Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for NORTON-CHIPPING, or Chipping-Norton

NORTON-CHIPPING, or Chipping-Norton, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Oxford. The town stands chiefly on an eminence, at the terminus of a branch railway, 4 miles long, from the Chipping-Norton junction of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway, and near the source of the river Glyme, 2½ miles S E of the boundary with Warwickshire; 3¼ E of the boundary with Worcestershire, and 19 N W of Oxford; is an old market or "cheping town; " had a castle, built by King Stephen, the site of which is near the church, and bears the name of Castlefield; sent members to parliament in the time of Edward I. and Edward III.; is a municipal borough by prescription, governed, under the new act, by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors; had once a monastery and an old market cross; was long a place of some commercial importance, but passed into a state of comparative decadence; consists chiefly of one wide street, of well-built stone houses, on the ridge of the eminence; includes also buildings on the adjacent plain or valley; possesses anadjoining common of 198 acres, given by Lord Arundel, for the benefit of the householders; is a seat of petty sessions and of county courts; and has a head post-office, ‡a railway station with telegraph, a banking office, a good chief inn, a town hall, a church, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, national and British schools, an endowed school with £17 a year, alms-houses, some charities, and a workhouse. The town hall is a recent and handsome edifice; and superseded a previous small one, in the pointed style of the 15th century. The churchstands in the plain, at the N of the town; is chiefly later English, with a beautiful open clerestory; has an elegantdecorated chancel, restored in 1856; underwent repair, with restoration of the chancel, at a cost of nearly £3,000; has a very fine hexangular S porch; includes three chantry chapels; and contains a rood loft, two fine altar-tombs with effigies of the Richardses and the Crofts, and nine brasses. The dissenting chapels are Baptist, Quaker, and Wesleyan; and the first was built in 1863, and is in the pointed style, the last in 1868, and is in the Italian style. The national schools were erected in 1859; and are for boys, girls, and infants. The work-house has accommodation for 350 persons; and, at the census of 1861, had 71 inmates. A weekly market is held on Wednesday; fairs for sheep and cattle, usually well frequented, are held on the last Wednesday of every month except Dec., on the Wednesday after 1 Jan., and on the Wednesday after 11 Dec.; hiring-fairs are held on the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after 10 Oct.; and there is a manufactory of woollen cloth. The manor belonged to the Fitzalans; passed to the De Veres, the Crofts, the Rodneys, and others; and belongs now to the mayor and aldermen. Acres, 3, 430. Real property, £10, 100; of which £30 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 2, 932; in 1861, 3, 137. Houses, 633.

The township is conterminate with the town. The parish contains also the hamlet of Over-Norton, and comprises 4, 780 acres. Real property, £13, 334. Pop.in 1 851, 3, 368; in 1861, 3, 510. The manor of Over-Norton belongs to H. Dawkins, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £160.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester.—The sub-district contains also the parishes of Enstone, Little Tew, Great Tew, Swerford, Heythrop and Dunthrop, Salford, Little Rollright, Great Rollright, Chastleton, Cornwell, Little Compton, Long Compton, and Barton-on-the-Heath, the last three electorally in Warwick. Acres, 36, 130. Pop., 8, 391. Houses, 1, 780. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Charlbury, containing the parishes of Charlbury, Wychwood, Spelsbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Fifield, Idbury, Kingham, Churchill, Sarsden, the greater part of Shipton-under-Wychwood, the ville of Bruern, and the extra-parochial tracts of Cornbury-Park and Shocks-Coppice. Acres of the district, 76, 418. Poor-rates in 1863, £9, 581. Pop-in 1851, 17, 427; in 1861, 17, 306. Houses, 3, 643. Marriages in 1863, 127; births, 585, of which 43 were illegitimate; deaths, 347, of which 131 were at ages under 5 years, and 8 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 237; births, 5, 495; deaths, 3, 375. The places of worship, in 1851, were 29 of the Church of England, with 9, 147 sittings; 2 of Independents, with270 s.; 12 of Baptists, with 1., 604 s.: 2 of Quakers with 600 s.; 6 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,07-s; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 325 s.; and 3 of Roman Catholics, with 500 s. The schools were 30 public day-schools, with 1, 980 scholars; 32 private day-schools, with 468 s.; 34 Sunday schools, with 2, 930 s. and 2 evening schools for adults, with 41 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Chipping Norton AP/CP       Chipping Norton SubD       Chipping Norton RegD/PLU       Oxfordshire AncC
Place names: CHIPPING NORTON     |     NORTON CHIPPING     |     NORTON CHIPPING OR CHIPPING NORTON
Place: Chipping Norton

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