Ardley, Oxfordshire
| Ardley | |
 St. Mary's parish church |
|
  Ardley |
|
| Population | 666 (parish) (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP5427 |
| Civil 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 |
|
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Coordinates: 51°56′N 1°13′W / 51.94°N 1.21°W
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.
History
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 has a saddleback roof and may have been built in the 13th or 14th century. The present nave was built in 1793 and has a west gallery that was added in 1834.[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 railway 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 road is about 550 yards (500 m) northeast of Ardley and its Cherwell Valley services are about 1,100 yards (1 km) from the village.
Amenities
Ardley has a public house, the Fox and Hounds. Fewcott also has a pub, the White Lion Inn.
The village has no shops. Those at Cherwell Valley services are the nearest to the village.
Ardley United Football Club[5] is a Non-League football club that plays in the Hellenic Football League Premier Division, at The Playing Fields.[6]
References
- ↑ "Area: Ardley CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
- ↑ Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1959). A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 6. Victoria County History. pp. 7–14.
- ↑ Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 422–423. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
- ↑ Archbishops' Council (2010). "Ardley w Fewcott, St Mary, Ardley". Church of England.
- ↑ Ardley United FC
- ↑ FTL Futbol Hellenic League
External links
Media related to Ardley at Wikimedia Commons- Ardley in the Domesday Book
