County town: Oxford
Oxfordshire was established as a shire in the 10th century. Oxford, sited at the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell, was a Saxon burh of considerable importance before the university that defines its modern identity began to develop in the 12th century.
Oxfordshire encompasses the Thames valley, the limestone Cotswolds in the west, and the chalk Chilterns in the south-east. Oxford University, which grew from informal teaching groups in the 12th century into one of the world's great centres of learning, has shaped the county's character for eight centuries. The Vale of White Horse, with its chalk figure cut into the Berkshire Downs (now within Oxfordshire since 1974), contains some of England's finest prehistoric monuments. Blenheim Palace, built for the Duke of Marlborough after Blenheim (1704), is one of the grandest baroque buildings in Britain. The county's stone-built Cotswold villages are among the most visited in England.
Oxfordshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 243 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 243 Domesday settlements in OxfordshireEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Oxfordshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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