Botley, Oxfordshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Botley | |
  Botley shown within Oxfordshire |
|
| Population | 3,000 (estimated) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | Vale of White Horse |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | OXFORD |
| Postcode district | OX2 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| European Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Oxford West and Abingdon |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Botley is a village in the civil parish of North Hinksey, just west of the Oxford city boundary in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire). It is effectively a suburb of Oxford.
Botley surrounds the junction between the A34 Oxford ring road and the A420 to Swindon, and is a largely residential area with property prices ranging from relatively cheap in some places, to very expensive, in the direction of Cumnor. It includes a small local shopping centre at Elms Parade; a small retail complex containing amongst other stores Oxford's Habitat branch; the Church of England parish church of St Peter and St Paul, built in 1958; and the buildings of the Westminster Institute of Education (now part of Oxford Brookes University) on Harcourt Hill. The various large office buildings along the main road include Seacourt Tower, known locally as "Botley Cathedral" owing to its small metal spire.
[edit] History
Botley was first settled in Saxon times, and the name comes from Old English, meaning a woodland clearing of a man called Bota[1]. It falls within the parish of North Hinksey, and so was historically in the county of Berkshire. Because the main road west out of Oxford passes through Botley, development was centred here rather than in the tiny village of North Hinksey itself, slightly further south. From the 1880s the centre of the village began to be called Old Botley, in distinction to the ribbon development along Botley Road known as New Botley[2]; the name Old Botley is preserved in a street set back from the main road. The major development which began in the 1930s took place to the west, beyond the current ring road.
As well as outgrowing its original parent village, Botley has also absorbed the vanished hamlet of Seacourt, which is commemorated not only in Seacourt Tower but also the Seacourt Bridge (a pub) and the nearby park and ride site. The housing to the west of Botley is known as Dean Court.
