Great Rollright

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Great Rollright
Oxfordshire

St Andrew's parish church
Location
Grid reference: SP323312
Location: 51°58’42"N, 1°31’50"W
Data
Post town: Chipping Norton
Postcode: OX7
Dialling code: 01608
Local Government
Council: West Oxfordshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
Witney
Website: "Rollright Review"

Great Rollright is a village and ancient parish in the very west of Oxfordshire, about two and a half miles north of Chipping Norton.

The village has a Church of England primary school.[1]

History

The former Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, part of the Great Western Railway, was completed in 1881. The line had a small railway station, Rollright Halt, half a mile south of Great Rollright. British Railways closed the halt in 1951 and the railway in 1964.

The village's former pub, The Unicorn Inn,[2] was controlled by Hunt Edmunds Brewery of Banbury until the company was taken over in the 1960s; it ceased trading in the late 1980s.

On the 23 December 1944, a United States Army Air Force, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (43-38812) was on a flight from RAF Portreath to RAF Glatton. The aircraft crashed while descending in darkness and fog 2 miles North of Great Rollright, killing 8 of the 9 crew.[3][4]

In 1931 the parish had a population of 289. In 1932 the civil parish of Rollright was formed from those of Great and Little Rollright.

Landmarks

The megalithic Rollright Stones are about a mile and a half west of Great Rollright, near the Warwickshire village of Long Compton.

The Church of England parish church, St Andrew has Norman,[5][6] Early Gothic,[6] Decorated Gothic[5] and Perpendicular Gothic[6] features. St Andrew's was restored in 1852 under the direction of the Oxford Diocesan Architect, George Edmund Street.[6] St Andrew's is a Grade I listed building.[7] The west tower has a ring of six bells.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Rollright Great Rollright)

References