Bicester Village

Bicester Village (2015–present, previously Bicester Town 1987–2014, Bicester London Road 1954–1968, Bicester 1850–1954) is one of two railway stations serving the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire (the other is Bicester North). It is 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Oxford on the Oxford-Bedford line near its junction with the Chiltern Main Line. The renamed Bicester Village station reopened on 25 October 2015 with trains initially running between Oxford Parkway and London Marylebone. All trains serving it are operated by Chiltern Railways.

Bicester Avenue Home and Garden Centre is a shopping centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, that opened in May 2007. Some of the stores at Bicester Avenue include Bicester Avenue Garden Centre, owned by Blue Diamond Garden Centres, World of Water tropical fish shop, Lakeland and Cotswold Outdoor. The large garden centre contains a soft play area for children. Bicester Avenue is located just south of Bicester and south of the much larger outlet centre Bicester Village on the A41 towards Oxford. It is within walking distance of Bicester Village.

Bicester ( BIST-ər) is a historical market town, garden town, and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in south-central England that also comprises an eco town development at North West Bicester and a self-build village at Graven Hill. Its local market continues to thrive and is now located on Sheep Street, a very wide pedestrian zone in the conservation area of the town. Bicester is also known for Bicester Village, a nearby shopping centre. Bicester has expanded rapidly in recent generations due to the town's picturesque historical town centre, garden town, independent and high-street shops, restaurants, and excellent rail connections to Oxford and its imminent connection to Cambridge, as well as rail links to Birmingham and London. It is similarly proximate to Brackley, Buckingham, Banbury, Milton Keynes, and Aylesbury. A considerable volume of high quality and environmentally friendly housing stock has been constructed recently, in particular at the Elmsbrook eco-town and the self-build homes at Graven Hill. Its flat topography and compact size is suited to walking and cycling, which, together with an active cycle campaign, has attracted a significant focus on developing improved active travel infrastructure, including the majority of a recent £14 million central government award to Oxfordshire County Council dedicated to safer walking and cycling.Bicester has its own town council. In 2014 the government, in concert with the local planning authority, planned for Bicester to become a garden city on the basis of the size of its buffers, and distance from the Metropolitan Green Belt as well as to accommodate the demand of commuters to London and Oxford. Up to 13,000 new homes will be built.

The Bicester School (previously Bicester Community College) is a mixed, multi-heritage, secondary school, with 963 students (including a sixth form). It is situated in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, and occupies a 32-acre (130,000 m2) site leading off Queens Avenue. The school's sports facilities are used by Bicester Athletic Club, which has been awarded National Lottery funding to add all-weather surfaces to the sports field's jumping and throwing event areas.

Bicester North ( BIST-ər) is a station on the Chiltern Main Line, one of two stations serving Bicester in Oxfordshire. Services operated by Chiltern Railways run south to London Marylebone and north to Banbury, Birmingham Snow Hill and Stratford-upon-Avon. Bicester North is one of Bicester's two stations. The other is Bicester Village on the Oxford to London Marylebone Line.

Wendlebury Halt was a railway station on the Varsity Line, located 0.5 miles (800 m) east of the village of Wendlebury in Alchester. The London and North Western Railway opened the halt in 1905 and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway closed it in 1926.

Bure Park is a 8.4-hectare (21-acre) Local Nature Reserve in Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is owned by Bicester Town Council and managed by Cherwell District Council.The River Bure runs through the park and supplies water to a pond which has great crested newts. Habitats include grassland, scrub, broadleaved woodland and hedges.

The Cooper School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the northern side of Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Alchester is the site of an ancient Roman town. The site is not included in any ancient references; hence, the Roman name is not known. However, Eilert Ekwall contended that it appears as Alavna in the Ravenna Cosmography, with the addition of the Old English ceaster to signify a Roman fort. It lies about 2 miles (3 km) south of Bicester, in the northwest corner of the civil parish of Wendlebury in the English county of Oxfordshire.Alchester had a strategic location in Roman Britain at a crossroads on the Silchester–Dorchester on Thames–Towcester road and the Cirencester–St Albans road (Akeman Street). Recent excavations have shown that it was the site of one of the earliest legionary fortresses in Roman Britain after the invasion of 43 AD. The site has been the subject of investigation since 1996, firstly under the auspices of Oxford University Archaeological Society, then under those of the University of Leicester and the University of Edinburgh.

Chesterton is a village and civil parish on Gagle Brook, a tributary of the Langford Brook in north Oxfordshire. The village is about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) southwest of the market town of Bicester. The village has sometimes been called Great Chesterton to distinguish it from the hamlet of Little Chesterton, about 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) to the south in the same parish. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 850.

Bicester Aerodrome, formerly RAF Bicester, is a private airfield on the outskirts of the English town of Bicester in Oxfordshire. Dating back to 1916, it is notable as the location of the first flight of the prototype Handley Page Halifax in 1939. It was originally established as a military airfield, used by Royal Air Force until 2004. Historic England notes that Bicester Aerodrome is: "The most complete and strongly representative example of an RAF airbase from the interwar expansion, built as a bomber station as part of the 1920s Home Defence Expansion Scheme."The airfield consists of 400 acres (160 ha) of well-drained short-mown grass, with two mown grass runways of 06/24 (650 m (2,133 ft)) and 16/34 (790 m (2,592 ft)) long. The airfield surface is bumpy in places, due to collapsing field drains, requiring care on the part of pilots operating aircraft in those areas.

Caversfield is a village and civil parish about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) north of the centre of Bicester. In 1844 Caversfield became part of Oxfordshire, but until then it was always an exclave of Buckinghamshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,788.