Balscote Explained

Country:	England
Static Image Name:	Balscote Church (geograph 4967293).jpg
Static Image Caption:	Parish church of St Mary Magdalene
Label Position:	bottom
Coordinates:	52.078°N -1.427°W
Official Name:	Balscote
Civil Parish:	Wroxton
Shire District:	Cherwell
Shire County:	Oxfordshire
Region:	South East England
Constituency Westminster:	Banbury
Post Town:	Banbury
Postcode District:	OX15
Postcode Area:	OX
Dial Code:	01295
Os Grid Reference:	SP3941
Website:	Wroxton & Balscote Community Web Site

Balscote or Balscott is a village in the civil parish of Wroxton, Oxfordshire, about 4miles west of Banbury. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the place-name as Berescote. Curia regis rolls from 1204 and 1208 record it as Belescot. An entry in the Book of Fees for 1242 records it as Balescot. Its origin is Old English, meaning the cottage, house or manor of a man called Bælli.

Church and chapel

Church of England

The earliest features of the Church of England parish church of St Mary Magdalene include a Norman font and an Early English Gothic window. Most of the present church building is 14th-century, built in a Decorated Gothic style. It is a Grade II* listed building. The parish of St Mary Magdalene is now one of eight in the Ironstone Benefice.^[1]

Methodist chapel

Balscote had a Methodist chapel but this has now been converted into a private home.

Secular buildings

Much of the village is designated as a conservation area, with many of Balscote's buildings being of local Hornton Stone. Priory Farm is a 14th-century hall, extended in the 15th century and modernised in the 17th and 18th centuries. Grange Farm is a 15th- or early 16th-century house, extended and modernised in the 17th and 18th centuries. Both houses may have been built by the owners of nearby Wroxton Abbey.

Balscote has a public house, The Butchers Arms, which is controlled by the Hook Norton Brewery.^[2] In 1996 Balscote Village Hall Trust, a registered charity, started planning and fund-raising to build a community hall.^[3] Building began in October 2010^[4] and was completed in 2011.^[5] It is a timber building.^[6]

Notable residents

• Nicholas de Balscote (died 1320), Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, was born in Balscote.
• Alexander Petit (died 1400), one of the dominant figures in late 14th-century Ireland, was also a native of Balscote. He held many important offices including Bishop of Ossory, Bishop of Meath and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. As was usual at the time he was more commonly referred to, not by his family name, but his birthplace, as Alexander de Balscot. He may have been a relative of Nicholas de Balscote, who is known to have appointed several family members to important positions in Ireland, or they may simply have shared a birthplace.

Bibliography

• Book: Ekwall, Eilert . Eilert Ekwall . 1936 . 1960 . Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names . 4th . Oxford . . 0198691033 . Balscott.
• Book: Lobel . Mary D . Mary Lobel . Crossley . Alan . 1969 . Wroxton . A History of the County of Oxford . 9: Bloxham Hundred . . London . . 978-0-19722-726-8 . 171–188 .
• Book: O'Flanagan, J Roderick . 1870 . Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland . Dublin . .
• Book: Sherwood . Jennifer . Pevsner . Nikolaus . Nikolaus Pevsner . 1974 . Oxfordshire . . Harmondsworth . . 0-14-071045-0 . 428–429 .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Welcome to the eight Churches of the Ironstone Benefice in North Oxfordshire. . The Ironstone Benefice . 24 June 2019.
2. Web site: Butchers Arms, Balscote . . 24 June 2019.
3. Web site: Balscote Village website . 17 March 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100125215511/http://www.balscote.com/ . 25 January 2010 . dead .
4. News: Long fight ends as work begins . . . 21 October 2010 .
5. News: Balscote, Oxfordshire opens village hall. BBC News . 3 June 2011 .
6. Web site: Balscote . Timberworks Europe . pdf .