46-627: Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire , England. It is 12 miles (19 km) west of Oxford . The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as Wyttannige in a Saxon charter of 969. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Witenie , in the ancient hundred of Bampton. The Church of England parish church of St Mary
92-504: A by-election held on 20 October 2016, in which Robert Courts was elected for the Conservatives. Courts was re-elected in 2017. For elections to Oxfordshire County Council Witney is covered by the electoral wards of 'Witney North and East' and 'Witney South and Central'. The west of the town is included in the ward of 'Witney West and Bampton' which includes villages of Bampton and Ducklington . The wards were created in 2013, with
138-580: A safe seat for the Conservative Party . Former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and former leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister David Cameron were both MPs for Witney. In the 1997 General Election , Shaun Woodward stood and won the seat as a Conservative, after Hurd retired. Woodward switched to the Labour Party in 1999. In the 2001 General Election Woodward stood as the Labour candidate in
184-709: A Gothic Revival rendition of Early English Gothic . St Mary the Virgin and Holy Trinity are now members of a single team parish. The Friends Meeting House in Wood Green was built in the 18th century. Since 1997 Quakers in Witney have met at the Corn Exchange . The Methodist church in the High Street was built in 1850. It is now one of five Methodist churches and chapels in Witney. The Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady and Saint Hugh
230-434: A day, 7 days a week with over 30 presenters from the local area. The station also broadcasts online for listeners online via TuneIn . An Internet radio station, Windrush Radio, was established in 2018. It broadcasts mostly pop and electronic music in the daytime, but has a number of hosts that present specific genres, including a showcase of local artists. Windrush Radio has announced plans to broadcast over DAB radio , and
276-575: A number of recording studios. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Oxford on 95.2 FM, Heart South on 102.6 FM, and Greatest Hits Radio South on 106.4 FM. On 30 November 2012 Witney Radio was launched, providing hyper-local news, music and current affairs to the people of Witney and West Oxfordshire. A licence to broadcast on FM radio was granted in April 2016 by the licensing authority Ofcom . On 14 July 2017 Witney Radio began to broadcast on 99.9fm to Witney and West Oxfordshire. The station broadcasts 24 hours
322-510: A reason to reopen the railway. In 2021 WOT Group submitted a bid to the Department for Transport's 'Restoring Your Railway' Ideas Fund for a grant to develop the case for a new railway in the A40 corridor 'Building a better-connected West Oxfordshire, transforming the wider Oxford economic region' as part of an Oxford Metro advocated by Railfuture . Witney has four museums. Cogges Manor Farm Museum , in
368-416: A silk covering. The term blanket is often interchanged with comforter , quilt , and duvet , as they all have similar uses. Blankets have been used by militaries for many centuries. Militaries are some of the biggest single consumers of woolen blankets. Military blankets tend to be coarse grey, with thick fibers of over 20 microns . Special blankets known as baby blankets are used to protect infants from
414-612: A small-scale radio multiplex license has been submitted to Ofcom. The local newspapers are the Oxford Times , Oxfordshire Guardian and Witney Gazette . Notable people associated with Witney include: River Windrush The River Windrush is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Snowshill in Gloucestershire and flows south east for 65 km (40 mi) via Burford and Witney to meet
460-404: A total of 12 district councillors. As of 2023 the majority of Witney town councillors represent The Labour Party. The Mayor of Witney for 2023 is The Labour Party's Owen Collins, along with Deputy Mayor Georgia Meadows. Witney is twinned with: In July 2007 Witney saw its worst flooding in more than 50 years. Homes and businesses were evacuated and Bridge Street, a major road into the town and
506-584: A vital and important part of the town's history, has now been demolished, and is the site of several new housing estates. One of the oldest mill sites in the town, New Mill, where there has been a mill since the Domesday Book , now houses the head office of Audley Travel . For many years Witney had its own brewery and maltings : J.W. Clinch and Co , which founded the Eagle Maltings in 1841. In 1961, Courage bought Clinch's for its pub estate and closed down
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#1732848161619552-587: A woolen material made from sheep or goat's hair. He categorized it as a kind of material for clothing. The Sanskrit meaning of Kambala is 'a woolen blanket." According to India's ancient text, the Atharvaveda , kambala is a generic term for materials such as shawls and blankets. Known as "Kambali" in Kannada and Tamil, these thick coarse blankets are woven with sheep wool whose texture is extremely coarse and thick to provide adequate warmth in winter. Pandu-Kambala
