I have accumulated a selection of resource materials during my years of research, a number of which are now no longer needed. I am therefore selling the items listed below.

Postage and packing costs quoted below are for delivery within the UK – overseas buyers please contact me for delivery costs.

 
 

The ‘Bawdy Court’ of Banbury: The Act Book of the Peculiar Court of Banbury 1625-1638

Price: £15.00 + £4.00 P&P

Transcribed and Calendared by the late E.R.C. Brinkworth. Edited by R.K. Gilkes. Published by the Banbury Historical Society (Vol. 26), 1997. ISBN 0 900129 24 7. Paperback, 256 pages. Indexed by name and place.

The ‘bawdy court’ was the derogatory name commonly given to the church courts, much of whose business was concerned with the detection and punishment of ‘incontinency’.

There is a very small crease to the back cover, and the spine is slightly creased, otherwise this book is in near-new condition.

 
 

Adderbury – A Thousand Years of History. By Nicholas Allen with Adderbury History Association

Price: £12.00 + £4.00 P&P

Phillimore/Banbury Historical Society Vol 25. Published 1995. 144 pages. ISBN 0 85033 994 4

This book is in excellent condition. The only noticeable wear and tear is to the top right-hand corners of the book which are slightly dented.

Extract from the sleeve:

“Adderbury first entered the pages of recorded history a thousand years ago in an Anglo-Saxon charter, as one of two estates bequeathed by Wynflaed, lady of noble birth, to her grandson Eadwold. The only previous history of Adderbury was written by the Rev. Henry Gepp, its vicar from 1874-1913. Like most Victorian parsons, he concentrated on the church and the gentry, with scant regard for the ordinary people who lived, worked and played in the village. This new history aims to redress the balance.

The book covers a wide spectrum of village life, particularly well recorded after William of Wykeham gave the manor in 1381 to his New College in Oxford as part of its original endowment. The annual ‘progress’ made by the Warden of New College, together with the records of the manorial court, the Feoffees, Parish Vestry and benefit clubs, all throw vivid light on the life of Adderbury in its earlier centuries. The development of schools in the village, since 1599, is examined.

From the 17th century onwards, nonconformist feelings were very strong in the village. Some villagers became Quakers very early in that movement’s history and, by 1675, Bray Doyley, a wealthy landowner, had built the Friends Meeting House that still stands.

The economic life of the village is not neglected and, in addition to the basic farming activities, the development of the roads and bridges is discussed, together with the coming of the canal and then the railway and their effect on the local ironstone industry. At play, with its annual parades and fairs, Adderbury has a lively social tradition, evidenced not least by the large number of pubs it has sustained over the centuries – and still does! Finally, the book updates Henry Gepp by telling of the big houses of the gentry, and the families themselves, plus the story of the church said by Sir John Betjeman to be the finest parish church in the country.

This new history, the result of much recent research and close collaboration with the Adderbury Historical Association, will be warmly welcomed throughout the area.”