| Ardley | |
Parish church of St Mary |
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Ardley
Ardley shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 666 (parish) (2001 census)[1] |
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| OS grid reference | SP5427 |
| Parish | Ardley |
| District | Cherwell |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Banbury |
| Postcode district | OX27 |
| Dialling code | 01869 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Banbury |
| Website | Ardley with Fewcott Parish Council |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Ardley is a village in Ardley with Fewcott civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Bicester. The parish includes the village of Fewcott that is now contiguous with Ardley.
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The limestone quarry at Ardley has yielded a significant find of dinosaur tracks (ichnites), discovered in 1997 and thought to have been left by Megalosaurus and possibly Cetiosaurus. There is a site of special scientific interest in the village with a colony of the great crested newts and an outcrop of Jurassic limestone.
Ardley Castle is a motte-and-bailey which is believed to have been built early in the 12th century during the civil war between Empress Matilda and King Stephen.
The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary dates from at least 1074.[2] The original church was demolished and completely rebuilt, but both the chancel and the bell tower of the present building contain small amounts of re-used Norman stonework. The present Early English Gothic chancel was built late in the 12th or early in the 13th century. The tower, which has a saddleback roof, and may have been built in the 13th or 14th century. The present nave was built in 1792.[3]
St. Mary's is now part of the Cherwell Valley Benefice along with five other ecclesiastical parishes: Fritwell, Lower Heyford, Somerton, Souldern and Upper Heyford.[4]
In 1910 the Great Western Railway completed a new main line linking Ashendon Junction and Aynho Junction to shorten the high-speed route between its termini at London Paddington and Birmingham Snow Hill. The line passes within a few hundred yards of Ardley and the GWR opened a railway station on the main road just south of the village. British Railways closed Ardley station in 1963. The railway is now part of the Chiltern Main Line.
In 1990 the section of the M40 motorway between Wheatley, Oxfordshire and Hockley Heath was built. M40 Junction 10 with the A43 trunk road is about 550 yards (500 m) northeast of Ardley and its Cherwell Valley services are about 1,100 yards (1.0 km) from the village.
Ardley has a public house, the Fox and Hounds. Fewcott also has a pub, the White Lion Inn.
The village has no shops, but those at Cherwell Valley services are within easy reach.
Ardley United Football Club[5] is an amateur association football club that plays in the Hellenic Football League Premier Division.[6]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ardley Ardley] at Wikimedia Commons