598-425: Is independent of Oxfordshire Local Education Authority . It was founded by Oxfordshire Community Churches, an evangelical Christian organisation, in 1984. Cokethorpe School is an independent secondary school, founded in 1957. St. Mary's School beside Church Green was established in 1813. It was a Church of England primary school but in 1953 it became a Church of England controlled School for Infant children, and
644-521: Is part of the same school as Springfield secondary School. Springfield school (Primary) shares a building with Madley Brook Primary, but aside from sharing a building, some resources and integration, the schools run independently of one another. The former Witney Technical College is now part of Abingdon and Witney College . A complete rebuilding of its premises began in September 2008. Witney United Football Club , formerly known as Witney Town and nicknamed
690-504: Is −20.7c(−5.3f), recorded in January 1982. In a more typical year the annual minimum temperature should be −8.1c(17.4f), although a total of 47.1 nights should report an air frost. Rainfall averages slightly under 644mm per year with more than 1mm of rain falling on just under 115 days of the year. The town receives its television signals from the Oxford TV transmitter . In May 2010, WitneyTV
736-520: The Decorated style. In the 15th century the south transept was extended and the present west window of the nave were added in the Perpendicular style. The tower has a peal of eight bells. The tower of the church is 69 feet (21 metres) high, topped by a tall and slender spire, which brings the total height of the church to 154 feet (47 metres). Holy Trinity Church, Wood Green , was built in 1849 in
782-810: The England Hockey Men's Conference East division and its ladies' first XI plays in South Clubs' Women's Hockey League Division 3A. Witney Swifts Cricket Club first XI plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division Three. Witney Wolves Basketball Club plays in the Oxford and Chiltern Basketball League. The Toleman Group Motorsport racing team was once based in Witney until it was rebranded Benetton Formula in 1986. The team itself stayed in Witney until 1992 when they moved to Enstone eventually being rebranded in 2002 as Renault F1 when
828-721: The St Helens South constituency, and David Cameron retook Witney for the Conservatives. He became Prime Minister in coalition with the Liberal Democrats in May 2010 and continued after the 2015 election, in which the Conservative Party gained a majority, but retired to the backbenches after the referendum that rejected his government's recommendation to remain in the European Union. He stood down as an MP soon afterwards, triggering
874-426: The comprehensive Henry Box School. In 1970 new school buildings were added to the original 17th-century premises beside Church Green. Wood Green School was founded in 1954 and is at the top of Woodstock Road. Springfield School was founded in 1967 and is a special-needs school for pupils with severe learning difficulties . Springfield School senior section is a self-contained unit, with some shared facilities, within
920-408: The market square is so called because people from neighbouring towns would gather there to buy butter and eggs. It was built in about 1600 and its clock was added in 1683. Witney Town Hall , which is arcaded on the ground floor and has an assembly room on the first floor, was completed in 1786. Witney has long been an important crossing over the River Windrush . The architect Thomas Wyatt rebuilt
966-623: The 13th-century manor house and farm of Cogges , represents farming and countryside history. Witney and District Museum has many artefacts and documents representing the history of the town. Witney Blanket Hall, built in the 18th century, showcases both the history of the Hall and of Witney's blanket industry and has Witney blankets for sale. The Wychwood Brewery has a museum open at weekends. Witney has three county secondary schools: Henry Box School , Wood Green School and Springfield School. In 1660 Henry Box founded Witney Grammar School . In 1968 it became
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#17328481616191012-593: The 1980s. Its waters were used in cloth and woollen blanket making in Witney from mid 17th century. In 2007, it was among many of the district's rivers to flood . It flooded generally but perhaps most acutely in Witney, whose only bridge across the river was submerged. Some decline has been noted, especially in years of release of untreated sewage from plants of Thames Water. The river after drier spells sees algae formations. The ship HMT Empire Windrush , synonymous with postwar immigration of West Indian people to
1058-680: The Blanketmen, played in the Hellenic League Premier Division, until they dissolved in the 2012–2013 season. Witney and District League is a local association football league with about 32 clubs in five divisions. Witney Rugby Football Club first XV plays in the RFU South West 1 East. Wychwood Ladies Hockey Club's first team play in the Trysport Hockey League Division 1; Witney Hockey Club men's first XI plays in
