Banbury
Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England.Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire and southern parts of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire which are predominantly rural.Banbury's main industries are motorsport, car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing and printing.Archaeological evidence has been found for a British Iron Age settlement with circular buildings, dating back to 200 BC, in the Hennef Way area.[11] During the Civil War, due to its proximity to Oxford, the King's capital, Banbury was at one stage a Royalist town, but the inhabitants were known to be strongly Puritan.[12][13] In 1645, Parliamentary troops were billeted in nearby Hanwell for nine weeks and villagers petitioned the Warwickshire Committee of Accounts to pay for feeding them.[15] The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal.[21] The Ruscote estate, which now has a notable South Asian community, was expanded in the 1950s because of the growth of the town due to the London overspill and further grew in the mid-1960s.Merton Street goods depot continued to handle livestock traffic for Banbury's cattle market until 1966, when this too was discontinued and the railway dismantled.In March 1962 Sir John Betjeman celebrated the line from Culworth Junction in his poem Great Central Railway, Sheffield Victoria to Banbury.The main railway station, previously called Banbury General but now called simply Banbury, is now served by trains running from London Paddington via Reading and Oxford once daily, from London Marylebone via High Wycombe and Bicester onwards to Birmingham and Kidderminster and by CrossCountry Trains from Bournemouth and Reading to Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle.[22] Situated on Merton Street in Grimsbury, for many decades, cattle and other farm animals were driven there on the hoof from as far as Scotland to be sold to feed the growing population of London and other towns.The name 'Banburyshire' is sometimes used informally to describe the area centred on Banbury, claimed to include parts of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire as well as north Oxfordshire.The Oxfordshire part of the parish (west of the river) included the town itself and the hamlets of Neithrop, Calthorpe, Easington, Hardwick, and Wykham.[46][47][48] The borough council met at Banbury Town Hall until 1930, when it moved its offices and meetings to the former Municipal Technical School (built 1893) on Marlborough Road.Prodrive, one of the world's largest motorsport and automotive technology specialists, is based in the town as are a host of race teams involved in competition across many different disciplines and countries.[63] Once Poland joined the European Union in 2004, a number of Banbury-based employment agencies began advertising for staff in major Polish newspapers.It was formally closed in June 1998, after being abandoned several years earlier and was replaced with a new housing development and Dashwood Primary School.[6] Banbury railway station is served by three train operating companies: The town's bus routes are operated primarily by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire both within the town and linking it with Brackley, Chipping Norton, Oxford and places further afield including Daventry, Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon.[69] Hennef Way (A422) was upgraded to a dual carriageway, easing traffic on the heavily congested road and providing north Banbury and the town centre with higher-capacity links to the M40 motorway.[73] In April 2005, Princess Anne unveiled a large bronze statue depicting the Fine Lady upon a White Horse of the nursery rhyme.It is east of the Oxford Canal, mainly west of the River Cherwell, north of Castle Quay and south of Hennef Way.Across the road from the main park there is the sports centre, which includes a swimming pool, courts, café and gym facilities.Neithrop is home to the People's Park which opened in 1910, and has a bird house, tennis courts, a large field and a children's play area.[80] In 1838, the Catholic St John the Evangelist Church was built, parts of it were designed by Augustus Pugin and it is a Grade II listed building.[83] A greyhound racing track was opened during the summer of 1951, one mile (1.6 km) north of Banbury town centre on the east side of Southam Road.[85] American Haas F1 Team European forward base of operation is located in Banbury after the collapse of Marussia F1.Initial visits between Banbury and Ermont in 1979, and for a long time after there was a period of informal relationship before a formal agreement was signed in 1982.
Banbury (disambiguation)Market townBanbury Town HallOxfordshireOS grid referenceLondonDistrictCherwellShire countyRegionSouth EastCountryEnglandSovereign statePost townPostcode districtDialling codePoliceThames ValleyAmbulanceSouth CentralUK ParliamentBanburycivil parishRiver CherwellWarwickshireNorthamptonshireJacobs Douwe EgbertsBanbury cakesBirminghamCoventryOxfordbynameOld EnglishAnglo SaxonDomesday BookHistory of BanburyBritish Iron AgeRoman villaSaxonsAnglo-SaxonsCynricCeawlinRomano-BritishAnglo-SaxonDanishBishop of LincolnGrimsburyNeithrophamletFosse WayStow-on-the-WoldmedievalBanbury CastleAlexander, Bishop of LincolnCivil WarPuritanRoyalistKing Charles IOliver CromwellBattle of Edge HillParliamentaryHanwellCastle Quay Shopping CentreOxford CanalBanbury MuseumHawkesbury JunctionTooley's BoatyardMerton Street stationBuckinghamshire RailwayBletchleyBridge Street stationGreat Western Railwaybowling greenCalthorpeEasingtonRuscoteLondon overspillBritish RailwaysMerton Street railway stationJohn BetjemanLondon PaddingtonReadingLondon MaryleboneHigh WycombeBicesterKidderminsterBournemouthManchesterNewcastlecattle marketdriven there on the hoofScotlandmarket townshinterlandAdderburyCropredyDeddingtonWroxtonGreat BourtonBloxhamcountyCherwell District CouncilOxfordshire County Councilancient parishhamletsHardwickWykhamNethercoteMary Iboroughseigneurial boroughlord of the manorpoor lawstownshipWarkworthecclesiastical parishcivil parishesmunicipal boroughMunicipal Corporations Act 1835local board districtLocal Government Act 1888Local Government Act 1972successor parishunparishedcharter trustees