Islip, Oxfordshire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Islip is a village in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It is situated on the western edge of the fens of Otmoor, on the River Ray, just east of Kidlington, and about 10 km south west of Bicester.

The village appears to have been quite important historically. There are remains of a Romano-British villa in the village and the village is the alleged birthplace of King Edward the Confessor. Another famous resident from history was geologist William Buckland. Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson lived here in the early 1920s and Graves describes their life there in Goodbye to All That.

Islip's railway service has a chequered history. The London and North Western Railway opened a branch from Bletchley to Oxford in 1850 including a station at Islip. The line was closed in 1967 and later Islip station was demolished. Passenger trains between Oxford and Bicester Town were reinstated in 1987 and Islip station was rebuit and reopened in 1989. Plans to reopen the line between Bicester Town and Bletchley to restore through services between Oxford and Bedford are currently the subject of a feasibility study.