1104-571: The British Isles, with evenly spread rainfall, a narrow temperature range, and comparatively low sunshine totals. The nearest official weather station is Brize Norton , about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Witney. The absolute maximum recorded was 35.4c(95.7f) in August 1990, although in a typical year the warmest day should only reach 29.5c(85.1f) with an average of 14.6 days reporting a maximum temperature of 25.1c(77.2f) or above. The absolute minimum
1150-630: The EGR completely and withdrew passenger services from the Witney Railway. In 1970 British Railways closed the Witney Railway completely and it was dismantled. In 2015 Witney Oxford Transport Group (WOT) proposed the reopening of the railway, with a station at Witney, as an alternative to improvements to the A40 road proposed by Oxfordshire County Council . In 2016 WOT and West Oxfordshire Green Party cited chronic traffic congestion on roads linking Witney with Oxford as
1196-535: The First World War the workhouse held prisoners of war . In 1940 the workhouse was converted into Crawford Collets engineering factory under the direction of Leonard Frank Eve. The chapel was made the factory canteen. In 1979 Crawford Collets had the main buildings demolished and replaced with a modern factory, but preserved the entrance gate and former chapel. In 2004 the modern factory was demolished for redevelopment. The gate and chapel have again been preserved and
1242-771: The Junior children transferred to the Batt School premises. Witney now has two Church of England primary schools: The Batt School in Corn Street and The Blake School in Cogges Hill Road. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School is a Roman Catholic school founded in 1958. Witney has five community primary schools : Madley Park Community Primary School, Queen's Dyke Primary School, Tower Hill Community Primary School, West Witney Primary School and Witney Community Primary School. It also has one SEN primary school, Springfield School, which
1288-708: The Thames at Newbridge in Oxfordshire . The river gives its name to the village of Windrush in Gloucestershire. The Windrush starts in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire northeast of Taddington , which is north of Guiting Power , Temple Guiting , Ford and Cutsdean . It flows for about 35 miles (56 km): through Bourton-on-the-Water , by the village of Windrush, Gloucestershire, into Oxfordshire and through Burford, Witney, Ducklington and Standlake . It meets
1334-580: The Thames at Newbridge upstream of Northmoor Lock . The river-name Windrush is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 779, where it appears as Uuenrisc . It appears as Wenris and Wænric in charters of 949, and Wenríc in one of 969. The name means 'white fen', from the Welsh gwyn and the Old Celtic reisko . The river may still host trout , grayling , perch , chub , roach and dace . It held good populations of native crayfish until at least
1380-469: The UK, was named after the river. Blanket A blanket is a swath of soft cloth large enough either to cover or to enfold most of the user's body and thick enough to keep the body warm by trapping radiant body heat that otherwise would be lost through conduction . The term arose from the generalization of a specific fabric called blanke , a heavily napped undyed woolen weave. A popular theory has that
1426-464: The Virgin was originally Norman . The north porch and north aisle were added in this style late in the 12th century, and survived a major rebuilding in about 1243. In this rebuilding the present chancel , transepts , tower and spire were added and the nave was remodelled, all in the Early English style. In the 14th century a number of side chapels and some of the present windows were added in
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1472-508: The backs of animals like horses, elephants, and bullocks. Many types of blanket material, such as wool , are used because they are thicker and have more substantial fabric to them, but cotton can also be used for light blankets. Wool blankets are warmer and also relatively slow to burn compared to cotton. The most common types of blankets are woven acrylic, knitted polyester, mink , cotton, fleece and wool. Blankets also come with exotic crafting and exotic material such as crocheted afghan or
1518-564: The brewery. Paddy Glenny founded the Glenny Brewery at the former Clinch's site in 1983, but it was renamed to Wychwood Brewery in 1990. Wychwood brewed real ales , including Hobgoblin , its flagship brand . Refresh UK, a subsidiary of Marston's Brewery , took over the brewery in 2002, and Marston's bought Refresh UK and Wychwood Brewery outright in 2008. Marston's brewing operations, including Wychwood Brewery, were merged into Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company in 2020 , and Wychwood Brewery
1564-523: The bridge in Bridge Street in 1822. Witney workhouse was on Razor Hill (now Tower Hill). It was designed by the architect George Wilkinson and built in 1835–36. It had four wings radiating from an octagonal central building, similar to the Chipping Norton workhouse, which also was built by Wilkinson. His younger brother William Wilkinson added a separate chapel to Witney Workhouse in 1860. In
1610-471: The former chapel converted into offices. Witney has been famous for its woollen blankets since the Middle Ages. The water for the production of these blankets is drawn from the River Windrush , which was believed to be the secret of Witney's high-quality blankets. The cloth industry dominated life in Witney where one 17th-century observer noted that "almost 3,000 people from 8 years old to old age worked" in
