OS grid reference SP3231 Dialling code 01608 | Sovereign state United Kingdom Postcode district OX7 | |
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Great Rollright is a village in the civil parish of Rollright, about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Contents
Map of Rollright, UK
Archaeology
The megalithic Rollright Stones are about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Great Rollright, near the Warwickshire village of Long Compton.
Parish church
The Mediaeval Church of England parish church of Saint Andrew has Norman, Early English, Decorated Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic features. St Andrew's was restored in 1852 under the direction of the Oxford Diocesan Architect, GE Street. St Andrew's is a Grade I listed building.
The west tower has a ring of six bells. William Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire cast the fourth, fifth and tenor bells in 1695 and the third bell in 1696. W&J Taylor cast the second bell in 1839, presumably at the foundry they then had at Oxford. Henry I Bond and Sons of Burford cast the treble bell in 1899.
St Andrew's parish is now part of the Benefice of Hook Norton with Great Rollright, Swerford and Wigginton.
Economic and social history
The former Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, part of the Great Western Railway, was completed in 1881. The line had a small railway station, Rollright Halt, 1⁄2 mile (800 m) south of Great Rollright. British Railways closed the halt in 1951 and the railway in 1964.
The village has a former pub, The Unicorn Inn. It was controlled by Hunt Edmunds Brewery of Banbury until the company was taken over in the 1960s. The Unicorn ceased trading in the late 1980s and is currently derelict, but there is a campaign to restore it.
Amenities
Great Rollright has a Church of England primary school.
In 2010 Great Rollright also lost its Post Office and now has only a post office van service.