Charlbury () is a town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of Wychwood Forest and the Cotswolds. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,830.
Place name
Toponymic evidence suggests that Charlbury was an Anglo-Saxon settlement from an early date, and may be associated with 'Faerpinga in Middelenglum' listed in the Tribal Hidage of the 7th to 9th centuries. The name is a compound of two Old English elements. Burh is a fortified place. Ceorl (probably pronounced ) is a "freeman of the lowest class", but other sources suggest it was also a personal name. For this reason some hold the latter two pronunciations more valid than the former, and the current spelling not phonetic, preferring "Chorlbury". The similarity between "Ceorl" and the personal name "Charles" is no accident: "Charles", "ceorl" and "churl", along with the modern German name "Karl" derive from the same Proto-Germanic word *karlaz.
Notable buildings
Lee Place (Grade II* listed), the former dower house of Ditchley is the home of Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. About one mile to the southwest, lies Cornbury Park (Grade I listed), owned by Lord Rotherwick, is a 17th-century country house designed partly by the architect Hugh May.
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is by tradition associated with Saint Diuma, the 7th-century first Bishop of Mercia. By 1197 or 1198 the church belonged to Eynsham Abbey, which held the advowson of the parish until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The arcade between the nave and north aisle is Norman. In the 13th century the building was greatly enlarged: the chancel was extended eastwards and the south aisle, west tower and north and south chapels were added. In the 14th century the present Decorated Gothic east windows of the chancel and south chapel were added. During or before the 15th century the north aisle was widened. In the 15th century Perpendicular Gothic additions were made to the building: the tower was extended higher and a west door was inserted in its base, a clerestory was added to the nave and new windows were inserted in both aisles.
In the 16th century the Perpendicular Gothic south porch was added. Two wooden galleries were added, possibly in the 18th century. In the 18th or early in the 19th century most of the windows lost their tracery. The church includes memorials to Elizabeth Norborne, Dowager Viscountess Hereford (d.1742). In 1856 the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street had the galleries removed and the church refitted with new pews, and in 1874 the chancel was rebuilt to the designs of another Gothic Revival architect, Charles Buckeridge. Early in the 1990s an extensive reordering saw the pews removed and the main altar moved to the west end. The organ is a two-manual Wyvern digital instrument, installed in 2010 to replace a Makin digital in place since 1990. The bell tower has a ring of six bells, all cast in 1716 by Abraham I Rudhall of Gloucester plus a Sanctus bell cast by an unknown founder in about 1599.
Religious Society of Friends
Quakerism reached Charlbury in the Commonwealth that followed the English Civil War. Anne Downer, the daughter of a former Vicar of Charlbury, joined the Religious Society of Friends in 1654. In 1655 she became the first Quaker woman preacher and the following year she preached in Chadlington. She preached at Charlbury, where Quaker meetings were held in the homes of two converts, William Cole and Alexander Harris. Many Quakers in Charlbury were distrained for refusing to pay the Church Rate. In 1660 a Chadlington Quaker who attended the Charlbury meetings was jailed for refusing to swear the Oath of Allegiance and in 1663 Henry Shad, a Quaker schoolmaster, was barred from teaching.