Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WITNEY

WITNEY, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Oxfordshire. The town stands on the river Windrush, at the terminus of the Witney railway, 11 miles W by N of Oxford; was known to the Saxons as Witaneye, signifying the "parliament island;'' was given by Bishop Ailwyn, in the time of Edward the Confessor, to Winchester cathedral; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. till that of Edward III.; was the scene of a tournament, attended by Humphrey Bohun, Aymer de Valence, and other notables; is now a seat of county courts, and a polling place; has long been famous for the manufacture of blankets; carries on also the manufacture of other woollen goods, glove-making, and brewing; publishes a weekly newspaper; consists chiefly of two streets, one of them upwards of a mile long; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a police station of 1860, built at a cost of £2,500, a neat county courthouse, a three-arched bridge of 1822, a market-cross of 1683, a town hall and market house, a corn exchange of 1863, built at a cost of £2,500, a blanket-hall of 1721, now deserted, an old building called the College, said to have been erected for Oxford students during a prevalence of plague, a handsome ancient cruciform church, beautifully restored in 1867 at a cost of upwards of £4,000, with lofty central tower and spire, a modern church on Woodgreen, four dissenting chapels, a public cemetery with two mortuary chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £63 a year, a blue-coat school with £132, a national school, an athenum, a natural his tory and literary society, two suites of alms houses, a workhouse, aggregate charities £615, a weekly market on Thursday, and 7 annual fairs. The railway goes eastward into junction with the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line at Yarnton; and was opened in Nov. 1861. The blanket manufacture is believed to have derived much of its prosperity from sulphureous properties in the Windrush, giving a peculiar whiteness to the fabrics; but, in consequence of competition in other towns, has considerably declined. Pop. of the town in 1861, 3,458. Houses, 741.

The township is all included in the town, and comprises 188 acres. Real property, £5,100; of which £100 are in gasworks. Pop., 2,989. Houses, 631.—The parish includes Hailey township, and Crawley and Curbridge hamlets; and comprises 7,083 acres. Pop. in 1851, 5,437; in 1861, 5,180. Houses, 1,073. The manor belongs to the Duke of Marlborough. The living is a vicarage and a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £1,290.* Patron, the Bishop of Winchester. The p. curacy of Hailey-cum-Crawley is a separate benefice. A church and a national school are at Curbridge.—The sub-district contains 4 other parishes, part of another , and an extra-parochialtract. Acres, 14,453. Pop., 7,556. Houses, 1,602.—The district comprehends also Ensham, Bampton, and Burford sub-districts; and comprises 70,169 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £13,131. Pop. in 1851, 23,558; in 1861, 23,238. Houses, 5,112. Marriages in 1866, 156; births, 777,-of which 42 were illegitimate; deaths, 480,-of which 137 were at ages under 5 years, and 27 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,597; births, 7,237; deaths, 4,710. The places of worship, in 1851, were 38 of the Church of England, with 11,289 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 652 s.; 10 of Baptists, with 1,603 s.; 3 of Quakers, with 644 s.: 11 of Wesleyans, with 1,897 s.; 8 of Primitive Methodists, with 772 s.; 1 of Brethren, with 150 s.; and 1 undefined, with 60 s. The schools were 33 public day-schools, with 1,997 scholars; 62 private day-schools, with 1,052 s.; 46 Sunday schools, with 3,188 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: Witney AP/CP       Witney SubD       Witney RegD/PLU       Oxfordshire AncC
Place names: WITANEYE     |     WITNEY
Place: Witney

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