The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by Judges Postcards Ltd. of Hastings. They have printed the following on the divided back of the card:
"Burford, Oxforshire.
In this view of the High Street
the Tolsey is seen with its clock.
Formerly a market house of
Tudor date, it now houses a
museum.
In the distance the green wolds
rise beyond the Windrush Valley."
Burford
Burford is a small medieval town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hills. Burford is located 18 miles (29 km) west of Oxford and 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Cheltenham about 2 miles (3 km) from the Gloucestershire boundary.
-- Burford Priory
Burford Priory is a country house that stands on the site of a 13th-century Augustinian priory hospital. In the 1580's an Elizabethan house was built incorporating remnants of the building. It was remodelled in Jacobean style, probably after 1637, by which time the estate had been bought by William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons.
After 1912 the house and later the chapel were restored for the philanthropist Emslie John Horniman, MP, by the architect Walter Godfrey.
From 1949 Burford Priory housed the Society of the Salutation of Mary the Virgin, a community of Church of England nuns. In 1987, due to declining numbers, it became a mixed community including Church of England Benedictine monks. In 2008 the community relocated, and sold the property which is now a private dwelling.
A Time Team excavation of the Priory in 2010 found pottery shards from the 12th. or 13th. century.
-- The Church of St. John the Baptist
The town centre's most notable building is the Church of St. John the Baptist, which is Grade I listed. It was described by David Verey as:
'A complicated building which has
developed in a curious way from
the Norman'.
The church is known for its merchants' guild chapel, a memorial to Henry VIII's barber-surgeon, Edmund Harman, featuring South American Indians and Kempe stained glass.
In 1649 the church was used as a prison during the Civil War, when the New Model Army Banbury mutineers were held there. Some of the 340 prisoners left carvings and graffiti, which still survive in the church.
-- Burford Houses
The town centre also has some 15th-century houses and the baroque style townhouse that is now Burford Methodist Church.
Between the 14th. and 17th. centuries Burford was important for its wool trade. The Tolsey, midway along Burford's High Street, which was once the focal point for trade, is now a museum.
-- Bell Foundries
Burford has twice had a bell foundry: one run by the Neale family in the 17th. century, and another run by the Bond family in the 19th. and 20th. centuries.
Henry Neale was a bell founder between 1627 and 1641 who also had a foundry at Somerford Keynes in Gloucestershire. Numerous Neale bells remain in use, including at St. Britius, Brize Norton, St. Mary's, Buscot, St. James the Great, Fulbrook and SS Peter and Paul, Steeple Aston. A few Neale bells that are no longer rung are displayed in Burford parish church.
Henry Bond had a bell foundry at Westcot from 1851 to 1861. He then moved it to Burford where he continued until 1905. He was then succeeded by Thomas Bond, who continued bell-founding at Burford until 1947.
Bond bells still in use include four at St. John the Evangelist, Taynton, one and a Sanctus bell at St. Nicholas, Chadlington, and one each at St. Mary the Virgin, Chalgrove and St. Peter's, Whatcote in Warwickshire.
-- The Battle of Burford and the Golden Dragon
Malmesbury and other chroniclers record a battle between the West Saxons and Mercians at Burford in AD 752. In the end Æthelhum, the Mercian standard-bearer who carried the flag with a golden dragon on it, was killed by the lance of his Saxon rival.
In the late 16th. or early 17th. century the people of Burford still celebrated the anniversary of the battle. Camden wrote:
'There has been a custom in the town
of making a great dragon yearly, and
carrying it up and down the streets in
great jollity on St. John's Eve'.
The field traditionally claimed to be that of the battle is still called Battle Edge.
The origin of the golden dragon standard is attributed to that of Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur of whom Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote:
'Uther Pendragon ordered two dragons
to be fashioned in gold. As soon as the
Dragons had been completed with the
most marvellous craftsmanship, he made
a present of one of them to the congregation
of the cathedral church of the see of
Winchester. The second one he kept for
himself, so that he could carry it around to
his wars'.
-- The Sarcophagus
On the 21st. November 1814 a large freestone sarcophagus was discovered near Battle Edge 3 feet (0.91 m) below ground, weighing 1,800 lb. (810 kg) with the feet pointing almost due south.
The interior was 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 2 feet 2 inches (0.66 m) wide. It was found to contain the remains of a human body, with portions of a leather cuirass studded with metal nails. The skeleton was found in near perfect state due to the exclusion of air from the sarcophagus. The coffin is now preserved in Burford churchyard.
-- Quality of Life
In April 2009 Burford was ranked sixth in Forbes magazine's list of "Europe's Most Idyllic Places To Live".
-- Local Legend
Local legend tells of a fiery coach containing the judge and local landowner Sir Lawrence Tanfield of Burford Priory and his wife flying around the town that brings a curse upon all who see it.
Ross Andrews speculates that the apparition may have been caused by a local tradition of burning effigies of the unpopular couple that began after their deaths. In real life Tanfield and his second wife Elizabeth Evans are known to have been notoriously harsh to their tenants.
The visitations were reportedly ended when local clergymen trapped Lady Tanfield's ghost in a corked glass bottle during an exorcism and cast it into the River Windrush. During droughts locals would fill the river from buckets to ensure that the bottle did not rise above the surface and free the spirit.