Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 146, Sunday 5 October 2025, Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI)

You could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you (Luke 17: 6) … a mulberry tree in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and today is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI, 5 October), and is being observed in some churches as Creation Sunday. Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, as a new choir term begins and Jacob Collins takes up his role as Organist and Director of Music.

Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The sycamore fig, the mulberry and the fig are all related … a fig tree near Pavlos Beach in Platanias near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 17: 5-10 (NRSVA)

5 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ 6 The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.

7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”.’

5 Καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ κυρίῳ, Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν. 6 εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος, Εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ [ταύτῃ], Ἐκριζώθητι καὶ φυτεύθητι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ: καὶ ὑπήκουσεν ἂν ὑμῖν.

7 Τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν δοῦλον ἔχων ἀροτριῶντα ἢ ποιμαίνοντα, ὃς εἰσελθόντι ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ, Εὐθέως παρελθὼν ἀνάπεσε, 8 ἀλλ' οὐχὶ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ, Ἑτοίμασον τί δειπνήσω, καὶ περιζωσάμενος διακόνει μοι ἕως φάγω καὶ πίω, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα φάγεσαι καὶ πίεσαι σύ; 9 μὴ ἔχει χάριν τῷ δούλῳ ὅτι ἐποίησεν τὰ διαταχθέντα; 10 οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὅταν ποιήσητε πάντα τὰ διαταχθέντα ὑμῖν, λέγετε ὅτι Δοῦλοι ἀχρεῖοί ἐσμεν, ὃ ὠφείλομεν ποιῆσαι πεποιήκαμεν.

‘If you have faith the size of a mustard seed’ (Luke 17: 6) … Wisdom (Sophia) and her daughters Faith, Hope and Love depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading (Luke 17: 5-10) is a short one. But it is a reminder that our relationship with God makes obedience to God a duty to be fulfilled and not an occasion for reward.

The apostles ask for an increase in faith. But I imagine, once again, like so many other occasions, they are missing the mark. They want an increase in faith rather than a deepening of faith. It is one of those moments when the people involved think that quantity matters more than quality, and Jesus replies by giving a good illustration of how they might considered the concept that in many cases less may mean more and more may mean less.

I have discussed in the past the trees in this reading, and a similar image in Saint Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 17: 14-20), the size of a mustard seed and mustard bush, and the connections between mulberry trees, sycamore trees and fig trees. But, whatever about the size of seeds, bushes, and trees, how could we possibly measure the size of faith?

Is the immeasurable size of faith more important than valuing a faith that is alive and growing. Surely a small measure of faith that relates to God is more important than a faith that we use to seek attraction to ourselves or to browbeat our theological and political opponents? This is displayed in a recent blasphemous video clip in which Pete Hesgeth recites the Lord’s Prayer, dramatic music swells and the the screen is filled with images of fighter jets and missiles flying, paratroopers tumbling from planes, a waving American flag and Hegseth standing and saluting alongside Donald Trump.

This was not patriotism, this was idolatry. The Lord’s Prayer is about God’s reign, not America’s military might. To merge the gospel with nationalism is to distort it into a false religion. Christian nationalism confuses the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this earth. The Lord’s Prayer should never be a soundtrack for missiles and tanks – it is the prayer of the poor, the meek, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

I find it interesting how the apostles’ request in verse 5, Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν (‘Increase our faith!’) is phrased in the plural, and that Christ replies to them in verse 6 in the plural, Εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν (‘If you had faith …’ ), and continues to address them collectively.

Too often, I hear people relate this passage to personal, internalised faith, and the need for individuals to find and nurture such faith. But, in the year we are marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, it is worth reminding ourselves that the faith expressed in this Creed, is expressed collectively and in the plural: Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα … ‘We believe in One God, the Father Almighty …’. The Nicene Creed is about the salvation of all humanity and not about individual salvation (τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους); and we conclude collectively, ‘we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’ (προσδοκοῦμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος).

It is regrettable that the Latin liturgical version turned this into an individual confession of faith: Credo in unum Deum …, ‘I believe in one God …’ This was carried over at the Anglican reformation into the Book of Common Prayer. This was rectified in the past half century in the English translations of the Nicene Creed by the International Consultation on English Texts in 1975 and by the English Language Liturgical Consultation in 1988, texts now in general use among Roman Catholics and Anglicans. But the version in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is still in use in many churches of the Anglican Communion.

There are two other Greek words in this short passage that are also worth considering.

In verse 8, the word to serve, διακονέω (diakonéo), relates particularly to supplying food and drink. It means to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon. It is the same term that gives us the word ‘deacon’ in the ministry of the Church.

The story is told about a young curate in his first year of ordained ministry, and who was attending a parish function for pensioners. When he was asked by the rector’s wife to go around the tables and top up the cups of tea, he protested, insinuating that this was not what he had been ordained for.

‘Oh,’ said the rector’s wife. ‘Did you not know it’s a deacon’s job to serve at tables.’

In the New Testament, the service of this type of servant is different to the role of a steward or a slave. It means to minister to someone, to render service to them, to serve or minister to them; to wait at a table and to offer food and drink to the guests. It often had a special reference to women and the preparation of food. It relates to supplying food and the necessities of life.

The second word, δοῦλος (doulos), in verses 7, 9 and 10, refers to a slave, someone who is in a servile condition. But it also refers metaphorically to someone who gives himself or herself up to the will of another, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause.

Are ordinands expecting to be servants and slaves in the ministry of the Church?

When we become priests, we need to remember that we still remain deacons.

Indeed, with the announcement of a new Archbishop of Canterbury two days ago, we need to remember too that bishops and archbishops remain deacons in the Church of God, slaves and servants of God and of his Kingdom.

