Islip () is a village and civil parish on the River Ray, just above its confluence with the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It is about east of Kidlington and about north of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 652.
Archaeology
The remains of a Romano-British villa have been found about southwest of the village.
Parish church
Edward the Confessor (born circa 1004, died 1066) was born in Islip and tradition holds that he was baptised in a church here. Parts of the present church date from about 1200. The chancel was rebuilt in 1780 and the church was restored in 1861. The church is Islip's only Grade I Listed Building. The belltower has a ring of eight bells. Since 1987 the Church of England parish has been part of the Ray Valley Benefice. A chapel associated with Edward the Confessor existed north of the church. The chapel was damaged in April 1645 in a military engagement in the English Civil War, and in the 1780s it was demolished. The former rectory was built in 1689 for Robert South and enlarged in 1807 for William Vincent. It is one of several Grade II* Listed Buildings in Islip.
Economic and social history
The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a watermill at Islip. A mill survived in the village until 1949, when it was demolished. When the Domesday Book was compiled, Islip's common fields system was on the north side of the River Ray. At some time before 1300, Islip's villagers assarted (cleared) about of uncultivated land south of the River Ray and east of the River Cherwell and divided it into strips as a new common field for strip farming. In the 1970s this area of farmland was called Sart Field.
The Black Death in the 14th century led to the end of week-work in the parish. This was unpaid work that peasants had to do for the Lord of the Manor, and the number of days per week that the manor could ask was fixed. This system had been reinstated by the harvest of 1357 and was probably stopped in Islip in 1386. Sir William Fermor was Steward of the Manor of Islip in March 1540. His brother Richard Fermor was a wool merchant. The Fermor family had its seat at Somerton, Oxfordshire and had a number of estates in the northern part of the county.
The medieval road linking London and Worcester crossed the Ray at Islip. The original crossing was a ford but was later supplemented by a bridge. In the 1640s the bridge and Islip's nearness to Oxford made the village a strategic objective for both sides in the English Civil War. Early in the war, Islip was a strategic outpost for the Royalist capital at Oxford. In May 1644 a force under the Parliamentarian Earl of Essex occupied Islip but early in 1645 a Royalist force under the Earl of Northampton retook it. In April 1645 a force under Oliver Cromwell retook the village and routed the Earl of Northampton's men in an engagement on Islip Bridge. On 4 July 1645 the Parliamentarian Lord Fairfax had his men demolish the bridge, which was described as having been "new-built". Then in 1646 during the Third Siege of Oxford a force under the Parliamentarian Colonel George Fleetwood occupied the village. After the war the bridge was rebuilt or replaced, and John Ogilby's Britannia Atlas of 1675 describes it as having six arches. Until the 18th century the ford remained the main crossing except in winter. In that century the road between London and Worcester became a coaching route and Islip developed as a staging post. Islip was on the winter route between Oxford and Buckingham when Gosford Bridge was impassable.
A number of houses in the village bear the names of its numerous coaching inns. The Plume of Feathers, also called the Prince's Arms, was built around 1780 reputedly from materials from the demolished Confessor's Chapel. It has since been demolished. The King's Head, also called the Coach And Horses, was built in the 17th century and became a private house in about 1976. There were inns called the Boot, the Britannia, the Fox and Grapes and the Saddlers Arms. The Saddlers Arms was still trading in 1949 but has since closed. Some of the Westminster Prebends met their tenants at the Red Lion.