RAF Bampton 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.

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.

Bampton, also called Bampton-in-the-Bush, is a settlement and civil parish in the Thames Valley about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) southwest of Witney in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Weald. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,564. Bampton is variously referred to as both a town and a village. The Domesday Book recorded that it was a market town by 1086. It continued as such until the 1890s. It has both a town hall and a village hall.

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.

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.

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.

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.

St Hugh's School is a preparatory school near Faringdon in Oxfordshire. The school is co-educational, day and boarding, offering both weekly and flexi-boarding, and has 350 pupils aged 3 to 13 years.

Carswell Manor is a Jacobean country house at Carswell in the civil parish of Buckland in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire). It is just north of the A420 road between Swindon and Oxford.

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.