Faith (centre), Hope and Charity in the window by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 5 October 2025, Trinity XVI):

The theme this week (5 to 11 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Disability inclusion in Zimbabwe’ (pp 44-45). This theme is introduced today with Reflections from Makomborero Bowa, Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy Religion and Ethics at the University of Zimbabwe:

After my brother was severely injured, I became frustrated by the lack of provisions for people with disabilities, especially in the Church. In principle, the Zimbabwean government is one of the most ‘disability friendly’ nations supported by a world-leading National Disability Policy, launched in 2021. In practice, however, the reality is very different and many experience heightened exclusion and social suffering which is felt in relation to poverty, including in churches.

I believe the break between policy and practice must be solved by a change in attitude. Policy has failed. We need a greater solution, and the Church already has it! When we look at Jesus’ life, we see numerous examples of disability inclusion. Think how different things would be if we anchored our activities around His example and were inspired by the fact that all are made in the image of God.

Adapting buildings without changing attitudes makes no sense – it’s hypocritical. Our church leaders are the key authority to bring about transformation, but we can all lead the way in creating a truly inclusive community. They command the moral authority necessary for achieving the kind of progressive and inclusive future envisaged in the message of Christ. My vision for the Anglican Communion is a thought-provoking process of self-reflection – ‘What have we done and what have we not done?’ There is still time to correct our mistakes. The whole message of Christ is about redemption. We can still do the right thing.

Makomborero Bowa is part of the Fellowship of Anglican Scholars of Theology, a network of scholars with fresh perspectives on theology. Find out more: uspg.org.uk/feast

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 5 October 2025, Trinity XVI) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Luke 17: 5-10.

The Collect:

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of creation,
whose glory is around and within us:
open our eyes to your wonders,
that we may serve you with reverence
and know your peace at our lives’ end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα … ‘We believe in One God, the Father Almighty …’ (Nicene Creed) … Christ the Pantocrator depicted in church domes in Rethymnon, Panormos and Iraklion in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Four churches or chapels in Bicester tell the stories of Methodists and of Dissenters in Bicester

Bicester Methodist Church on the corner of Sheep Street and Bell Lane was built in 1927 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During my recent walkabouts in Bicester, I have visited both Saint Edburg’s Church, the Church of England parish church, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Roman Catholic parish church.

I also went in search of the site of the pre-Reformation Augustinian priory in the Oxfordshire market town. Little remains of the original Priory but excavations and written accounts have provided a picture of the priory and what life was like there.

Old Place Yard with its turreted dovecote, is believed to occupy part of the site of the 12th century priory. The present dovecote at Old Place Yard was heavily altered in the 1960s after the original structure and stable buildings were damaged in a fire in the 1960s.

But as I walked around I found four other churches or chapels in Bicester: two Methodist churches, one still active and the other now a shop on Sheep Street; a former Congregational church on Chapel Lane; and the unusual Dissenters’ chapel in the cemetery beside Saint Edburg’s Church.

A cross embedded in the brick work on the north side of Bicester Methodist Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Bicester Methodist Church in the centre of the town is at the end of Sheep Street on the corner with Bell Lane. It was built in 1927 to replace the original Methodist church on the opposite side of Sheep Street, and was originally known as the Grainger Hargreaves Memorial Church.

Methodism in Bicester began after a Mrs J Bowerman was ‘awakened’ while she heard John Wesley preaching in Brackley in Northamptonshire, close to Banbury, Bicester and Buckingham, in 1748. When she and her husband settled in Bicester, they first attended Saint Edburg’s Church, but they soon arranged for the Methodist minister in Brackley to visit Bicester. A room in a farmhouse on what became the site of the later Wesley Hall was used for those early services, and a building in Sheep Street was licensed as a chapel in 1816.

As the Methodism grew in Bicester, it was threatened with schism. In May 1843, preachers of the Primitive Methodists or ‘Ranters’ in Oxford began to preach in the Market Square and attempts by local people to stop them preaching created a disturbance.

Over time, two separate branches of Wesleyanism emerged in Bicester. One stayed on the site of the farmhouse and eventually built what became the Wesley Hall; the other bought a site in North Street and built a chapel there in 1840. A schoolroom was added 40 years later. The chapel was enlarged, new seats were installed in 1892 and the gallery was added, and an organ was installed in 1904.

The two separate churches eventually outgrew their buildings and outgrew their differences. They came together in 1890 and formed the United Methodist Free Church. They decided to build one shared church, a site was acquired by 1919 and a row of cottages at 72-78 Sheep Street was demolished to clear the site for the church. The old chapel in North Street was sold in 1925 to the Jersey Lodge of Masons and became the Masonic Weyland Hall.

Wesley Hall on Sheep Street, Bicester, is now a bedding and furniture shop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Wesley Hall in Sheep Street continued to be used as a church until the new one was built. It was then used as a church hall and as a Sunday School until a new hall was built behind the new church. Wesley Hall was sold to Woolworths in 1955. It later became Coxeters furniture shop and is now Home Comforts.

When the new church opened in 1927, it was named the Grainger Hargreaves Memorial Church in memory of the Revd Grainger Hargreaves (1855-1923) who had spent many years of his ministry in China and then in Australia and New Zealand. He was chair of the Oxford District and Superintendent of Wesley Memorial Church for 18 years. He moved to Bicester in 1921 but died on Christmas Day 1923.

The foundation stone was laid on 23 September 1926, and new church was opened by Mrs J Vanner Early of Witney on 23 June 1927. The builders were Cannon, Green and Co of Aylesbury.

