Wroxton

"WROXTON, a parish in the hundred of Bloxham, county Oxford, 25 miles N.W. of Oxford, and 3 from Banbury. The parish includes the hamlet and chapelry of Balscot, and had formerly an Austin priory founded in the reign of Henry III. for a prior and six canons, the revenue of which at the Dissolution was £78 14s. 8.5d. On its suppression part of the buildings were demolished, and the demesne given to Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College, Oxford, but in 1618 the structure was rebuilt by William Pope, first Earl of Downe, in which some arches and other remains of the original building are incorporated. This mansion, the seat of Lieutenant-Colonel and the Baroness North, contains a collection of family portraits. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, value, with the curacy of Balscot annexed, £137. The church, dedicated to All Saints, occupies elevated ground near the abbey. At the W. end of the nave is an old font with figures of six of the apostles, and in the chancel is an altar tomb of alabaster, with recumbent effigies of Sir W. Pope, Earl of Downe, and his lady, in the costume of the early part of the 17th century, also monuments to the earls of Guilford and to the Norths, including one to Lord North the premier. There is also a chapel-of-ease at Balscot. The Wesleyans and Independents have chapels, and there are National schools. The charities produce about £35, chiefly the produce of church lands."

"BALSCOTT, a chapelry in the parish of Wroxton, and hundred of Bloxham, in the county of Oxford, 4 miles to the N.W. of Banbury. The living is a perpetual curacy attached to the vicarage of Wroxton, in the diocese of Oxford. The name of this chapelry, which at full length is Beletscott, is derived from Michael Belet, who lived in the early part of the 13th century, and founded a priory at Wroxton."

[The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]