Steeple Aston - <>

Steeple Aston is a village and civil parish on the edge of the Cherwell Valley in Oxfordshire, England, about 7mi west of Bicester and 10mi south of Banbury. In 1988, parts of the village were designated a conservation area.HistoryThe earliest evidence of occupation in the area is an Iron Age burial site in the west of the parish near Hopcroft's Holt.The Domesday Book of 1086 records Steeple Aston as Estone, derived from East Tun meaning "east village". By 1220 it was Stipelestun, with the "steeple" prefix probably referring to the church tower.The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Odo, Bishop of Bayeux was overlord of the manor of Steeple Aston.The Holt Hotel at Hopcroft's Holt, about south-west of the village on the A4260 main road began as a coaching inn in 1475. It was frequented by the 17th century highwayman Claude Duval who is said to haunt it. In 1754 the licensee and his wife at Hopcroft's Holt were murdered. In 1774 the inn at Hopcroft's Holt was called the King's Arms.The village has several 17th-century buildings from the Great Rebuilding of England. The School formerly occupied a building in North Side built in 1640. Next to it are Radcliffe's Almshouses which Brasenose College founded in the 1660s. In South Side, Grange Cottage is early 17th century and Manor Farm House is late 17th century.

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