Search all England
Places to stay in Islip
Islip was probably first settled in Saxon times. Its position on the
edge of the Bernwood Forest made it a likely site for a royal hunting
lodge and this may be why Edward the Confessor was born here in or around
1005 and later commemorated in the Confessor's Chapel.
During the Civil War, Islip was of strategic importance due to its proximity
to the Cherwell and in 1645 occupying Royalist troops were routed by Cromwell
at the Battle of Islip Bridge. The village remained in Cromwell's hands
through the siege of Oxford in 1646. During the Monmouth Rebellion in
1685, it was again occupied by government forces to secure the Western
approach to London. The present bridge was constructed in 1878.
In the eighteenth century, Islip developed as an important staging post
on the main London to Worcester coaching route with many of the current
houses still bearing the names of its numerous inns. It was also on the
Oxford to Buckingham route during winter months, when Gosford Bridge was
impassable. The building of the Oxford Canal in 1790 led to a rapid decline
in the village's importance as a coaching post. Islip then briefly became
a thriving railway centre in the middle of the nineteenth century, with
the original terminus for the planned Oxford to Bletchley service being
built here in 1850. Once the station at Oxford Rewley Road was built,
the line was used for LNWR's Oxford and Worcester expresses to London
with a stopping service from Oxford to Cambridge following soon afterwards.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the line became largely dedicated
to commuter services between Oxford and Bicester, with Islip one of seven
stations between the two. The smaller stations were closed in 1926 and
the service completely withdrawn in 1967 (though re-opened in 1989). Thus
ended Islip's brief history as a busy coaching, then rail post, allowing
it to revert to its more natural role of being one of the most beautiful
and peaceful villages in this most beautiful and peaceful part of Oxfordshire.
read more