The name Wesley Hall and the date 1863 can still be seen on the Sheep Street facade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner, has described Bicester Methodist Church as ‘an extraordinary mixture’ of architectural styles and motifs. The three tall lancet windows in the centre of the front façade harken back to the earliest mediaeval Gothic design, the flowing curvilinear tracery at their heads is typical of art nouveaux, while the central fielded panel with its very unusual flanking geometric pilasters has art deco styling.

Methodist churches were often built as rather simple chapels, with a single main entrance opening into an open meeting hall. The form of the building in Bicester, however, is much more complex with small projecting wings on the side elevations and an imposing façade with decorative stone and brickwork. A tower was originally planned for one corner.

Inside, the central hall or nave faces a raised platform with pointed arches and carved foliate capitals and it looks like a Victorian gothic revival chancel in all but name. The ceiling is fashioned like a Tudor hammer-beam roof. The curvilinear motif outside is repeated in the pierced wooden panels between the collar beams. The windows have domestic Edwardian stained glass flower motifs, but great swags of art nouveau tracery.

A two-manual organ by Albert Keates of Sheffield installed in 1942 was a gift from George Layton, one of the church the organist for 50 years. He had opened the first garage in London Road in Bicester in 1910.

The planned tower was never built, but an extension, built at the rear in Victoria Road in the 1950s, hosts many community events.

The Revd Jocelyn Bennett is the minister of Bicester Methodist Church. Sunday services are usually at 10:45 am and 6:15 pm, and the church provides opportunities through the week for times of prayer and worship. The church is also used by Bicester Elim Church on Sunday afternoons.

The former Bicester Congregational Church on Chapel Street, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The story of Dissenters in Bicester goes back to the reign of Elizabeth I, when a dispute over doctrinal matters broke out between the vicar and his parishioners. Order was restored, but Nonconformity resurfaced in 1654 when the Cromwellian commissioners appointed as vicar William Hall, a ‘godly and painful’ preacher who had been the curate in Bicester for some years.

The Bicester Congregational Church emerged after Presbyterians and ‘Independents’, the heirs of the Puritan tradition, were ejected from parish churches in 1662.

A Presbyterian congregation met secretly before being formally licensed in 1672 after a meeting in Bicester with John Troughton, who had been ejected from Saint John’s College, Oxford. Troughton was licensed as a preacher under the Declaration of Indulgence, and when he died in 1681 he was buried at Bicester parish church.

By 1669, ‘separatists’, said to be 100 to 200 in number, met in the barn of a baker, Thomas Harris. Samuel Lee, an eminent Puritan divine who lived at Bignell in 1664-1678, also ‘sometimes kept conventicles at Bicester’. Nevertheless, the Compton Census of 1676 and Bishop Fell in a report ca 1685 recorded no dissenters.

Henry Cornish became the first pastor of the congregation in 1690. A contemporary, critical pamphlet said he preached ‘for profit’s sake to silly women and other obstinate people’. Cornish died in 1698.

A chapel was first built Water Lane, now Chapel Street, and was licensed for public worship in 1728. The chapel became an important centre for Nonconformists in the surrounding area and a Sunday school was established in 1794. The chapel was enlarged and licensed for marriages in 1839 and a schoolroom was added in 1873.

A Presbyterian congregation met secretly in Bicester before being legally licensed in 1672 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The exterior front of the chapel is built of chequer brick with a hipped roof and broken pediment. There are some ashlar dressings and Welsh-slate roofs. There are tall round-arched windows and the left bay has been altered to form a rose window above an added pedimented porch, with a round-arched doorway surrounded by rusticated stone blocks. The arched windows in the front gable walls have wooden Gothic-style tracery.

The denominational labels used by the Bicester congregation are interesting. After the Toleration Act of 1689, Presbyterians and Independents in England formed what was known as the ‘Happy Union’ until it ended in acrimony in 1694.

In Bicester, on the other hand, Presbyterians and Independents continued to work together late into the 18th century. In 1738 and 1759, the vicar described them as Presbyterians; in 1808, he said they described themselves as Independents. The earliest surviving minute-book, from 1771, refers to ‘the Congregation or Society of Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England commonly called Presbyterians’.

John Ludd Fenner, who was the pastor in 1771-1774, was a Unitarian, but later returned to the Congregationalists; Edward Hickman, who died in 1781, was a Calvinist; another minister was from the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion; while other preachers and ministers included Calvinists, Arminians, Arians, Socinians, Baptists and Methodists.

In the 19th century, the church was served by Independents or Congregationalists, as they were beginning to be called. The seven young men who entered the ministry from Bicester chapel in 1810-1855 included three became Baptists.

Some of the colourful pastors from the past included: Samuel Park (1739-1766), who was ‘gay and light in his practices, fond of convivial company’; David Davis (1768-1771), ‘a slave to his ale and pipe’, who absconded with unpaid debts; and TH Norton (1899-1902), who abandoned his wife and ran away with the wife of one of the deacons.

The Revd SG Burden was appointed to a part-time post in Bicester in 1952 and was also the pastor of Launton. When the Presbyterians and Congregationalists united, it became Bicester United Reform Church in 1972.

The church closed in 1978, the building was converted into a private house, and the war memorial was moved to Bicester Methodist Church. The building was later used as a snooker hall and is now a restaurant.

The Dissenters’ Chapel in the cemetery beside Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Dissenters’ Chapel in the cemetery beside Saint Edburg’s Church in Bicester, was built in 1861 to accommodate non-conformists in the town. The ground was separate to the main Anglican churchyard, but the Bicester Herald reported concerns among some residents that dissenters would be allowed access through the main churchyard entrance.

To mollify the parishioners and the congregation of Saint Edburg’s, it was agreed that the dissenters would instead use the Piggy Lane entrance.

