The best traffic-free bike rides around Chipping Warden and Edgcote

Chipping Warden is a typically pretty village for the area. Smaller than some of its more famous neighbours but no less picturesque. A good spot to rest and seek refreshment.

Watch out for the pretty lakes, sheep and beautiful houses

Cropredy is a lovely village with walks along the Oxford Canal

Chipping Warden is a Northamptonshire village with a rich history. On the River Cherwell, to the east, are the remains of a Roman villa, while just to the south of the village is an Iron Age hillfort, Arbury Banks. The village sits on the Jurassic Way long-distance trail. Walkers in need of a pitstop will be delighted that there are two pubs: the Griffin and the Rose and Crown.

The Name The story of a village starts with its name.  Chipping Warden is the village with a market and a hill from which a watch may be kept.  In the Domesday book (1086) Warden is found as Waredon.  The word is compounded from ‘weard’ meaning to watch and ‘dun’ a hill.  The hill referred to is Warden Hill which lies to the East of the village. ‘Chipping’ comes from the Old English verb ‘ceapan’, meaning to buy, and refers to the market which was possibly first held here in Saxon times. The Romans At Chipping Warden Black Grounds, and in a field called the Cauldwells, lived a Roman land proprietor in his villa.  The foundations of the villa were discovered about a hundred years ago, also fragments of Samion and Castor pottery used in the house.  The house included a bathroom 36ft long and 10ft wide which has been excavated, a feature which would not again figure in the homes of the village for several hundreds of years.  Roman coins have been found in the locality dating from A.D. 250-390. The Domesday Survey (1086) William 1, having defeated the English Army under Harold of Hastings, proceeded to deprive the English Lords of their lands bestowing them to Norman Knights.  In 1086 at the time of the Domesday Survey the lands in Chipping Warden which had been previously held by a Saxon named Tosti, were in possession of Cuy de Reinbuedcurt, who held them directly from the King.  At Edgcote, lands which in former times had been held by a Saxon thane named Burred, were handed over to a lord named Walchelin, who held them from the Bishop of Coutanes in Normandy. The market of the village A great distinction of Chipping Warden during the Middle Ages was the possession of a market. By the reign of Henry III, the market was highly successful, for in 1227 the King, at the request of Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, in whose diocese Banbury lay, withdrew the privilege of the market as it was proving an important rival to the Banbury one. In 1238 the ‘Manor’ of the village had passed to Girard de Furnivall who obtained from the king once more the right to hold a market in the village on a Tuesday. The market was still active in 1362 as an action was taken against the Vicar of Blakesley for disturbing the market – the exact nature of which is not disclosed.  However there is no more mention on the market in history after that time, not even the date on which it ceased to be held, but the base of the Market Cross may still be seen near the Church. The World Wars The village like every English village, made its tragic contribution to the success of the Wars with the lives of some of its men.  The stones in the Church bear testimony to this loss. In the Second World War the aerodrome was built, which enlivened the village with the sound of aircraft and crew.  RAF Chipping Warden opened in 1941 as a Bomber Command Operational Training Unit.  On 1 December 1942 a Vickers Wellington bomber crashed on take off, hitting the control tower and hangars, killing two people and causing many other casualties.  The memorial on the Edgcote House drive (pictured above) commemorates the crew of a Wellington Bomber that crashed there on the 18 April 1945.

Claydon, meaning clayey hill, is the most northerly parish in Oxfordshire. The small ironstone church stands at its highest point and consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle and north chapel, and a low west tower with a saddleback roof. There are some lovely Romanesque features, such as the south nave doorway, much restored, and the nave and north aisle, separated by an arcade of three bays.

In the Church of England parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul the north wall of the chancel contains two blocked-up Norman arches that suggest the building may date from about 1200.   The chancel contains a window that pre-dates 1300, but is probably not in its original position. Other features from the Decorated Gothic period include the windows of the south aisle and the east window of a room to the north of the chancel. The East window of the chancel, the only complete stained glass window, and the four-bay arcades between the nave and the north and south aisles are from the early part of the Perpendicular Gothic period.   The bell tower is also Perpendicular Gothic. The pews are 18th century and are in raised tiers at the west end. Together with the stained glass window and the etched window in the tower (dedicated to those who served at the local wartime airfield), St Peter & St Paul’s makes a wonderful backdrop to any service, especially a wedding service. The parish is now part of the Church of England benefice of Culworth with Sulgrave and Thorpe Mandeville and Chipping Warden with Edgcote and Moreton Pinkney.

The Battle of Edgecote Moor took place 6 miles (9.7 km) north east of Banbury, Oxfordshire, in what is now the civil parish of Chipping Warden and Edgcote, England on 26 July 1469 during the Wars of the Roses. The site of the battle was actually Danes Moor in Northamptonshire, at a crossing of a tributary of the River Cherwell. The battle saw supporters of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeat the forces of King Edward IV, leading to the king's capitulation soon afterwards.