1656-493: The grounds of Wood Green School. Wood Green was substantially expanded from 2000 to 2004; an additional block with 15 teaching rooms was added, together with a purpose-built sixth form centre, school restaurant and new AstroTurf pitch. 2009 saw part of the old Lower School being remodelled to provide new changing and shower facilities for the AstroTurf pitch and its many users from local community sports clubs. The King's School
1702-503: The manufacture of blankets. Mops were also traditionally made by the blanket manufacturers; at one time every ship in the Royal Navy had Witney mops aboard. The Blanket Hall in High Street was built in 1721 for weighing and measuring blankets. At one time there were five blanket factories in the town but with the closure of the largest blanket maker Early's, in 2002, the town's blanket industry completely ceased production. Early's factory, once
1748-519: The name derives from an eponymous Thomas Blanket (Blanquette), a Flemish weaver who lived in Bristol , England , in the 14th century. However, earlier usage of the term is possible as a borrowing of the Old French word blanket for the type of fabric, attested as early as 1278 and deriving from the adjective blanc , meaning "white". William Shakespeare is recognised as the first person to use
1794-477: The new Witney South and Central won by the Labour Party and the other two wards won by the Conservatives. At the 2021 Oxfordshire County Council election Labour held Witney South and Central and gained Witney North and East from the Conservatives. For elections to West Oxfordshire District Council Witney is divided into the wards of Witney Central, Witney East, Witney North, Witney South and Witney West electing
1840-463: The only road across the Windrush , was closed. About 200 properties in central Witney were flooded, with areas around Bridge Street, Mill Street and West End the worst affected. The new and incomplete housing development Aquarius also suffered substantial flooding. In 2008 further flooding contributed to the death of a 17-year-old boy who drowned in a culvert. Witney has a maritime climate type typical to
1886-696: The team was purchased by the French Renault car company. The team competed as Renault F1 until 2011, when it was again rebranded this time under the "Lotus Renault GP" name after forging a partnership with the British Lotus Cars company. The subsequent year the team became Lotus F1 after they dropped the Renault name. The team was later re-purchased by Renault in late 2015 to become the Renault Sport F1 Team for 2016. Witney was, until recently,
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1932-442: The verb blanket , meaning to 'cover with or as with a blanket'. In the play King Lear , published in 1608, the character Edgar says: "My face ile grime with filth, Blanket my loynes, else all my haire with knots." An ancient form of blanket is recorded as "Kambala" . The 7th century Chinese traveler and scholar Xuanzang mentioned the stuff in his travelogue of his journey to India in 629–645 CE. He refers to "Kambala" as
1978-499: Was a type of Kambala from Gandhāra , Ancient Indian scholar Pāṇini mentioned "pandu-kambala" from the upper parts of Gandhara, the place was "Uddiyana," which was famous for the said blankets. Some more variations of old Indian blankets are "keca-lakah", "kalamitika", "talicchakam", "varavanah", "sarumitika", "paristomah", "samanatabhad", "turangastaranam", "varnakam", "paristomah", "samanatabhad". Coarse qualities were used by farmers, and herdsmen. Some of them were used to spread out on
2024-542: Was founded in 1913. It originally used a chapel in West End built in 1881 but now has its own modern building. The old chapel in West End is now Elim Christian Fellowship . Witney High Street still has several older buildings, which are protected by the Witney and Cogges conservation area. Witney Market began in the Middle Ages . Thursday is the traditional market day but there is also a market on Saturday. The buttercross in
2070-589: Was launched as a non-profit online broadcaster with a weekly show that features local news and upcoming events within West Oxfordshire for the benefit of the community. An archive of videos featuring local attractions, clubs, organisations and previous shows is also available. A small-scale music festival, Witney Music festival, is held annually on The Leys Recreation Ground. While mostly hosting smaller local artists and tribute bands , it has previously hosted acts such as EMF , The Farm and N-Trance . Witney has
2116-721: Was shut down in November 2023, its brands continuing to be brewed elsewhere in the CMBC network. The Witney Railway opened Witney's first station in 1861, linking the town to Yarnton where the line joined the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway . In 1873 the East Gloucestershire Railway opened from a new station, linking Witney with Lechlade and Fairford . The Great Western Railway operated services on both lines and eventually took them over. In 1962 British Railways closed
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