The turreted dovecote on Old Place Yard is believed to occupy part of the site of the 12th century priory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Bicester was designed by the modern church architect Desmond Williams

The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Bicester is a fine example of the work of the church architect Desmond Williams (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been in Bicester in Oxfordshire a few time in recent weeks. I often pass through the market town on my way to and from Oxford, but these were my first times to see its streets, architecture and church buildings, including Saint Edburg’s, the Church of England parish church, which dates back to a Saxon foundation.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Roman Catholic parish church in Bicester, was built in the 1960s, and is a fine example of the work of the church architect Desmond Williams. He is one of the foremost interpreters of the Liturgical Movement, known for his striking modernist church buildings in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The church, close to where Causeway meets Church Street and almost opposite Saint Edburg’s Church, also has a large, powerful statue of the Virgin Mary on the façade, the work of the sculptor Mark Delf of Stafford.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was built in the 1960s at the time of great liturgical reform and change (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There are few records of Roman Catholicism in Bicester until the 19th century, and its revival in Bicester has been attributed to the Hon William Henry John North (1836-1932), of Wroxton Abbey, near Banbury. North was the Master of the Bicester Hunt, and he made a concerted effort in 1869 to revive Roman Catholicism in Bicester.

North was a great-grandson of Lord North, George III’s Prime Minister during the American War of Independence, and he eventually became the 11th Lord North, through his mother’s inheritance. But he had immediate Irish ancestry on his father’s side of the family, and was descended from a week-known Doyle family in Co Kilkenny and Co Wexford, while his wife was directly related to a branch of the Comerford family in Ireland.

The future Lord North was born William Henry John Doyle in 1836. His father was Colonel John Doyle (1804-1894), MP for Oxfordshire (1852-1885), and his paternal grandfather was General Sir Charles William Doyle (1770-1842) from Bramblestown, Co Kilkenny.

Colonel John Doyle married Lady Susan North (1802-1884) in 1835. She was a daughter of George North (1757-1802), 3rd Earl of Guilford, and a granddaughter of the Prime Minister Lord North. She was also a niece of Frederick North (1766-1827), 5th Earl of Guilford, who secretly converted to Greek Orthodoxy in Corfu in 1791, and in 1824 established the Ionian Academy in Corfu, the first university in modern Greece.

When the fifth earl died in 1827, his estates, including Wroxton Abbey in Oxfordshire, devolved on Lady Susan North as his niece. She married John Doyle in 1835, and to perpetuate her family name and line, John Doyle, Lady Susan Doyle, and their children changed their name from Doyle to North in 1838. Three years later, one of her family titles was called out of abeyance and she became a peer in her own right in 1841 as the 10th Baroness North.

The 19th century Roman Catholic revival in Bicester has been attributed to William Henry John North (1836-1932), born William Doyle and later 11th Lord North

Lady Susan’s son and heir, William Henry John North, married Frederica Cockerell on 12 January 1858. Frederica’s mother, Teresa (Newcomen) Cockerell, was descended from a well-known banking family in Dublin and she was a second cousin of the Revd Patrick Comerford Law (1797-1807), while Frederica’s grandfather, Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen (1776-1825), 2nd Lord Newcomen, was a first cousin of the poet Mary (Comerford) Boddington (1776-1840) and of Belinda Comerford who married the Revd Francis Law (1768-1807).

North kept in touch with his paternal Irish roots as an aide-de-camp to his wife’s stepfather, Archibald Montgomerie (1812-1861), 13th Earl of Eglinton, when he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1858-1859.

To the surprise of their neighbours and family, Frederica and William North became Roman Catholics in 1867 and from then on, it is said, he divided his time between prayer, business and hunting – he was Master of the Bicester Hunt – and he encouraged the beginnings of the Roman Catholic parish in Bicester.

At North’s suggestion in 1869, Father Joseph Robson from Hethe, halfway between Bicester and Buckingham, celebrated Mass in the home of an Italian jeweller, Rocco Tenchio, whose wife took four children for catechism classes on Sunday afternoons.

The High Altar and sanctuary in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Mary’s, the first Catholic chapel and school in Bicester, opened with North’s support in Piggy Lane in 1883. When North inherited his mother’s title and estates as the 11th Lord North a year later in 1884, he introduced Catholic tenants, hired Catholic domestic staff, and started a Catholic orphanage.

The Revd Dr Philip Sweeney, also from Hethe, acquired land in King’s End in 1882, a Catholic school and chapel were opened on 19 March 1883, and the first Mass was celebrated there on Easter Day 25 March 1883.

Religious orders returned to Bicester in the early 20th century. Eight Benedictine nuns who fled religious persecution in France, settled in ‘South View’ in 1904. They later moved to Priory House in Priory Lane, and when they left in 1920 their chapel become Bicester’s Catholic church. Another French group, the Sacred Heart Fathers, lived at ‘The Limes’, and they too returned to France in 1920.

During the years leading up to World War II, the Servite Fathers in Hethe and the Franciscans in Buckingham served Bicester’s Catholics and in 1931 Bicester was again served from Hethe with Father Ignatius McHugh.

Meanwhile, Lord North died in 1932 at the age of 96. His family was unable to bear the costs of maintaining Wroxton Abbey and its staff, the lease was surrendered to Trinity College Oxford and its contents, including its art and furnishings, were sold at auction.

Inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Bicester, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Bicester became a separate Catholic parish in September 1943, and Father Stephen Webb SJ, then the parish priest of Hethe, became the first parish priest of Bicester.

In the post-war expansion of Bicester, Father Thomas Foynes started a new Catholic school off Queen’s Avenue in 1958, and introduced Presentation Sisters from the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin as teachers. He also planned to build a new church beside the old school, but there were problems with buying the necessary land.

