Balscote

Balscote or Balscott is a village in the civil parish of Wroxton, Oxfordshire, about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Banbury.

Balscote

Parish church of St Mary Magdalene
Balscote
Location within Oxfordshire
OS grid referenceSP3941
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBanbury
Postcode districtOX15
Dialling code01295
PoliceThames Valley
FireOxfordshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
WebsiteWroxton & Balscote Community Web Site

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the place-name as Berescote. Curia regis rolls from 1204 and 1208 record it as Belescot. An entry in the Book of Fees for 1242 records it as Balescot. Its origin is Old English, meaning the cottage, house or manor of a man called Bælli.[1]

Church and chapel

Church of England

The earliest features of the Church of England parish church of St Mary Magdalene include a Norman font and an Early English Gothic window. Most of the present church building is 14th-century, built in a Decorated Gothic style.[2] It is a Grade II* listed building.[3]

The parish of St Mary Magdalene is now one of eight in the Ironstone Benefice.[4]

Balscote Methodist chapel

Methodist chapel

Balscote has also a Methodist chapel.

Secular buildings

Many of Balscote's buildings are of local Hornton Stone. Priory Farm is a 14th-century hall, extended in the 15th century and modernised in the 17th and 18th centuries. Grange Farm is a 15th- or early 16th-century house, extended and modernised in the 17th and 18th centuries. Both houses may have been built by the owners of nearby Wroxton Abbey.[5]

The Butchers Arms

Balscote has a public house, The Butchers Arms,[6] which is controlled by the Hook Norton Brewery.[7]

In 1996 Balscote Village Hall Trust, a registered charity, started planning and fund-raising to build a community hall.[8] Building began in October 2010[9] and was completed in 2011.[10] It is a timber building.[11]

Notable residents

References

Bibliography

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