19 Dec
Wooden window
Witney - OX29
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Burford
Burford is a tiny medieval town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hillsides, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is usually referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located 18 miles (29 km) west of Oxford and 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Cheltenham, concerning 2 miles (3 km) from the Gloucestershire limit. The toponym stems from the Old English words burh implying fortified community or hilltown as well as ford, the going across of a river. The 2011 Census recorded the population of Burford parish as 1,410 as well as Burford Ward as 1,847. The town centre's most remarkable building is the Church of St John the Baptist, a Church of England parish church, which is a Grade I listed structure. Defined by David Verey as "a challenging structure which has actually established in an interested way from the Norman", it is understood for its merchants' guild chapel, memorial to Henry VIII's barber-surgeon, Edmund Harman, featuring South American Indians and Kempe stained glass. In 1649 the church was used as a jail during the Civil War, when the New Model Army Banbury mutineers were held there. Some of the 340 prisoners left makings and graffiti, which still endure in the church. The town centre also has some 15th-century houses and also the baroque design townhouse that is now Burford Methodist Church. Between the 14th as well as 17th centuries Burford was necessary for its wool trade. The Tolsey, midway along Burford's High Street, which was when the prime focus for profession, is now a museum.