When the site occupied by Bonner’s Stables became available, it was bought, and works begun in 1961. The adjacent property, Henley House, became the new Presbytery.

The tower has a pyramidal roof with windows on all sides (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was designed by Desmond Williams & Associates. Desmond Williams specialised in church architecture and was influenced by the Liturgical Movement and Vatican II. He is known for his striking modernist church buildings in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

He first worked with Arthur Facebrother, before setting up his own practice, Desmond Williams and Associates, in Manchester in the early 1960s. This practice amalgamated in 1968 with W and JB Ellis to become Ellis Williams Architects.

Williams is regarded as one of the key British architects in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Movement who used contemporary design and construction methods to deliver the liturgical changes introduced by Vatican II. Other architects who shared this approach included Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, Gerard Goalen, Francis Pollen and Austin Winkley.

A number of buildings by Desmond Williams have been listed, including four churches: Saint Mary, Dunstable (1964), where his ceiling was inspired by King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; Saint Augustine, Manchester (1966-1968); Saint Dunstan, Birmingham (1966-1968); and Saint Michael, Penn, Wolverhampton (1967-1968).

Historic England describes Williams as ‘an architect notable for his innovative church buildings at a time of great change in ecclesiastical architecture.’ One of his guiding principles was being to bring as many of the congregation near the altar.

His church in Bicester was also deliberately designed to be deferential to its historic context, in particular to Saint Edburg’s Church, 100 metres away on the other side of the street and more than 1,000 years older.

Internally the tower is open to the roof line, creating a lantern effect of natural light over the sanctuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church is designed in a modern Gothic style, more overtly expressed internally. It is built of load-bearing brick of a pale colour chosen to blend with the Cotswold stone of the surrounding buildings. There is some sparing use of stone for the dressings and the steeply pitched roofs are clad with interlocking clay pantiles.

It is T-shaped, and with a three-bay nave, narrow passage aisles, a baptistry that is now the Lady Chapel, confessionals and sacristies giving, a west-end narthex, a square-ended sanctuary with a raised tower crossing and shallow projecting transepts-cum-side chapels.

The tower has a pyramidal roof with windows on all sides. Internally the tower is open to the roof line, creating a lantern effect of natural light over the sanctuary.

The most striking feature inside the church is the full height transverse arches – made entirely of rustic brick – that hold up the roof. This design of arch was also used in many Arts and Crafts churches in the late 19th century and mimics the mediaeval timber cruck structures of the earliest timber churches.

At their bases, the arches are pierced with small circulatory openings that harken back to the side aisles of mediaeval churches. The walls between these imposing arches are plastered and plain and incorporate simple tall lancet-style windows that flood the nave with natural light. There is a black and white chequerboard floor throughout. Plain oak benches complete the effect of a simply organised but reverential space.

At the west end, the gallery over the narthex is placed in a pointed arched recess. On the west wall, on the north side, the foundation stone has a Latin inscription.

The 11 ft bronze statue above the main entrance is by Mark Delf of Stafford and was put in placee in 1993 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The front elevation is plain, the brickwork relieved only by the segmental arched entrance, where the doors have been renewed, and a large bronze statue of the Immaculate Conception.

The 11 ft bronze statue above the main entrance is by Mark Delf of Stafford, and was put in place on 20 August 1993. The statue weighs about half a ton and was lifted into position by crane. It replaces a small statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that stood in a niche above the front door. The new statue was paid for from a bequest from a former parishioner, Margaret McCann.

The church was opened and blessed by Archbishop Francis Grimshaw of Birmingham on 23 March 1963. Since then, it has been altered on a number of occasions. The most recently alterations involved the introduction of the present altar, which came from Saint Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, along with new stone seating, ambo and font.

The painted Crucifixion in Primitive Italian style by the Prior of Farnborough Abbey has replaced the earlier reredos and crucifix (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The painted Crucifixion in Primitive Italian style by the Prior of Farnborough Abbey, was installed in place of the former reredos and crucifix.

New furnishings in the north chapel include a new tabernacle and above this, set within an arch, an unusual stone carved tympanum of folded arms carrying wheat sheaves with vines, symbolising the Eucharist, and stained glass windows by Jane Campbell ca 2000.

The 1960s font, with a veined black marble bowl on a stone base, was moved to the narthex, where it is now used as a large holy water stoup. Statues in the nave include the Sacred Heart, a signed work by Ferdinand Stuflesser of Ortisei in Italy.

These alterations were completed in time for the solemn consecration of the church by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham on 10 July 2000.

The Foynes Memorial Garden was laid out in 2010 on the south side of the church as a columbarium, designed by Robert James Landscapes.

The modern parish and community centre behind the church is known as the Pope John Paul II Centre. Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham laid the foundation stone for the centre in 2010 and it was opened by Princess Anne in 2011.

The north chapel, once the Baptistry, is now the Lady Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• Father Craig Davies has been the parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Bicester, since August 2024, and the parish deacon is the Revd Michael Panejko. Sunday Masses are: 6 pm (Saturday Vigil) and 9 am and 11 am.

The Pope John Paul II Centre behind the church was opened in 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Edburg’s Church in Bicester stands on the site of an earlier Saxon church and a mediaeval priory

Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester, is the oldest building in the Oxfordshire town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Edburg’s Church on Church Street is the 12th century parish church of Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is at the heart of Bicester’s mediaeval centre, and is the oldest and only Grade I listed building in the market town. The church also has important connections with the Gothic revival and the Pre-Raphaelites in the late 19th century.

The church is dedicated to Saint Edburg of Bicester – also known as Eadburh or Eadburth – who was a seventh century nun and abbess. She remains something of a mystery, as there were several Saxon saints with the same name. It is most likely that Eadburh of Bicester was the daughter of King Penda of Mercia, who was pagan but had several children who were Christians.

