Bampton, Oxfordshire

Bampton Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Square in Bampton, Oxfordshire, England. The building, which is primarily used as a arts centre, is a Grade II listed building.

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is the Church of England parish church of Bampton, West Oxfordshire. It is in the Archdeaconry of Dorchester in the Diocese of Oxford. The church was built in the 10th or 11th century as an Anglo-Saxon minster with a tower. In the 12th century it was rebuilt as a cruciform Norman building centred on a crossing under the tower. Gothic additions to the church were made several times in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The church is a Grade I listed building.

Bampton Castle was in the village of Bampton, Oxfordshire (grid reference SP310031). Differing accounts of its origin exist. One states that in about 1142 AD during the reign of Stephen, Matilda built a motte castle. According to other sources the castle was built in 1314–15, during the reign of Edward II, by Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who obtained a licence from the king to "make a castle of his house at Bampton."The castle is mentioned in Skelton's, Antiquities of Oxfordshire, where he states that the castle was four-sided, with a tower at each corner and a fortified gatehouse on the eastern and western sides and corbelled out turrets for additional fortification. The last known account of the castle intact is from Woods manuscript, preserved at Ashmolean Museum, wherein he states that when he visited the castle on the September 7, 1664, nearly the entire western side was intact.The castle was demolished before 1789 but parts of its structure have been incorporated into a house, Ham Court, which is a Grade II* listed building.There used to be an RAF communications station nearby which was called RAF Bampton Castle.The castle (as it was in the 1360s) is the primary setting for the fictional medieval mystery series written by Mel Starr, the first of which is "The Unquiet Bones, the first chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon.""Bampton Castle" was the name of the telephone exchange in the village. It was presumably so named in order to reduce confusion with telephone exchanges for other places in Britain called "Bampton" (which did not have castles). The exchange still exists, serving Bampton and neighbouring villages. Its location is not particularly close to the old castle.

Weald is a hamlet in Bampton civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It lies about 0.7 miles (1.1 km) southwest of Bampton. The toponym Weald is from the Old English for "woodland". The place was recorded by name in the late 12th century when Osney Abbey acquired a house there. It was a separate township by the 13th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries the township included much of the southwest part of the town of Bampton itself. A large late 17th century manor house, Weald Manor, was remodelled at around 1730. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Royal Air Force Bampton Castle or RAF Bampton Castle is a former non-flying Royal Air Force station near Bampton Castle, Oxfordshire. The base was established by the Royal Corps of Signals in 1939 and handed over to the RAF in 1969. It was the home of No. 2 and No. 81 Signal Units, which dealt with high frequency radio communications. Day-to-day operations were overseen (parented in RAF speak) by RAF Brize Norton due to the larger base's proximity to Bampton Castle and that Brize was the home of No. 38 Group Tactical Communications Wing (and successors until 2006).The station closed progressively between 2003 and 2006 when the RAF's high frequency communications system was replaced by the Defence High Frequency Communications Service. Approximately seventy-two masts were removed in December 2003 and the final two removed in 2015. The site is now in use as a business centre.

Brize Norton and Bampton railway station was a railway station 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Brize Norton on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway between Oxford and Fairford. The station had two stone-built platforms, a station building and a goods shed.

Rushey Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England. It is on the northern bank of the river in Oxfordshire, at a considerable distance from any village, the nearest being Buckland Marsh, a hamlet on the road to Buckland to the south of the river. The lock was built in stone in 1790 by the Thames Navigation Commission. The weir is adjacent to the lock on the other side of the lock island.

Lew is a village and civil parish about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) southwest of Witney in the West Oxfordshire District of Oxfordshire, England. The 2001 Census recorded the parish population as 65. Since 2012 the parish has been part of the Curbridge and Lew joint parish council area, sharing a parish council with the adjacent civil parish of Curbridge.

Aston is a village about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The village is part of the civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney. The southern boundary of the parish is the River Thames. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,374.

Old Man's Bridge is a wooden footbridge across the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England. It is situated on the reach above Rushey Lock, a short way downstream of Radcot Lock. There was formerly a weir known as Old Man's Weir, or alternatively Harper's Weir, which had a footpath across it. This was an important crossing because it linked several towns. The weir had disappeared by 1868 but the bridge was still standing then as there were complaints about its poor state of repair. The weir piles were then removed and a new footbridge built. This bridge was also called the "High" bridge. By 1894 this "steep trestle with five openings had become unsafe and the present bridge was built."The original weir is not to be confused with "Old Nan's Weir" which was another weir downstream about a mile from Rushey Lock. Although the lock was built in 1790, the weir was not removed until 1868.

Tadpole Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, carrying a road between Bampton to the north and Buckland to the south. It crosses the Thames on the reach above Shifford Lock. It is a Grade II listed building. The bridge dates from the late 18th century, the earliest reference to it being in 1784. It is built of stone, and consists of one large arch. There is a public house near Tadpole Bridge called The Trout. Thacker noted that at one time the legend over the door read "The Trout, kept by A. Herring". The Trout is now a hotel and gastropub. The Thames Path crosses Tadpole Bridge.

Radcot Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England just downstream of Radcot, Oxfordshire, on the southern bank. The lock was built by the Thames Conservancy in 1892 on the site of an old weir and flash lock. The weir is on the other side of the lock island.