. ^ Club-Sites.co.uk. "Chipping Norton Lions – Welcome". chippingnortonlions.org.uk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  34. ^ Dewar, Caroline (5 March 2012). "Who's who in the Chipping Norton set?". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  35. ^ Jump up to: a b Jennifer Cockerell (27 September 2012). "'Big society' makes it into Brewer's Dictionary". The Independent. Archived from the original on 16 July 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  36. ^ Tom Watson; Martin Hickman (2012). Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain. Penguin Books. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-241-96105-6.
  37. ^ Caroline Dewar (5 March 2012). "Who's who in the Chipping Norton set". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  38. ^ "Chipping Norton – Towns & Villages in Chipping Norton, West Oxfordshire – Oxfordshire Cotswolds". www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org.
  39. ^ Avery, Clara Arlette (1922). Supplement for Insertion in the Averell-Averill-Avery Family. p. 3. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  40. ^ [1]
  41. ^ "Margaretha – den hemliga prinsessan". Archived from the original on 14 August 2015.
  42. ^ https://www.cotswolds.org/crown-and-cushion-hotel/267/#:~:text=Originally%20a%2015th%20Century%20Coaching,legacy%20decadence%20lives%20on%20today.
  43. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  44. ^ "Chipping Norton Astronomer – Roy Worvill". CNAAG. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2021.

Sources[]

  • Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Books Penguin. pp. 536–541. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
  • Vere Woodman, A. (1957). "The Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Rising of 1549" (PDF). Oxoniensia. XXII: 78–84. open access
  • Volkin, Michael, ed. (2000). Nuffield Advanced Chemistry Students Book. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-32835-7.

External links[]

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