Eadburg was born in Quarrendon in Buckinghamshire. Her sister was Edith (or Eadith), and together they founded an abbey near Aylesbury, where Eadburg probably became the abbess. She was also the aunt of Osgyth, and she trained her in the religious life. There are legends that claim that Edburgh and Edith found Osyth after she had drowned three days before and witnessed her return to life.

Eadburg may have lived at Adderbury, north Oxfordshire, which may have been named after her. She died ca 650. Saint Edburg’s burial place is unknown; her feast day is 18 July.

Saint Eadburg’s Church, Bicester, stands on the site of an earlier Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A simple Saxon church was built in Bicester in 850, and Saint Eadburg’s relics were moved there in 1182, when an Augustinian priory was founded by canons regular and dedicated to Saint Eadburgh and to the Virgin Mary.

Bicester Priory had a priory church, chapter house with cloisters, hospice, prior’s lodgings and a farmyard. The walled rectangular enclosure lay just south of the church, the gatehouse was on the site of ‘Chapter and Verse’ Guesthouse in Church Lane, and Saint Edburg’s House is built partly over the site of the priory church. This was linked by a cloister to a quadrangle with the refectory, kitchens, dormitory and prior’s lodging. The priory farm buildings lay in the area of the present church hall and had direct access to land in what is now the King’s End estate.

The Augustinian priory was endowed with extensive lands and buildings, although they appear to have been poorly managed and did not produce much income. The priory was dissolved in 1536 and there are few remaining visible signs of the priory today.

Many pilgrims visited Saint Edburg’s shrine and holy well in Bicester. During the Reformation, Sir Simon Harcourt, the Sheriff of Oxford, destroyed Bicester Priory church in 1536. But he saved Saint Edburg’s shrine and moved it to Saint Michael’s Church in Stanton Harcourt, west of Oxford, to use as an Easter sepulture. Other parts of the shrine were combined into a tomb in the Harcourt chapel. Attempts in the 1940s to return the shrine to Bicester were without success.

The High Altar, Chancel and East Window in Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There is no mention of a stone church on the site in the Domesday Book, but some sources suggest the triangular-headed arch in the north aisle was the doorway of this building. The remains of a zig-zag dripstone between the arches of the north aisle imply that this was the outside wall of the Norman church built by Gilbert Bassett, one of the earliest manorial lords of Market End manor, ca 1120. The great central arches that once supported a tower also belong to this period.

Saint Edburg’s is impressive inside, with a large nave and high oaken roof, and two long vistas: one towards the altar from the west end, and the other from the high altar steps, with the wide chancel arch framing the tall narrow arch that forms the internal east face of the tower.

By the 13th century, the church had been given to Bicester Priory. The priors appointed the vicars and they enlarged and improved the church over time.

The chancel was extended in the Early English period in the 13th century and the priest’s door was made in the south wall. Four arches were cut in the south wall of the nave and the south aisle was added. The fine arch between the south aisle and the Lady Chapel was built then, as was the south doorway.

The north chapel and the north aisle were built in the Decorated period in the 14th century, when three arches were cut in the north wall of the nave. The north chapel is now used as the choir vestry.

Inside Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester, looking from the chancel towards the west end and the tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church was given its present appearance in the Perpendicular Period in the 15th century. The central tower was taken down, its west arch was removed and the crossing was thrown into the nave. The nave was heightened, the clerestory was added and the nave was roofed with timbers supported on 12 stone corbels, carved heads of beasts and grotesques. The west tower was built with a splendid perpendicular arch opening into the nave. Parapets were added to the outside walls and the porch was built.

The north chapel once had an upper chamber, perhaps to house the sexton. It was used from the late 17th century as a school room for a grammar school founded by Samuel Blackwell, Vicar of Bicester in 1670-1691 and Dean of Bicester Deanery. His curate was White Kennett (1660-1728), later Bishop of Peterborough (1718-1728), and the author of a two-volume history of Bicester and the priory.

A great storm damaged the church in 1765. Lightning struck the tower, damaged the belfry and the bells, broke into the main body of the church, tore up part of the floor in the south aisle and smashed most of the lower windows. The church was left ‘full of smoke, accompanied with a suffocating sulphurous stench’. This explains why there is no remaining mediaeval stained glass in the church.

The north chapel once had an upper chamber and in now the choir vestry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A print from 1849 shows the nave and aisles filled with boxed pews and a three-decker pulpit opposite the Grantham memorial. There were galleries across the west end and between the arches over both aisles.

This ‘chaos of uplifted boxes’ and the galleries were removed in a thorough restoration of the church in 1862-1863 by the Revd JW Watts, Vicar of Bicester in 1843-1881. The roofs, walls and the floor were repaired or renewed and pews were installed. The church was heated and gas lighting installed.

The restoration was carried out by the architect Charles Nightingale Beazley (1834-1897), in consultation with George Edmund Street, two leading architects in the Gothic Revival movement. They installed the existing window tracery and the stone and marble pulpit.

The Pre-Raphaelite window designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A Morris & Co window in the Lady Chapel in memory of Sir Gregory and Lady Page-Turner and designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones. It depicts Faith (centre), Hope (left) and Love (right) trampling on the vices of unbelief (Faith), despair (Hope) and hate (Love).

A wooden screen leading in the vestry is painted with a design of flowers, birds and insects on a gilt background and is signed ‘HL Busby 1882’.

The high altar was given in 1910. It is made of oak and carved with the Lamb of God. The reredos also dates from this time.

The ‘priest’s door’ in the south wall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The interior was repainted, the church was rewired, and new lighting and audio-visual systems were installed in 2008. Later, the floor in the vestry was replaced in 2012. A new raised floor was installed at the west end in 2014, when the 13th century font was centrally positioned, along with its cover dating from 1757.

