Classic VCH account of Witney and its rural townships of Crawley, Curbridge and Hailey; the Windrush valley.

This volume comprises a history of the large west Oxfordshire town of Witney and its rural townships of Crawley, Curbridge, and Hailey, an area of over 7,000 acres derived from a large, late Anglo-Saxon estate. Witney, probably the site of the Anglo-Saxon estate centre, was redesigned as a planned `new town' in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century; from the seventeenth century it was widely known for its blanket industry, and became a centre of religious non-conformity. The town's origins, buildings, and physical development are fully discussed, together with its economic, social and religious history. The Windrush valley is also covered - an area of scattered woodland settlements and nucleated villages with open fields; early inclosure was probably in connection with the wool trade and Witney's cloth industry. Important sites discussed include the medieval Witney park, Caswell House, near the siteof a deserted medieval settlement, and the bishop of Winchester's recently excavated `palace' at Witney.
SIMON TOWNLEY is editor, Victoria History of Oxford.