Attention turned to the exterior in 2015, when a parapet wall on the south aisle roof was in danger of collapsing and was replaced. Other work on the south side involved replacing stone around some windows.

The nave floor was levelled in 2020, the Victorian pews were replaced with chairs and the nave became more accessible for people with mobility issues, giving them the opportunity to move around the church unhindered.

The church has a ring of 10 bells: eight were recast in 1913 and two were installed as a gift to celebrate the Millennium; there is also a Sanctus bell.

The Old Vicarage is probably the oldest house in Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There are memorials to local dignitaries, including the naval commander Sir Thomas Grantham, the Page-Turners of Ambrosden, and the Coker family, who were lords of the manor of King’s End from 1584 until the 1970s and lived in Bicester House.

Saint Edburg’s is a venue for concerts and exhibitions, keeping the church at the centre of community life in Bicester.

The Old Vicarage beside the church dates from the 16th century. It is a Grade II * listed building and is probably the oldest house in Bicester. The original house appears to have been L-shaped and of a ‘hall house’ design. It remained the vicarage until Canon William Henry Trebble retired in 1974.

The 19th century reredos above the High Altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Recent archaeological excavations at Procter’s Yard have identified the ecclesiastical enclosure boundary, and a large cemetery of Saxon graves suggesting a much larger churchyard has been excavated on the site of the car park of the Roman Catholic Church almost opposite Saint Edburg’s.

The recent Vicars of Bicester have included Michael Charles Scott-Joynt (1943-2014), who was in Bicester in 1975-1982 and later became Bishop of Stafford (1987-1985) in the Diocese of Lichfield and Bishop of Winchester (1995-2011).

Saint Edburg’s is part of the Bicester Area Team Ministry, and the Vicar of Bicester, the Revd Peter Wright, is also the Rector of the Bicester Benefice.

The Lady Chapel in Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• The Sunday services include Sung Eucharist (first and third Sundays), ‘Café Church’ (second Sunday), and All-Age Holy Communion (fourth and fifth Sundays) at 10:30. In addition, there is a Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion every second Sunday of the month at 8 a.m. and mid-week Holy Communion every Wednesday at 10 am.

The war memorial cross near the west end of the church was erected in 1921 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

With its mediaeval streets, Market Square and thatched houses, there is more to Bicester than brand names

Bicester in Oxfordshire dates back to the days of the Roman presence in ancient Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

While the sun continues to shine, I continue to enjoy exploring the charming towns and villages that are within a short bus journey from Stony Stratford or Milton Keynes, enjoying the buildings and architecture, churches and market squares, scattered across the countryside of Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring counties of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and even further afield.

I regularly pass through the market town of Bicester on my way to and from Oxford. It is in north Oxfordshire, about 18 km (11 miles) north-east of Oxford, and close to the borders of Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire boundaries. But until recently, I had never got off the bus at Bicester, deterred by the supposed attractions of the shopping centre that has taken the name of Bicester Village.

I realised, of course, that I was being unkind to the real, original town centre, which is a designated conservation area, with its own local market, independent shops and restaurants that are probably never noticed by the shoppers in search of labels and brand names. Indeed, I imagine, many of those brand-name shoppers have real difficulties when it comes to pronouncing Bicester, alongside tongue twisters like Gloucester and Worcester.

Bicester is close to the point where two Roman roads met (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Despite the brash modernity and supposed attractions of the shopping centre – which I have only seen from buses between Buckingham and Oxford – Bicester dates back to the days of the Roman presence in ancient Britain.

The town is close to the point where two Roman roads met: Akeman Street, an east/west route between St Albans and Cirencester, and a north/south route between Dorchester and Towcester, that lies under Queen’s Avenue. There was a Roman fort at Alchester, 3 km (2 miles) south-west of Bicester, and one local source describes Alchester as ‘a kind of Roman Aldershot’.

There are several theories to explain the origin of the name of Bicester. One theory says it may be derived from a personal name Beorna, meaning the ‘Fort of the Warriors’. Another says the name is derived from the Latin for Bi-cester meaning ‘two forts’, referring to Alchesterand Chesterton.

The West Saxons established a settlement in the 6th century close to these ancient routes. Bicester has been inhabited since the mid-7th century and early forms of the name include Berncestre, Burencestre, Burcester, Biciter and Bissiter.

Saint Edburg’s Church was founded as a minster in Bicester, perhaps in the mid-seventh century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Edburg’s Church was founded as a minster in Bicester, perhaps in the mid-seventh century after Saint Birinus converted Cynegils, King of Wessex, following their meeting near Blewbury. The site was just east of the old Roman road between Dorchester and Towcester.

The first church served the inhabitants of a growing Saxon settlements on either side of the River Bure, and was a mission centre for the surrounding countryside.

Archaeological excavations at Yard identified the boundary of the ecclesiastical enclosure boundary, and a large burial site with Saxon graves suggesting a much larger churchyard has been excavated on the site of the Roman Catholic Church car park almost opposite Saint Edburg’s.

Market Square dates from the market charter granted to Bicester by Henry III in 1239 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The first documentary reference to Bicester is in the Domesday Book in 1086, when it is recorded as Berencestra. The two manors of Bicester and Wretchwick were held by Robert D’Oyly who built Oxford Castle. The town grew as twin settlements on opposite banks of the River Bure, a tributary of the Ray, Cherwell, and ultimately the River Thames.

By the end of the 13th century, Bicester was the centre of a deanery of 33 churches. The remains of an Augustinian priory founded by Gilbert Bassett ca 1183 survive in the town centre. The walled priory enclosure lay just south of the church. The gatehouse was on the site of ‘Chapter and Verse’ guesthouse in Church Lane, and Saint Edburg’s House is built partly on the site of the large priory church.

Market Square dates from the market charter granted by Henry III in 1239. Early charters encouraged Bicester to develop as a trading centre, and a market and fair were established by the mid-13th century.

No 47 Market Square is a striking, former merchant’s house dating from 1698 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Market Square is a typical mediaeval, triangular-shaped market square, playing a defensive role in the absence of a town wall. It once included a town hall, slaughterhouse and meat market, stocks and a whipping post, formerly the ‘Shambles’. Later additions included a drinking fountain, weighbridge and air-raid shelter.

The core of the modern street plan in the town centre was established in mediaeval times and many of the buildings date back to the late 16th to 18th centuries.

The King’s Arms on Market Square dates from the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

On Market Square, No 17 is a 17th century timber-framed, gable fronted house, with an original cobbled path to the rear yard for horses. The refurbished bay window conceals a grill that indicates the large cellars that were under these old buildings.

No 47 Market Square is a striking, former merchant’s house and business premises dating from 1698 and indicating wealth and status. There are oval windows under the turret, including one that is blind, a ball pinnacle and a weather vane with a running fox.

Nos 46, 48 and 51 Market Square form an Island Block, and date from the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Nos 48 and 51 were probably built as one two-storey house with an attic, while No 46 is a slightly later addition. A rare six-light window in No 51 is probably from the early 18th century indicating its long-term use as a shop.

The King’s Arms on Market Square dates from the 18th century, but has an earlier, timber-framed building concealed behind its much-altered façade. It was once one of the principal coaching inns in the town, later hosted public meetings and was once the centre for the Bicester Hunt.

The Old Courthouse on Sheep Street was built in 1864 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sheep Street dates from a Friday market granted in 1441, probably for cattle and sheep. It was once known as Saint John the Baptist Street, and its street plan has changed little since mediaeval times.

The Old Courthouse on Sheep Street was built in 1864. The former county courthouse is in the mediaeval Gothic revival style, with 13th century style stone tracery and 15th century style lower windows. The archway over the main entrance door is modelled on one at Caernarfon Castle.

A surviving thatched house at King’s End in Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Two separate manors emerged in Bicester, Bury End and Nuns Place, later known as Market End and King’s End, and the effectively divided the town into two distinct areas.

The two townships of King’s End and Market End developed their own distinct features. Inns, shops and high status houses clustered around the triangular Market Square, while King’s End had a substantially lower population and none of the commercial bustle found on the other side of the Bure.

Causeway was reputedly laid out by the monks from Bicester Priory, linking the King’s End and Market End manors and providing access to the market.

The old police house and courthouse on Church Street, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sir Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, who married Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was the lord of the manor of Market End in the late 15th century. Stanley crowned the new king on battlefield at Bosworth in 1485, and as the step-father of Henry VII he was granted many manors.

Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, bequeathed the manor to his second son, William Stanley, in 1593. William Stanley, who became the 6th Earl of Derby in 1594, sold a 9,999-year lease to the 31 principal tenants in 1597. This in effect gave the Market End manorial rights to the leaseholders.

The leaseholders elected a bailiff to receive the profits from the bailiwick, mainly from the administration of the market, and the bailiff’s title gave rise to what became known as the Bailiwick of Bicester Market End.

By 1752, all of the original leases were in the hands of ten men, who leased the bailiwick control of the market to two local tradesmen. The bailiwick lessees promoted a much less regulated market than those found in other boroughs. Away from the market, Sheep Street was considered 'very respectable' but its northern end at Crockwell was inhabited by the poorest inhabitants in overcrowded living conditions.

Bicester House, on the site of the mediaeval manor house of the Nuns of Markyate, was the manor house of King’s End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Bicester House, on the site of the mediaeval manor house of the Nuns of Markyate, became the home of the Coker family, who were lords of the manor of King’s End from 1584. The house was rebuilt in the early 18th century, and was remodelled in the 1780s, was rebuilt in a Georgian style following a fire in the 1820s.

When the Cokers demolished a range of buildings on the north side of King’s End Green, enlarged the park and surrounded it with a wall, the road that followed the line of the Roman road was lost, and traffic was diverted at the Fox Inn through King’s End, across the Causeway to Market Square and Sheep Street before returning to the Roman road north of Crockwell.

Until the early 19th century, the road from the market place to King’s End ran through a ford of the Bure brook and on to the narrow embanked road across the boggy valley. The Causeway became the focus for development from the late 18th century on each side of the road to form building platforms.

Hometree House on London Road was once Bicester Hall and has been a hospital and a school (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Hometree House on London Road dates from the early 19th century. It was once Bicester Hall, the hunting box of the Earl of Cottenham, Master of Bicester Hunt. It was a convalescent hospital run by the Red Cross from 1914, and later was Bicester County (then Grammar) School in 1924-1963.

The railway came to Bicester in 1850 and 1910, stimulating further economic development and growth.

An airfield built north of the town during World War I became an RAF station and is now Bicester Airfield. Bicester experienced significant growth in the 20th century, due partly to its strategic military role.

Today, Bicester is one of the fastest-growing towns in Oxfordshire, and its population is expected to reach 50,000. It has Garden Town status since 2014, but also lies within the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, a nationally designated area for growth and development. It is on the route of the East West Rail being built to link Oxford with Milton Keynes and Cambridge.

Hopefully, the East West Rail opens in time for me to make use of it, making it easier travel to Oxford and Cambridge, and to Bicester too. As for Saint Edburg’s Church, more about that tomorrow, hopefully.

The sheep sculpture on Sheep Street, Bicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)